Call It Blood If You Will

June 29, 2006 12:52 PM

Stanley Kubrick's "lost" first movie, Day of The Fight, has apparently been found. Assuming it's real, this 16-minute 1951 reel is the director's debut. Sadly, unless you're a fight fan, that's about all it has to recommend it.
posted by The Bellman (15 comments total)

Sadly, unless you're a fight fan, that's about all it has to recommend it.

Well, considering it's a short documentary subject film he sold to RKO for $100, I don't know why you'd expect more.
posted by NationalKato at 1:07 PM on June 29, 2006

Kato's right. When viewing seminal works, one can't always rely upon aeathetic value alone. The artist/filmmaker often needs to start from some point, as well as rely upon the general basics before moving on to more daring and ambitious works.

Warhol, for example, got his start in ad layout. It wasn't Sleep, nor even his Brillo installations, but it was a foot in the door, and it was honest money that paid the bills at the time.
posted by Smart Dalek at 1:32 PM on June 29, 2006

The short also has something to recommend to movie fans who want to bring something new to our repeated viewings of Killer's Kiss.
posted by box at 1:34 PM on June 29, 2006

In fact I was being a little snarky. It really is worth watching. It has some great footage in it, some interesting shots and substantial "New York in the 1950s" historical interest. It also has the excellent VO (while Cartier is at Mass before the fight) "It's important for him to take holy communion in case something should . . . go wrong tonight. "
posted by The Bellman at 1:45 PM on June 29, 2006

The Bellman, I hope you didn't take my comment as too snarky. I wasn't trying to be.
posted by NationalKato at 1:54 PM on June 29, 2006

The tracking shots in Killer's Kiss are amazing. They're even more amazing when you find out that Kubrick used the back of a pickup truck to do them because he couldn't afford a dolly.
posted by Fidel Cashflow at 2:12 PM on June 29, 2006

How is it 'lost'? There's no mention on the Wikipedia or IMDB pages of the print going missing or anything, and I have a DVD somewhere in the house called Kubrick: The Rarities (or similar), with this, the Flying Padre, The Seafarers and other bits and bobs on it. (If memory serves, Day Of The Fight is far and away the best of his early newsreel/documentary stuff...)
posted by jack_mo at 2:35 PM on June 29, 2006

Upon further research, jack_mo, it seems you're right. I thought it was rarer than it is.
posted by The Bellman at 3:12 PM on June 29, 2006

the only film of kubricks that has not been released ( to my knowledge) is "Fear and Desire" . as i understand he was not fond of it. nice post btw.
posted by nola at 3:32 PM on June 29, 2006

Kubrick's other documentary short film, "The Flying Padre", is available here.
posted by New Frontier at 3:39 PM on June 29, 2006

the only film of kubricks that has not been released ( to my knowledge) is "Fear and Desire" . as i understand he was not fond of it. nice post btw.

It's not that interesting a film, Kubrick was doing people a favour by not releasing it.
posted by bobo123 at 3:45 PM on June 29, 2006

His last film wasn't so great either.
posted by caddis at 6:12 PM on June 29, 2006

I saw this six years ago in film school, projected. Not widely distributed but not lost.
posted by bingo at 6:17 PM on June 29, 2006

My first film, 1976's animated "Day of the Dragster" is also lost. Shot on 8MM, it featured a soundtrack by Mike Oldfield ("Tubular Bells" playing on a record player (not to be confused with a turntable) adjacent to the camera).

I am not making this up.

(Nor am I drunk.)
posted by coolgeek at 8:22 PM on June 29, 2006

Lost? I seen this on the BBC about 6-7 years ago.
posted by Po0py at 12:48 AM on June 30, 2006