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You've only recently restored the 1936 Richard Lyford film The
Scalpel - so in a few words, what's it about?
The Scalpel is a short 20 minute horror film. The story is about a
mad doctor who transforms himself into a monstrous killer and creates
mayhem in a medical institute. How
did you get your hands on the footage of The
Scalpel in the first place?
In 2013 members of the Classic Horror Film Board
(https://classichorrorfilmboard.com/)
discovered some unknown scenes in a Halloween VHS/DVD from Something
Weird Video. With some amazing detective work, they figured out
that two films, Ritual
of the Dead and The Scalpel were made
by Richard Lyford, a young director who went on to work for Disney and
eventually direct an Academy Award winning film. A few years
later, they connected with the great niece of Lyford, Kim Lyford Bishop.
She acquired the films from Richard’s son, Chris. In 2019 Kim
asked me to score As
the Earth Turns, a silent sci-fi film. That
film went into many festivals and distribution, including screenings on
Turner Classic Movies. Kim gave me the Lyford film estate,
including the physical film-stock. I did know about the
Classic Horror Film Board discoveries, but those films weren’t in the
film stock collection. I was able to connect with Something Weird, and
incredibly they still had the original film-stock for those films.
Even more amazing, the offices for the company were a few miles
away from me! In fact, the company was in the process of scaling
down their activities, so getting these films was incredibly timely.
The films were incomplete fragments, under 10 minutes each. I
did score them, and put them on the As
the Earth Turns DVD in 2020. In 2024, I was going through the film-stock to send to
Periscope Films in LA for archiving. As I viewed the films on my
editor, I saw something titled The Scalpel! It been hiding
in a film can for 5 years! Incredibly, the film perfectly edited
with the second half which I already had and had scored years before.
What is off-the-charts about this is that the first half came from the East Coast, and the 2nd half came from the West Coast, nearly
90 years later, and they both matched up! What can you tell us
about the condition of the footage of The
Scalpel prior to your restoration efforts, and what kind of work
did you and your team put in to make it shine again?
The 2nd half of the film I had previously worked on was in great
condition. The scanning was done in Seattle, and really didn’t
need any restoration in 2019. With all of these films, we decided
not to edit out the physical edits that Lyford did. It was
important that the audience saw these films from the perspective of
Lyford in his late teens. He made 9 films before he was 20.
The new film-footage of The Scalpel
was much more bleached
out, for some reason. We had that film frame-by-frame scanned, and
then color-corrected to bring the B&W contrast to match the other
footage. The results were perfect. Additional editing was
done to clean up some cropping issues, and both parts were unified.
It was a community effort by Seattle media production companies.
With The Scalpel being
essentially a horror movie, how would you say it compares to other genre
films of the era - or even to today's genre cinema?
The Scalpel is somewhat similar to
Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde. It was
Lyford’s 6th film, and won an Amateur Cinema Award at the time. It’s
rougher than As
the Earth Turns done a year later, but it holds up
very well. I know Richard loved to see movies in the theater and
worked hard to match their quality, even though he was working with
silent 16mm film. He did create a dual turntable system (like a
DJ!) that was synchronized with his projector. He had a timed
playlist (classical music, typically) and showed the films in his
families basement that seated 50 audience members! The folks on
the Classic Horror Film Board really got into Lyford’s films, and
talked a lot about how they were very well made and similar to horror
films of the 1930s. Lyford had family and friends as cast and crew.
He did an astounding job of writing, directing, acting (as the
monster), editing, and even developing the film. The monster
transition took 6 hours to film. There are double exposures, and
other FX. A short film is challenging, because you have to put an
entire story into a condensed film. There is no time to linger on
a scene. Silent films have other challenges with dialog, of
course. Lyford knew how much dialog was needed as intertitles.
In the end, you really have to also compare it to silent films
from years earlier. There are elements of Phantom of the
Opera and other silent classics in the film. I know Lyford had
access to a medical facility for some scenes (A cast member was a
student at the UW Medical School!). Richard was very creative and
efficient with scenes filmed in his families house in Seattle (I have
been there). Compared to horror-films today, it does have some mild B&W gore that
surprised me. I know that the audiences in his basement went wild
watching these films. Ritual
of the Dead has some intense
stuff in it too! The pacing is pretty good, so there is very good
tension in the story. The acting is not bad, considering that most
of the actors were, at best, high school drama kids. One of the
actors, Barbara Berjer went on to stage and screen. Watching her
in these early films shows you why Lyford used her as a lead player. I
would guess that Barbara learned a great deal about acting in his films.
You've also composed an entirely new score for The
Scalpel - so do talk about the film's music, its instrumentation
and its musical influences for a bit? And do you have any indication in
regards to what kind of music Richard Lyford would have actually wanted
for his movie? Owning these films and having a free hand to score without a director is
equally freeing and terrifying. When I started to score As
the Earth Turns I didn’t know about Richard’s use of records to
accompany his films. Later, I did learn through his own articles
in American Cinematographer about what he liked. I also
interviewed his son and learned more about his dad’s appreciation of
classical and early popular music. I know he loved Dvorak,
Stravinsky, and others. His playlist came from his families record
collection, and inexpensive budget records he could afford from places
like Woolworths. I also know that he appreciated how the music
from King Kong, one of the first films to be synchronized with
the picture. My initial themes were inspired by early horror films
of the 30s and 40s. The music starts off with a classical horror
theme of that era. It does evolve into more modern music as the
film moves on. One challenge of the score was to match the new
footage musically to the part I had already scored years before.
