8mm Forum: It's A Wonderful Life

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Topic: It's A Wonderful Life

Bradford A Moore
Master Film Handler

Posts: 272
From: Provincetown, Ma
Registered: Jul 2005

posted May 04, 2013 05:49 PM

A bit out of season, but I just bought a super 8 Niles print of It's A Wonderful Life. I've heard mixed reviews of this film put out by Niles, but I had to give it a try being one of my favorite films. For starters I was surprised that Niles had put it out with their more common older reddish orange box. I was expecting the later brighter more colorful box. I have always liked the earlier boxes, so that was a nice plus.

I was glad to find it, in its original format of eight reels in two boxes. I'm a bit of a purist, and like to when ever possible buy a film in its original format. Overall the film had a strong bright clear picture and nice sound. Its primarily only drawbacks I believe were from pre print material. There were some lines from time to time, that appeared to be original to the print source from which they were working with.

One of my favorite things about this film, is that the last portion of the film almost seems like an episode of The Twilight Zone. It could be a film by itself. If you were to start it when George was coming home that night on Christmas Eve, and if you were to hear Rod Serling's voice giving his usual background of what had just happened just before George walked in, I think that would have been a great episode.

I found the first reel, and the last two to be the sharpest, and others were slightly on the grainy side, but not as bad as other Niles releases I've seen. I'm very anxious for December to arrive, so I can show this on the big screen with my film series. I'm sure it will become a annual showing too, Like a few others that have become staples from year to year.

[ May 05, 2013, 07:29 AM: Message edited by: Bradford A Moore ]

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John Capazzo
Master Film Handler

Posts: 421
From: Hillside, NJ USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted May 04, 2013 11:46 PM

Bradford, I had it and surprisingly a nice, sharp print. Got it at a great price then sold it just before Christmas, 1012. The buyer enjoyed it just as much as I did.

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"the image is about 30 feet ahead of us."

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Gary Crawford
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 979
From: Manassas, VA. USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 10, 2013 09:37 AM

Once again proves that not all Niles releases were horrible. My Svengali, Meeting and Midnight, Invisible Ghost prints are all very nice. Others...not so nice.

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Guy Taylor, Jr.
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 606
From: Galveston, Texas, U.S.A.
Registered: Mar 2007

posted May 12, 2013 05:52 PM

I like my copy of Meeting at Midnight. I wish more of these Charlie Chan movies were released on Super 8. As to It's Wonderful Life, I saw a little bit of the copy that John purchased in Wildwood last year. I couldn't believe at how sharp it was. I wish that I had purchased it for myself.

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Guy Taylor

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Osi Osgood
Film God

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

posted May 14, 2013 12:53 PM

I once had a print of "Reefer Madness" by Niles, and I have never seen a print that was either so washed out and so extremely dark as well. Literally no grey tones at all ...

extremely dupey ... but as you say, I used to have that "Wonderful Life" print, and it was VERY good for a Niles, one of they're best.

From what I hear, the Sherlock Holmes series of features were very good as well.

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

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Joe Balitzki
Jedi Master Film Handler

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

posted May 14, 2013 04:28 PM

The Holmes features used Original negatives and so the quality is indeed excellent. However, sometimes the lab work could be a bit better. I believe Niles did their own lab work but I am not sure. The problem in general is/was consistency.

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Movie Lovers Do It in the Dark

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John Fields
Junior
Posts: 23
From: Knoxville, TN, USA
Registered: Oct 2014

posted December 15, 2015 10:40 PM

Bringing back up this years' old thread because I just screened a library copy of this print I bought back in the summer. I must say I was delighted with the sharpness and surprising lack of issues with the fact that it was a library copy. I had to fix a few broken sprockets and redo a few splices, but nothing major. I'm very happy with the print.

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David Guest
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1704
From: Lancashire, UK
Registered: Oct 2011

posted December 16, 2015 04:59 AM

I have a stunning print of this on 16mm

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Lee Mannering
Film God

Posts: 3216
From: The Projection Box
Registered: Nov 2006

posted December 17, 2015 04:25 AM

Its nice the feature made it onto Super 8, a film which has a good levelling story line and really a one off. Would be good to see some off screen shots by someone perhaps. [Cool]

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