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Author Topic: Worst Print on Super 8
Christopher Quinn
Film Handler

Posts: 66
From: .
Registered: May 2007

- posted September 21, 2007 01:45 PM      Profile for Christopher Quinn   Email Christopher Quinn   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Inspired by the 'Best Print on Super 8' thread, I would be interested to know which are some of the worst quality prints you’ve come across on Super-8? Which prints should you avoid spending a lot of money on?

I know it can sometimes be tempting to buy a film you really love, just to have it on the format – but even in this case it would still be useful to know in advance if the print is not up to scratch, at least to curtail your disappointment.

Prints which have faded to pink are excluded of course!

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Bradford A Moore
Master Film Handler

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

- posted September 21, 2007 03:45 PM      Profile for Bradford A Moore     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Most Niles films. I have a Niles super 8 Cabinet Of Dr. Caligar and a Blackhawk one. The Niles is very washed out and The Blackhawk is very sharp and nice contrast. On the other hand though, I have a Niles print of M with Peter Lorre, which is very nice except the subtitles are hard to read being white on black. I have a Blackhawk super 8 print of Shadows, which lacks contrast. I just got a 8mm one, and I can't wait to see the difference between the two. Blackhawk was wierd that way. Some 8mm Blackhawk films are far better than there super 8 versions and vice versa. Good Example The super 8 Intolerance vs. 8mm. The super 8 is far brighter than the 8mm print, but the super 8 with sountrack is too fast. They should have recorded it at 18 frames instead of 24 frames like some Harold Lloyd films. Nice thread hope to hear more.

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

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From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

- posted September 21, 2007 09:13 PM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
By far the worst print I have is the Blackhawk railroad film "When Steam was King". It's a good thing they titled the different sections, because the trains are just black blobs and pretty much indistinguishable.

Every so often I watch this turkey and soon realize I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel (... again! Why don't I just toss it?!). Even as a 200 footer it's tough to watch it all the way through!

The sad part is it had to come from a company that made so much other stuff that was so good.

The worse part is I've talked to other collectors that also have this one, and it's not an isolated incident.

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Osi Osgood
Film God

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

- posted September 21, 2007 09:51 PM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Niles films "Of Human Bondage" (1934) was the worst print I have ever seen, feature wise.

Carnival's assorted 200ft. releases look like they went thru a meat grinder.

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

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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator

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From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

- posted September 21, 2007 11:03 PM      Profile for Douglas Meltzer   Email Douglas Meltzer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Many Atlas Films releases were very poor, but I think the worst prints in my collection are two sets of "Star Trek Bloopers" from Thunderbird. Granted, the source material must've stunk but I've never seen a grainier print.

Doug

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I think there's room for just one more film.....

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Graham Sinden
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1131
From: Kent, UK
Registered: Aug 2005

- posted September 22, 2007 05:40 AM      Profile for Graham Sinden   Email Graham Sinden   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I would nominate Waltons print of "laurel and hardys musical moments". I have seen two prints and they are diabolical. I would never show it to a 'non super 8 collectors' audience.

In general I never found any of Waltons prints that good when compared the the blackhawk equivalent, but I feel Walton served the super 8 market well with a lot of different films including train documentries. There was something for everyone with walton, and the boxes were nice.

Graham S

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Mark Todd
Film God

Posts: 3846
From: UK
Registered: Aug 2003

- posted September 22, 2007 08:19 AM      Profile for Mark Todd     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
A decent Walton County Hospital and Laughing Gravy beat the B, Hawks of those usually.
The early one stripe waltons have a few Belters among them but as you say there are plenty of stinkers around from them as well.
Best Mark.
I see a chap on ebay shops UK compares his minty 16mm Blackhawk copies to DVD and says they are as good or almost as good as the UK dvd set video projected.

PS worst std 8 silent I ever saw was a Perrys Wax Works origional silent feature. I bought a copy but then gave it away, just had to and no way I could have sold it on.Unbelievably bad and also washed out etc, and like watching fog.

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Gary Crawford
Jedi Master Film Handler

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

- posted September 22, 2007 08:43 AM      Profile for Gary Crawford     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Worst super 8 print I had was The Gorilla. It appeared to have been duped from a Canterbury dupe. the Canterbury print was ok...but this thing.,,,was unwatchable....looked like a bad xerox copy....black black blobs against bright washed out blobs. I finally got a decent 16mm print of it , but don't have the heart to foist that super 8 monstrosity off on anyone.

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

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From: Long Island, NY, USA
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- posted September 22, 2007 08:44 AM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
In another realm altogether:

Once when a friend organized her aunt's attic I found myself the recipient of her late uncle's stash of R8 porn.

Now, even setting the "plots" aside, this was some really BAD film. At one point the framing actually goes out for a couple of seconds and the frame line hangs mid-screen and then goes back to the bottom.

Grain?! Like a swarm of locusts!

I guess viewers of these weren't too big on quality!

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Osi Osgood
Film God

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From: Mountian Home, ID.
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- posted September 22, 2007 10:02 AM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I had forgotten to mention ... "Satan's Satellites", a Niles print of the feature version of the movie serial, "Zombies of the Stratosphere". It was horrible. There was a long night scene that takes place at night, when there was no picture, just completely black!! (at least a good 6 minutes of one reel,
) incredibly dupey!

Your right Doug, those Atlas film releases were a real scream, they were so bad, they were the "Plan 9 of Outer Space" of Super 8mm film prints ...

So incredibly bad ... and yet, you are sadly, perversely, drawn to the screen, screaming within ...

"I'm wasting a frickin lamp on this s**t?!"

