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A Bit Found of Missing Footage From The Cameraman

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 3:52 pm
by John Bengtson
The brief missing scene of Buster trying to film the admiral leaving a hotel is included in this Internet Archive copy of the film at 17:57. The hotel appearing in the brief shot is the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, that appears in Chaplin's City Lights.

http://archive.org/details/busterkeatonthecameraman

Here is a similar view of the hotel today on Google Maps
http://goo.gl/maps/QFFai

Richard Roberts writes how the missing footage was likely cut from the Keaton negative to assist when re-making the Red Skelton version of The Cameraman, and then not returned to the Keaton negative when they were finished.

I wrote in a N-ville post a while back how some footage of the office buildings and elevators from King Vidor's The Crowd appear as stock footage in Keaton's What No Beer?

http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10668

Here is my post about the hotel and Chaplin's City Lights
http://silentlocations.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/chaplins-beverly-wilshire-cigar/

Cheers, John

Re: A Bit Found of Missing Footage From The Cameraman

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 4:37 pm
by Richard M Roberts
[quote="John Bengtson"]The brief missing scene of Buster trying to film the admiral leaving a hotel is included in this Internet Archive copy of the film at 17:57. The hotel appearing in the brief shot is the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, that appears in Chaplin's City Lights.

http://archive.org/details/busterkeatonthecameraman


This is neat information, but that footage is no new discovery. It has always been in the old, beat up prints of the film (It's in the old Films Inc print I've had for decades). I think it was just cut from recent versions of the film because it goes nowhere.

I'm glad to hear the old piano score on that internet copy. I recommend anyone who hates the current score to grab that one before it gets taken down.


RICHARD M ROBERTS