Author
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Topic: Collectors Club Super 8mm sound films listing with release dates
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Jonathan Sanders
Film Handler
Posts: 82
From: Bath, England
Registered: Oct 2005
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posted October 07, 2011 04:27 AM
Just to be clear, this is not a sales or wants list. It's purely for your information, taken from the monthly newsletters issued by the UK company Collectors Club, between July 1976 (No.31) - when they started selling sound titles - and November 1979 (No.69). From June 1979 they were calling themselves Moviedrome (the name of their new shop), so perhaps the newsletter ceased in November? I can't remember, but if anyone has details of any later releases (perhaps from Movie Maker or similar ads), I'll be happy to add them.
I have used their titles, whether that of the original film or not, but have added further details where given, or known by me.
Month and year of each title's first appearance in the newsletter is given (sometimes this was merely within a cumulative listing with no fanfare!) The second date, following a "D", is that of the title's deletion announcement or final appearance in the newsletter - in some cases stocks continued to be available after the deletion was announced. By summer 1979, every newsletter warned about large numbers of unspecified titles due for deletion - probably linked to the rise of video which they also mentioned each month. It seemed like they were focusing more on their shop and (besides video) selling 8mm releases from other distributors.
Many of the one-reelers, especially cartoons, are actually 120-160ft, but - in contrast to some other UK 8mm distributors! - Collectors Club were always very honest about this in their newsletter. They even specified the exact running times of their (often abridged) feature releases.
It's possible that a few of the listed items, especially on the later newsletters, were actually other companies' product that CC were simply re-selling. (They certainly did this in the Moviedrome period, without necessarily specifying the source.) If anyone suspects this about particular titles, let me know and I'll add a note to the entry.
1 REEL (LIVE-ACTION) Ain't Misbehavin' (Fats Waller) (12/78) Bette Davis Trailers (A Stolen Life/Juarez/Dark Victory) (2/79) Bob's Busy Day (abridgement of "Going Spanish" - Hope) (8/78) (D: 8/79) Classic Trailers No.1 (Dinner at Eight/David Copperfield/Anna Karenina - all MGM) (1/78) The Dentist (abridged - W.C. Fields) (3/78) Down Memory Lane (Hollywood on Parade A.8) (6/77) (D: 5/78) Dreamhouse (abridged - Crosby) (8/78) Glad Rags to Riches (Shirley Temple) (7/78) Go Into Your Dance (extract - Al Jolson) (12/76) The Golden Days of Music Hall (8/77) Hall of Fame (Hollywood on Parade - Lugosi) (6/78) (D: 7/79) Harry Roy & His Band (10/77) Hollywood on Parade (A.5) (Chevalier, J. McDonald) (1/77) Insurance (Eddie Cantor) (2/77) (D: 7/79) I Surrender Dear (abridged - Crosby) (4/78) Jazz and Sand (ODJB + Wilson, Keppel and Betty) (10/76) The Kid's Last Fight (Shirley Temple) (4/77) Let Me Sing (extract "Hallelujah I'm a Bum" - Jolson) (9/78) (D: 8/79) Lugosi-Hardy Interviews (8/76) The Man with the Golden Uke (George Formby clips) (6/79) Possibly Derann release re-sold by CC? Pie, Pie, Blackbird (Eubie Blake) (10/78) Radio Rhythm (Debroy Somers) (3/77) (D: 3/78) Screaming Shortly (horror trailers) (10/76) Sherlock Holmes Trailers (Rathbone) (11/77) Stepping on the Gas (Mack Sennett - SILENT with music) (10/79) Symphony in Black (Duke Ellington) (5/78) (D: 4/79) Trails of Terror (horror trailers) (7/76) The Tree in a Test Tube (Laurel & Hardy, COLOUR) (2/79) Tumbleweeds Prologue (Wm. S. Hart - for 1939 reissue) (1/79) Turn of the Wheel (transport doc, COLOUR) (12/78) Warner Bros. Silver Anniversary (12/76) Yellow Submarine Trailer (8 mins., COLOUR) (4/79) Yukon Jake (Ben Turpin - SILENT with music) (5/78)
1 REEL (CARTOONS) Animal Scraps (WW2) (9/77) Betty Boop's Rise to Fame (11/79) Box of Tricks (11/77) Cactus King (11/76) Careless Stork (4/78) Cats' Chorus (2/77) (D: 10/78) Crusoe's Broadcast (10/78) Cuckoo Cat (1/78) (D: 10/78) Dollar Wise (WW2) (6/77) Foxing Clever (8/77) The Ghost House (3/77) Goonland (Popeye) (9/78) Home Sweet Home (5/77) I Never Changes My Altitude (Popeye) (1/79) I Spy-Da Fly (10/77) Jack's Beans (7/77) (D: 10/78) Jungle Jazz (10/76) (D: 4/78) Kittie Brats (6/78) (D: 10/78) Lessons for the Birds (5/78) The Magic Lamp (12/77) (D: 10/78) A Music Lesson (Flip the Frog) (9/76) Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor (abridged b/w) (9/79) Range Rider (4/77) (D: 5/78)
