8mm Forum: Universal 8 list of 400fters

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Topic: Universal 8 list of 400fters

David Kilderry
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 963
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Feb 2006

posted October 30, 2009 03:48 AM

Recently I have been sorting through some of my Super 8 digests and deciding what to keep and what to sell (to make room for more Derann, CHC and ebay purchases!).

I have come to the following conclusions:

4200 series - seem to suffer the worst from fade, some I have are almost black and white now!

4400 series - these boxing films have held up very well. A few of these that I bought new show very little fade at all.

7000 series - I have about 8 of these and all show some fade, but are still not too bad in most cases; nowhere near as bad as the 4200 series.

These observations may have to do with when they were produced, but certainly you could buy the 4200 and 4400 at the same time and they were still available when the 7000 were released in Australia.

Perhaps the 4200 series I have were old stock when I bought them around late 1970's early 1980's? Their colour was mostly good then however - although Sweet Charity was less than vivid from new.

The list of each series and their releases is above.

David

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Marshall Crist
Master Film Handler

Posts: 300
From: San Pedro, CA USA
Registered: Oct 2008

posted February 07, 2010 11:30 PM

Eberhard, I think the first 13 were 4001-4013 (see post #8 of this thread.) I remember my friend bought PSYCHO when it came out. First U8 400'er I laid eyes on.

Edit: Now that I think about it, I seem to recall DR. CYCLOPS, THIS ISLAND EARTH, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE coming out immediately as well, so maybe what seemed like the first batch to me was actually the first two groups.

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David Kilderry
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 963
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Feb 2006

posted March 01, 2010 04:44 AM

Do the missing 4200 series titles listed here mean they were never produced, or we just don't know what films they were?

I would have thought given the large collections worldwide by these forum members that we would have nailed down the blanks by now.

David

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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator

Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted March 01, 2010 05:40 PM

David,

I've added 4243 (400' version of Battlestar Galactica) and 4247 (400' version of Animal House).
I think we're practically finished. I believe U-8 reserved some of the 4200 numbers for proposed 400' titles that ended up being released only as 2x400s.

Doug

--------------------
I think there's room for just one more film.....

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David Kilderry
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 963
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Feb 2006

posted March 02, 2010 03:25 AM

Thanks Doug, I knew I saw a 400ft Battlestar years ago. I kept telling myself it must have been a pt 1 of 2.

David

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Carter Bradley
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 156
From: Greensboro, NC, USA
Registered: Dec 2007

posted February 03, 2018 01:41 PM

The 1978 catalog was actually printed and copyrighted in 1977, therefore I don't believe there was a 1977 catalog as such. The 1978 catalog even includes a statement announcing that Castle Films has now become Universal 8. In addition to 400 footers of previous Castle Films 200 editions (The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Invisible Man, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolfman, Dracula, Abbott & Costello in Society, Abbott & Costello Meet the Keystone Cops, Psycho, Frenzy, W.C.Fields' Its A Gift, Marx Brothers' Monkey Business, Dr. Cyclops, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3D), new 400 footers available for the first time were The Birds, The Day of the Jackal, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Airport, Sweet Charity, That Man Bolt, The Don Is Dead, Charley Varick, SSSSSSS, Jesus Christ Superstar, My Name is Nobody, Duel, The Great Waldo Pepper, The Eiger Sanction, Earthquake, This Island Earth, and Pirate Treasure (12 individual chapters). This is the only catalog Pirate Treasure appears in, since it was withdrawn the next year and does not appear in the 1979 catalog. It also seems that shortly before the 1978 catalog Universal 8 made the decision to discontinue their 50' headline edition line even though some artwork had been developed. This film box artwork appears on their 7 "Best Of" series which included 8 headline editions spliced together to form 400' silent editions of The Best of Horror (parts one and two), W.C.Fields, Woody Woodpecker (parts one and two), and Abbott & Costello (parts one and two). It is interesting to note that the Woody Woodpecker short "Buccaneer Woodpecker" was never available in Super 8 and does not appear in the 1976 catalog, so it is rare indeed to be included on the "Best of Woody Woodpecker" part one reel.

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Joe Caruso
Film God