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Author Topic: Mountain Features
Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

- posted December 31, 2013 05:41 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I have just bought the 2-reeler Mountain release of "Two Tickets To Broadway", on the reverse of the box is a list of 78 full-length features released by Mountain.
If members are interested, I will add to this Topic the list of titles.

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Maurice

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Adrian Winchester
Film God

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

- posted December 31, 2013 12:25 PM      Profile for Adrian Winchester     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
All full length, as opposed to the 4x400' versions? I never would have guessed there were so many.

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Adrian Winchester

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Bill Phelps
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1482
From: USA
Registered: Jan 2009

- posted December 31, 2013 01:24 PM      Profile for Bill Phelps     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yes, Maurice I am interested in the list of titles...please list them!

Bill [Smile]

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Michael O'Regan
Film God

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

- posted December 31, 2013 01:29 PM      Profile for Michael O'Regan     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
78? Like Adrian, I'm surprised. Yes please, Maurice.

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

- posted January 01, 2014 04:47 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The back of the box just says "Mountain Films - Full Length Features". There is no mention of reels, running time or anything else. Just reading the titles gives the impression that not all are actually features in the accepted sense.

For instance, I have "Big Band Sound" on 3 x 400'. There is no mention of Mountain on the boxes, only the title which is "The Big Band Sound", there is no part number so perhaps there may be more than three. The only difference is the colour of the title! The film is actually a collection of (very good) RKO musical shorts, Frankie Carle, etc.

So, here are the 78 titles which I have re-arranged into alphabetical order for ease of reference.

Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd
The Atomic Submarine
Babes In Toyland
Beast From The Haunted Cave
Belle Bare and Beautiful
Bengazi
Big Band Sound
The Big Switch
Blood Devils
Blood Of Dracula's Castle
Body And Soul
Buffalo Bill In Tomahawk Territory
Bundle Of Joy
Citizen Kane
Clash By Night
Creatures Of Evil
Cry Danger
The Day Of The Triffids
Destination Inner Space
Destination Moon
Demon Doctor
The Devil Bat
Dolphins Dragons And Crocodiles
A Double Life
The Fabulous Dorseys
Fiend Without A Face
Flying Deuces
Flying Down To Rio
For Men Only
Gangs Incorporated
Gas House Kids
The Girl Most Likely
The Great Diamond Chase
The Great Rupert
Grip Of The Strangler
The History Of Hollywood
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
Hungry For Sex
I Killed Geronimo
I Married A Woman (CinemaScope)
King Kong
Love Happy
The Lusty Men
Macbeth
Magic Town
Man Of Violence
Mighty Joe Young
Monster Maker
Monster Of Piedras Blanches
Musical Moments
The Naked And The Dead
The Naked World Of Harrison Marks
A Night In Casablanca
Nightmare In Wax
The 9 Ages Of Nakedness
North West Stampede
Oh Carol
On The Side
The Outlaw
The Pit And The Pendulum
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Rancho Notorious
Run Of The Arrow
School For Sex
The Second World War
Skill Brains And Guts
Slaughter Of The Vampires
Some Like It Cool
Son Of Sinbad
Stromboli
Tension At Table Rock
Tiger Fangs
Top Hat
Unsatisfied Virgins
Victory At Sea
The Wasp Woman
Wild Harvest
The Years Of Laughter

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Maurice

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Paul Spinks
Master Film Handler

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

- posted January 01, 2014 08:55 AM      Profile for Paul Spinks   Email Paul Spinks   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I've got 35 of those Mountain features. No wonder I've got no space. I'm desperate for the 4X400ft "The Demon Doctor" on super 8 though but I've never seen a print for sale.

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Marshall Crist
Master Film Handler

Posts: 300
From: San Pedro, CA USA
Registered: Oct 2008

- posted January 01, 2014 10:24 AM      Profile for Marshall Crist   Email Marshall Crist   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
What IS "Demon Doctor?"

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Clyde Miles
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 205
From: Bromsgrove, UK
Registered: Nov 2013

- posted January 01, 2014 10:31 AM      Profile for Clyde Miles     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
i think i was jess franco's film 'the awful dr orloff' with howerd vernon.

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

- posted January 01, 2014 10:43 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Correct Clyde, from 1962.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056040/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

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Maurice

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Michael O'Regan
Film God

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

- posted January 01, 2014 12:42 PM      Profile for Michael O'Regan     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Paul,

What's the quality like on these?