2 REELS (on 400ft spools) All-Star Bond Rally (WW2) (1/79) Black and Tan (Duke Ellington) (7/79) Blue Blazes (Buster Keaton) (5/77) (D: 9/79) The Boat (Buster Keaton - SILENT with music score) (3/78) Calling All Girls (Busby Berkeley clips) (5/79) The Chemist (Buster Keaton) (7/76) (D: 9/79) Un Chien Andalou (Bunuel - SILENT with music score) (9/78) Dime a Dance (Danny Kaye) (7/77) (D: 8/79) Disorder in the Court (3 Stooges) (10/78) (D: 9/79) Feet First (extract - Harold Lloyd) (1/77) The Golf Specialist (W.C. Fields) (12/78) The Hot Spot (Taxi Boys) (9/77) It's in the Groove (March of Time - record industry) (4/78) Love Nest on Wheels (Buster Keaton) (12/77) (D: 9/79) The Magnificent Two (extracts - Morecambe & Wise, COLOUR) (11/78) The March of the Movies (March of Time - film history) (4/79) Marilyn Monroe (trailers, screen test & commercial, 13 mins.) (4/79) Music in America (March of Time) (5/79)
FEATURES (many abridged) (usually on 400ft spools = 2 reels) The Battle of Britain (Capra documentary) (6 reels, 55 mins.) (10/78) The Card (Alec Guinness) (8 reels, 72 mins.) (12/77) Carry on Doctor (8 reels, 76 mins., b/w) (7/78) Carve Her Name With Pride (10 reels, 100 mins.) (7/78) A Farewell to Arms (Gary Cooper) (8 reels, 80 mins.) (8/78) Frontier Horizon (John Wayne) (6 reels, 55 mins.) (6/79) The Hounds of Zaroff (The Most Dangerous Game) (8 reels, 64 mins.) (10/78) The Human Monster (Dark Eyes of London) (8 reels, 77 mins.) (12/78) Jazz Ball (compilation) (6 reels, 55 mins.) (1/78) The Magnificent Two (8 reels, 75 mins., b/w) (11/78) Never Let Go (Peter Sellers) (8 reels, 70 mins.) (9/78) (NB: This never re-appeared in any future newsletter!) Reaching for the Moon (Fairbanks) (6 reels, 60 mins.) (3/78) Ride, Ranger, Ride (Gene Autry) (6 reels, 55 mins.) (7/78) A Tale of Two Cities (Bogarde) (10 reels, 92 mins.) (1/78) Tumbleweeds (Wm. S. Hart, 1939 sound reissue) (8 reels, 78 mins.) (1/79) Without prologue, sold separately - see 1 REEL list. The Vampire Bat (6 reels, 47 mins.) (12/77) The Yellow Rose of Texas (Roy Rogers, 6 reels, 54 mins.) (10/78) White Zombie (8 reels) (8/77) (Deleted at some point around 1978 and replaced 8/79 by abridged version on 4 reels, 37 mins.) (NB: Super 8 Collector's review of the 4 reel version: "so soft to be positively out of focus... Print: C [lowest grade] Sound: B", despite the newsletter's claim of "new pre-print material"!) [ October 10, 2011, 05:05 AM: Message edited by: Jonathan Sanders ]
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Jonathan Sanders
Film Handler
Posts: 82
From: Bath, England
Registered: Oct 2005
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posted October 10, 2011 08:33 AM
Thanks for everyone's comments and encouragement.
I just recalled an important series of CC sound releases that I haven't listed - because they weren't advertised in the newsletters but on separate flyers I no longer own. I believe each one was only available for a limited period, probably just one month...
It's the David Wolper TV series HOLLYWOOD AND THE STARS, made for United Artists who at that time owned the Warner Bros. back catalogue. Strange I should forget these as I bought most of those CC issued and even still own a couple!
The ones I remember from CC are: A MAN CALLED BOGART THE IMMORTAL JOLSON HOW TO SUCCEED AS A GANGSTER MONSTERS WE'VE KNOWN AND LOVED THE SWASHBUCKLERS THE GREAT DIRECTORS But there may have been others (31 episodes were televised according to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056765/ I know some of them had previously been released by UA as one reel silent abridgements.
The CC releases were usually complete, supplied on 2 x 400ft reels but you could easily combine each one on a 600ft spool as the original programmes were about 26 minutes. An exception was the CC release of THE GREAT DIRECTORS on one 400ft spool, so presumably abridged. My copies always came in plain dark blue boxes without the usual CC logo and design, but they had the typical CC ink-stamp (or handwriting!) of the titles on the box edges, so I think CC did manufacture them, rather than supply them for another distributor. I don't know why they were limited editions - perhaps a copyright grey area due to the many clips from Warner Bros. classics?
At the time, those clips were the main reason for buying them, but I now value the genre surveys most highly, for Joseph Cotten's slightly sardonic narration which poked gentle fun at the conventions of each genre, such as the flowery dialogue in swashbucklers or the relentless gunfire in gangster pictures, illustrated by inventive intercutting of various films. HOW TO SUCCEED AS A GANGSTER also contains some remarkable actuality footage, including close-ups of Dillinger's corpse on a mortuary slab!
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