Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1911


Lost in a Hotel (1911 film)

Buy Lost in a Hotel (1911 film) now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




'Lost in a Hotel' is a 1911 American silent comedy film. It was released as the first half of a 1000-foot "split reel", with the latter half being the comedy-fantasy short 'An Old-Time Nightmare'.[http://archive.org/details/billboard23-1911-10/page/n39/mode/2up "List Of Films And Their Release Dates/Powers/Lost in a Hotel (comedy) (split reel)"], 'The Billboard' (Cincinnati, Ohio), October 7, 1911, p. 41. Internet Archive. Retrieved June 13, 2020.[http://archive.org/stream/moviwor09chal#page/n826/mode/2up "LOST IN A HOTEL and "An Oldtime Nightmare"], advertisement for the split-reel releases, 'The Moving Picture World', September 16, 1911, p. 809. Internet Archive. Retrieved June 13, 2020. Both films, currently presumed to be "lost", were produced by the Powers Moving Picture Company of New York. Neither the director nor the performers in this film are identified in 1911 reviews or in plot summaries and advertisements published in trade journals at the time.

Plot



According to reviews in 1911 trade publications, this brief film featured comedic situations that confronted a "stage-struck young lady" who desired to become a professional entertainer.[http://archive.org/details/moviwor09chal/page/n841/mode/2up "Lost in a Hotel (Sept. 19)"], 'The Moving Picture World', September 16, 1911, p. 824. Internet Archive. Retrieved May 20, 2020. She was portrayed joining a traveling theatrical company, convinced that the life of a performer is filled with only thrills and glamor. Soon, however, she experiences the unappealing, "seamy" side of life behind the stage curtain. On her first night traveling with the company and staying in a large hotel with all its members, she finds herself too excited about her new career to sleep. Bored, she leaves her room in just her dressing robe or, as it is referred to in 1911 reviews, her "kimono".[http://archive.org/details/moviwor10chal/page/n45/mode/2up Independent/'Lost in a Hotel'"], 'The Moving Picture World', October 7, 1911, p. 41. Internet Archive. Retrieved June 17, 2020. She visits the room of one of the showgirls. Now well past midnight, the young woman tries to return to her own room, but she realizes that she forgot its number and all the rooms in the hotel's long hallways look identical. The remainder of the film consisted of her awkwardly entering room after room and meeting other various odd, erratic characters in the troupe. After she finally locates her room, she concludes from those strange encounters that a career as an entertainer is certainly not filled with glamor, now seems far less appealing, and involves a lifestyle not meant for her. The short ended with the enlightened "maiden" returning home to her mother.

Cast



No cast credits are given in 1911 reviews of the film, in related advertisements, or in any other references to the film published in trade papers or journals at the time.

*Uncredited performer as the "star-struck young lady"

*Uncredited performer as the "show girl"

*Uncredited performers as other members of "theatrical company"

Split-reel release and reception



During the silent era, it was common practice for production companies to load two short films onto a single reel, creating what was referred to then as a "split reel".[http://archive.org/stream/moviwor09chal#page/n826/mode/2up Advertisement] for three 1911 films of Powers Moving Picture Company, including the split-reel releases 'Lost in a Hotel' and 'An Old-Time Nightmare', 'The Moving Picture World', September 16, 1911, p. 809. Retrieved June 17, 2020. Combining films onto one reel not only reduced the number of reels shipped to theaters by distributors, it also reduced the number of reel changes on the projectors at those locations. In September 1911, when Powers Moving Picture Company distributed its split-reel copies of 'Lost in a Hotel' and 'An Old-Time Nightmare', this comedy comprised the first half of all the shared reels released. The few available reviews of the film in 1911 are positive. In its October 7 issue, the trade journal 'The Moving Picture World' compliments the "speedy comedy" for evoking "several laughs" and curtly ending its assessment with "It is commendable."

"Lost" film status



No copy of this Powers short is listed among the motion-picture holdings of the Library of Congress, the UCLA Film Archives, in the collection of moving images at the Museum of Modern Art, the George Eastman Museum, the Library and Archives Canada, or in other major film repositories in the United States, Canada, or Europe.Online and hard-copy searches for this comedy/fantasy in the cited collections were conducted in June 2020, as well as in the Library and Archives Canada, BFI National Archive, and in EU film repositories through the European Film Gateway. The film is therefore presumed to be a lost production.

Powers Moving Picture Company continued producing films as a single, independent studio for only seven months after the release of 'Lost in a Hotel'. In May 1912 Powers formally merged with other production companies to form Universal Film Manufacturing Company.Horsley, David (1914). "David Horsley Tells History of Hollywood", 'The Arizona Republican' (Phoenix), February 16, 1925, p. 12. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Ann Arbor Michigan; subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library. Retrieved June 8, 2020. All the resources of those companies were later consolidated by Carl Laemmle and transferred in 1915 to Universal's new, burgeoning studio complex in Universal City, California. If any master negatives and prints of this film and others by Powers were later physically transferred to Universal, that footage may have been lost in devastating fires that often occurred throughout the motion-picture industry in the silent era, including at Universal. At any given time, many millions of feet of old and new films that had been shot on unstable, highly flammable cellulose nitrate stock were stored in film vaults and in various studio warehouses. It is more likely, however, that subsequent studio managers deemed this short and its split-reel companion 'An Old-Time Nightmare' to be inconsequential releases by a short-lived, secondary production company and were discarded or perhaps were simply left unattended and allowed to decay and disintegrate over time.

Notes



References




Buy Lost in a Hotel (1911 film) now from Amazon

<-- Return to movies from 1911



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1105400536.