The holy grail of lost films

THE STORY OF HOW IT GOT LOST

This is film director Milo Williams. Milo would die in a car accident in the mid 1950's. This crash would be the catalyst for his prolific directing career. On October 17th 1956, Milo would be killed, sent to the hospital for his injuries to be assessed, and would be told that he would need all of his flesh and organs removed to prevent rotting pain. Days later, he would leave the hospital a dead man, full of sorrow, grief, and inspiration. This is the day Milo set out to be the first skeleton to win an Oscar.

Before he died, Milo was allegedly a very anti-social individual. He was mortified by the fact that he could have lost his life and never really known anyone. He began to put himself out there more and attempt to make friends and connections to help him make his art. Three people in particular he met were Fran Harper, Clark Bava, and Kurtis Matthews. Clark was a part of a production company known as Royal Garden Films, and through this connection, Milo would be given the time and resources to create his first short films, and eventually his first feature film: Anatomy.

With Milo directing, Fran starring as the protagonist Margret, Kurtis as our secondary lead Thomas and Clark producing, the film began to take shape. Many more would join the team, including local theater actor Alexander North as Edgar, and most impressively, renowned Italian composer Franco Micalizzi allegedly writing the score. After a year of shooting and 2 of post production, Anatomy would release to glowing reviews and abysmal attendance.

A few scattered film awards were given to it, and a small group of people became very big fans of the film, almost mirroring other movies from our time, such as Carnival Of Souls. Though it wasn't the Oscar winner he had hoped it would be, Milo was proud nonetheless. The film, however, would acquire the attention of Russel Aston, a representative from MGM. Before Milo knew it, he would be making his second film. And his third. And fourth, and finally, with 1979's "Wallace Visits a Cemetery", he would win Best Director at that year's Oscar awards. He had accomplished his dream, after many years of struggling, he had the potential to become a name said in the same breath as Lorraine Landsworth, Guillermo Del Toro, Ridley Scott, Dario Argento, or even Spielberg, but after all of the work he put in, Milo proposed he would take a 5 year filmmaking break.

Milo Williams has not made a film in 44 years. He was last seen in 2006.

In the time since his success in 1979, his feature debut has remained a coveted gem amongst cinema fans, majorly for the fact that it has not been seen in over 50 years. After its debut, a home release could give the film the new audience it deserves. Milo's career had yet to gain the prestige it now has today, so Anatomy's film reels would continue to gather dust. In around 1983 when the VHS was beginning to boom, a transfer of his entire 5 film filmography would be proposed by Royal Garden, as it still held the rights to most of Milo's works pre MGM. When attempting to find his early works, it was discovered that all known copies of Anatomy were severely damaged. Whether this be from poor preservation, floods, fires, or other factors, they were only able to find 2 usable copies, one in English and one dubbed in French. Unfortunately the biggest damage to the film and its legacy would come from those meant to preserve it.