I do know that Richard would have loved to have his films scored.
He had no way to do that in his youth. He was not in
Hollywood or had any equipment to do it. Based on my interviews
with his son, I believe I have been on the right track with music for
these films. Having modern computers and software, the
ability of anyone to score a film like this is miraculous. I made
Super 8 films as a kid (nowhere on the level of Lyford!). I aways
wanted to put music to my films, and did the same thing Lyford did using
a reel to reel recorder while projecting the films. It is both an
artistic endeavor and a heavy responsibility to be in charge of another
person's film legacy, especially from their youth. I know that
Richard loved these early films, and that Disney saw Lyford’s ability
as a filmmaker when he hired him just after making these films.
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The $64 question of course, where can The
Scalpel be seen?
Right now, The
Scalpel is all over the film festival circuit (over 50
festivals and 60 awards currently). It’s playing around the
country and online. It will be in LA at the TCL Chinese Theater in
September 2024, and a number of Halloween events -
https://edhartmanmusic.com/the-scalpel-1936-silent-film
The fragment from The
Scalpel is on the As
the Earth Turns DVD along with my doc It
Gets in Your Blood and the Ritual
of the Dead fragment, but to see the entire film you’ll have to find it
through a festival or contact me through my website. Whether the
finished The
Scalpel film will replace the fragment on the DVD I don’t
know. You can see As
the Earth Turns on Amazon, Tubi and other
platforms. Anything you can tell us about
audience and critical reception of The
Scalpel yet? So far the audiences love the film. Horror is a perfect film for
festivals. It’s also a genre that is typical of young
filmmakers. I believe it’s easier than drama or comedy. A
bad horror film can still be fun to watch, as any one who has seen MST3K
knows! I am especially proud of producing this film for modern
audiences, especially young filmmakers. Seeing a teenage filmmaker
from the 1930s achieve such good production with no-budget is truly
inspirational. Any filmmaker can relate to the challenges Lyford
had making his independent films. The
Scalpel isn't the first of Richard Lyford's films you've restored,
you've already saved As
the Earth Turns and Ritual
of the Dead from obscurity before that - so what can you tell us
about those, and also your Richard Lyford documentary It
Gets in Your Blood ... and about your fascination with Richard
Lyford in the first place?
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As
the Earth Turns, a silent 45 minute sci-fi was Richard’s flnal film
when he was 20 years old, before moving to Hollywood. It’s a
terrific film, and has garnered tremendous reviews over the years.
TCM put on Halloween a few years ago, and alongside classic sci-fi
film festivals. It’s a complete feature (a bit shorter than
modern day films). It has solid acting, effects, action, pacing,
etc. It’s an astounding piece of film, with great cinematography
that evokes Orson Welles. I only had part of that film initially,
and then found more footage in the film-stock collection. I had to
figure out the editing, as well. I was able to confirm my editing
later, when a dupe was found by another cast member’s family. That
was somewhat terrifying, too! Luckily my edit matched the dupe!
My score is more eclectic in that film, using classical and jazz
themes. Scenes are filmed around Seattle in well-known locations.
The backstory is wild, as well. That’s why I made the
mini-doc for reference. Ritual
of the Dead is a mummy-style
film fragment. It’s got some great acting, and intense action.
The score has some Mideast stylings. Do you have any more Richard
Lyford rediscoveries in store for us? And/or any other future projects
you'd like to share?
I am always keeping an eye out for the other 6 films Richard made when
he was young. I have a list!
I also have a screenplay, The Filmmaker, about Richard’s first
20 years in Seattle. As you can imagine it’s a perfect story
for a film. There’s a ton of stories that I have from Richard’s
own writings and my interviews with the family. Your/your movie's website, social
media, whatever else?
https://edhartmanmusic.com/as-the-earth-turns
https://edhartmanmusic.com/the-scalpel-1936-silent-film
https://edhartmanmusic.com/
Social links on website. Anything else you're dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
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Whew! There’s a lot there. I could go on for a month. These projects came to me just before the pandemic. They
also happened around some health issues I am dealing with
(successfully). Having films that I can not only score but produce is a
tremendous gift. I always wanted to score films, and with
modern tech, I can do that. If I hadn’t have gone into music, I
would have gone into filmmaking. That would have been around the
same time folks like Spielberg were getting going. Lyford’s
films have given me a second chance as a producer. Having support
from the Lyford family has brought these films to a sizable audience.
I have seen over the last 5 years a growing interest in his
films. I hope the story of Richard Lyford will become something
that filmmakers and anyone interested in movies will be inspired by.
I certainly have been. Thanks for
the interview!
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