What do you think?
Rate this book
The Missing Reel: The Untold Story of the Lost Inventor of Moving Pictures
Investigates the September 1890 disappearance of French inventor Augustin Le Prince while en route to Washington, D.C., to file a patent for a moving picture camera and projector
- GenresHistoryNonfictionFilm
320 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1990
3 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 10, 2013
The 1890 disappearance of Louis Le Prince, the probable first inventor of the motion picture camera, is one of the great under-reported mysteries. It is a pity that the first book written about him is not worthy of the fascinating subject.
“The Missing Reel” is so amateurishly put together it becomes positively frustrating to read it. There is no coherent narrative—the author awkwardly jumps back and forth between past and present, making it difficult to follow the flow of the story. Worse, he has an incredibly irritating habit of randomly throwing in his own fictitious speculative scenarios (sometimes multiple contradictory versions of the same event) and presenting them as fact, leaving the reader wondering which parts of his book are guessing-games and which are based on solid history.
Again, this is a terrible shame, because the surprisingly complex and sinister underpinnings of the development of the film industry, coupled with Le Prince’s completely unexplained vanishing from the scene, right when he was on the point of revealing his history-making invention to the world, makes for one amazing whodunit. His story would be a wonderful documentary or novel.
Rawlence is rather vague and diffident about presenting the various theories regarding Le Prince’s fate. Going by the facts he presents, the most shocking theory—namely, that Le Prince’s main rival Thomas Edison was somehow behind his abduction/death—actually seems the most plausible, although Rawlence himself is notably skittish about endorsing the idea. (Even though he admits that his research taught him that Edison was far from the idealistic saint presented by Edison’s publicity machine. I definitely got the impression that the author was at least semi-persuaded Edison had a hand in whatever befell Le Prince, but he was afraid to say so.)
The most moving part of the book deals with Le Prince’s widow Lizzie. She spent the rest of her life struggling not only to find proof of what had happened to her beloved husband (she herself blamed Edison,) but to earn his accomplishments the acclaim they deserved. She failed on both counts, but her heroism is deserving of its own recognition.
“The Missing Reel” is so amateurishly put together it becomes positively frustrating to read it. There is no coherent narrative—the author awkwardly jumps back and forth between past and present, making it difficult to follow the flow of the story. Worse, he has an incredibly irritating habit of randomly throwing in his own fictitious speculative scenarios (sometimes multiple contradictory versions of the same event) and presenting them as fact, leaving the reader wondering which parts of his book are guessing-games and which are based on solid history.
Again, this is a terrible shame, because the surprisingly complex and sinister underpinnings of the development of the film industry, coupled with Le Prince’s completely unexplained vanishing from the scene, right when he was on the point of revealing his history-making invention to the world, makes for one amazing whodunit. His story would be a wonderful documentary or novel.
Rawlence is rather vague and diffident about presenting the various theories regarding Le Prince’s fate. Going by the facts he presents, the most shocking theory—namely, that Le Prince’s main rival Thomas Edison was somehow behind his abduction/death—actually seems the most plausible, although Rawlence himself is notably skittish about endorsing the idea. (Even though he admits that his research taught him that Edison was far from the idealistic saint presented by Edison’s publicity machine. I definitely got the impression that the author was at least semi-persuaded Edison had a hand in whatever befell Le Prince, but he was afraid to say so.)
The most moving part of the book deals with Le Prince’s widow Lizzie. She spent the rest of her life struggling not only to find proof of what had happened to her beloved husband (she herself blamed Edison,) but to earn his accomplishments the acclaim they deserved. She failed on both counts, but her heroism is deserving of its own recognition.
November 16, 2014
I found the narrative too fragmented hence I never did engage with the subject matter. Sometimes it just doesn't work out.
March 23, 2022
Was this supposed to be historical nonfiction about Louis Le Prince or did I just stumble onto a terribly written fanfiction? I had to skim a majority of this book because of every unnecessary side story and dialogue of past events that more than likely never happened. Why did the author decide to write out these conversations as if they were fictional stories?
The timeline jumps in and out to the point where it is so hard to keep up with what happened when. I understand if there isn't much information on Le Prince, but did we really need excerpts on the other inventors' backgrounds? Did we need to talk so much about Thomas Edison?
Also, why did Rawlence keep referring to Edison as 'the wizard'? and why did he keep bringing up his absent father at the beginning of the book? What did this man think he was going to accomplish by writing all of this unnecessary fluff???
If you really want to read this, just read the pdf on the internet archive. I am so glad that I never bought this book.
The timeline jumps in and out to the point where it is so hard to keep up with what happened when. I understand if there isn't much information on Le Prince, but did we really need excerpts on the other inventors' backgrounds? Did we need to talk so much about Thomas Edison?
Also, why did Rawlence keep referring to Edison as 'the wizard'? and why did he keep bringing up his absent father at the beginning of the book? What did this man think he was going to accomplish by writing all of this unnecessary fluff???
If you really want to read this, just read the pdf on the internet archive. I am so glad that I never bought this book.
