Over a number of years, Raymond Rohauer, a producer and distributor, accumulated prints of a number of films. His collection became known as the Rohauer Library, and contains “more than 700 titles”, according to the LAT.
Mr. Rohauer died in 1987. The collection was purchased in 2011 by a man named Charles S. Cohen, who has aggressive plans to get the collection back into circulation.
Why does this matter? Here are some of the things in the collection:
- “The Thief of Bagdad” with Douglas Fairbanks, which has been restored and is being released on blu-ray today. (Edited to add: here’s a link to “The Thief of Bagdad
” blu-ray on Amazon, but they show it as being released February 19th, not today as the LAT states.)
- Lots of Buster Keaton, including “Sherlock Jr.” and “The General”. “The collection, which has the original camera negative of Buster Keaton’s Civil War comedy masterpiece, is working with the Library of Congress on its digital restoration.”
- D.W. Griffith’s “Intolerance”, also being restored.
- “Son of the Sheik”, Rudolph Valentino’s last film, also being restored.
- Hitchcock’s “Jamaica Inn”.
And the list goes on. This could be the best thing to happen to movies since the Criterion Collection.