AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, April 19 (UPI) -- "Beyond the Rocks," a silent Gloria Swanson/Rudolph Valentino film missing nearly 80 years, has been found in Holland, Empire Magazine Online said Monday.
"Rocks" marks the only time the screen legends appeared together in a film -- a melodrama described in promotional material as a "tale of true love, baronial halls and treacherous Alps with Gloria's make-up whiter than the snow."
In reality, it was filmed in California rather than Africa or the Alps, the locations where the film was set.
Lambasted by critics, the film disappeared and only one minute was thought to have survived until now, Empire noted.
A full print of the film, missing only a few seconds and still in good condition, turned up in the private collection of a Dutch man who secretly kept films after their cinema run finished, instead of destroying them, the magazine said.
His collection was passed to the Netherland's Filmmuseum after he died.
The discovery is noteworthy because 80 percent of silent films have been lost, Empire said.
