8mm Forum: Holy Grail of Super 8?

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Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on January 17, 2004, 03:02 PM:

In various fields of collecting there are acknowledged rarities that are craved, desired, and yearned for. Is this true for the Super 8mm world? What is that rare print that is known to exist but is never found on eBay or sale lists? That seldom seen Lon Chaney feature? The complete "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" that only had a run of ten prints before the negative was destroyed? A decent copy of "Casablanca"? That full length scope/stereo version of "The Rose"?
Doug

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on January 17, 2004, 06:04 PM:

You did mention The Rose.

Close Encounters dime a dozen!!!! Mind you Derek kept saying he only released 10-12 before the negatives got lifted. Mind you counting prints released was not his strong point.

We have two prints in old Northern Ireland alone.

On a Spielberg rarity front ET and Jaws have not shown up full feature on 8 on ebay. For the record Jaws is quite nice ET prints all suck.

True Grit full feature has never shown up. Marketing Films
did apparently release it feature length in USA.

Certain James Bond features are on scarce supply. You only live twice and Diamonds are Forever. It they did surface likely to be
optical.

Another rarity is The Searchers I have only viewed one copy
taken from a 16mm neg by a certain departed dealer (not Derek
he hated The Duke/Westerns). It again is nice ( a bit of care was taken here) but not up to remastered DVD quality

Oops, [Eek!]

Wash my mouth out with soap time again!!

Bye for now if you want me just say Rose bud (subtle hint selling on ebay now.)

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on January 18, 2004, 11:51 AM:

For rarities, I can only speak of shorts - The partially-restored/scored BATTLE OF THE CENTURY (Released by Blackhawk in 1982) - Contains the fight sequence, and a surprise extra in the crowds being Lou Costello; One of his first movie appearances - I had a copy, sold it, beenanguishing these twenty-odd years because it's been offered, then someone EBAY-ed me out of it - Another scarce find is the first TALKIE (1929) of Laurel & Hardy "Unaccustonmed As We Are" (Blackhawk, who else), and some of the RKO Edgar Kennedy/Leon Errol shorts put out by Red Fox, Morcraft, Walton, Mountain - Shorty

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on January 19, 2004, 05:36 AM:

Do the new prints of ET from Germany "suck" then? Or has no one seen one yet? I would expect these new prints to be pretty good.

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on January 19, 2004, 01:07 PM:

ET prints that I am aware of originated from USA 1985-1990.

The prints tended to be soft and the negative they originated had been damaged.

I am not aware of German ET print althrough Jurassic Park
came from there.

Posted by D'Arcy More (Member # 50) on January 19, 2004, 02:24 PM:

I'm told feature length prints of Jason and The Argonauts were done in a limited run. I have one and didn't know this until I bought one second hand. The Old Dark House with Karloff is another. I'm still seeking that print from Enrique Bouchard of The Penalty with Lon Chaney......he advertised prints of this in Steve Osbornes Coming Attractions many moons ago. To me the most rare print out there seems to be Spider Woman with Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes.......man I can't seem to find one anywhere although it was released by the dozens. Invisible Man in standard 8mm sound full length is another that eludes me. A pal of mine has one but I have never seen one for sale. The Val Lewton feature The Ghost Ship is another toughie and my print is so scratchy it looks like it's raining on deck! Nostalgia Merchant print of The Cat People and Curse of The Cat People seem to be tough as well. I have the first film but not the second. I am told also (and this is true as I know a chap who had a print) The Hound Of The Baskervilles was also available full length Standard 8mm sound at one point. D'Arcy

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on January 19, 2004, 03:04 PM:

Those 8mm prints from the 80's of ET weren't even from a negative. They were clearly bootlegged from a very badly beaten 35mm print that ran in theaters. You could even see the characteristic 35mm splices at the reel changes as well as the printed in 35mm cue marks.

For any of you who has one of these though, get out your videotape of the movie and watch the last scene that has no dialogue, but is cutting in between the various characters on screen (ending in Elliott). During that scene you will see early anti-piracy measures. Just run the video in sync against the print. It suddenly becomes painfully obvious. [Big Grin]

(I'm kicking myself for not videotaping that last minute off of the screen before I sold my print. If anyone out there has an 8mm print and a videocamera, I would love a tape shot off of the screen of that last 60 seconds...flicker and all, I don't care.)

Posted by Alan Rik (Member # 73) on January 19, 2004, 05:22 PM:

I missed out on a Full Length Enter the Dragon in Scope/Stereo German print! I hesitated too long and missed it. The same guy had a copy of Return of the Dragon and Chinese connection. I only got Game of Death. And it is still a breakdown but GREAT quality. Their is only one scene that isn't sharp. The rest is great.
I sure would love the Muppet Movie. Does anyone know if that is available in Super 8 feature or in 16mm?

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on January 20, 2004, 02:22 AM:

Well ET has been done recently so expect the prints of that to be pretty good. I saw one of the previous efforts and it wasn't worth having.

Derann printed Jason and the Argonauts for a while before the negative was written off. The 400ft extract they produced "Battle With Talos" is very good quality. Sumptuous colour and sharp. If you see one snap it up but make sure it's not one of the average 200ft extracts put out by another distributor many years previously. Sadly the feature was not as good quality overall as the extract. But then you can't have everything.

Agnello Guarracino managed to get the 'Scope "Enter the Dragon" (probably the copy to which you refer as the same seller also had a load of other Kung Fu movies). We believe it originated from South Africa. I think Keith Wilton came up with that as the possible source.

Posted by Alan Rik (Member # 73) on January 20, 2004, 08:15 AM:

South Africa? That sounds strange! I never knew they had a Super 8 Scene there. Or do they?

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on January 20, 2004, 09:53 AM:

They probably don't any longer. The quality of Enter The Dragon was not exactly up to modern standards. The sort of washed out imagery we generally got late 70's/early 80's (with a few exceptions).

Posted by Sonny Young (Member # 124) on January 20, 2004, 02:46 PM:

I noticed mention of standard 8 sound features. Why would anyone want a standard 8 sound feature? The image is so small and registration poor.

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on January 20, 2004, 02:55 PM:

I have a 3x600' slightly abridged version of Jason and the Argonauts. The contest to join Jason, some of the Mt. Olympus banter and the appearance of Triton(!) are missing. The skin tones are a bit on the pale side but the blues are very vivid.
Doug

Posted by D'Arcy More (Member # 50) on January 20, 2004, 03:01 PM:

Sonny: My standard 8 sound features fill up my 4 X 6 foot screen just fine. I will agree that the quality on some is not the best but when I can't get the title in Super 8 full length, Standard 8mm sound is the next best thing. I have a full length Standard 8 sound print of The Black Cat with Karloff and Lugosi and if I had a choice between having it on standard 8 sound or not at all......I choose the standard 8 sound. [Smile]

Posted by Xander van der Merwe (Member # 125) on January 21, 2004, 03:26 PM:

Originating from South Africa myself, I'll say that super 8 was relatively big over there. I'm basing this assumption on the fact that a lot of people from there that I speak to seem to either have some old super 8 stuff in storage or know of someone that does. And I had my super 8 stuff as a kid in the 70s of course. Not sure these days, but suspect there would still be some around...

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