List of Rediscovered Films - Sound Era - 1930s

1930s

Year Film Director Cast Notes Ref
1930 The Bat Whispers Roland West One of the first films shot in widescreen. A complete print was discovered and restored in the late 1990s.
1930 Bed and Breakfast Walter Forde Jane Baxter
Richard Cooper
Sari Maritza
Alf Goddard
It was found as a result of a 1992 British Film Institute campaign to search for lost films.
1930 Limite Mário Peixoto Experimental silent feature made in Brazil. The restored complete version had its U.S. premiere in Brooklyn, New York in November 2010.
1930 Mamba Albert S. Rogell Jean Hersholt
Eleanor Boardman
Ralph Forbes
Footage from the final reel (stored at the UCLA Film and Television Archive) and all the Vitaphone soundtrack discs for this Technicolor film were originally thought to be the only elements from the film to survive. A complete print of the film, running nine reels, and four soundtrack discs were discovered in Australia in 2009.
1930 Wara Wara José Maria Velasco Maidana The only known surviving Bolivian film of the silent era. Discovered in a La Paz basement in 1989, it required over a decade of restoration and was not released until 2010.
1931 Dick & Doof - Spuk um Mitternacht James Parrott Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
German version (spoken by Laurel and Hardy) of Laurel & Hardy's Berth Marks/The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case, found 2004 in Moscow's film archive.
1931 The Ghost Train Walter Forde Jack Hulbert
Cicely Courtneidge
Ann Todd
Cyril Raymond
It was found as a result of a 1992 British Film Institute campaign to search for lost films.
1931 Love and Duty Bu Wancang Ruan Lingyu Silent film made in China, and rediscovered in Uruguay in the 1990s.
1931 The Smiling Lieutenant Ernst Lubitsch Rediscovered in Denmark in the 1980s.
1931 The Stolen Jools William C. McGann All-star cast Made for a charity, film was discovered in the UK under its alternate title The Slippery Pearls.
1932 Condemned to Death Walter Forde Arthur Wontner
Gillian Lind
Gordon Harker
Cyril Raymond
It was found as a result of a 1992 British Film Institute campaign to search for lost films.
1932 Doctor X Michael Curtiz Lee Tracy
Fay Wray
Technicolor version found in personal vault of Jack L. Warner.
1932 His Lordship Michael Powell Jerry Verno
Janet McGrew
1932 The Most Dangerous Game Irving Pichel
Ernest B. Schoedsack
Fay Wray A horror movie filmed on the same set as King Kong.
1932 The Old Dark House James Whale Boris Karloff
Melvyn Douglas
Gloria Stuart
Thought lost for decades, filmmaker Curtis Harrington discovered a print in the Universal Studios vault, which was restored by Eastman House.
1932 Rynox Michael Powell Stuart Rome
John Longden
Found in the vaults of Pinewood Studios in 1990.
1933 Berkeley Square Frank Lloyd Leslie Howard
Heather Angel
Valerie Taylor
Rediscovered in the 1970s.
1933 The Ghoul T. Hayes Hunter Boris Karloff, Ernest Thesiger A damaged, incomplete print was found in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s, and was thought to be the only surviving copy until a nearly-pristine one was found in the archives of the British Film Institute.
1933 Hello Pop! Jack Cummings Ted Healy, The Three Stooges Full Technicolor print found in Sydney, Australia in January 2013.
1933 Mystery of the Wax Museum Michael Curtiz Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray Technicolor version found in personal vault of Jack L. Warner.
1933 Der Sieg des Glaubens Leni Riefenstahl Adolf Hitler This 64-minute documentary was ordered destroyed by Hitler for showing Nazi party member Ernst Röhm, who had been murdered on Hitler's orders. A copy was found in Britain in the 1990s.
1933 The Power and the Glory William K. Howard Spencer Tracy By 1971, the negative had deteriorated and only fragments were available. Was later restored.
1933 Ojo Okichi (Miss Okichi) Kenji Mizoguchi Isuz Yamada This film did not actually appear in official filmographies of Mizoguchi until a print was discovered in the vaults of Shochiku studios in 2008.
1934 Of Human Bondage John Cromwell Leslie Howard, Bette Davis The negative was discovered to have been destroyed in 1964 when actress Kim Novak requested a print. A copy was recovered several years later.
1935 Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht Leni Riefenstahl Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler Thought to have been lost following World War II, an incomplete print running 28 minutes was discovered in the 1970s.
1936 Border Vengeance Ray Heinz Reb Russell, Mary Jane Carey, Kenneth MacDonald Formerly listed on the Internet Movie Database as a lost film, a copy was made available as a free download circa 2004 as part of the collection of the Internet Archive.
1937 Slaves in Bondage Elmer Clifton Lona Andre, Donald Reed, Wheeler Oakman, Florence Dudley Long listed on the Internet Movie Database as a lost film, it resurfaced on DVD in the mid-2000s.
1939 Le Jour Se Lève Marcel Carné Jean Gabin, Jules Berry & Arletty When RKO acquired the distribution rights to Le Jour se lève in preparation for remaking it as The Long Night, they also sought to buy up and destroy all available prints of the original film. For a time, it was thought that the French film had been lost completely, but copies re-appeared in the 1950s and its classic status was re-established.
1939 Smith Michael Powell Ralph Richardson & Flora Robson A short film made in 1939 to promote an ex-servicemen's charity. It got caught up in the start of World War II and wasn't shown publicly. It wasn't even mentioned by Powell in his autobiography. A copy was found in 2003 and it had its first public screening in the UK in 2004. 65 years after it was completed.
1939 Tevya Maurice Schwartz Maurice Schwartz
Julius Adler
Long thought lost, a print was discovered and restored in 1978.

Read more about this topic:  List Of Rediscovered Films, Sound Era