Richard Lyford, a self-taught director, made silent horror and sci-fi shorts in 1930s Seattle using a 16mm camera, long before a regional film industry existed. His films were forgotten for years until Ed Hartman recovered and restored them starting in 2017 after seeing old footage from a surviving family member. Hartman tracked down missing footage, restored the films, edited them into theatrically presentable form, and added musical scoring. The restored shorts have screened at film festivals and aired on Turner Classic Movies. Hartman credits Lyford’s special-effects ability, noting close visual parallels to earlier award-winning cinematography. The Scalpel and As the Earth Turns are presented as technically impressive, entertaining black-and-white genre films, with additional unfinished works also scheduled to screen.
"Hartman started restoring and scoring Lyford's films in 2017 after being shown some old footage by a surviving member of the director's family. Hartman went about restoring the films, tracking down missing footage, editing them back into something theatrically presentable, and promoting them. The finished shorts have since screened at film festivals and aired on Turner Classic Movies."
""What made them extraordinary was his ability to work with special effects," says Hartman. " The Scalpel has a transition sequence that's almost identical to [cinematographer] Karl Struss' sequence from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a few years earlier in 1931... he pretty much nailed it. This is a 19-year-old kid duplicating an award-winning cinematographer.""
"The Scalpel is a nasty little short that will delight anyone who enjoys black-and-white horror. As the Earth Turns, a sci-fi adventure, features plenty of 1930s special effects. Double exposures, an animated credits sequence, and miniatures all feature prominently in the story of a reporter tracking down a supervillain. Neither films are hidden masterpieces, but they're both fun, propulsive, and technically impressive."
Read at Portland Mercury
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