I'll be back. We'll all be back

[sovay]

Home movies of Leslie Howard were discovered in September. How did I miss this?

This post brought to you by The Petrified Forest (1936), which I screened for captainbutler tonight. I went looking for Howard's filmography afterward and found the above. Maybe now I'll finally be able to get a book of his radio broadcasts . . .¹

(Also, documentary? Ticket, please.)

1. Some of his writings were collected decades after his death as Trivial Fond Records (1982), edited by his son Ronald Howard. Findability of this book for less than astronomic prices or even at all: nil. I still look for it whenever I'm in sufficiently arcane used book stores, but it's not the sort of thing I expect people give away.

Comments

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

That sounds very cool.

[sovay]

That sounds very cool.

I love these sorts of discoveries. You start a polite conversation with a woman at a film festival and next thing you know, you're sorting through 16 mm of one of Britain's most famous actors—in some ways it's more of a lightning-strike than rediscovering Metropolis, because at least everyone knew Fritz Lang's film had once existed whole. Outside of Howard's family, no one seems to have known these movies were even around.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I believe it.

[gwynnega]

Oh wow oh wow! I can't wait to see that documentary...

[sovay]

I can't wait to see that documentary...

If you see it before I do . . .

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

Once upon a time I was friends with Leslie Howard's great-granddaughter. I'm sure she's probably seen this by now, but it does make me regret that I've lost contact with her, since otherwise I could tell her just in case. :)

[sovay]

I'm sure she's probably seen this by now, but it does make me regret that I've lost contact with her, since otherwise I could tell her just in case.

I bet you could find her again, the internet being what it is . . .

(That's very neat.)

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

Turns out I was very nearly the first person she'd met from our generation who knew who Leslie Howard was. That ended up meaning we were fast friends, even though at that point I'd only seen him in two films.

[sovay]

That ended up meaning we were fast friends, even though at that point I'd only seen him in two films.

Which two?

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

The ones I imagine are his best known for general classic movie fans: Gone With the Wind and The Scarlet Pimpernel.

I would've been...I guess about 19 at the time.