We were aware of the nitrate element held by [New York's Museum of Modern Art] — a 1942 print of the movie that everyone thought was a fine grain, which Turner Entertainment used as the backbone of their 1993 restoration. But it wasn't actually a fine grain, as it turned out, but rather a 1942 print on [Kodak] 1302 release stock. That stock was a bit finer than typical release print stock [1301] or lavender [1355] print stock from that era, so we were able to use some of it. But this element also has missing frames and dupe sections. It has those cement splices, notches, tape repairs, and severe flash frames at various cuts. Scenes originally censored and deleted from the film were part of that restoration, but you could see, judging from the print, how poor the condition of the original camera negative was, even by 1942. So finding material was probably the hardest part of this job.
| |