'Shadows'

This is John Cassavetes' first film. Technically, his first and second.

He filmed the first version of Shadows in 1957 and then another version in 1959. By all accounts, Cassavetes preferred the second version (otherwise, why would you redo the first?) and the first was all but lost even when Cassavetes died in 1989.

Then in 2004, some Cassavetes scholar found an almost pristine copy of the first Shadows that was logged into a lost and found on a subway. It's odd how often this happens. You always hear about some film, photos or letters being found and it wind up being significant or include significant people.

Film are the oddest. How do you forget that you have game 7 of the 1951 World Series in your attic? How does a copy of a film get lost to especially the director only to be found by total randomness in a subway lost and found? It's ridiculous.

Also, the original soundtrack was to be that of famed jazz musicians Charles Mingus. However, he failed to meet deadlines and his music was not used.

It's also pretty significant that it deals with interracial relationships, which is still a sore subject 50 years later. Can't imagine it's reception in 1957.