8mm Forum: What was your first film?

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Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on October 14, 2008, 03:38 PM:

I guess the title says it all...
Members of this forum, over the years, have all shared memories of early films, owned as a kid or as a newbie collector.
I thought it would be fun to start a thread about the very first film that ever entered your movie buff home. And I do mean film, ie- acetate or polyester on a spool (not a toy cartridge or a card).

Mine was a standard 8 50ft silent b&w extract (or digest) from a Flintstones episode. I remember Fred trying to borrow a ladder from Barney (or was it the other way around...)
That film is still with me. The projector (Kodak Brownie 8) isn't...

So, what about you?

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 14, 2008, 03:50 PM:

Technically my first film was 16mm. When I was seven, my grandparents moved to Florida. They cleared out their attic and there was a 16mm toy projector and a couple of 200 ft. reels of B&W silent Disney cartoons which belonged to my Dad as a boy. Unfortunately it didn't hold up too long after something close to 30 years of storage and didn't survive.

-a couple of years ago my sister spied a similar looking 8mm Keystone projector on E-bay and bought it for me as a reminder of that old machine and the fun we had with it.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on October 14, 2008, 04:36 PM:

200ft Castle Films SON OF FRANKENSTEIN on Super 8. Still have it even though I have no way of projecting it anymore.

Also 200ft DIN AT DINNER - a L&H silent short. Don't know who the distributor was.

-Mike

Posted by Joe Taffis (Member # 4) on October 14, 2008, 05:27 PM:

I had a choice from the regular 8mm silent films on the twirling stand in a local camera store...super 8 wasn't here yet. My projector had a 50' reel capacity [Eek!]

so I chose KEN's I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN over Castles' THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US because the box was bigger, so I thought the film was longer! [Big Grin]

J.M., at that time I was about a year or two away from my 200' reel Kodak Brownie 8, bought used in a local shop [Smile]

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on October 14, 2008, 06:26 PM:

Was just thinking about this. I used to stare longingly at the Super 8 reels under the glass counter at Two Guys. Where I finally got the eight bucks, I don't remember, but the film was the 200' reel of REVENGE OF THE CREATURE. I LOVED it. Wound up eventually getting pretty much every Castle (and many Ken) horror digests.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 14, 2008, 06:26 PM:

Okay to go back to what was REALLY my first film ...

It was a Kenner STAR WARS hand cranked movie viewer! It had five cartidges with all kinds of neat scenes!

First reel to reel films? I got both on the same day, along with an old used film viewer :

Gruesome Twosome (Tweety) 50ft B/W standard 8mm silent

Battle in Outer Space 50ft B/W standard 8mm silent

COOL!!!

Posted by Mike Tynus (Member # 1108) on October 14, 2008, 07:00 PM:

My first film was a standard 8mm sound print of the Castle Film RUDOLPH VALENTINO: IDOL OF THE JAZZ AGE. My Grandfather got the film free with his Sears/B&H Sound Standard 8mm projector (they must have been out of HAVE BADGE, WILL CHASE).

By the time I got the film and machine in the early 70's, you could only get standard 8 silent films at the stores, so for a while this was my only sound film. My first film with dialogue was TIT FOR TAT (used print from Blackhawk), and I was in awe experiencing the wonderment of synchronized sound coming out of that machine.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on October 14, 2008, 07:24 PM:

I can't remember THE first I had my hands on or laid eyes to. Earliest one I bought or traded was CALIFORNIA BOUND, Super 8 Silent, loved the box and was excited to get more and read all the writing/information on them - Next I know as THE MUMMY, also 200' S8 - It evolved from that and Two Guys, et al. - Shorty

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 14, 2008, 07:48 PM:

I had that 200ft "The Mummy" and I always thought it was well edited, love that decomposing scene at the end! Cool!

Which reminds me, my first 200ft was "The Deadly Mantis". Back then, I didn't realize that these were condensed films and I thought I had a whole film print of the film. Then I saw it on TV and it was like, "Gosh I missed out on so much." But I thought that giant Mantis was pretty cool!

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on October 14, 2008, 09:55 PM:

This is the one that started it all. Atlas Films, Standard 8mm, 200 ft. Totally different from the Castle Films release.

