posted August 19, 2005 02:29 PM                    

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ALL GOOD THINGS must come to an end. When I began writing this column for Movie Maker back in September 1974, I had no idea what lay ahead! During the intervening 12 years I have seen the package movie industry positively thrive and boom, then be clobbered almost overnight by the video craze. The latter has ground to a halt and I am delighted that super 8 package movies have survived – if only on a reduced scale.

Prior to taking over this column, the movie scene was bleak indeed. I recall that my predecessor, Denis Gifford, had mostly 200ft extracts – often silent only – to review. The ‘Majors’ such as Fox and MGM could not be persuaded to take the 8mm market seriously – while Disney doggedly refused to add sound to their ludicrously ‘Silent Only’ releases.

This, needless to say, simply encouraged piracy. Cast your minds back to the days when a well known company who, when you became a ‘trusted’ customer, would regularly send you 200ft extracts ‘on approval’. These were Disney shorts or even the more sought after Tom & Jerrys which had not yet legally appeared on 8. The print quality was invariably very poor, but they were snapped up by collectors – even at the high charge of over £10. [Remember this was the early seventies].

Such was the scarcity of material that even Russian subjects were released on 8. I remember a most peculiar effort featuring garden insects in ‘Sovicolor’! Any rights that could be bought fairly cheaply were snapped up and put on 8. Heritage Films for example, released Plan 9 From Outer Space. Today it’s a highly sought after cult movie – but in the old standard 8 days it was considered inferior rubbish by collectors who yearned for Cagney and Garland! ‘Silent Only’ continued to be the order of the day as Ken Films released 200ft versions of CB. DeMille’s Ten Commandments and the classic War of the Worlds in B/W Silent – complete with superimposed sub titles! I recorded the sound from the latter from its TV transmission and then laboriously re-dubbed it on to my striped super 8 print; such was the frustration being experienced by collectors at that time.

Then in 1974 the break came at last; Ed Justin of Columbia decided to test the market, not with just a handful of releases – but a positive deluge! A total of over 50 new titles were offered; not crude 200ft clips, but well edited 400ft condensations! In addition the bulk were ‘mature’ ranging from On The Water Front to It happened One Night - together with the ‘actioners’ which had been the normal fare up to this point. These were full 400ft per reel and, generally, of super print quality. The editing was equally good, Columbia deciding t use the added narrators voice to bridge the gaps. This was fine in some cases – Mr Deeds Goes To Town for example, for example, where it was used in a very restrained manner – but abysmal in others such as You Were Never Lovelier where the voice rattled on relentlessly recounting every detail of the totally unnecessary plot.

This Columbia breakthrough was great news for American collectors – but what of England? Mountain films signed a deal with Columbia whereby they would distribute these marvellous titles here I England – but they would be printed over here. Columbia sent over a second generation master and the laboratories produced some very variable results. In addition, Mountain decided to shorten the 400ft to around 300ft in length – which did a lot for Columbias careful editing! Needless to say, as news spread among the collecting fraternity, the word went round – get hold of an original American print. This led to several companies – notably Regent films of Blackpool – importing American copies, to the annoyance of the English copyright holders.

My praise for the superiority of the American prints led to a rather petty response form several English distributors who tried to bring pressure to bear on me by refusing to supply me with review prints. At that time, however, there were many other distributors on the scene – with more enlightened views – and they continued to supply ample material for inclusion in the column. The renegades quickly recommenced submitting films – anxious to obtain the shop window benefits the column offered.

They eventually realised the only way to beat the competition from American prints was to improve the quality of English releases! The forerunner here was, of course, the Disney company. Having, at last, acceded to the enormous demand for sound releases, they produced one gem after another- all of truly outstanding print quality. I recall meeting their quality control man, Horace Bishop, who insisted that only the best was good enough for Disney – and the Disney muscle power forced the 8mm labs to pull their socks up. So much so that within a couple of years, the best were better than the American product.

The demand for package movies was growing rapidly and the American distributors farmed work out to less reputable labs. The unsatisfactory result being that would be good – and bad – prints on offer of the same title. Universals Thoroughly Modern Millie was a prime example; the initial prints were brilliant, but subsequent runs from other sources, lacked sparkle to say the least!

Back to film content; following the enormous success of the Columbia 400ft versions, Ken films were quick to follow with a large collection of Twentieth Century Fox titles headed by The Sound of Music and the French Connection. Universals 8mm department, originally known as Castle Films, underwent a dramatic change of image; a smart new Universal 8 logo and sturdy plastic cases were used to launch their new range, mostly very recent-for-the-time epics such as the Airport series although most British collectors still hankered for the classic movies, the majors tended to ignore this and preferred to pander to the German market, the largest in the world, which demanded bang-up-to-date action – preferably with liberal lashings of blood! 8mm had finally ‘arrived’ when Alien appeared on 8 before its cinema release here in England.

New titles were appearing weekly, but still no classic musicals or Flynns. MGM had consistently ignored the 8mm market until Bob Lane, head of Ken Films, finally negotiated a deal with them; the result - a whole series of splendid 400ft versions covering the best in musical fare, from Showboat to Singin’ In The Rain. Derek Simmonds of Derann then, of course clinched the deal for the Warner material and such gems as 42nd Street, The Maltese Falcon and Flynns The Adventures of Robin Hood all appeared on 8 at last.

