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Topic: The Strange Case of ABC Films ...
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted February 24, 2009 07:40 PM
The ABC Films releases are a strange lot.
In every case, these 5X400ft releases easily fit onto a 4X400ft format, so why would they use 5X400ft? After all, wouldn't they have saved money with one less plastic reel used?
The only reason for 5X400ft, (in my opinion), was to make the buyer think that with 5X400ft, they were getting a full feature.
Most of the reels would have around 15 minutes and no more.
On the plus side, some of they're releases, (such as "Charly" (1968) that we just watched last night) have some of the sharpest mono soundtracks I have ever heard, even taking into account Derann's modern mono soundtracks.
Lastly, what were the ABC releases? Douglas?
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted February 24, 2009 09:25 PM
Yes Micheal (and good to hear from you!),
They were edited and depending upon the length of the original feature, they were either heavily edited or slightly edited.
Each feature it appeared was never more than 80 or so minutes.
However, as in the case of "Charly" the original film was only about 100 minutes, so there wasn't much of a loss, (actually, it wasn't bad at all!), buit in the case of, "The Last Valley" which ran, (I believe) 130 minutes, you lose a lot more.
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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
Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted February 24, 2009 10:51 PM
Osi,
Here's a thread about ABC from a couple years back.
Cabaret
Charly
Duel in the Sun
For the Love of Ivy
Junior Bonner
Killing of Sister George, The
Last Valley, The
Lovers and Other Strangers
Notorious
Paradine Case, The
Portarit of Jennie
Rebecca
Song of Norway
Spellbound
Spiral Staircase, The
Straw Dogs
Take the Money and Run
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Tom Sawyer
Too Late the Hero
Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?
Doug
[ February 25, 2009, 11:07 AM: Message edited by: Douglas Meltzer ]
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I think there's room for just one more film.....
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted February 25, 2009 04:17 PM
That was a good question, actually. The film "Charly" had some scenes on the last reel, that go from Black and White footage to color, but it was all placed on color film stock.
In the case of the other film, it was a largely black and white film with a few colored sequences, so that ones more doubtful.
The more I'm hearing on this specific post, it sounds as if ABC films got off they're 80 minute style and embraced releasing full unedited features.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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