July 7, 1939 –
Jean Renior’s prescient masterpiece, Rules of the Game (La Règle Du Jeu,) starring Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, and Paulette Dubost, premiered in Paris, France on this date (because of World War II, the film did not officially open in the US until 1950.)
The fact the movie was almost lost during the war is a myth: actually, the EXTENDED version was almost lost. The original movie shown in 1939 was 113 minutes, or maybe more. It was a relative failure, so Renoir cut it down to approx. 100 minutes and then again to 90 minutes (and even 85 minutes for theatres showing two movies). It was these 23 minutes that were thought to be lost during a WWII bombing. The situation remained unchanged until as late as 1958, when most of the original rushes were discovered and the long version reconstituted to 110 minutes, which is still the version showed nowadays. The parts that have been definitively lost correspond to two scenes for which sound exists, but not images.
The Haus of Dcaligari 