1/6.....Happy birthday Sherlock Holmes.

That is pretty awesome, it is sad to hear that any films are lost because of degradation, it is great to hear that organizations like this and the benefactors are stepping up to the plate.

One of the many splendors of the SFSFF is the presentation of saved films, thought lost, like the 1916 William Gillette version of Sherlock Holmes.  Every year they present restored films.  I don 't know which version of The Hound Of The Baskervilles this one is as there were two German versions, one made in 1914 and the other made in 1929. 

Last year the SFSFF presented the reconstructed version of The Lost World, based on Conan Doyle's novel of the same name, which was restored to its original 2 hour length.  Before Willis O'Brien's King Kong premiered in 1933, RKO attempted to find and destroy every existing print and the negative of The Lost World, which O'Brien had made in 1925.  They feared that The Lost World would be re-released and cut into King Kong's profits.  All that remained of The Lost World was a one hour section that had been trimmed from the original for use as an educational film.  And the only reason that it survived was that RKO missed it because it was owned by another company that distributed educational films.  The restorer gave a very interesting talk about the world wide search for surviving elements from the original which finally allowed them to restore the film to its full length.

90% 0f the films made during the silent era are considered lost.  So when one turns up in a private collection or an archive, there's much rejoicing.