Reel time: Keeping an eye out for hidden gems of old

I LOVE old films, particularly ones that might be lost forever. The fact that nobody has seen a particular movie in years, perhaps due to human error or legal wranglings, means there's a slim chance it might be Citizen Kane 2, aka The Best Film You'll Never See. Of course, it might be terrible, but half the fun is in wondering.

It also makes it all the sweeter when occasionally they're rediscovered, released on DVD and make an impression upon modern audiences. This past week I've caught up with three such films which do just that.

First up is 1965's The Party's Over (BFI), a glimpse into the world of London Beatnik society directed by Goldfinger's Guy Hamilton. It stars one-time bad boy Oliver Reed as the leader of a group of youths determined to party their lives away, reality only hitting them when the fiance of one of their gang arrives looking for her, only to discover tragedy. Cut by censors before its release, Hamilton decided instead to shelve the film, resulting in it being unseen for 45 years. Though it looks dated, The Party's Over still has the power to shock – I'm still thinking about those closing ten minutes.

Another rarity is 1965's The Pleasure Girls (BFI). The Sixties are again swinging, this time in the household of a group of young women out for fun and romance wherever they can find it. Francesca Annis is Sally, a country girl who, on arriving in London, falls in with the charming Keith (Lovejoy's Ian McShane) while "grown-up" issues, such as pregnancy, marriage and the daily grind, rear their heads. The Pleasure Girls is both breezy and gritty, a modern mix that makes it stand-out from its contemporaries.

Finally, German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's lost science fiction classic, 1973's World On A Wire (Second Sight), has been retrieved from the archives and given a spit and polish by the experts.

Set in the near-future, where an artificial reality inhabited by sentient computer-generated beings is being tested by the government, this impressive two-part TV series pre-dates The Matrix in its depiction of what might occur if microchips are left to run the world.

While there may not be a second Citizen Kane, they're all mini-classics in their own way.

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