|
Author
|
Topic: Newsreels
|
Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted April 12, 2006 07:43 AM
I have always been a fan of the newsreels, and have several representative samples of Movietone and Pathe newsreels in my collection. One of these, British Movietone Final Edition, is a little disappointing. Marketed by Derann, it comes housed in a lavish plastic clamshell box with great graphics. You think you are getting a 400ft film, but when you open the box you see a 200ft reel, and that reel is only half full!! That's right, Derann put about 100ft of film in a 400ft box! What a con! I can't believe Derek pulled that stunt! Anyway, what there is of it is fine, but it only runs about 5 minutes, and I would think that Movietone's Final Edition in the theaters would have been quite an event, probably running for at least half an hour (anybody know how long it ran?). So why did Derann hack this film to death and then market it in a box worthy of a 20 minute MGM digest?
Watching these old newsreels really is like opening a time capsule. Not just the content, but the voice and delivery and pacing style of the commentators define an era. It occurs to me that Leslie Mitchell (British Movietone News) and Bob Danvers Walker (British Pathe News) are probably two of the iconic voices of the twentieth century. There is quite a lot of info and photo's about Leslie on the web, but very little about Bob and no photos that I can find. Anybody have any info on 'The Voice of Pathe'?
--------------------
The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted April 12, 2006 04:41 PM
Hi Barry,
I just ran my copy again on the GS1200 and it clocks in at 6 minutes and 15 seconds. Yes I bought this used from Paerry's, but there are no splices.
I raised this issue on Mark Sylvesters UK Forum, and Adrian Simmonds kindly responded with a detailed breakdown of the film contents, which coincided exactly with my copy. Adrian also stated that the print run time was 5mins 59 seconds, so the conclusion is that my print is exactly the one marketed by Derann.
Which leaves the question, was this the same as the release copy to the British Cinemas? Hard to believe that British Movietone would have fielded such a poor tribute to their magnificent 50 year legacy!
--------------------
The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Barry Attwood
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1411
From: Enfield, U.K.
Registered: Aug 2003
|
posted April 13, 2006 02:34 AM
Paul,
I think the trouble is with this reel is that the British public were not interested in watching newsreel coverage in the cinema's anymore, and although this is a special tribute reel, this would have gone round the circuits with an 'A' feature and a 'B' feature, and although it was most probably highlighted on the film posters it was showing with, I doubt if little more effort was put into promoting it than that, and that may be the reason for the mean cut. I know I said the print I have nearly feels the reel, and I've just looked at it again and it's on acetate, so that does give the impression (as it's a thicker stock than polyester) of more on the reel than perhaps their really is.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
