8mm Forum: My Name is Nobody Universal 8 + Marketing

This is topic My Name is Nobody Universal 8 + Marketing in forum 8mm Print Reviews at 8mm Forum.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000088

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on April 13, 2006, 07:37 PM:

Following the fine example set by fellow members who reconstructed longer film digests using reels from different companies and countries, I decided to give this exercise a try with my recently acquired Goko 8008 editor.

Sure, I do have all 5 reels to splice « Star Wars » and both versions (Ken and Piccolo) to create a longer « Omen » digest, and I will roll up my sleeves someday to put these together, but I thought it would be fun to start with a film that hadn’t been much talked about on this forum.

Therefore, I chose « My Name is Nobody », a great Western produced by Sergio Leone, starring Henry Fonda and Terence Hill…

The available material is a 400ft cut-down from Universal 8 and a two-reeler (330ft + 250ft) from Marketing Film.
Even though both packages feature a lot of common scenes (in – sometimes - different orders), there are enough differences to squeeze a roughly 700ft version on a 600ft spool.

And, here’s how…

We start with the beginning of the first Marketing reel (let’s call it MF1) as it features some of the opening credits from the original film (Fonda/Beauregard observes Hill/Nobody’s strange fishing method) and we let it roll as Nobody is being given a bomb in a basket by a bunch of goons who want to get rid of Beauregard.

For the next scene (Nobody and Beauregard’s discussion in the cantina, with the former enumerating the later’s past actions as a killer while the bomb is ticking) we cut to the US reel (let’s call it U8). It is longer in this version and features the opening, with a young messenger asking for confirmation of Fonda’s booking on a ship that will leave America soon. Very useful hint of the actual ending, available on U8 but missing from Marketing.

The following sequence (the drinkink/sharp-shooting competition in the saloon) requires to make a difficult choice. The beginning is longer in U8 but, as it is the opening scene of the US reel, it features surimposed titles and credits. The ending is longer on the German reel and goes on with two subsequent scenes missing from U8. Not willing to create an overly splicy print, I picked the MF1 that includes the competition until the tiny glass is catched by the tall killer (a French actor named Marc Mazza), the slapping scene, the discussion at the card table between Nobody and the crimelord (played by Jean Martin another French actor).

We let MF1 roll until the end for the odd competition/association (spoof shoot-out in the middle of the street) between Beauregard and Nobody.

We cut right to the opening shot of the second Marketing reel (MF2), with Fonda noticing the cavalcade of the Wild Bunch. Following shots feature surimposed titles, therefore we jump to U8, which shows a longer, more dramatic, treatment of the arrival of the horsemen. As we see Fonda climbing the steps of a porch and a close-up of Hill, we cut back to MF2 for the loading of the dynamite in the horses’ saddlebags and the Wild Bunch galloping out of town.

We let MF2 continue with the carnival scene (where Hill knocks out some guys using a « slapping dummy »), the pool table sequence (with Nobody explaining to Beauregard how a single man can stand against 150 gangsters armed to the teeth), the final confrontation between Fonda and the crimelord, and the final discussion where Nobody convinces Beauregard to wipe the Wild Bunch out in order to be remembered in History books.

The last close-up of Hill, with a fading to the horsemen riding in the horizon and Fonda setting-up for the shooting are the last shots from MF2 to be used. The German reel continues with an edited version of the shoot-out and ends with Beauregard fleeing on the train driven by Nobody.

This is when the final part of U8 becomes very useful. The Wild Bunch scene is longer, features all the freeze-frame effects, Hill keeping the body count and the fleeing on the train. It continues with Nobody explaining to Beauregard how to « disappear », the duel in the street where Beauregard is « killed », and finishes with an edited version of the actual ending (Beauregard, in voice over, writing a letter to Nobody, while we see the later escaping members of the Wild Bunch on a pier. We zoom towards a porthole and we discover that Beauregard, in hiding, has finally caught his boat). We finally freeze frame on a close-up of Hill and have some short end credits.

Both the US and the German version are letterboxed (adapted scope), so transitions between shots are smoother than, for instance, in « The Omen », where you have to deal with a cropped Ken reel and a masked Piccolo one. Quality in colour varies. My U8 hasn’t really faded as opposed to my MF1 & 2 where a slight pink tint has appeared.

But, as Robert Aragon suggested in his Omen article, rerecording the sound really helps in blending these differences together. As the film was mostly shot in English, I used the region 2 dvd. Since it was originally recorded in mono, I transfered both stereo channels to the main track, which deliverss a booming result.

I am planning on recording the French-dubbed version on the balance track, as a tribute to the French speaking actors in the film and, also, in order to appeal to my non-English-speaking audience. Something I have successfully done in the past on other reels, and that proves, despite the small image and the tiny mag track, that super 8 can be both versatile and powerful.

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on April 13, 2006, 10:52 PM:

Excellent, Jean-Marc! I'm glad to see you're jumping in right away with the Goko. Next up for me is combining Derann's two part "Rollerball" digest with Marketing's German two reeler.
Doug

Posted by Jan Bister (Member # 332) on April 13, 2006, 11:15 PM:

Sounds like a lot of fun. [Smile]

Jean-Marc, just out of curiosity - where did you get your Goko RM-8008?

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on April 14, 2006, 02:55 AM:

Jan: found it on Ebay. Mint condition, for about $150.

