8mm Forum: The Flight of the Phoenix

This is topic The Flight of the Phoenix in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 29, 2016, 12:34 AM:

Well folks, today I once again screened this print that I once owned back in the 1970s. I did sell it long ago and it did change hands a few times. It might seem strange but that print came back to me.."my name was still on the box" anyway it might be almost 40 years and the print has faded a wee bit, but its still pretty good. I thought I would try out Yvonne wee digital camera this afternoon to record a small part of the screening. It worked well so put it up on Vimeo....

https://vimeo.com/189410631

Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on October 29, 2016, 01:45 AM:

One of my favorite 400ft digests. A great film, I saw it when it came out. Tragically the great Paul Mantz was killed flying the "plane" during filming. The accident can be seen on the internet which puts the lie to the claim of pilot error. You can clearly see the rear half of the fuselage breaks off when he touches down on the sand causing the front half to flip over killing him instantly. Mantz's biography "Hollywood Pilot" is a great read.
Pretty incredible you ended up getting your film back after all the years!

Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on October 29, 2016, 03:54 AM:

I have that digest also. Mine isn't in very good condition. I hope to find a better one some day. I had never seen the film before I bought the digest. I eventually watched the entire movie on DVD.... It was so good. However, it's hard to forget that Paul Mantz was killed making this movie...very tragic. I use to fly little single engine planes in my youth and you never forget the inherent danger.

[ October 29, 2016, 01:36 PM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on October 29, 2016, 08:10 AM:

This a digest of a film i never owned but would love to get but i believe they are all but faded now. A very good film. [Wink]

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on October 29, 2016, 08:20 AM:

Graham your print is in good color condition. I bet it is on LPP. Would you check it for me please.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 29, 2016, 11:32 AM:

Good capture of that digest Graham (well, better than I can do, that's for sure). If he had it 40 years ago, then it would be before the age of L.P.P., but some of those either ...

A. Fuji
B. Eastman

... have been known to hold up fairly. I forget the specific number of eastman film stock, but it was a rather low number for eastman, before L.P.P. that has actually help it's color very well, (I think it was the stock used on a goodly number of those "Elvis" feature prints that have held up remarkably well).

But then, from what I have read, The eastman film stocks were kind of an "experimental" stock that they were always "tinkering about" with and so, here and there, they were producing some stocks that have held up very well, even though not "official" L.P.P. [Smile]

Posted by Del Phillipson (Member # 513) on October 29, 2016, 12:55 PM:

That looks a lovely print Graham, better than my last one. FOTP was the very first 400' colour digest I ever bought back in the days, absolutely love it, and I agree it's one of the best digests out there.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on October 29, 2016, 01:22 PM:

Nice upload Graham,
Lovely sharp print!!
You must borrow Yvonne's camera more often!

Great to see these video snippets from collectors screenings.
I love em!
Keep them coming please Graham. [Smile]

Here is one in return from one of my own recent screenings.
Pure Disney Magic. [Smile]

https://vimeo.com/189454740

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 29, 2016, 02:49 PM:

Brilliant Andrew [Cool]

Winbert I had a look, its Eastman all right, there is a diamond shape with a number looks like 20 on the edge of the film, also on the start of the leader it says Technicolor. I guess that's the original negative source. Funny thing, that I only noticed last night, was that I had written my old flat address on the white leader and that must have been around the 1977-78 mark...its now come home.

I think Osi is right, and although the print has some fade, its certainly no where as bad as some other prints I have in particular Universal 8.

By the way, its just only just been released on Blu-ray on "Region B". I got a copy sent out to NZ as we are also "Region B". Its very good also and worth getting, here are a couple of Blu-ray screen shots from the other night you might be interested it.....however I still have and always will have a soft spot for that Super8 digest.

Its also interesting to read on the internet about the war time experience of both actors James Stewart and Hardy Kruger, both on opposite sides of the fence, and how in real life Hardy Kruger as a teenager escaped from a American POW camp.

Anyway "The Flight of the Phoenix" has a brilliant all round cast.

Posted by Ken Finch (Member # 2768) on October 29, 2016, 03:09 PM:

Dare I mentioned, it is available on DVD if anyone has never seen it. Looks good on a big screen and excellent plot. Well worth watching.ken Finch.

Posted by John Capazzo (Member # 157) on October 30, 2016, 06:43 AM:

I love this film. I bough the digest in the early 90's and color was good then. Watched it last year and still had about 50%. First time I saw the feature was in late 70's on the then 4:30 movie. Had the laserdisc at one time.

Posted by Dave Groves (Member # 4685) on October 30, 2016, 08:01 AM:

For those in the U.K. this is actually being shown on Film 4 tomorrow (Monday 31st October) at 11a.m.

Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on November 01, 2016, 04:43 PM:

Graham the color in those Blu-Ray screen caps are gorgeous. Your revisiting the digest got me to do the same. I pulled out my copy again this morning since I hadn't watched it in awhile. Unfortunately it doesn't play well on my Elmo 1200HD. The Elmo is way to finicky about even slightly torn sprockets and tape repairs. So I ran it through my Yashica P810. It would lose the loop at the beginning sequence... but the rest ran flawless. So I took a closer look at the sprocket repair and decided to re-do it using my ciro splicer instead of the presstape. It worked. I also used a colored filter to reduce the red tones. Looks like my copy is back in business....Yah! [Smile]

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on November 01, 2016, 05:03 PM:

Great clip Graham but are Gs1200's really that noisy? I have 16mm projectors that would put that to shame!

Posted by David Guest (Member # 2791) on November 01, 2016, 05:37 PM:

I have a stunning colour print of this on ebay on 16mm

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 01, 2016, 11:19 PM:

That's fantastic Janice. I agree the Elmo projectors are a bit touchy regarding edge damage, they really don't like it. You could try "Armor-All Protectant Wipes" "Original" Paul Adsett suggested using them on a previous topic. I later tried them myself and they do work on jumpy films [Smile]

Terry when I played back that recording, I thought the same thing...."that sounds noisy"....but in fact the mike is amplifying it way to much. The projector is lot quieter than what's shown recorded I am pleased to say [Smile]

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on November 02, 2016, 12:46 AM:

Crickey, I thought just about everyone here would have witnessed a GS 1200 in run at one stage or another in their lives by this late stage. [Confused]

It was interesting seeing one of your letters in print yesterday Graham from a FFTC edition from way back when.
Right about the time B&TB was released.
You were singing Deranns praises regarding their service to a customer some 12000 miles away!

I was particularly amused at the part where you said you thought Super 8mm was dead until discovering them. I suppose we all did Graham back then until we discovered Derann.
This was in the early 90's btw. [Smile]

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 02, 2016, 02:59 AM:

Jeepers Andrew...that's going back a bit [Big Grin]

"Delighted Down Under" was the title and I certainly was, and still treasure those wonderful prints "Beauty and the Beast" was and still one of them.

Issue No 26 November 1993.

I still have all those FFTC magazines from about 1993 right through to the last issue. Keith Wilton film reviews were a must read, before spending my hard earned cash on any new release [Smile]

back then we never had a computer, regular news letters/FFTC mag all through the post, plus those late night long distance phone calls to Gary. It all seems so long ago now. I must sit down and read through some of those old issues...how times have changed.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on November 02, 2016, 03:04 AM:

I have nearly all myself but i dont think i have the very last one.

What number was that one Graham?

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 02, 2016, 03:13 AM:

Please correct me if I am wrong Andrew, but the last one I have is "Issue 75 Summer 2011"

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on November 02, 2016, 05:03 PM:

That sounds right thanks Graham. It's one I don't have yet anyhow.

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