July Expirations: Let's Call It a Massacre

Well, this was unexpected. After June's list of more-than-could-be-processed expiring titles, it was natural to assume the bulk of the damage was done and we could go ahead and discuss July's new arrivals. But Netflix had other ideas. Perhaps trying to keep everyone from noticing exactly how many titles it's eliminating, the service saved a large chunk of its vanishing catalog for July 5�giving no prior notice until the last couple of days (the fact that it's July 4th weekend may also have been part of their plan, if you're conspiracy-minded).

Thanks to all the eagle-eyed readers out there who have been diligently posting their findings (and making my humble Expirations page look like a sub-Reddit forum!), we can gauge just how much will be gone as of Sunday at midnight. Granted, much of it is obscure genre fare and some is downright crappy, but there are also a few genuinely notable older titles�including the early John Boorman flick, Leo the Last (1970), and Jim McBride's seminal David Holzman's Diary (1967)�not to mention a whole slew of silents, many by that era's most distinguished filmmakers. There are too many for me to provide links, but here are all the silent films and pre-1982 titles (so far) that are viewable through July 5:

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