8mm Forum: Who remembers Portland Films

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Posted by Barry Attwood (Member # 100) on November 09, 2005, 05:30 AM:

I was reading the U.S. collectors memories of the Peerless Willoughby store, and it got me thinking about Portland Films. They were situated in a tiny shop in Shaftesbury Avenue, which is right in the heart of London's West End, and whenever I went up there to see a film or something I always popped into the shop. It may have been small, but boy did it have some films in it, they were at times literally hanging from the rafters, and as the shop was open 7 days a week to very late at night, they sure did some trade. I think they were aligned with Mountain Films, as they always had special offers on them, but they stocked films from all the major dealers, and even imported some rarities (I remember seeing the range of ABC features like "Cabaret" etc. in that shop many months before anywhere else). I got many a bargain from that little shop, and I was wondering if any other forum members remember it.

Posted by Barry Johnson (Member # 84) on November 09, 2005, 05:36 AM:

I do!
Their outlet in London was a veritable goldmine for the collector.It was choked wall to wall,floor to ceiling with R8/S8 product.
Countless shorts,obscure features,edit-downs you name it they had it.Just to put things into perspective about oddities,I purchased a 600ft S8 film from them about Armand & Michaela Denis,the famous wildlife film makers of the fifties & sixties! What a gem!

Posted by Jonathan Sanders (Member # 478) on November 09, 2005, 11:57 AM:

I never got to the shop (living in Lancashire at the time) but I certainly remember their mail-outs as a teenager in the 1970s - huge thick bundles of miscellaneous sheets (often wrapped around a Mountain catalogue). Each sheet seemed to have a different brand name (Mountain, Portland, Heritage, Starline, etc.) which I suspect were really all the same. And everything was always half the (exorbitant) recommended retail price... I am thinking mainly of the early to mid-70s just before the real Super 8 boom.

Jonathan

Posted by Brian Hendel (Member # 61) on November 09, 2005, 03:51 PM:

I think I went to Portland Films back in 1978. I was 13 and my father took me on a special trip to London as a gift. I remember trying to hit ever film store in London. My memory is a small, narrow shop with glass wall display cases on either side. I remember buying the Mountain digest of King Kong on sale for about 8 pounds. I also remember all the camera shops in the Tube stations had racks with digests on them and I bought the Walton Twins of Evil 200 footer which became one of my favorite films in my collection. I also remember going to the front desk at the hotel and asking if Derann was nearby but when they told me it was hours away I was crushed.

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on November 10, 2005, 04:33 AM:

Portland Films moved further up Shaftesbury Avenue towards the end but the shop was almost identical. The last time I went in there was as it was closing down. Every 200ft was £1 and the 400footers went up as high as £4.

It was terribly sad to know they were going out of business but my brother and I came a away with a copy of every single title they had left.

The shop then turned into a cheapo video store and a few years later was gone altogether.

Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on November 10, 2005, 04:47 AM:

Barry, the first ever super 8 package movies I ever owned were from Portland's mail order.

They were a Christmas present from my parents when I was about 7 years old; they ordered a 200ft Disney and the 200ft B&W silent version of Star Wars. Star Wars was sold out so I got the 1950's sci-fi Earth vs. the Flying Saucers instead! To be honest I enjoyed that just as much, projecting a one foot wide picture on the white living room door!

Over the next couple of years I tried to order Star Wars many times, but it was always sold out. Portland always sent an "alternative title" which you could either keep or send back; needless to say I couldn't resist keeping it.

So due to Portland I steadily built up an unintentional collection of 1950's sci-fi / monsters movies!!!

Still have them today [Smile]

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on November 10, 2005, 06:20 AM:

Remember the shop well. It was the place to go for a good bargain and those difficult to find sci fi titles not to mention all the reg 8 porn on their shelves not that I collected the porn titles.
You could always bank on walking in the shop and coming out with a bargain or three. Working in the West end of London just off Tottenham Court Road meant that I could pop along during my lunch break.....bring back those days. [Smile]

Kev.

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on November 10, 2005, 06:38 PM:

I used to go there often in the last 3 years or so before it closed in 1986. It was on the north side of Shaftsbury Avenue, very close to Wardour Street, which was fitting (at least then). They had stacks of old Mountain releases, together with Derann product, etc. They also put out some 'Portland' releases in their latter years (eg 'Curse of the Cat People' full length) and they also re-released some Walton releases that they had negatives for. They also started selling second hand films in the last year or so. They even had some 16mm at times, such as Universal 8 releases, and (for some reason) a lot of 'Casper the Friendly Ghost' cartoons.

They twice had major sales, to clear out their Super 8 product, and then changed their minds and carried on! They also frequently changed around the interior of the shop, so you kept finding the counter in different places! I liked the way that you could have a night out and go in the shop AFTERWARDS, as they were open till 11pm!

An amazing fact that I found out chatting to a guy that worked there: the 200' b/w silent releases that they were selling for only £1 were not old stock. They had lots of b/w stock somewhere, and were still printing these silent items. The quality was not great but no one could complain at that price!

I was really sorry to see them go - it was a great advertisement for Super 8 to have a shop like that in the West End. I still have a national newspaper ad of theirs from about 1983 announcing a sale - almost certainly the last time Super 8 films were advertised in a UK newspaper!

Posted by Barry Attwood (Member # 100) on November 15, 2005, 09:11 AM:

It's amazing, you start talking about a company, and what turns up this morning, but a "Portland Films" release, none other than the "Astaire-Rogers" classic "Swingtime" in its very hard to find F/L print (7x400' original boxes). This was one of there last forays into releasing, if I remember right, it's a very good print to boot!

Posted by Colin Robert Hunt (Member # 433) on November 15, 2005, 02:37 PM:

Barry and forum members.
Yes Portland films 2 of my oldest friends used to work there. I used to sit in the shop many a night with them watching the collectors come in. Going back to about 1978 when the sound of music 400ft was released there was 2 versions the British print which was bad quality and the American version which was much better print quality and was a differant cut. Seems a joke now but Portland tried to sell off the British prints to get rid of them. They tried it on me but when challenged they managed to find the American version. The King and I was a fantastic print at the time now on viewing my copy has faded a bit. I think the price was around £27.00 a vast sum of money then. Towards the end when they finaly got rid of 8mm in favour of video I managed to get lots of prints at givaway prices and goinf through all the odd reels they had behind the counter managed to make up some feature films at rock bottom prices. In the heyday of super 8 they had a shop in New Oxford street as well. The prices of films were not cheap at Portland in the early days. Collectors club were more cheaper along with all the other 8mm dealers around at that time.

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