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Topic: Mountain Films Information

Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted July 17, 2010 02:01 PM

How many Clark & McCullough, Edgar Kennedy and Leon Errol RKO cut-downs, were released by this outfit in Super/Std 8mm - Appreciate a list - Shorty

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David Kilderry
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 963
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Feb 2006

posted July 19, 2010 12:24 AM

Hi Shorty,

I have a Mountain Films catalogue from around 1966. There are Chaplins, L & H, Lloyd, Snub Pollard, Walter Forde, Clyde Cook, Hairbreth Harry and a few other comedies, but none of what you are looking for.

Perhaps they were not released until the 1970's. This is the only Mountain Catalogue I have; would love a later one.

David

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Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted July 19, 2010 05:53 AM

When did Mountain start? Yes, could have started in 1967, then when did Mountain finish production? - Cheers from Shorty

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Joe McAllister
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 179
From: London England
Registered: May 2007

posted July 24, 2010 03:54 AM

Mountain were around from the early sixties until the early eighties by which time they had gone mainly to video releases. They sold their film masters to a shop in london that specialised in cine at that time.
They operated under various names ie MovieMatic, Cine Vision ,Unique Elysium and others, the latter were names for their glamour output. They put out a lot of stuff from all sorts of sources, not always official ie they sourced many of their Laurel and Hardy releases from Blackhawk prints which they then duped. Their glamour releases were often re-releases from other producer/distributors although they also produced some.
They also took over product from other companies like Heritage which was originally run by Peter Walker who went on to make features like "Frightmare" "Plan 9 from outer space" and some other sci fi releases came from that source.
They had the rights to the RKO library and released many films from them mostly cut downs but including full length copies of "King Kong" and "Top Hat".
At one time they had two shops in the west end of London and apart from their own films they had most of what was available elsewhere. They also printed up some films which must have had very limited runs i.e. Lon Chaney's "Hunchback" which was available in their shop but never featured in their ads or catalogues and I have never seen one second hand.
I don't think any of their catalogues were comprehensive so you would need them all cross referenced with their magazine ads to get a good idea of their total output but I'm not sure even that would give the whole picture.
The video side of their business was the usual mix of PD films and some of the stuff they put out on 8mm but I don't think it did well and they disappeared.

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Always interested in privately produced amateur and home movies.

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Michael O'Regan
Film God

Posts: 3085
From: Essex, UK
Registered: Oct 2007

posted July 24, 2010 04:52 AM

Am I mistaken or did Mountain have some connection with Portland Films in Shaftesbury Ave.?

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Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted July 24, 2010 07:30 AM

Joe, I need information on the RKO shorts they released; Leon Errol, Clark & McCullough and Edgar Kennedy - All help, Cheers from Shorty

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Paul Spinks
Master Film Handler

Posts: 453
From: Barking, Essex, UK
Registered: Mar 2006

posted July 24, 2010 08:45 AM

I was in London's West End the other day seeing a show and passed 55 Shaftesbury Avenue, the old Portland Films shop. It is now a hair and beauty salon. They also traded under the names Movie Makers and Mailmaster films but it was all Mountain films. They were never really the best quality films as they tended to use cheap labs but they probably sold more films in the UK than the other distributors in the 1970's because they were so cheap. I can remember returning so many prints to them because they were recorded out of synch or were too dark or out of focus. And yet another print of the same film would be perfect. It all depended on which lab they had used. When you brought a film back to them with "issues" the store manager used to check the print on one of those awful cheap Cine Royal projectors that were usually only sold in sex shops or Portland Films, thus enhancing the "issues" with a lovely set of tramlines. I've collected just about every Mountain Feature over the years and I must say that I do have a strange nostalgic soft spot for them, but they were very frustrating to deal with when they were trading. I remember the wonderful catalogues that they used to mail out, I wish that I had kept some. When they were closing down they sold off their last remaining prints at ridiculous prices. I bought an excellent colour print of "The Pit and The Pendulum" ( This was the German version with Christopher Lee and Lex Barker dubbed into English AKA "The Blood Demon")on 4X400ft reels for £14.00. I sold it on many years ago and now only have a black and white print but the colour one may have faded by now. They started to sell their features in a great cardboard slip box which held 4X400ft reels towards the end. These were really good boxes. You still see them today and they are usually in great condition because they were very well made and hard wearing. They sold all these off for £1 each when they were closing down. Oh how I wish that I had bought some. Happy Days.

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Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted July 24, 2010 03:21 PM

Is there any way someone can find out this information for me? Cheers from Shorty

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Panayotis A. Carayannis
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 969
From: Athens,Greece
Registered: Jul 2008

posted July 24, 2010 05:19 PM

Clark and McCullough ODOR IN THE COURT
Leon Erroll WHO'S A DUMMY
SPOOK SPEAKS
WEDDED BLITZ
CUTIE ON DUTY
Edgar Kennedy HIGH BEER PRESSURE
THE HILLBILLY GOAT
MOTOR MANIACS
I'LL BUILD IT MYSELF
INFERIOR DECORATOR
FISH FEATHERS
HOME CANNING
HOW TO CLEAN HOUSE

HOUSE

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Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted July 24, 2010 05:48 PM

Perfect, Pan - Thank you, now I'm up to date

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Joe McAllister
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 179
From: London England
Registered: May 2007

posted July 25, 2010 04:04 AM

Like I said I don't think there is one source for a definitive list of Mountain releases but from memory of stuff that has passed through my hands I would add these to Panayotis A. Carayannis' list;

High and Dizzy
Spooky Wooky

Both Leon Errol.

