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Author
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Topic: Filmtek's new double DVD release - Super 8 goes to the movies
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Barry Attwood
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1411
From: Enfield, U.K.
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted February 21, 2013 07:29 AM
I must admit I do like the style of all of Filmtek’s releases, as I think Keith Wilton has the magic touch of selecting and arranging items on his DVD’s that just works, and boy does his new release work here. We have 2 discs mastered in High Definition of what I like to call a “Pick N’ Mix” variety, as we have some classic trailers, adverts, cartoons and short subjects all lovingly transferred from there 8mm originals, in colour and the odd B/W too. Keith has also gone further than just a straightforward transfer, as he has stabilised some of the images digitally, and even colour corrected some films, now that’s dedication, and the results may leave you thinking how good Super 8 has been over the years. Not everything has been worked on though, as Keith states at the beginning of disc one that there are some very rare slightly faded titles he’s used, but hey when you see them, you can understand why he included them (trailers to ‘Blazing Saddles’ & ‘The Adventures of the Wilderness Family’ come to mind). I’m going to list a rundown of the contents of each disc, I may have missed a couple of items, but you’ll get the gist of things, and that’s what matters.
Disc One: 1 Hour 10 Minutes
Opens with a short behind the scenes look at the last B.F.C.C. in Ealing, we see Keith using a range of different gauge projectors, as well as John Clancy’s impressive HTI converted GS1200 being used for the 8mm shows, then after a few clips from different 8mm promo reels, Elmo, Eumig etc., we get down to the main content of the disc. We start with a colour corrected short on some 1970’s Chrysler cars, which feature the likes of the Imp, the Hunter and the Avenger (I’ve had these in Optical sound as well). Then it’s onto an animated advert for Galaxy Counters chocolates, then an advert for Long Life Beer, Sure deodorant, then a 1970’s advert for the Gillette Dry Look shaving cream (I don’t remember this one!). Then two more adverts for Tavern Beer(!) and Panatella Cigars respectively, and then onto a real cheesy 1950’s U.S. ad for Nestle Quik chocolate drink, here being promoted by singing cowboy Roy Rogers and wife Dale Evans, man is it corny to today’s standards, and in glorious B/W too. Still in B/W we go into two more B/W items, this time trailers to two serial epics (?) from Republic Pictures, the first is from 1939, “Zorro’s Fighting Legions” the second is a bit later, it’s called “Dan Daredevil Rides Again” and hails from 1951, both are full of the standard fights, chases, threats and a little bit of romance thrown in, I must admit I enjoy this kind of hokum, as it’s a reminder of the kind of fare our parents and grandparents enjoyed (or suffered) when they went to the cinema. We’re back to colour now with a slightly faded trailer for “The Adventures of the Wilderness Family”, which is now a rare find, it shows some great scenery, and fine shots of the animals that people went to the cinema to see from this movie. Next up is a double trailer to “The Naked Gun 33 1/3 : The Final Insult”, which still has me in fits nearly 20 years later, the original tease trailer where we follow a beautiful woman running towards a cliff top house, with the over the top narration, recommending this film as nothing more than a blockbuster in waiting, she gets to the door, when suddenly it opens, knocking flying over a cliff into shark infested waters, only to see the sight of ‘Captain Frank Drebin’ from Police Squad bending down picking up his pint of milk, with nothing else on his mind, is still one of the best sight gags ever, and it was all done just for this tease trailer, we then go onto the full trailer, where Drebin goes undercover in a Prison, then single handily wrecking the Academy Awards, is just brilliant, and the late great Leslie Neilsen is once again on top form as hapless Frank Drebin. A Rank Screen Advertising logo leads us into an animated Heineken Christmas advert, then we go into the first complete short on the disc. “This Mechanical Age” this is a B/W documentary short that comes from 1954 and is a Robert Youngson production on mans fascination with learning to fly, we see all kinds of weird and wonderful contraptions, from machines that emulate birds, to whacky things that you know are never going to get off the ground (literally and physically), and then we see up to date (for 1954) Jet fighters, but it’s the great commentary on these type of films that make them great, it’s that self mocking attitude that Robert Youngson brought to a lot of his documentaries that’s the winner. Still in B/W is the short “California Here I Come” which uses the Al Jolson song over many hilarious clips from the silent cinema, it’s very well edited and effective. The Pearl & Dean logo leads us back into colour for another range of classic adverts, the technically very clever advert for Misty Liqueur as we see many women’s faces blend into each other, then one for the boys, an advert for Gossard’s Wonder Bra (1970’s), McCain’s Beefeater Chips are up next, then an ad for Aero chocolate bars, then one of the famous Levi 501 Jeans ads with the music being as much the star (Don’t know much about history, Don’t know much about biology…) as the Jeans themselves. We see next Leslie Neilsen once again reprising his Police Squad role in a clever and amusing advert for Red Rock Cider, then a colourful advert for Southern Comfort.