In addition, the condensations were getting longer – often two or even more 400ft extracts from each title. A company new to 8mm, Iver Films, specialised in the 2 x 400ft format housed in smart ‘sandwich’ bookcases. It is worth mentioning here that package movies fully justified their name – for the reels of film were indeed, beautifully packaged. Gone were the cheap cardboard boxes with the pathetic illustrations, to be replaced with padded plastic cases, complete with stylish, full colour graphics. These were intended for a far wider market than the average mail order collector here in England; in Germany for example almost every camera shop carried large displays of package movies where an attractive presentation was all important. The keen collector, on the other hand immediately threw these away - especially on two and three parters – as he mounted the extracts on 600ft, 600ft or even 1200ft spools.

Walton films must take credit for launching ‘Scope on to the package field. For years the main distributors insisted that there was ‘no demand’ for ‘Scope editions of their releases. Tony Schapps of the Widescreen Centre, was convinced otherwise and he managed to persuade Gerald Good, head of Walton sales, to try just one 200ft extract in the wide format. The result was a one reeler from Hannie Caulder offering wall-to-wall Raquel Welch.

Walton were amazed a the response, with the result that more ‘Scope releases followed. But still the majors such as MGM dithered; enter the intriguing Dr Van Tetering of Holland. A very wealthy man – he reputedly made his fortune in perfume – he launched his Animex company almost as a hobby with the sole purpose of marketing his patented system of reducing full Cinema Scope to the Super 8 frame.

Normal lab methods meant that the top and bottom of the frame was lopped off, not so via the Doctors system. To compliment his innovation, he had to get hold of the best possible content; a deal with MGM followed and a superb 3 x 400ft ‘Scope edition of Ben Hur was released together with several ‘Scope Tom & Jerrys before his piece de resistance a full length print of 2001 A Space Odyssey. Strangely his interest in ‘Scope ended with the technicalities – he had no knowledge of film content and who made what. He regularly rang me from Holland for half hour chats and longer – his ‘phone bills must have been astronomical – to discuss what titles to release next.

I recall one occasion when he hoped to sign a deal for Paramount titles, he insited that he would put out Ten Commandments in ‘Scope – and was most deflated when I pointed out that it had not been made in that format! Sadly his company folded on the good Doctors’ death, but the MGM/UA ‘scope rights were taken up by Kempski of Germany whos company followed in the Doctors’ tradition of absolutely superb quality Widescreen prints. The magnificent musical West Side Story, complete was my personal favourite but he followed it with other splendid subjects such as Dr Zhivago and the more recent Poltergeist. ‘Scope has now taken off to such an extent on the home screen that some new titles are released only in that format - notably Superman II and The Sound of Music.

So what of the 8mm companies themselves over the years; they can, as a whole, be best described as ‘muddle headed’. Time after time they released on 8 titles that were doomed to failure; I knew it, the collectors certainly knew it – but still they persisted in this Kamikasi policy. The problem of course was that the majority of them were headed by gents – and ladies – who had no knowledge of, or interest in, the cinema. Typical was the glamorous Susan Turner who headed Universal 8. When I met her in New York back in 1979 and suggested that several readers had written to me regarding the possibility of some Deanna Durbin material appearing on 8; Ms Turners response – ‘Who the hell’s Deanna Durbin?’

It was not just the sometimes strange choice of titles – but also the totally insensitive way the material was handled. Walton for years insisted in lopping off the original title sequences and replacing them with their own unbelievably inept caption cards. Marketing films of Germany adopted the same ham-fisted technique and the stylish titles of War of the Worlds, Samson and Delilah and The Ten Commandments ended up on the cutting room floor.

I use the term ‘editor’ advisedly, for ‘butcher’ was more apt in many cases! So often you could see that it was just a case of rushing a film out in a nice flashy package – and to hell with the actual content! Then the video craze loomed on the horizon, these companies dropped 8mm overnight – even the oldest of them, Walton Films – and sunk everything into VHS tape. ‘Sunk’ being the operative word for they were all finished within a few short years. Even Derann plunged into video, but at least they hedged their bets by hanging onto their film masters and were once again able to woo the film collector when the tapes of ‘Stallone Starkers’ stopped selling.

And the mention of Derann brings us full circle; they were one of the very first 8mm distributors – and they are now virtually the last remaining on the scene. The odd release appears occasionally from other sources, but Derann now produce at least 90 percent of today’s output.

The theme towards feature-length prints seems set to dominate the future scene. Which keeps the wealthy collector happy – or does it? The desire to own a complete feature is a strong one – but the reality is somewhat different. I have several features in my collection – and can’t remember when I last ran one in its entirety! How often will owners of the complete Gone With The Wind ever screen it from beginning to end? I suspect the truth is that they will run the odd favourite reel for friends, but little more.

It’s much easier and cheaper for the distributors to release full features as there are no cutting copy costs and the like. But the definition to most collectors of a package movie is – ‘a film in a condensed form’; the highlights in half an hour or so, which allows several titles to be screened for friends in one evening.

Over the years I have met many, many collectors and have always appreciated their words of encouragement – and criticism. I’ve had letters from every corner of the world – and love of film is truly international. Thankyou all for your support and may your own collections of films give you endless hours of pleasure – there’s still nothing to compare with the power of a large projected image in a darkened ‘cinema’ – even giant flat screen TVs which are just around the corner will not be able to compare with West Side Story in wide, wide Cinemascope!

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Mike

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Auntie Em must have stopped wondering where I am by now...