Lost John Ford film found in Chile after 100 years

Famous director John Ford’s film The Scarlet Drop, lost for more than 100 years, has been discovered nearly in its entirety in Chile.

Released in 1918, The Scarlet Drop was one of 26 westerns that Ford made with actor Harry Carey, the most prolific partnership of the six-time Academy Award-winning director’s storied career.

Described at the time as the “most supreme hit of Harry Carey’s career”, the film has been missing since its initial release. About 30 minutes of footage from the film exists in the Getty Archive, with no full cut of the film thought to remain intact.

The movie was rediscovered by the owner of a warehouse in Santiago, a day before it was set to be demolished. While reviewing the building’s contents, the owner discovered a trove of films that were once owned by a local collector, left untouched for 40 years after his death.

The owner contacted Jaime Cordova, an academic from the University of Vina del Mar and Valparaiso Recovered Film Festival's director, who rescued the films from being discarded.

“The film was very damaged, which indicates that it was a very popular film at the time. It was shown a lot,” Cordova told Cinentransit, though he notes that the film is overall in excellent condition for a feature of its time, and is an important find.

Cordova digitised the film so that it could be shown at his festival, cleaning and repairing what he could, noting that it is still in need of a full restoration, and his materials may be missing partial aspects of the film. He screened the digitised version at his festival in Chile in September.

“The film is 106 years old. It was stored in conditions we don’t know about. I think there are films that decide to live,” said Cordova.

“I once found a Richard III starring Laurence Olivier, all the reels had vinegar disease, they had to throw it all away. That one is from 1955, this one from 1918. And this has survived much better. It decided to make itself known, which I find miraculous.”

According to Mubi, the film follows a man who refused to fight in the American Civil War and instead joins a gang of marauders, becoming a fugitive.

Contained in the discovery may be Ford’s first on-screen depiction of American president Abraham Lincoln, whom he also depicted in his films The Iron Horse (1924), The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), Young Mr Lincoln (1939), How the West Was Won (1962) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).

Ford, whose career spanned more than 50 years, directed more than 130 films from 1917 to 1970, with many of his silent films still considered lost. He won six Academy Awards throughout his career, including a four wins for Best Director – still a record.

While he made films in numerous genres, he is most renowned for his westerns, including Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). He was famed for his collaboration with actor John Wayne, who starred in 14 of Ford's films.

Filmmakers including Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles, Andrei Tarkovsky and Ingmar Bergman considered Ford among the greatest directors in the history of cinema. In 2022, Ford was portrayed by actor and director David Lynch in Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans.

Plans for a wider release of The Scarlet Drop have not been announced.