Chapter 3 is entitled: "The Battle of Gettysburg (1913)."

Frank Thompson's "Lost Films", a book about films that have gone missing or have eroded to nothing on nitrate stocks, sadly hasn't stood the test of time itself. While it's a decent enough read, it might be interesting to see how the film preservation process has evolved in the 13 years since Thompson published. Mentions of laser discs and the following passage exemplify just how outdated this reference book has become:

"Systems are being developed," Thompson writes, "that would allow archivists to store entire feature films onto digitally recorded computer files, but this technology is costly (about twelve dollars a frame or almost three hundred dollars per foot of film!), and quite unwieldy -- a single 35mm frame requires an entire personal computer's worth of memory to store."

When reading about the 27 silent films (from 1911 to 1929), some may find themselves skipping breezily through the synopses to find the handful of gems about the productions themselves.

Recommended library rental for silent-era film buffs only. ( )