A Lover's Oath (partially found American fantasy film; 1925)

Poster for the film in Spanish.

Status: Partially Found

A Lover's Oath is an American silent fantasy film, released on September 29th, 1925. The film was directed by Ferdinand P. Earle and starred Ramon Novarro and Kathleen Key. It was released by Astor Pictures in 1925, having been filmed in 1920 and 1921..^[1] Actor Edwin Stevens, playing one of the main roles, died before the film was finally released, passing away in 1923. The film was based on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

Plot

The film was based on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, even using quotes from it throughout the film. The film's plot is close to the translation of it by Edward Fitzgerald released in 1859.

Ben Ali (Ramon Novarro) is engaged to Sherin (Kathleen Key), but she is wanted also by sheik Hassan Ben Sabbath (Edwin Stevens). ^[2] The film revolves around this plot, ending with Ben Ali eventually staying with Sherin in the end.

Availability

The film, which ran for just over an hour, is now mostly lost. Just around three minutes and fifteen seconds worth of film has survived of the film. The film was shown throughout the remainder of 1925 and 1926, with its last showing appearing to be in Oakland, California on August 10th, 1929, just under four years since release, and nearly a decade since filming. ^[3]

A small clip of the film, around thirty-three seconds in length, was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.^[4] It was thought to be the only surviving fragment of the film until a two minute and forty-five-second clip of the film with its original tint was uploaded to Youtube by the channel Old Films and Stuff on December 1st, 2019.^[5] Redditor James_Fennell, who found and uploaded the clip, later posted the clip on the "Lost_Films" Sub-reddit, suggesting it was found from a toy 35mm movie projector. ^[6] It's unknown if the clip is sourced from the original copy of the film, or from a possible copy.