I saved a lot of time in the editing process as I had previously redubbed the U8 into French and therefore, I had a digitized version of the 17 min. movie on my computer. So, the Marketing version was running on the Goko and the U8 version was running on my computer for faster comparison.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on April 14, 2006, 03:08 AM:

Jean-Marc, i do enjoy this film to, a good fun western and a good music score by the the brilliant Ennio Morriconne.
We are fortunate enough to own the 4x400 feature in scope of this film which is quite hard to come by these days. Although not the best quality print in out collection, the action and humour does take you away from some of the minor defects. Although there isnt a great deal of colour in this film throughout, the print has lasted well and has No colour fade. The end sequence with Fonda shooting the dynamite and the horses and riders being blown in the air is awesum in Scope. [Wink]

[ October 06, 2008, 07:47 AM: Message edited by: Tom Photiou ]

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on April 14, 2006, 06:15 AM:

Hey Tom, thank you for your input. I didn't know the film was available full-length/scope. It's not my favorite spaghetti western (Keoma is my favorite) but it's high up on the list. Kudos to U8 and Marketing for the adapted scope release.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on April 14, 2006, 08:05 AM:

the feature was an Iver films feature, i never knew there were any cutdowns of this film. Pity the "dollars" spagetti westerns were never released full length.

Posted by Andreas Eggeling (Member # 105) on April 15, 2006, 07:22 AM:

Part 1, marketing film order no. 821<br>
their 21st release<br>

Part 2, marketing film order no. 822<br>
their 22nd release <br>

Trivia: The title song was a top ten single for a few weeks in different european countries.

[ April 17, 2006, 04:48 PM: Message edited by: Andreas Eggeling ]

Posted by Jan Bister (Member # 332) on April 15, 2006, 10:37 AM:

Jean-Marc:

bugger! eBay, huh? I like to look for this Goko editor on eBay every now and then, being sure to show international listings and fixed-price (store) listings as well... but must've missed this one? Ahwell, I better have another go at fixing my Sankyo Stereo-800 instead. [Smile]

Anyway, don't mean to take this thread off-topic... back to re-editing digests. [Smile]

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 17, 2006, 11:29 AM:

I hate to be a party pooper, but it sounds like the feature edition is a cutdown of sorts, as "My name is Nobodys" running time is 110 minutes, (There are Italian prints of this that are 15 minutes longer than that, never seen them though.) So, if it's 4 X400 reels, it would only run about 80 minutes.

Still, I'd love to see it, especially if it had more of the slapstick out and more of just the essential story. I'd LOVE to see a review of it on the forum. (hint hint)

Posted by Paul Spinks (Member # 573) on April 21, 2006, 09:12 PM:

For anyone who may be interested, this film has just surfaced on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sergio-Leon-s-My-Name-Is-Nobody-4-X-400-Feature_W0QQitemZ9128614718QQcategoryZ1476QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Best wishes,
Paul.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on April 30, 2006, 02:53 PM:

Anyone on here get that one??

Posted by Jan Bister (Member # 332) on April 30, 2006, 05:08 PM:

Looking at the winning bidder's eBay ID, that would have to be Jean-Marc. [Wink]

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on April 30, 2006, 06:31 PM:

yup [Big Grin]

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on May 17, 2007, 09:28 AM:

I'm reviving this old thread as something really odd happened to me today... Yes, it is related to My Name is Nobody and to Super 8, but I didn't feel the urge of creating a different topic.

I was having lunch with a business partner and good friend in a small restaurant when an elegant lady and an impressive looking man came into the room.

I whispered to my friend: "Man, it's uncanny how this guy looks like the killer who's repeatedly slapped by Terence Hill in My Name is Nobody..."
"There's a good reason to that," answers my friend. And he waves to the couple. "HE IS the killer from My Name is Nobody!"

And it just so happens that this couple are good friends of my friend, and that the gentleman really is Marc Mazza, the italo-french actor from My Name is Nobody.

Needless to say that I was very impressed. We ended up having a drink all together and Mr Mazza told me loads of anecdotes about the film shooting.
It took three days to shoot the slapping scene and it took much more time for the pain to cool down, he recalled.

When I told him I had compiled several super 8 extract to reconstruct a digest of the film, Marc told me he had the ultimate version of the slapping scene:
His lady wife was on the set and she shot several cartridges of super 8 home movie. This particular scene being one of the few actually directed by Sergio Leone himself, this is a nice bit of film history.

I hope I can convince my friend to convince Mr Mazza to show me this reel one of these days...

Posted by Mark Williams (Member # 794) on May 17, 2007, 09:40 AM:

Wow!! thats quite a story,who could forget that guys face in a hurry!!

This is still one of my favourite spaghetti westerns and I remember running the Scope cut Iver 4 x 400ft print on many occaisons,I wish I had held onto it now but I think a friend of mine still has a copy.

Its a shame it didnt include the ending though.

Posted by Tony Stucchio (Member # 519) on October 05, 2008, 07:37 PM:

I have the U-8 digest of this, but it is beet red -- one of the worst cases of color fading I have ever seen. On top of that, the film goes in and out of focus in waves, yet there is nothing physically wrong with the print -- it has a tight wind and no warping. Even when it is "in-focus" it is not very sharp. Probably a lab defect -- I've never seen this before in a print.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 05, 2008, 09:41 PM:

Jean Marc ...

How does your print of "My Name is Nobody" (4X400) look? My scope print (I've aquired one a good while after this thread was originally written), has the slightest fade but it's almost non-existent.

Curiously, I wouldn't mind getting the Universal 8 400ft print of this, just to get that little end, as, (as you know), the 4X400
ends right after Fonda is picked up, just to have, even in a slightly abbreviated way, the actual ending.

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on October 06, 2008, 02:02 AM:

Osi, last time I looked, it was slightly shifted but OK.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on October 06, 2008, 07:50 AM:

Good story Jean-Marc, you'll have to get your friend to autograpgh your box. [Wink]

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2