Posts: 3468
From: Sunnyvale, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2011
posted September 25, 2018 12:49 AM
I just received an 800ft Super 8 reel I purchased off Ebay. It has all of the musical dance and singing scenes from Singin' in the Rain. It has shifted a bit in color...but with a blue filter it looks pretty good. It's not as sharp as my 16mm prints...but I'm thrilled to finally have this movie on film.
-------------------- Janice
"I'm having a very good day!" Richard Dreyfuss - Let It Ride (1989).
posted September 25, 2018 05:20 AM
Good ole MGM 2-parter. It looks good, Janice. Mine has unfortunately shited to red. It's hard to pick up one song as I think they're all great but I love the Broadway Melody segment.
Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003
posted September 25, 2018 06:43 AM
Hi Jean-Marc, I trust you meant shifted
Janice, that looks very good to me, ours also has good colour but our part one has a few black lines to the right, these are very good excerpts and i am glad that MGM released this as two reels of musical numbers rather than try and digest the full story. This way we get all the great numbers. Last year i managed to pick up an LPP print of part 6 of the full feature. Originally i was going edit it together to make a good longer version, but so far i have kept it as three separate reels.
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
posted September 25, 2018 08:31 AM
Dignity, Janice! -Always Dignity!
I have this too: two extract reels. Spliced together the songs are not in the correct order: for example "You Were Meant For Me" comes after "Singin' in the Rain".
Color: more than passable. Sharpness? -a little soft here and there.
We have the feature length DVD and probably project it twice a year: it doesn't keep us from enjoying the extract short too. Since it's less a time commitment we often watch it on the spur of the moment.
There's a live theater near where we live and we went to see "Singin' in the Rain" a few months ago. I have to give them a lot of credit: they pulled no punches when it came to that scene with the umbrella. They easily poured a hundred gallons of water on the stage! They kept the curtain up through the intermission: many, many stagehands with mops and then squeegees and shop-vacs!
It may be the first musical ever with the sign "The first five rows are a splash zone."!
-------------------- All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
posted September 25, 2018 09:19 AM
These MGM 2 X 400ft musicals are really great. I have Singin' in the Rain and also High Society which is equally excellent. Unfortunately they have faded, and Janice's print looks far better than mine, But I do have both of the Derann feature length prints of these films, which are superb quality on low fade stock.
-------------------- The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection, Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
Posts: 3468
From: Sunnyvale, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2011
posted September 25, 2018 11:17 AM
I like all the scenes where Gene Kelly and Donald O'Conner dance together...totally exciting and amazing!
Thanks guys for giving me some background on this print and glad to see how much you enjoy it also. Interesting that this was originally sold as 2-400 ft. reels The previous owner then edited them together. It runs for about 36 minutes. The print is faded, but still enough color so that the blue filter is very effective.
Like Steve mentioned the scenes are out of order. I was thinking of moving the "Dignity" scene up to the front like in the original movie. What do you think?..Have any of you switched the scenes around?...Is it worth the effort?
-------------------- Janice
"I'm having a very good day!" Richard Dreyfuss - Let It Ride (1989).
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
posted September 25, 2018 11:22 AM
That's interesting Janice:
Mine begins with "Dignity", but then again, I'm not the one who did the splicing!
What's unfair about a movie like this is comparing other things to it: for example the people who did "Singin'" on stage are great dancers (they WALK better than I dance!), but nobody else is on par with Gene Kelly (well...OK: Fred Astaire!)
-------------------- All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
posted September 26, 2018 08:32 AM
I projected mine last night and looked at it closely. It doesn't seem to be two 400 footers spliced, but actually a 600 footer and a 200 footer.
The sequence looks like this:
Theatrical opening Dignity Sequence Fit as a Fiddle Singin’ in the Rain Moses Good Morning Make ‘em Laugh Broadway Melody Cheesy looking “The End” title card (very non-theatrical)
Splice
You were meant for me You are my lucky star Theatrical ending.
-------------------- All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
Posts: 3468
From: Sunnyvale, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2011
posted September 26, 2018 11:51 AM
Thanks Steve for your scene list. Mine is a bit different. It's 2-400ft sections with one splice.
Professional short opening credits Singin' in the Rain (yellow raincoats and umbrellas) Fade to Good Mornin' Make 'Em Laugh Broadway Melody/Ballet
Splice
Digity / Fit as a Fiddle Singin' in the Rain Moses You were meant for me You are my Lucky Star (Kelly singing on the stage and then fading to Kelly and Reynolds in front of billboard) Professional "The End"
-------------------- Janice
"I'm having a very good day!" Richard Dreyfuss - Let It Ride (1989).