Скачать или смотреть Tropic Madness Lost Silent Film 1928, 35mm HD scan

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HD Scan of a 13 minute sequence from a 65 minute 1928 movie, from a 35mm original film print. The complete film is thought to be lost.
Fortunately the footage remaining was enough to create a stand alone short, of considerable emotional impact. The remaining reel is 1001 feet. Music was added to this edit.

The theme is the powerful bond between mother and child.

Juanita is married to wealthy Herbert Pomeroy, but Juanita’s over-spending leaves him bankrupt. Destitute and unable to care for their baby son, he sends young Frankie to live with his friend Henderson, who lives on a South Seas island. Herbert commits suicide.

Juanita thereafter spends years looking for Frankie. After giving up, she takes a cruise to escape her burdens and happens to land on Henderson’s island, where now eight year old Frankie has been brought up by Henderson as his son.

Juanita and Frankie lock eyesight, and from this moment both their lives will change.

The young boy Frankie is indeed Juanita’s son, she comes back into his life and the life of Henderson who raised Frankie.

The derelict island doctor, Lon Johnson, has an island wife who gets jealous as he becomes infatuated by Juanita. Juanita is not impressed though, as Johnson constantly startles her with his sudden attentions.
Johnson's interest in Juanita has sparked a desire to straighten his life out, and he starts cleaning himself up.
His island girl wife, jealous of what she sees happening, seeks out the 'witch doctor' to cast a spell on Frankie in retribution.

Doctor Johnson saves Frankie’s life , thus redeeming himself.

Cast: Leatrice Joy, David Durand, George Barraud, Henry Sedley, Lena Malena and Albert Valentino - the older brother of Rudolph!

The film was scanned and rendered at the correct silent speed

Note no fast jerky motion like the majority of silent films transferred to digital. Silent films were photographed and projected anywhere between 16-20 frames per second, depending on camera/projector in the early years, many clockwork or hand cranked. Sound reproducing projection runs at 24 frames per second, hence the sped up motion if corrective steps are not employed.

This particular film was produced by a lesser studio with its eyes on bigger and better productions, such as Tiffany, the studio that produced Mamba around the same time.

That studio, Film Booking Offices (Of America) (later) Corporation went on to be absorbed into various larger entities, ending up with RKO.

The 2022 HD scan produced remarkably sharp and detailed images with a lustrous Black and White, due to the superior composition of its fine/no grain, low speed, high silver content emulsion.

Unfortunately this 94 year old film print is starting to deteriorate, with parts of the emulsion fading away (the frequent bursts of brightness)
In time, all film deteriorates, some much slower than others and some not as bad as others, depending on many factors, storage, temperature, humidity, original chemical processes.
Physical wear and tear, scratching etc, accompanies some decomposition of the emulsion layer.

FBO – Film Booking Offices of America.

This company operated right through the main silent era as both distributor and later producer, from 1918 until around 1928, when it was taken over by none other than Joseph Kennedy’s newly formed RKO. Joseph P Kennedy, father of JFK, who, among many business interests, owned a small chain of movie theatres at the time.

It produced nearly 800 titles – most now lost.

Tropic Madness is also thought lost – apart perhaps from the one reel seen here.

A fascinating history, of a now-obscure company, which includes many famous names and many names now totally lost in the fog of time.

All the FBO films ran in Melbourne, Australia, at several theatres in the 1920s. Typically at the Paramount for Frank Thring (later Lyceum/Cleopatra/Paris) the Majestic (Chelsea) .
Tropic Madness ran at Hoyts DeLuxe (later Esquire).

Most prints remained in Australia; it was too costly to send them back. Most would have been destroyed. We should be very glad that some managed to leak out of the system and survive.

Tropic Madness commenced at the Hoyts De Luxe, Bourke Street Melbourne, on 15 June 1929 for one week.
There were so many silent films around, many cinemas ran double and triple features then and changed programmes every Monday.

Films were rarely repeated or came back unless they were huge hits. In the 1920s central Melbourne generally had 12 large cinemas running films. The depression closed many of the older ones especially because of the increased capacity added by the State, Regent and Plaza all in 1929.

Thank you for additional historical notes - Frank Bob, David Kilderry for Melbourne screening information.
Thank you for production assistance Chris Harford.

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