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David Ollerearnshaw
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1373
From: Penistone Sheffield UK
Registered: Oct 2012

- posted January 01, 2014 02:36 PM      Profile for David Ollerearnshaw   Author's Homepage   Email David Ollerearnshaw   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The Day Of The Triffids. I have this in scope 4x400ft The colour is quite poor, it was like this when I bought it. Due to a poor master.
The Fabulous Dorseys. Just got this 3x400ft edited to just keep the music. Not by me.
Fiend Without A Face. 4x400ft Almost full length mine is a good print.
King Kong. 6x400ft Bought new a good print.
Mighty Joe Young. A mixed print edited to make almost full version
The Naked And The Dead. B/W only 4x400ft mine was ex-library very bad state.

I also have 'Son Of Kong' which they released. in 4x400ft.

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I love the smell of film in the morning.

http://www.thereelimage.co.uk/

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Paul Spinks
Master Film Handler

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

- posted January 02, 2014 08:51 AM      Profile for Paul Spinks   Email Paul Spinks   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Mountain Films quality was variable as they used different labs to produce their titles in order to keep production costs as low as possible. They were the cheapest of the producers in their day and probably sold the most titles through their chain of London shops, their popular mail order division and other dealers stores. Therefore you can get different prints of the same title depending on the print run and some would be soft, some would be bleached out and some would be great. Sound quality was often variable as well. To their credit they always replaced faulty prints so most of the time you are ok with used prints bought from reputable sellers, but be aware that the odd print found in the attic might be bad. I had to buy three different prints of "Cat People" to get a good one. I only buy the black and white Mountain features so whilst the colour scope version of "Triffids" is awful, the flat black and white feature is a nice print. Their library boasted some great old titles from RKO and wonderful vintage horror films from PRC. Some features like "Wasp Woman", "Beast from the Haunted Cave", "Monster of Piedras Blancas" and of course "Plan Nine" are quite hard to find now, but good prints are out there so it's always worth searching.

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

- posted January 02, 2014 09:58 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Were Mountain releases cheaper like-for-like compared with other distributors? Has the colour held up on their colour prints?

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Maurice

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Christian Bjorgen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 996
From: Kvinnherad, Norway
Registered: Oct 2009

- posted January 02, 2014 12:28 PM      Profile for Christian Bjorgen   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I have a 5x400' Mountain Features copy of "Bonnie Scotland" with L&H. Good picture, nice constrast, but the sound is a bit wobbly.

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Well who’s on first? Yeah. Go ahead and tell me. Who. The guy on first. Who. The guy playin’ first base. Who. The guy on first. Who is on first! What are you askin’ me for? I’m askin’ you!

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Osi Osgood
Film God

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

- posted January 02, 2014 01:04 PM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
They tended to have pretty good print quality. I have "A Night In Casablanca", slightly edited Marx Brothers feature, but they edited out nearly all the romantic subplot (thankfully) and made it a much better feature to enjoy!

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

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Paul Spinks
Master Film Handler

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

- posted January 02, 2014 11:26 PM      Profile for Paul Spinks   Email Paul Spinks   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I don't have any of the colour prints so I 'm not sure how good they are, but I've heard that prints of "The Pit and the Pendulum" aka "The Blood Demon" with Christopher Lee and Lex Barker have excellent colour but as far as I know they were all printed on Eastman stock. They also released Val Lewton's "The Ghost Ship", "The Body Snatcher" and John Ford's "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon". All 12 chapters of "Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe" along with the edited serial feature releases of "Mars Attacks the World" and "Rocketship". "Casbah" with Peter Lorre and "The Sword of Monte Cristo" with George Montgomery were also released by them. There's probably many more that I've forgotten as they had a lot of titles.

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David Ollerearnshaw
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Posts: 1373
From: Penistone Sheffield UK
Registered: Oct 2012

- posted January 03, 2014 04:18 AM      Profile for David Ollerearnshaw   Author's Homepage   Email David Ollerearnshaw   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Mountain were also the UK agents for digests from Ken Films Fox titles and Columbia. They also had the rights to RKO.

The comments regarding their colour releases seems right, most I have seen were not the best.

On price I would say they were at the lower end for price. When you look at the old UK magazines. The pricing of the companies at the time I would put in this order.

  • Walton Films
  • William Powell Films
  • P.M. Films
  • Perry's Movies
  • Derann Films
  • Mountain Films
The top three always seemed to be about £10 more on a 8 reeler.
How I miss those days.

