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Topic: Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein U/8
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Jan Bister
Darth 8mm
Posts: 2629
From: Ohio, USA
Registered: Jan 2005
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posted June 15, 2005 12:23 AM
Wow, sounds bad. ![[Frown]](frown.gif) I have two Universal 8 prints myself, one is A&C in "Who's On First" and it's actually quite good, no problem with the picture or sound quality there. Then I have a 2x400ft. digest of Steve Martin's "The Jerk" which is also of excellent quality. Surprisingly sharp print, too, and while the color is just beginning to fade, blues and greens are still very strong. They seem to have done their job on these two releases. Wonder if anyone else has had experiences with U-8, either good or bad, that they can comment on?
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Call me Phoenix. *dusts off the ashes*
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James N. Savage 3
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1375
From: Washington, DC
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted June 15, 2005 10:19 AM
Thanks for that review Brad!
Jan- in reference to Universal 8, I did purchase several digests from them in the late 70's. As far as quality goes, I always thought they were the absolute best at the time. The films always played consistantly smooth in my cheap Eumig 802 back then. And the sound and colors were always perfect. On the 800 foot digests I bought, the editing was usually VERY GOOD! (with the exception of "Xanadu"). I also have the digest for "The Jerk", and it is a good example of very professional editing.
I think probably one of the problems with the 400 foot black and white U-8 horror classics, was that at the time, there probably wasn't much of a demand for the older B/W movies. U-8 was putting much more concentration and money into the newer movies, as was the trend during that year or two. Even though now, it is the black and white classics that are much more collectable and have not gone out of style, but aged quite well and stood the test of time.
As far as U-8's selections, I very much agree- What were they thinking?? Movies like "Incredible Shrinking Woman" and "Nude Bomb" were box office duds, so why did they think collectors would want to put out $120.00 to own a 30 minute version of these.
Of course, they also did made some good choices-"Jaws", "Hindenburg", to name a few.
It's a shame that the U-8's seem to be fading (color) the worst after all these years.
They are still very watchable though.
I think I'll do a review on "The Jerk" (coming soon) ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Nick.
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Tom Photiou
Film God
Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted June 15, 2005 02:30 PM
I'll do a couple of U8 reviews a little later,Must admit "generaly" the cut downs are pretty well done, Picture quality is either very very good or soft-grain, two example of the later are Nothsea hijack,and Xanadu, both are ok but not outstanding in picture. Cant say ive come across duff sound on a U8 film. Editing, again, i find generally good, examples being Jaws 2x400, The island, National Lampoons animal house,Smokey & the bandit etc.
I do have the 400fts of A&C meet Dr Jekyl and A&C go to mars, Quality and editing is very good, sound is top notch.
the big downer is that quite a few U8 films are now prone to colour fade due to the crabby stocks used. A shame.
I do wonder why so few of there titles wern't released in scope. As far as i know only a few 400footers were done.
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Michael De Angelis
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1261
From: USA
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted June 17, 2005 11:40 PM
I once owned the 400' version of 'If I had a Million' with W.C. Fields.
Picture quality seemed grainey. Perhaps it was the gray contrast that made it appear soft. The editing of the story was not significant to the previous 200' extract. In fact, scenes with a millionaire acting wacky or hysterical as to what to do with his money was not edited very well.
The only additional scene with Fields and Allison Skipworth, has Fields walking on camera with a chef's hat and wooden spoon to have dialog with Skipworth.
It's cute, but a throw away scene if anything at all.
The Castle versions of Pigskin Capers is poorly edited, with football plays that are reversed out of sequence. ![[Mad]](mad.gif)
The digest also lacks humor, especially when Groucho speaks to the crowd in the grand stand. It's a brief moment, completely edited, which would have been fun. Instead we are left with repetitive action shots of football plays.
The Incredible Jewel Robbery was originally a half hour television special, hosted by Ronald Reagan. It would have been wonderful if this was released full length. The final Groucho one liner of the program was edited by too.