Next up is another complete short, it’s “The Hero Cop, Yesterday and Tomorrow”, here we’re on the set of the 1973 Dirty Harry film “Magnum Force” starring Clint Eastwood, we see vintage material looking at cops from previous eras, plus some great behind the scenes footage as Dirty Harry cleans up the streets of criminals and undesirables of the community. Next is a Busby Berkeley inspired advert for “The Great American Soup”, perhaps Campbells, it’s never actually said, then it’s back with animals, as we see the famous P.G. Tip Chimps in the “Plumber” advert. Up next is a complete cartoon from Germany, called Der Schneeman (The Snowman) and was produced in 1944, it’s the story of a Snowman full of life in the Winter who longs for the Summertime, especially July, as he sees images of the month in a Calendar, so he puts himself on ice (he literally sits in a fridge) until July, where he comes alive again (or for the first time, really!), he dances through the fields of flowers and animals, thoroughly enjoying himself, until the inevitable, when the Sun and Snow & Ice don’t mix, and he melts away. It’s a lovely cartoon, not a great print, but to think that something as charming came out of Germany in 1944, at the height of the 2nd World War is amazing in itself. Back to the adverts, up next is the famous Heineken advert with the Cinema countdown needing some help to refresh the Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa Parts, other beers cannot reach, brilliant. We then have two adverts for Holsten Pils starring Griff Rhys Jones that are intercut with scenes from High Noon with Gary Cooper and a Horror film with Peter Cushing, these are inter cut with two adverts for John Smith Lager. Another technically difficult advert comes next, it’s for Smirnoff Vodka that shows an altered image of the person drinking it as the bottle passes them, some clever editing here. A rare animated HP Sauce ad animated in the saucy seaside postcard style comes next, then we get some adverts for Ice Cream from Walls and Lyons Maid (there’s even a Gerry Anderson puppet one as well), the disc is rounded off by another classic Levi 501 Jeans ad, this time Eddie Kidd is the lead, and the disc ends with an Intermission logo.
Disc Two: 1 Hour 6 Minutes
Disc two opens with the Cinema promo structured like an in-flight speech by a stewardess, with the usual No Smoking sign is lit, If the picture or sound is faulty tell the Captain (Projectionist), gift cards etc. are in the Foyer, coming attractions, in other words your normal cinema gaff, but this time with a Aeroplane theme. Then we go into three classic British Horror trailers after an Odeon Presents tag, of “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee), “The Revenge of Frankenstein” (Cushing again) and finally “The Mummy’s Shroud”. All 3 are great versions of the art of cutting trailers, they give you enough information on the stories, with promises of some horrifying moments of tension, all with gorily coloured titles and screen wipes, just brilliant altogether. Back to the ads, next up is one of the great Cadbury Smash adverts with the robots laughing at the way Earthlings still eat mashed potatoes, here a potato is shown to a baby Robot in his pram to make him laugh, classic, just classic. Frank Furter Hot Dogs and Lyons Maid Ice Cream are next, then a regional ad makes its way onto this disc, as a very large animated woman slowly peels off her clothes as a man with a laundry basket waits to collect her strewn clothes, we are then cut to a caption for a local Laundry service, not the best print ever used, but what a novelty.
