8mm Forum: Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man

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Posted by Ray Faiola (Member # 758) on June 17, 2014, 07:28 AM:

Did Universal 8 ever release a 400ft. version of FMTWM? I had the Castle 200ft version and always wondered if U8 ever did an expanded release. I know they did the 200ft as U8. Of course, the gem of my 8mm collection was a four-reel version of FMTWM that included the Castle 200ft. and the four Atlas Films 200ft. segments. After cutting them together I striped the film with a Eumig sound striper and dubbed in the original soundtrack. This was long before I had even heard about video tape!

Anyway, I'd be curious to know what was in the U8 FMTWM if they did, in fact, release it.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on June 17, 2014, 07:55 AM:

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on June 17, 2014, 10:16 AM:

Joe's speechless [Wink]

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on June 18, 2014, 07:12 AM:

Ray,

Welcome back! I remember we talked about your sound striped Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man feature years ago.

U-8 did release a 400 footer. I'll have to watch it again to fully answer your question, however many collectors have spliced the opening graveyard scene of the 200' version to the longer digest.

As you can see from the artwork, U-8 mistakenly wrote Wolf Man as one word in the title.

Doug

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on June 18, 2014, 07:26 AM:

I'd be curious to hear about those Atlas reels...

Posted by Brad Kimball (Member # 5) on June 18, 2014, 05:16 PM:

I thought ATLAS only issued four silent 50' bootlegs of the 200' CASTLE cutdown. Did't know they issued longer sound versions. If so, I'm surprised UNIVERSAL wouldn't have taken legal action.

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on June 18, 2014, 07:54 PM:

Just picked up the 400' edit of this title. It's been a bit of a grail for me. And yes, I will edit it together with my 200'.

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on June 21, 2014, 02:15 AM:

Ha! The 400' print I purchased turned out to already have the footage from the 200' reel already spliced in.

Posted by Patrick Walsh (Member # 637) on June 21, 2014, 02:56 AM:

I got the Castle 16mm 400ft digest, is the super 8 digest a different edit?

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on June 21, 2014, 03:08 AM:

I have only seen the Super 8 versions.

I know you weren't necessarily asking me personally, but I didn't want to seem like I was ignoring you.

Posted by Brad Kimball (Member # 5) on March 28, 2017, 05:04 PM:

Great article about Ray in the Times Herald Record.

Posted by Carter Bradley (Member # 984) on March 28, 2017, 05:41 PM:

The combined 200' Castle and 400' U8 releases of FMTW is 525' feet, running approx. 26:15. I always thought the U8 edit was awfully sloppy. Like many other 400' monster releases by U8 it starts somewhere in the middle of the storyline leaving the viewer at a loss, then it drags on with lots of scenes of dialogue but little action. In fact, I compared it to the DVD to see if the editors had just started duplicating and 17 minutes later realized that it was time to wrap it up! To my surprise, it is actually edited, but boy are the choice of scenes lousy! Who really cares how many crates of electrical equipment are delivered to the castle ruins? We just want to see the monsters in action! Thank goodness the editors didn't seem to remember that Castle had released a 200' print, so we have that to add and actually have a storyline! Same with "Son of Frankenstein." The 200' Castle edit really starts the ball rolling when edited onto the U8 400' print.

Posted by Brad Kimball (Member # 5) on March 28, 2017, 09:00 PM:

Thank you, Carter. My summation of the U/8 400' classic monster and Abbott & Costello titles is that they took reel 3 of a 3-reel 16mm print - unwound the 1200' reel to the 800' mark and then just duped it from that point until the end. The only reason I keep them is purely sentimental. Brings me back to when I was in high school and would spend many a snow day watching digests on the wall in my bedroom. Castle was Class! U/8 is crap! All of it. Pure crap! The Castle editors must have been true lovers of the cinema. Such care was taken to deliver an outstanding 9 minutes of fun. They were probably all terminated and replaced with orangutans who didn't give a you-know-what about what they were doing and everything from that point on was just one shoddy mess over and over. Again, it's only for illogical sentimental reasons that I keep them and occasionally run them. I also show them to family and others who visit and will request I show one due to either curiosity about what a digest film print is and/or time constraints

Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on March 29, 2017, 04:39 AM:

Brad / Carter...I agree with you there regarding the U8 editors.
I was greatly disappointed with the A & C Meet Frankenstein
400 footer.

I sold it off but still have my Castle 200 footer and also
a complete 16mm copy of that one. I have the 16mm Castle version
too. The print is pin sharp for a cutdown and better than the
feature I have.

I also still have my Castle 200 footer of FMTWM and a 16mm
print of that too and a Feature. [Smile]

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on March 29, 2017, 09:59 AM:

The article about Ray Faiola that Brad mentioned along with an accompanying video can be found here.

Doug

Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on March 29, 2017, 10:23 AM:

Doug thanks for the link to that video. I really enjoyed it.

Sadly though Ray is correct 16mm / 35mm and even 8mm / 9.5mm
is indeed superfluous these days.

Never mind though we can all still choose to enjoy our collections and add to them and show them to our family and friends.
[Smile]

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on March 29, 2017, 10:38 AM:

David,

Many of the best things in life are superfluous!

Doug

Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on March 29, 2017, 11:24 AM:

Doug I agree.
That's one reason I still collect vinyl records and 78 rpms.
Add to that vintage comic books, magazines, laserdiscs and
of course films. [Smile]

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on March 29, 2017, 03:10 PM:

Faiola brings home the payola

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