FILM/SNEAK PEEK : OLDER FILMS FADING AWAY.

Byline: - Bob McCarthy

They're raggedy, neglected and in need of good homes, as orphans often are.

A staggering number of American-made films that appeared before 1950 either have disappeared or are in danger of being lost altogether because the film stock simply wasn't designed to last this long.

Known as orphans, these productions dating back to the early part of the century are of such concern that eight high-profile filmmakers banded together in 1990 to start the Film Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding and saving as much of Hollywood's film heritage as possible. One of those founding members was the late Stanley Kubrick.

Warner Bros. is honoring Kubrick on today's release of his final film, ``Eyes Wide Shut,'' with a $100,000 donation to the Film Foundation, whose other founders are Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Sydney Pollack, Robert Redford and Steven Spielberg. In recent years, Robert Altman and Clint Eastwood have joined the effort.

Warner co-chairmen and chief executives Robert A. Daly and Terry Semel announced the gift ahead of Tuesday's world premiere of ``Eyes Wide Shut'' at Mann's Village Theatre in Westwood, where a ceremony was held. Warner Bros. is the distributor of the film, which stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

The foundation raises and distributes money that goes toward recovery, reconstruction, reproduction and safekeeping of endangered film stock. Among those group are Academy Film Archive, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, George Eastman House, Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, the American Film Institute and the National Film Preservation Foundation, all of which are active participants in the study and remedy of the problem and methods of preservation.

By copying a decaying film onto new film stock at a cost of $15,000 for a black-and-white silent and up to four times that for color, the preservationist has won half the battle. The other half - placing a new print with an archive, museum, university, library or historical society - ensures that the title remains intact and kept under optimum conditions for a long life.

A 1993 study by the Library of Congress' National Film Preservation Board found:

Fewer than 20 percent of U.S. feature films from the 1920s, and only 10 percent from the teens, have survived in their entirety.

Many early films exist only in international archives.

Half of the American films made before 1950 have been lost.

Films made after 1950 on acetate film stock will experience color fading and a deterioration known as ``vinegar syndrome.''

An event next month at Glendale's Alex Theatre is sending up a hooray for Hollywood's unsung heroes. ``Film Treasures: The Alex Salutes the UCLA Film and Television Archive'' takes place Aug. 4 through 8, with screenings in the opulent theater.

Being shown over the five nights are ``Hell's Angels'' (1930), starring Jean Harlow and directed and produced by Howard Hughes; ``Holiday'' (1938), with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn; ``My Man Godfrey'' (1936), co-starring William Powell and Carole Lombard; the silent ``The Sea Hawk'' (1924), starring Milton Sills and featuring a symphonic score; and ``The Quiet Man'' (1952), directed by John Ford and co-starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. Each night's feature will include guest speakers.

Tickets are $10, with the exception of ``The Sea Hawk'' on Aug. 7, which costs $15. A series subscription runs $40, and a VIP subscription is $100. Guild and AFS members are eligible for 15 percent discounts. For single-event tickets, call Tele-charge at [phone]; for series subscriptions, call [phone]. For more information, visit the Web site at www.alextheatre.org.

For the record

``What Price Hollywood,'' which kicked off the George Cukor retrospective through Aug. 21 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Bing Theatre, was a 1932 Oscar nominee for best original story.