Dear DM L-S,
Yes, I did know of the Society -unfortunately they meet a long way from me (in the Westcountry) -Cambridge and London, I think. Also, and as one might expect, their interests appear to be mainly literary and general, whereas my own tend to centre on this specific title and film, though, of course I admire the novel. I did contact one of their people some time ago when I spotted a US auction house offering Hilton's own annotated copy of the filmscript, but as they were expecting $10,000+ for it no doubt nothing was done, although the website did give considerable information and illustrations, hence my referral.
The particular fascination of a new version of LH, is, of course, the possible reappearance of the 'lost' sections (plus, of course, any further out-takes that may show up). This raises what I call the 'English Paradox' about this masterpiece, i.e. how was it that a full-length soundtrack suvived over here, but only severely edited footage. Clearly they must have been separated at an early stage -but it does seem odd!
My most cherished hope for a recovery of the complete picture rests on the faint possibility that a copy may ultimately surface in one of the former 'iron-curtain' countries: LH was suppressed by the Nazi's, so why not the Communists? Presumably there would have been time between 1937-39 for it to have been distributed in places like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, etc. -I know it reached Denmark, as I have a programme from there!
Many thanks and best wishes, Peter H.
reply
share