--------------------
I love the smell of film in the morning.

http://www.thereelimage.co.uk/

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Panayotis A. Carayannis
Jedi Master Film Handler

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

- posted January 03, 2014 04:25 AM      Profile for Panayotis A. Carayannis     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
hristian,"Bonnie Scotland" is not a
Mountain release.
The only films that are uncut are those originally under 70 minutes ("Buffalo Bill in Tomahawk Territory","Tiger Fangs" etc
"The Atomic Submarine" (72mins) is cut by two minutes.I have a complete 6x400 color print of "Run of the Arrow".Nowadays you can find it only in 4x400 bw.Perhaps you can find "Citizen Kane" and "King Kong" in 6x400 but try to find "Macbeth" 5x400 or "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" 6x400. etc etc etc

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Christian Bjorgen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 996
From: Kvinnherad, Norway
Registered: Oct 2009

- posted January 03, 2014 06:00 AM      Profile for Christian Bjorgen   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hello, Panayotis. I based my assumption on the boxes it came in. I will check the boxes and leaders and put out some pictures :-) Would be interesting to know where it comes from [Smile]

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Well who’s on first? Yeah. Go ahead and tell me. Who. The guy on first. Who. The guy playin’ first base. Who. The guy on first. Who is on first! What are you askin’ me for? I’m askin’ you!

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Michael O'Regan
Film God

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

- posted January 03, 2014 12:59 PM      Profile for Michael O'Regan     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Am I correct in saying that Mailmaster Films was Mountain's mail order dept.?

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David Ollerearnshaw
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1373
From: Penistone Sheffield UK
Registered: Oct 2012

- posted January 03, 2014 02:18 PM      Profile for David Ollerearnshaw   Author's Homepage   Email David Ollerearnshaw   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I think so. Mailmaster

Portland Films were also part of them. Looking back in the old magazines a company called Peak Films seemed to be the predecessor of Mountain Films. I suppose it follows the names have the same meaning.

They had at least 2 shops 55 Shaftesbury Avenue, London & 45 New Oxford Street

Plus on the last link if you just go down the side street. What do you find? West Central Street the home of Mountain Films.

One other thing I found a Portland Films advert for Laural & Hardy in 16mm.

Starline, Heritage Films, and others were also in the Mountain line-up.

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I love the smell of film in the morning.

http://www.thereelimage.co.uk/

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Michael O'Regan
Film God

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

- posted January 03, 2014 02:33 PM      Profile for Michael O'Regan     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
What was at that first address, David - the one with the Mailmaster link in your post?

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David Ollerearnshaw
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1373
From: Penistone Sheffield UK
Registered: Oct 2012

- posted January 03, 2014 02:56 PM      Profile for David Ollerearnshaw   Author's Homepage   Email David Ollerearnshaw   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Sorry, for some reason cut 'n' paste miss this bit off.
Mailmaster Film Productions 69 Long Lane London who I think were part of Mountain Films.

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I love the smell of film in the morning.

http://www.thereelimage.co.uk/

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Michael O'Regan
Film God

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

- posted January 03, 2014 02:58 PM      Profile for Michael O'Regan     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Great. Thanks.

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Panayotis A. Carayannis
Jedi Master Film Handler

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

- posted January 04, 2014 02:20 PM      Profile for Panayotis A. Carayannis     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I found the time to do some digging in my older Mountain etc catalogues and can add the following:
One dated September 1979 lists all the 78 titles as 4x400 except "King Kong" 6x400,"Babes in Toyland" 5x400 and "Skill Brains and Guts"6x400 and adds "The Fall Guy"
"Magic Town"
"Misbehaving Husbands"
"She Wore a Yellow Ribbon",also in color as
also,"Run of the Arrow","Great Diamond Chase","Blood of Drac's Castle","Creatures of Evil","Nightmare in Wax","Pit and the Pendulum","On the Side","Hungry for Sex","Destination Inner Space".
Another undated (older one) adds:
"Casbah"
"Miracle of the Bells"
"Last Days of Pompeii"
"Boy With Green Hair",also in color
"Fort Apache"
"Restless Breed"
"Higher and Higher"
"Sword of Monte Christo"
"Blackbeard the Pirate"
and "Top Hat", 5x400
Still another undated one adds color versions of:"Day Of the Triffids","Unsatisfied Virgins","Invaders from Mars","Destination Inner Space","Nine Ages of Nakedness","Bundle of Joy","Girl Most Likely".
BUT ... an even older one lists the following COMPLETE versions,in standard 8 only:
"Demon Doctor" 9 reels
"Blood on his Lips" 9 reels
"Slaughter of Vampires" 9 reels
"Bugles in the Afternoon" 9 reels
"Murder Inc" 9 reels
"Federal Man" 7 reels
"Cattle Queen" 8 reels
"The Hoodlum" 7 reels
"Border Outlaws" 6 reels
"The Fighting Stallion" 7 reels
"Some Like it Cool" 6 reels
"Wild Harvest" 9 reels
"Retreat Hell" 9 reels
which unfortunately were abandoned when super 8 took over.

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