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

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John Hourigan
Master Film Handler

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From: Colorado U.S.A.
Registered: Sep 2003

- posted September 22, 2007 11:07 AM      Profile for John Hourigan   Email John Hourigan       Edit/Delete Post 
Worst print on Super 8? -- Holy cow, there are so many that it would merit its own forum let alone its own thread. While I'm a big fan of collecting Super 8 films, I'm afraid there's been more bad/marginal prints (e.g., print quality; sound quality, etc.) than good ones.

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

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From: Long Island, NY, USA
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- posted September 22, 2007 11:43 AM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
It's the bad ones that make the good ones seem more special!

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Gary Crawford
Jedi Master Film Handler

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

- posted September 22, 2007 08:35 PM      Profile for Gary Crawford     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yes..osi, I forgot Satan's Satellites.....sound was nasty , too. Not as bad as the 'Gorilla...but just about. Even Universal 8 had a few bad ones. The Incredible Shrinking Woman...was out of focus..had bad color....grainy ....only ran that thing once. and i t's sa t on the shelve ever since I bought it......and that was when it was first released. ugh.
Also..yes..Carnival and Atlas films were horrid...but for kids like me, 1959 and 60,...they were a dollar less than Castle's and they offered titles unavailable elsewhere at that time.

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Patrick Walsh
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From: Christchurch, New Zealand
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- posted September 23, 2007 01:01 AM      Profile for Patrick Walsh   Email Patrick Walsh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
for me THE DIAMOND MERCENARIES released by Iver films on a 2x400ft version, poor focus and bad sound [Frown]
Pat

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"Raise The Titanic!", It would of been cheaper to lower the Atlantic!

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Stuart Fyvie
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: Amersham
Registered: Jun 2003

- posted September 23, 2007 03:59 AM      Profile for Stuart Fyvie   Email Stuart Fyvie   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I recall Columbias 400ft 'Guns of navarone' this resembled a tinted B&W image.
Absolutely dreadful.

Stuart

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Eric Baucher
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 143
From: MD
Registered: Apr 2007

- posted September 23, 2007 03:25 PM      Profile for Eric Baucher   Author's Homepage   Email Eric Baucher   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I know I might just have a bad copy, but my 200' sound copy of Castle films Frenzy, is supposed to be B&W, but it should say BW&LG (Bright White and Light Grey [Smile] ) I have seen washed out looking color prints, but this one is the only washed out B%W I have.

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Xavier Gascon
Film Handler

Posts: 48
From: Barcelona
Registered: Apr 2005

- posted September 23, 2007 04:18 PM      Profile for Xavier Gascon   Email Xavier Gascon   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Well to add a niles, I can said metropolis, with focus problems, definition problems...

I saw that people of this forum haven't buied italian prints [Wink]

An italian copy of raging bull, with sepia tone, but a lot of sepia...

Or Rocky III another italian print, excellent colors and definition, but with hundreds of splices and some scractches, but the seller said 'good condition'....

Best regards
Xavier

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Osi Osgood
Film God

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From: Mountian Home, ID.
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- posted September 23, 2007 08:13 PM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yay!! Dog pile on Italian prints!!

"and the winner for "Most "flecks" on the print" goes to
"The Rescuers" (Disney) which is almost unwatchable.

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

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Bill Brandenstein
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From: California
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- posted September 27, 2007 12:41 PM      Profile for Bill Brandenstein   Email Bill Brandenstein   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I don't know who distributed MGM titles, but the cartoon "Tale of Two Kitties" (now faded) looked like someone had used the negative to do housecleaning before the print was struck. Fat white specks galore!

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Lee Mannering
Film God

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

- posted September 28, 2007 04:06 AM      Profile for Lee Mannering     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hey Osi !
You cant go knocking The Rescuers matey. My son as a lad used to watch that forever and loved it. Now in his 20's we no longer watch it but fond memories.

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Tom Photiou
Film God

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From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003

- posted September 28, 2007 07:38 AM      Profile for Tom Photiou     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
i must have went thru about 6 copys of Jason and the argonauts part 4 the Golden fleece and to this day never got a good one, they were either crap sound or crap picture or both. Focus was too soft.
Anyone got a decent one they want to sell [Wink]

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Osi Osgood
Film God

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

- posted September 28, 2007 04:43 PM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hey Lee!

I'll knoeck that darn print as I have been spoiled by great prints from CHc and Derann (among others) and shoddy workmanship is still shoddy.

Don't get me wrong. We've watched it and enjoyed it somewhat, but when you have so many negative scratches plus
many assorted flecks, you attention is taken away from the film thereby taking away from your pleasure.

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

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Trevor Adams
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Posts: 763
From: Auckland,New Zealand
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- posted January 27, 2008 01:12 PM      Profile for Trevor Adams   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Gorga....but it could be the worst movie on any gauge!

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Trevor

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Brad Kimball
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1171
From: Highland Mills, NY USA
Registered: Jun 2003

- posted January 27, 2008 01:45 PM      Profile for Brad Kimball   Email Brad Kimball   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
All Color CASTLE/U-8 titles are crap! Not one has decent color anymore. Mine are all a nice magenta. NILES' "March Of The Wooden Soldiers" - Crap - can't see a damned thing. Ken's color stuff - crap - mine are all red except for "Crimson Cult" which still has some blues and greens, but the editing is awful and that narration - whoa - what the hell were they thinking?!

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Adrian Winchester
Film God

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From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004

- posted January 27, 2008 02:50 PM      Profile for Adrian Winchester     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
One of the worst must be an obscure 2x400' release of a Beatles concert - filmed in Japan I think. Many years ago at UK film collecting event, a dealer had a stack of new copies being sold off very cheap, so I decided to buy one. The prints were apparently so bad that the dealer tried - and succeeded - in talking me out of buying one!

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Adrian Winchester

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