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Topic: Amicus
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Hugh Thompson Scott
Film God
Posts: 3063
From: Gt. Clifton,Cumbria,England
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted May 03, 2012 04:49 PM
Hello Michael and Mark,the reason I carried this onto this Forum
was because twice I answered your questions and twice the
computer didn't transfer to topic,even telling me I hadn't logged
on,so enough was enough and here we are.
I'll answer Mark's question on why I don't think Derann released
"Dr Terror's House of Horrors", well a very fine article was written
in issue #13 of FFTC by Mr George Seaton entitled "Films of a
Monster Hunter" and in it he mentions various films and the
companies that released them,he mentions "Dr Terror" and
tells us it was hire only on s/8,but doesn't mention who did have
it.Now back in the 70's I had Derann's hire catalogues,and I've
never heard this film mentioned until Georges article,which
makes me think it was some smaller firm,and there were plenty
of them then,that had this title.For instance Macro movies had
a Cinemascope col full length std 8mm copy of "Black Zoo" that
they hired out complete with lens.The Rank Library had a s/8
"Legend of the Werewolf",Warners had loads of big name features like "Golden Voyage of Sinbad etc full length for hire,
so like I said,thats the only time I've known of it's existence on
S/8 and I've never heard Derek Simmonds mention it.
On to Michaels query on "City of the Dead".It's widely accepted
that this film was the first Amicus title,even though the firm
wasn't properly esablished until "Dr Terror",this was the first
collaboration of Rosenberg/Subotsky.As mentioned in Alan Bryce's book "AMICUS THE STUDIO THAT DRIPPED BLOOD"
I quote "Rosenberg sent Milton to England to oversee production,though onscreen producer credit went to Donald
Taylor to satisfy the British company who were putting up half the finance.The film was also billed to the company known as
Vulcan productions,though in every other respect it's really the
very first Amicus picture," In the issue #20 of "Little Shoppe of
Horrors"devoted a whole issue to Amicus which was in reality a
book by Phil Nutman and very interesting reading it makes
I quote"Although not credited as such,and with Subotsky forced to take an executive producer credit,Rosenberg is not credited at all-it is basically the first real Amicus production."
It's listed also in the Amicus Filmography at the end of the issue."Warlords of Atlantis",while not having Amicus' name on
the credits is every thing but name as it has all the names of
their personel John Dark,Kevin Connor,Alan Hume,Doug McClure
etc,even the last official Amicus prod."People That Time Forgot"
only Rosenbergs name and not Amicus.I would certainly
recommend this mag to you Michael and Mark if you like reading about this company I can't praise it too highly,the
infighting and underhand dealings in this firm make "Julius
Caesar" look like a game of cards.It's available from
www. littleshoppeofhorrors.com all back issues are in print and
the last one was a special on "The Fearless Vampire Killers" and
it's beautiful.Treat yourselves to a night in with a great mag.
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Adrian Winchester
Film God
Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted May 03, 2012 08:43 PM
If anyone can shed light on the following, please do.
Around the mid-1980s, when the Super 8 revival was taking off, at one Derann Open Day, Dave Worrall (who knew I was a fan of classic British horror) pointed out to me a new, full length sealed print of 'Dr Terrors House of Horrors' that they had for sale. I'm sure they only had one or two available and it was a flat print, despite it being a scope film. I also think it was on 400' reels (probably 5), despite Derann feature releases at the time being on 600' reels. Dave was very honest and warned that the print quality was below average, so I didn't consider buying it, despite the fact that it seemed unlikely that further prints would be available. I have no idea if it was imported from somewhere. If not, my guess was that Derann had been able to borrow a negative and had produced a couple of test prints, but had decided that the results were not good enough to produce larger quantities.
[ May 04, 2012, 05:35 AM: Message edited by: Adrian Winchester ]
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Adrian Winchester
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Hugh Thompson Scott
Film God
Posts: 3063
From: Gt. Clifton,Cumbria,England
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted May 04, 2012 03:43 AM
Adrian,that sounds like Derek,"king of the white box special" and
to be fair,I'm sure that quite a few releases were "put out quitely"
and thank God for it or some of our favourites might not be here.
Although I can't recall any for hire of "DrTerror" from Derann, it
may be that one of their copies was loaned out by a little company.Whatever,they're definately out there and it does back
up what Mark said,Derann might also have hired it out on the
quietThats another facet to this hobby,somewhere out there is a
copy of your favourite film full length.
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Hugh Thompson Scott
Film God
Posts: 3063
From: Gt. Clifton,Cumbria,England
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted May 04, 2012 07:41 AM
Adrian,you can take it from me, that the film you had in std 8mm
"City of the Dead" was a Derann print,and it was taken from a 16mm print,I was nearly successful in talking Derek out of his
copy,but let it go, as it did have sentimental value to him,It was
this film along with the full length "Psycho" that really launched
his company,being his first full length features for hire.
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Hugh Thompson Scott
Film God
Posts: 3063
From: Gt. Clifton,Cumbria,England
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted May 05, 2012 08:03 PM
Hello Mark,you're probably right with Denis Gifford's book,but in
his Pictorial History of Horror Films" he has a large listing in the back, giving titles that were available at the time on 8mm, he credits
Derann with the release of "Black Zoo"'Scope,which was done
by Macromovies who only had two copies of said film,Blood of
Draculas Castle" he says was Derann but was dist. by Mountain,
"Curse of Simba"he says is colour which it isn't,"Destination Inner
Space" he attributes to Derann,but again Mountain/Heritage.
I personally think "Dr Terror" could have been an import that Derann got cheap, on the understanding there probably wouldn't be anymore due to poor print quality.One of the prints
I have is Korda's "The Thief of Baghdad" in s/8 col/snd and I
have never come across another, probably a pirate copy.I know
that Derek would sell cheap any lab spoiled prints,but there
were always the top quality prints of the same title, and as we
all know, their prints were on the whole, excellent.That's why it strikes me as odd that there weren't any first rate prints for sale.
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