Nick Kamen is the lead in the next Levi 501 Jeans advert, this is the one where he strips in a launderette, as everyone watches him. Lager has been good for adverts in general, and this next advert for Castlemaine XXXX is a classic, as an overflowing pick up full of Beer and one of the two men’s wife’s sitting at the back with the precious amber liquid, when they come to a rickety bridge, which collapses, leaving the car dangling precariously, the wife shouts out that if they lose some weight they should be all right, when the men look at each other, and one of the men says “She’s a good sport your missus”! Back to B/W and another serial from 1951, it’s called “Roar of the Iron Horse”, your standard good guys and bad guys with a few Red Indians thrown in for good measure, 15 episodes of rip roaring action (!). Mel Brooks is up next with his brilliant comedy set in the west (and W.B.’s film studios in the end) “Blazing Saddles”, it breaks all the rules of the westerns, and it’s at its funniest when it does, I think perhaps this was his finest film ever, with a great cast starring Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens (clearly loving his role), Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn and Mel Brooks himself, it’s a fine if stilted trailer, cut for a general audience so none of the innuendos or fruity dialogue left in this trailer, but it still shows some of the classic comedy moments, like the old girl being beaten up, she turns to the camera and says “have you ever seen such cruelty” then goes back to being pounded on.
“The Changing Face of the Western Hero” is a short documentary filmed on the set of the 1971 Gregory Peck western “Shoot Out”, Peck takes us through the history of the Westerns on film from the very early days with vintage footage of the likes of Tom Mix, William S. Hart, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Gary Cooper through to the era of the singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, then onto the more realistic western heroes played by the likes of Clint Eastwood. Brilliant if you’re a fan of westerns, like me.
Bugs Bunny’s 50th Anniversary is a short showing many fast moving clips from his animated adventures, with the likes of Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck & Wile E. Coyote all getting the Bugs treatment along the way. Back to B/W with another classic 1931 Harmon/Ising cartoon “You Don’t Know What Your Doin’!” starring “Piggy” (an early Porky Pig prototype) for their Merrie Melodies series (later W.B.’s) as we see animation with synchronised with the title song, it’s very early animation, but charming to a fault. Now to 1933, as we have a Flip the Frog cartoon “Soda Squirt” which is notable for the use of characterisations of famous movie stars of the day, we see animated versions of Laurel & Hardy, the (4) Marx Bros., Mae West etc. This is one of the best of the Flip series of early cartoons and is charming. Next up is a complete colour cartoon from 1934, “Jack Frost” was billed as being in Comi Color and follows the adventures of a baby Bear who runs away from home, as he thinks his thick fur coat will protect him from winter, but he soon finds he needs the help of Jack Frost to get home and all its comforts. Again not the greatest of colour prints, but considering the year it was made, it’s more than acceptable. “Verwitterte Melodie” (The Weathered Melody) is another charming animated effort that came out of Germany in 1943, the first couple of minutes is very ropey, as the master used was very poor, there looks like water damage that’s printed through, but it soon settles down, the colour can only be described as OK, but it’s another charming cartoon about a young Bee who flies through the fields, having fun along the way, he comes across an abandoned wind up record player, and when he flies over the record on the player, he finds that sounds are made as his sting goes across the record, and with a little practice, and help from his insect friends, he gets to play the record in full. Once heard all the wildlife around come out to play and boogie. Considering this was made at the height of WW2, this is an amazing effort, it’s charming and naive, but all the best for it, and the drawback of the dubious master is overcome by the action on screen.
Well that’s it, now for all the rest you need to know. It comes on 2 DVD’s, it’s mastered in Dolby Digital Mono (16X9), it has a high definition transfer, and there are plans for a NTSC release and even a Blu-ray edition is being considered by Keith.
What I like about these two DVD’s is the fact that it’s a handy reminder of what’s available on Super 8, and the quality is still pretty impressive even today. Don’t forget, all you see on these two DVD’s have been released on Super 8, and are still available on the 2nd hand lists, you’ve just got to root them out, and that’s half the fun, isn’t it.
The 2 Disc DVD is available from Filmtek at £15 inc. p&p (U.K. only, overseas please enquire), but Keith can only take cheques / P.O.’s or PayPal, so all other sales will be handled by myself at Independent 8, as I can take Credit & Debit card transactions.
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