Bradford A Moore
Master Film Handler
Posts: 272
From: Provincetown, Ma
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted February 17, 2011 07:35 AM
I recently purchased a 8mm Niles print of The Thief Of Bagdad (1924) with Douglas Fairbanks. I had read from other people who owned the Niles print, that it was one of their best. As you all know Niles can be very hit or miss, so I thought I would give it a try, and not too bad for $35 dollars, on 7 400ft reels.
For starters I had heard in the past that Niles was known to dupe Blackhawk prints, but had never seen it for my self. I had suspected they may have done so with Griggs prints, because they were similar in print material, that was different from what Blackhawk released, and a good example would be with The Griggs Caligari, and The Niles print.
The first reel was far better than anything I had ever seen Niles release, but at the end of the first reel, I knew for sure that this was a Blackhawk dupe, because it said end of reel one, just like Blackhawk would have printed it, except it was a bit darker.
I wasn't shocked, but surprised that since they did in fact dupe a Blackhawk, why not try and hide it a little more, by putting their own Niles wording in, or even cut it out all together, like with the Blackhawk intro. I then went on too reel two, which started with Blackhawk's Reel Two, which was no suprise. The picture was still very good, but was a bit darker, and this was something that went on throughout the print. I would say that the best reels for brightness were reel one, and Seven.
Over all the print is still worth seeing, and I even tried a DFT bulb, in my Keystone K-105, with a 1000 watt bulb, instead of a DDB, which is 750 watts in hoping to brighten it up a bit, but it didn't have much more over all effect, except making what was at all washed out seem more so, and any pre print damage seem more so.
With all my criticism, it still is a nice print to have in ones collection, but I will keep my eye open for the Blackhawk original, and it did have as a bonus 200ft super 8 reel of Bagdad out-takes, that was put out by Niles too.
[ February 21, 2011, 01:20 PM: Message edited by: Bradford A Moore ]
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