SCARLET SEAS and Richard Barthelmess at Vitaphone Varieties
"As you may have guessed by now, Scarlet Seas is a lost film — a double loss really, as it not only seems to have been an absolute corker of a film that would boast the best of both worlds of silent and sound cinema, but it’s also probably a film that [Richard] Barthelmess would have much wanted to survive long past his career and life. Given that Richard Barthelmess died in 1963, it’s disturbing to realize that chances are that as he was entering his final decade of life, the film elements for Scarlet Seas were busily destroying themselves, aided by neglect and profound lack of interest from the company that owned it."
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That’s Jeff Cohen in Vitaphone Varieties, in which he discusses the making of Scarlet Seas off Santa Monica Bay in 1928. Directed by the now utterly forgotten John Francis Dillon, the silent (with synchronized score) adventure drama stars Barthelmess and popular 1920s leading lady Betty Compson.
On his site, Jeff also offers MP3 recordings of excerpts from the film’s surviving Vitaphone disc soundtrack, quite possibly the only copy in existence, and some great posters (including the one found in this article).
Scarlet Seas was produced by First National — initially a distributing company; later one of the top Hollywood studios of the 1920s. Warner Bros. acquired First National and its film holdings at the dawn of the sound era.
Time Warner currently owns the WB and First National films.
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Tags: Betty Compson, Classic Movies, John Francis Dillon, Richard Barthelmess, Scarlet Seas, Silent Films, Vitaphone Varieties
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