Francis Ford looked a whole lot like Abraham Lincoln. In fact, Ford was the star of eight silent movies about Honest Abe that have been lost to the mists of history. Or presumed lost, anyway. Most of the movie made in the silent era have disappeared over the years, lost to carelessness, studio fires, or general disinterest after the emergence of talkies. However, film buff Peter Massie has uncovered a priceless artifact: a rare copy of the Francis Ford film When Lincoln Paid found in a barn.
When Lincoln Paid is a 1913 silent movie about Lincoln in which the mother of a dead Union soldier asks the Railsplitter to pardon the Confederate she turned in to the authorities. Massie discovered the film in a canister found in an attic barn, next to an old projector in Nelson, New Hampshire. Just how rare is this film? Of Ford’s 8 films about Lincoln, this is the only copy of ANY of them available. This is the film nerd equivalent of finding a copy of Action Comics #1 in the bottom of a birdcage, or finding a rare video game in the closet.
Tags: Francis Ford, Lincoln, silent movie about Lincoln discovered, lost film discovered, rare movie found in New England barn, When Lincoln Paid, Peter Massie, Nelson, New Hampshire, silent movies, rare movies
