8mm Forum: Castle/Universal 8 digests you wish they'd done

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Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on November 01, 2008, 03:27 PM:

Hope this is the right forum for this nonsense.

I never understood how these got left out in the cold:

THE MUMMY'S CURSE
THE MOLE PEOPLE
DRACULA'S DAUGHTER
SON OF DRACULA
THE MUMMY'S HAND
Frankenstein footage from HOUSE OF DRACULA
REVENGE OF THE CREATURE 400' 3-D
400' MAN MADE MONSTER
400' TARANTULA

Posted by Brad Kimball (Member # 5) on November 03, 2008, 08:50 AM:

What about "Dracula (Spanish Version)", "A&C Meet The Killer, Boris Karloff", "Time Of Their Lives (A&C)", "Charade", "Four Seasons (Alan Alda)", "Sweet Liberty (Alda)". And from the others... "30 Ft. Bride Of Candy Rock", "Stop, Look & Laugh", "3 Stooges Meet Hercules", "The Bishop's Wife", "A Christmas Carol (1938)", "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1932)", "A Day At The Races", "At The Circus". I could go on and on and on.

Posted by Charles Phelps (Member # 1341) on November 12, 2008, 07:31 AM:

Marshall,

I love nonsense like this!

Some more Castles that never were:
WEREWOLF OF LONDON
CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (come on, I know you want one of these) [Smile]

THE MAD GHOUL
MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS

A 400' of MAN MADE MONSTER would've been great as well as 400-footers for the rest of the CREATUREs.

As to why some titles were overlooked, Castle only produced horror/sci-fi/A&C Meets films for about a 19 year period, averaging about 2 new titles per year. Other titles may have been considered for future release but were cancelled when it became Universal-8 in 1976-77. In the Castle days, most average consumers would not have had magnetic sound projectors and with the bulk of their audiences buying the subtitled versions, the emphasis would be on films with lots of action (THE MUMMY'S GHOST of course is an exception). That's why the A&C titles are almost all slapstick with little of the verbal patter. Can you imagine a subtitled version of WHO'S ON FIRST or even worse, one with the old Castle Films silent movie styled title cards inserted? [Big Grin]

As for HOUSE OF DRAC's Frankenstein footage, there really isn't a lot there and the climax is basically recycled footage from GHOST. If they had still been making 50' Headline editions in 1976, they could've put out a DOOM OF FRANKENSTEIN or FRANKENSTEIN'S CURE that fans could edit into their other digests. [Smile]

For fun, I sometimes take movies that were never "digested" for 8mm and attempt to create my own edit in the digital realm. It is an interesting experience trying to decide what scenes to include in order to get a cohesive story. It is hard! Some films lend themselves well to this, and others do not. My hat goes off to the original Castle editors.

Here is a list of all 33 Castle/U-8s with a horror/sci-fi theme:

#-also in 50' headline version
$-also in 400' mag sound version from U-8

1957
IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE # $
CREATURE FROM THE LAGOON # $

1958
WAR OF THE PLANETS ("This Island Earth") # $

1959
A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN # $

1960
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN # $
BATTLE OF THE GIANTS ("One Million B.C.") #

1961
ONE MILLION B.C. #
A&C MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE # $

1963
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN # $
DRACULA # $

1964
TARANTULA #
THE MUMMY'S TOMB # $
THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US #

1965
THE DEADLY MANTIS #
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (apparently 2 different edits of this title were issued) # $
REVENGE OF THE CREATURE #

1966
DR. CYCLOPS # $

1967
HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN #

1968
DOOM OF DRACULA #
THE MUMMY'S GHOST # $

1969
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN $
MAN MADE MONSTER

1971
THE WOLFMAN $
THE "ORIGINAL" FRANKENSTEIN $
A&C MEET THE MUMMY $

1973
THE INVISIBLE MAN $

1976
THE TRIAL OF FRANKENSTEIN ("Ghost Of Frankenstein")
FRANKENSTEIN'S NEW BRAIN ("Ghost Of Frankenstein")
THE WOLFMAN'S CURE ("House Of Dracula")
HOUSE OF DRACULA
PSYCHO $
FRENZY $

197?
THE RAVEN (400' mag sound only) $

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on November 12, 2008, 11:14 AM:

Charles-

I definately agree about "Werewolf of London". That was one of my favorites. It would have made a good digest.

While we're on this topic, I had always wished that KEN FILMS had done some of thier classic stuff as sound (better yet, 400 foot) versions later.

Some titles that would have been good for sound/400 foot:

The Blob (and color)
Teenage Frankenstien
Teenage Werewolf
The Spider
The Day The Earth Stood Still (400 foot).

P.S.- I love non-sense like this too [Cool]

.

James.

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on November 12, 2008, 11:45 AM:

On that list of things to do is soundstripe Ken's older 200 footers (Return of Dracula, Monster that Challenged the World, War of the Colossal Beast, etc.) and lay down soundtracks!

Doug

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