April 29, 2018
The narrative is disjointed and sometimes difficult to follow, but the actual content is fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the family detail which is usually left out of online accounts of Le Prince, and hearing about the personal connections Rawlence had that inspired him to work on the story.
August 31, 2021
There's some good information here, but far too many instances of the author presenting his own interpretations and his own gap filling as solid fact.
It also jumps around alot, rather than following a more cohesive narrative.
It also jumps around alot, rather than following a more cohesive narrative.
September 11, 2008
Louis Aime Augustin LePrince was probably the first inventor to capture moving images on film. A couple of short scenes that he filmed in 1888- `The Roundhay Garden Scene' and `The Leeds Bridge' have survived and can be watched on YouTube. But when LePrince mysteriously disappeared from a Paris-bound train in September 1890, just as he was on the verge of going public with his one-lens camera and accompanying projector, the fame and fortune that would been his went instead to Thomas Edison.
Incredibly, LePrince's family believed that agents of Edison either kidnapped or killed the French inventor to prevent his apparatus from hindering public demand for Edison's Kinetoscope. There is evidence that Augustin LePrince was in serious financial trouble after years of sinking funds into his experiments, and was facing possible bankruptcy, which had him in a despondent state of mind. In 2003 a researcher found in the Paris police archives an 1890 photo of a drowning victim that resembles the missing inventor.
In `The Missing Reel' Christopher Rawlence probes the underside of the early movie industry. While the public thrilled at the sight of boxing cats and sneezing men, the inventors were driving themselves into the ground financially, sabotaging each other's work, and endlessly litigating over who created a particular apparatus first.
The author's interest in LePrince began when he bought a house in Leeds where the inventor had conducted his motion picture experiments. Additional research turned up LePrince relatives in America, who had custody of a memoir left by Augustin's widow, Lizzie. She always maintained that her husband had been killed by those acting for Thomas Edison. When her oldest son, Adolphe, who appeared in the surviving LePrince films and testified against Edison in an 1899 court battle, was shot to death in 1902, she saw the probable suicide as retribution for the earlier testimony.
I found that the book was at times heavily laden with legal and technical jargon pertaining to patent law and camera construction, but overall, `The Missing Reel' triumphs as a well-composed biography of Augustin LePrince and an unsettling whodunit. Rawlence advocates the suicide theory to explain the inventor's disappearance, but presents Mrs. LePrince's suspicion of Thomas Edison without being dismissive. There's no smoking gun here, but you definitely catch a whiff of something suspicious.
Incredibly, LePrince's family believed that agents of Edison either kidnapped or killed the French inventor to prevent his apparatus from hindering public demand for Edison's Kinetoscope. There is evidence that Augustin LePrince was in serious financial trouble after years of sinking funds into his experiments, and was facing possible bankruptcy, which had him in a despondent state of mind. In 2003 a researcher found in the Paris police archives an 1890 photo of a drowning victim that resembles the missing inventor.
In `The Missing Reel' Christopher Rawlence probes the underside of the early movie industry. While the public thrilled at the sight of boxing cats and sneezing men, the inventors were driving themselves into the ground financially, sabotaging each other's work, and endlessly litigating over who created a particular apparatus first.
The author's interest in LePrince began when he bought a house in Leeds where the inventor had conducted his motion picture experiments. Additional research turned up LePrince relatives in America, who had custody of a memoir left by Augustin's widow, Lizzie. She always maintained that her husband had been killed by those acting for Thomas Edison. When her oldest son, Adolphe, who appeared in the surviving LePrince films and testified against Edison in an 1899 court battle, was shot to death in 1902, she saw the probable suicide as retribution for the earlier testimony.
I found that the book was at times heavily laden with legal and technical jargon pertaining to patent law and camera construction, but overall, `The Missing Reel' triumphs as a well-composed biography of Augustin LePrince and an unsettling whodunit. Rawlence advocates the suicide theory to explain the inventor's disappearance, but presents Mrs. LePrince's suspicion of Thomas Edison without being dismissive. There's no smoking gun here, but you definitely catch a whiff of something suspicious.
July 12, 2019
Thought I was getting an intriguing account of one of the greatest mysteries in film history, what I got was a lot of patent law, accounts of judicial proceedings, and more about Thomas Edison than I ever wanted to know. Rawlence did what he could with very little information, and I admire his journey, but I was way more interested in the parts of Le Prince's story rather than all the context necessary involving Edison and other inventors. I got bogged down in the details and ended up skimming nearly half of the chapters.
May 4, 2016
I expected more discussion of Le Prince's disappearance and less technical details and patent litigation. And less about Edison, the cat and dog killer.
Some people think Le Prince committed suicide by jumping off the train. But how did he hide his own body? It was never found. Neither was his luggage? How could he hide it after he jumped?
Just because no one remembers seeing him get off the train with his luggage, doesn't mean it didn't happen. After that who knows?
Some people think Le Prince committed suicide by jumping off the train. But how did he hide his own body? It was never found. Neither was his luggage? How could he hide it after he jumped?
Just because no one remembers seeing him get off the train with his luggage, doesn't mean it didn't happen. After that who knows?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews