8mm Forum: ken films

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Posted by Daniel Aveline (Member # 1714) on September 17, 2009, 04:22 PM:

i was wondeing how many full lenght feature did ken films release [Confused]

Posted by Patrick Walsh (Member # 637) on September 17, 2009, 05:28 PM:

Hi Daniel
I believe that Ken films put out 3x400ft versions of films but no features (I could be wrong)I have several 3x400fter that they put out towards the end of their life, THE TOWERING INFERNO, DRESSED TO KILL etc.
Someone will know if they did feature releases (some of their titles they had in digest form would of been great as a feature)
Patrick
[Smile]

Posted by Greg Marshall (Member # 1268) on September 17, 2009, 07:33 PM:

I have a non-Derann feature of Singin in the Rain... I was told Ken released this. Thoughts?

Posted by John Skujins (Member # 1515) on September 17, 2009, 08:25 PM:

According to one Ken Films mailing I saved, there were 10 "Full Length Features" and 23 "ABC Full Length Features" available. Singin in the Rain was one of them. I can post scans if you want.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 17, 2009, 08:45 PM:

They also released, if I'm not mistaken, "The African Queen" as a feature.

Posted by John Skujins (Member # 1515) on September 17, 2009, 09:01 PM:

"The African Queen" is not on the lists I have, but of course they could've sold it at another time. I'll scan my lists tomorrow and post them.

Actually the same envelope has MGM stuff mixed in with the Ken Films stuff, so I'm not sure if these lists of features are from Ken or MGM. It all came together originally in the same envelope.

There is a date of 1981 on one of the MGM inserts.

[ September 18, 2009, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: John Skujins ]

Posted by Paul Spinks (Member # 573) on September 17, 2009, 09:17 PM:

Ken films released a lot of Super 8 features which were nicely packaged in a plastic film box housing 6X400ft blue plio magic reels. Some of the titles that I remember are:
The French Connection
Von Ryans Express
2001 A Space Odyssey (Full Screen complete 8X400ft reels)
Ben Hur (Full Screen Abridged 8X400ft reels)
Casablanca
The Dirty Dozen

All of the ABC Super 8 releases were brought out by Ken films as well in a cardboard box on 5X400ft blue Plio Magic reels.

Posted by John Hourigan (Member # 111) on September 17, 2009, 10:48 PM:

John, that would be great if you could post scans. I was deep into film collecting in the 70s and early 80s, but I never recall seeing any marketing materials from Ken Films regarding their feature films. It was only recently that I even became aware that Ken did indeed release some features.

Posted by John Skujins (Member # 1515) on September 18, 2009, 08:47 AM:

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 18, 2009, 08:59 AM:

I might be wrong about "African Queen" being a Ken films release. It does have a "Viacom" title card at the end of the film, but that could be merely where the negative originated from.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on September 18, 2009, 11:29 AM:

That would be IVY

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on September 18, 2009, 01:52 PM:

Excuse my ignorance, but as Ken put out the ABC releases, I wondered who ABC were?

It is of course misleading that the ABC titles were called 'full length' as they were abridged to about 85mins, although I have not checked if any of these films were short enough to not need any cutting.

Posted by Mark Williams (Member # 794) on September 18, 2009, 02:12 PM:

Adrian,

ABC Pictures Corp were the unsuccessfull theatrical distribution arm of the major us television network ABC.

All of the colour features were abridged apart from TAKE THE MONEY & RUN which was issued complete due to its short running time of under 85 mins.

However there black & white features such as REBECCA,SPIRAL STAIRCASE etc were all issued complete and unabridged,the print quality was generally excellent.

Cheers MW

Posted by Daniel Aveline (Member # 1714) on September 18, 2009, 03:18 PM:

Thank You so much for these informations.I may be wrong but I believe that an american in paris was also released as full lenght by ken films.

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on September 19, 2009, 02:32 AM:

Daniel, it's on the scan. "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" was also released as an MGM-Ken boxed set.

Posted by John Skujins (Member # 1515) on September 19, 2009, 11:41 AM:

Jean-Marc, do you mean the 2-part (800-ft) version M30?

I've got a list of the Ken/MGM 2- and 3-part sets if anyone's interested. I could post them on monday. (I only have a scanner at work)

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on September 19, 2009, 03:50 PM:

Mark -

Thanks for the additional info. I wondered if REBECCA was definitely an ABC release as it wasn't in the scan posted above? It's a title that I'll look out for but I don't suppose it comes up very often.

Adrian

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on September 20, 2009, 02:25 AM:

John: No, the full feature.

Use the search engine of this forum, the lists for various companies have been published already.

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