Les Misérables (1925 film)

French release

It was released in France in four parts, released in weekly instalments on 25 December 1925, 31 December 1925, 8 January 1926, and 15 January 1926.^[7][8] Each part was precisely 2000 metres of film long.^[9]

Even before the French premiere, it was reported in Universal Weekly that Universal Pictures had obtained the rights to reproduce the film.^[10]

British release

An abridged version running at around four hours had its British premiere on 9 April 1926 in a trade performance at the London Hippodrome, beginning with a staged prologue featuring many of the actors from the film emerging from a large book and walking "across the stage before the sleeping figure of Victor Hugo".^[11] It was attended by Fescourt himself, as well as ambassadors and ministers from multiple countries.^[11][12] This performance was followed by a tour of trade performances in Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, and Cardiff.^[11] David Lloyd George also had a private viewing of the film in his own home.^[12]

In November 1926, it was released to the British public in cinemas around the country in two parts: 'The Soul of Humanity' and 'The Barricades'. Together these totalled 22 reels, coming to a running time of 280 minutes.^[13][5]

American release

The American premiere took place in the Forrest Theatre, Philadelphia to an invite-only audience on 24 June 1926, followed by a similar showing in Washington, D.C. the following day.^[13]

An abridged version from Universal was released on Broadway in August 1927 at the Central Theatre with music by Hugo Riesenfeld.^[14] This followed a one-night-only showing of a longer, but still abridged to 15 reels, version at Carnegie Hall on 8 July 1926.^[15] It was reported that "At noon on Sunday, August 28th [1927], the box office at the Central Theatre was forced to close while the police attempted to clear a passageway in front of the theatre" due to the film's popularity.^[16] People stood in the theatre to watch it, resulting in the Central Theatre showing to audiences of 15% over capacity in the first five days and ran "an impromptu special performance", as reported in Universal Weekly.^[17] It was also shown in Brooklyn's new Montmartre Theatre simultaneously.^[17] It was then shown at other locations around the country.^[18] Rudmer Canjels writes that there were "two versions the exhibitor could eventually choose from in 1927: a 12-reel version [...] and an eight-reel version that eliminated the character of Fantine."^[19]

A 9.5mm abridged version was released in 1931 with English intertitles for home viewing.

2014 restoration

It was restored in 2014 by a collaboration between the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC), the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, Pathé, and the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation. They restored the film from negatives at the CNC and the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, and also used a reel of intertitles and scripts containing Fescourt's annotations. The restoration effort began in March and finished in November 2014, and involved editing 12,000 metres of film down to 8490 metres.^[4] Music by Roch Havet was added from a recording at the May 2016 Festival d'Anères.^{[20][21][22][23]}