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Always interested in privately produced amateur and home movies.

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Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted July 25, 2010 08:00 AM

Both those I have in 400', not released in 200' that I know - But Cheers and thanks

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Joe McAllister
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 179
From: London England
Registered: May 2007

posted July 25, 2010 02:15 PM

After the demise of Mountain et al the RKO non theatrical rights reverted to their owner a composer called Robert Kingston who released a number of titles as extracts on 16mm they were called Star Paks (or Starmovies) an/or the Robert Kingston Organizaion (RKO geddir?) I have their King Kong 400' on 16mm which is essentially the final reel there were many Astaire Rogers extracts too.
Kingstons "RKO" went on to release many RKO features on vhs often as double bills if my memory serves.

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Always interested in privately produced amateur and home movies.

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Adrian Winchester
Film God

Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004

posted July 25, 2010 03:29 PM

Paul - you had amazing luck getting:
"a colour print of "The Pit and The Pendulum" ( This was the German version with Christopher Lee and Lex Barker dubbed into English AKA "The Blood Demon")on 4X400ft reels for £14.00."

I was a frequent visitor to the Portland Films store from about 1983 and even went on the last day in 1986 and I never saw a print of this or I would have snapped it up immediately. I can only presume that when trying to clear their final stock, they unearthed some films that they were previously unaware that they still had.

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Adrian Winchester

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Mirek Lipinski
Junior
Posts: 2
From: New York, NY USA
Registered: Jul 2011

posted July 23, 2011 10:04 AM

Hello, everyone. I'm a new member here.

I'm trying to find out about Mountain Films catalog number T219. For the last couple of days, I've posted on my Spanish horror blog about the three 8mms that I know of that were sourced from Jess Franco's GRITOS EN LA NOCHE (British title: THE DEMON DOCTOR; American Title: THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF). Those three, with catalog numbers, are:

THE DEMON DOCTOR - T217
LUST FOR BLOOD - T218
THE WOMAN IN THE COFFIN - T220

As you see, T219 is missing. I don't think this catalog number is a Franco film, but I'd love to verify.

If anyone can provide the answer, it would be much appreciated.

Incidentally, the blog entries are here, with cover captures:

http://fantaterrorhorrorfromspain.blogspot.com/

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted July 23, 2011 10:16 AM

Hey! I have a an old "Movie Matic" print! I always wondered where that came from!

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator

Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted July 23, 2011 11:40 AM

Mirek,

Welcome to the Forum! I have The Woman in the Coffin as T219. T220 would be The Body Snatchers, which from the artwork appears to be excerpted from the same film as Lust For Blood.

That's a great site you have. I'm a huge fan of Spanish horror films.

Doug

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I think there's room for just one more film.....

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Mirek Lipinski
Junior
Posts: 2
From: New York, NY USA
Registered: Jul 2011

posted July 23, 2011 01:04 PM

Hi Doug,

That's weird, the numbering is different. Did Mountain Films move around their numbering at different times?

From the cover, THE BODY SNATCHERS does appear to be another entry from the Franco film. In my set it would probably be T219, though I wonder if it's a replacement for THE DEMON DOCTOR, which you don't have pictured.

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Joe Balitzki
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 529
From: Charleston, SC, USA
Registered: Aug 2005

posted July 23, 2011 05:06 PM

On RKO feature cutdowns did Mountain leave the RKO Logo at the beginning on their prints or did they leave it off and also shorten the Main Titles?

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Movie Lovers Do It in the Dark

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Panayotis A. Carayannis
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 969
From: Athens,Greece
Registered: Jul 2008

posted June 24, 2012 05:48 AM

A nice memento from the past

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Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted April 07, 2016 02:49 PM

Nice indeed - When I come to Greece, will want to visit - Cheers, Shorty

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Will Trenfield
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 506
From: Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK
Registered: Mar 2016

posted April 07, 2016 04:06 PM

I had a 200' digest of "King Kong" by Mountain once with the RKO logos, Joe.

[ April 08, 2016, 12:01 PM: Message edited by: Will Trenfield ]

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Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted April 08, 2016 10:27 AM

Well, I tell you, my main interest is on the RKO shorts, whether complete or cutdowns - USA and Overseas releases - Cheers, Shorty

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Jim Schrader
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1628
From: Savage, MN, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted January 24, 2019 03:04 PM

I have a mountain film called "Nightmare Castle" T470 I have looked up the title on YouTube only to find out its a different film mine is in colour and the YouTube version is b/w plus scrolling though it I did not recognize any scenes from my film I know they sometimes re-titled films does anybody have a catalog of mountain films? I'd like to know what film this is from?? thanks

[ January 28, 2019, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Jim Schrader ]

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jim schrader
"Let's see “do I have that title already?"

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Robert Statzer
Junior
Posts: 21
From: Richmond, IN, USA
Registered: Nov 2018

posted January 24, 2019 04:42 PM

Jim, a copy of that "Nightmare Castle" was recently up for sale on ebay, but the listing didn't contain enough information to figure out what the movie's actual title was. (Sadly, some of the people selling film on ebay have no knowledge of what they've got...often it's simply a stash of films found in a deceased relative's home.)

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BijouBob8mm

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