I just don't get it? ![[Confused]](confused.gif)
Speaking of the Universal 8 Features, has anyone owned a print of Howard Huges' Scarface or Hells Angels?
How do those full length features compare.
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Isn't it great that we can all communicate about this great
hobby that we love!
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Brad Kimball
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1171
From: Highland Mills, NY USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted June 18, 2005 12:58 AM
Castle 200'ers, hmmmmmm? Without a doubt, Castle did the best job scaling down a 70+minute feature to 8.15 minutes. However, there were a few exceptions to the rule....I also was stunned to discover Groucho's (not to mention the entire episode's) only line of dialogue in "Jewel Robbery" removed. Castle's "The Wolf Man" is pretty cruddy. It's way too dark (at least my print is) and the narrative impossible to follow for anyone who has never seen "Wolf Man" full-length. Is the 400'er any better? The 2 extracts from "Ghost of Frankenstein" are fine up until the final 3 minutes and then it's all down hill from there. The "Trial of Frankenstein" ends with mish-mush editing resulting from Castle's intent to end the digest with the film's fiery finale. Instead, Castle should have just picked a relevant moment to fade to black and let the collector pick up the story with "Frankenstein's New Brain". The second extract, "New Brain" is only better in that the climax fits the digest. Both of these cullings suffer from choppy editing hampered by over-use of fades and wipes and the picture on both is very dark. The "House of Dracula" extracts weren't much better. In "The Wolfman's Cure", once again, the quick cropping to get us to the film's close and "House Of Dracula" suffers from poor scene selection save for Dracula's demise. For my next submission, I'll let you know how I feel about Ken Films' 200 product and what titles you should stay clear from which unfortunately is most of the entire catalog.
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Tony Stucchio
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 625
From: New Jersey
Registered: Dec 2005
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posted February 25, 2006 08:01 PM
Back to the original topic of this thread...
Every time I watch my 400 foot A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN, I'll be darned if I can remember 10 minutes of scenes not in the 200 footer from Castle. I have edited the "cave" scene into the 400 footer right after the main titles on my copy.
If I had been the editor for Universal 8 back in the late 70's, I would have started with the "House of Horrors" scene intact, with no cuts, and then finished with the scenes from the Castle extract. I am not sure, however, if that would have fit onto a 400 foot reel though.
Another possibility would be to start with the scenes where the boys explore the basement and only Costello sees the monster, then follow with the Castle scenes. Another option would be to use both new scenes that I have mentioned, and then call it a 2-reeler -- and continue to sell the Castle shorter version.
Or maybe start with the scene where Costello just misses seeing the Wolfman in the apartment, followed by... Oh heck! anything would have been better than what they came up with at Universal 8 back then.
And if Universal 8 really wanted to release full-length features, who advised them to release HELL'S ANGELS, THE CONQUEROR, and SCRARFACE, instead of A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN, FRANKENSTEIN, and THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN? And did any one ever actually buy all (or any) of the chapters of PIRATE TREASURE?
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Panayotis A. Carayannis
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 969
From: Athens,Greece
Registered: Jul 2008
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posted April 28, 2014 02:08 AM
Remember,the time U8 released the features (pre-video),was the time all companies tried for "something new",(i.e. Niles,with the Sherlock Holmes features and the Benedict Bogeaus color adventures,Columbia with Bye Bye Birdie and On the Waterfront).U8 released the Howard Hughes features.I have Scarface and Hell's Angels in excellent copies.As for Pirate's Treasure,which I also have in its entirety,it was a "recently found,lost serial" and the quality is tops.It was also a special treatment with transparent plastic boxes with a different cover for each episode (different photo and exact running time),plus a booklet with the episode synopses.
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Changing the dialouge to remove the words of "your goin to look awfully scilly with that knife sticking up your your ass" to stickin in your ear is pretty much the hieght of feeble. I can only assume that Castle wanted to release it for nursery school audiences. 
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