Doug

Posted by Dan Lail (Member # 18) on October 14, 2008, 10:26 PM:

Home Town Hero with Ben Turpin. A 200' Blackhawk std 8mm silent. [Smile]

It was a Christmas gift when I was 12. I'm still 12. [Eek!]

Posted by John W. Black (Member # 1082) on October 14, 2008, 11:40 PM:

A Blackhawk print of Two Tars was given to me.My first purchase was a horrible Atlas print titled the Best of Chaplin which I purchased at E.J. Korvettes.

Posted by Jose Artiles (Member # 471) on October 15, 2008, 01:21 AM:

Mine was a christmas gift from my mom, i was 11 years old and i was crazy (im still jej eje ) about to have a super 8 projector and show films to my friends and to the church comunity(something that i still do in the same church) so mom buy me two full feature wich start it all,the film was "walking tall (1973)" full feature and "Karakatoa ,east of Java" and a Eumig 800...i still have both,lucky for me the films are on fuji stock,Mom always says that the films in 1981 was really expensive and she has to pay the films by credit during one year! [Eek!]

i´ll never can pay her what happy make me feel in that year!! [Razz]

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 15, 2008, 09:08 AM:

"Walking Tall". shown to a church group? I thought that was a rather violent film? (hee hee) [Razz]

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on October 15, 2008, 10:40 AM:

It was 1973 when a trip to the local K-Mart yielded two reels to feed to our new B&H movie projector - the Disney cartoon "Clock Cleaners," and Little Roquefort & Percy in "The Haunted Cat." Both were on 200' reels, B&W, silent. We enjoyed those over and over until our first Kodachrome roll was returned in the mail. Then we enjoyed all three. Then we got more and did more. And so it goes.

Seems like those reels were priced around $7.95 back then, and color (which my parents wouldn't pay for, and didn't use credit) was around $16. Sound? $25?

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 15, 2008, 10:51 AM:

I remember back when I got my first K-40 back (first 15 feet black). I had one 200 foot Railroad film and that errr..."35 footer".

-Suffice it to say the show was a little thin back at that point!

What a big deal it was when I finally exceeded an hour of screen time!

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 67) on October 15, 2008, 03:15 PM:

Like you, Joe, i had a hand cranked projector , Standard 8mm, with 50 foot capacity. My first two purchases on the night we bought the projector were...Have Badge will Chase and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Posted by Trevor Adams (Member # 42) on October 15, 2008, 03:49 PM:

A 60ft 9.5mm film about Spitfires-it came with my Pathescope ACE. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Jose Artiles (Member # 471) on October 15, 2008, 04:02 PM:

"Walking Tall". shown to a church group? I thought that was a rather violent film? (hee hee)

ajajajaja Osi, the movie i show was "krakatoa,East of Java",can you imagine the faces of all the comunity if i show walking tall?? ajajajaj specially with all that semi-naked women jajajajaj [Razz]

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 15, 2008, 05:59 PM:

What was that? Semi naked women? and I missed out on that optical super 8 print at Derann a few weeks ago? BLIMEY!!

Actually, that would have been an interesting print on optical sound super 8mm, as they do tend to censor the Super 8 opticals (as they never knew if children would be seeing the film) and while you will occasionally run into cursing on a Super 8 optical print, you don't tend to run into nudity, partial or otherwise.

If the person who bought "walking Tall" optical sound feature print, is a member of this forum, can you verify on this?

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 15, 2008, 11:22 PM:

I think it was either the Walton 200 footer of Laurel and Hardy "No Flys On Us" or "Hog Wild" around 1975-76.

Graham. [Smile]

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on November 09, 2008, 01:57 PM:

It must have been in 1960 that I was pestering my dad to buy me a " home cinema" (that meant a projector and films in those days). He relented and bought me a MeOpta Optilux machine and: OEIL POUR OEIL (Big Business) in two reels,LES CLOCHES DE CAPISTRANO,one reel, from the old Kit Carson tv series, and three 50 footers: CHARLOT ET LE MAGOT (The Floorwalker),CHARLOT SOIGNE SON FOIE (The Cure),CHARLOT ET LE BEC DE GAZ (Easy Street).All superb Film Office copies which I still have.

Posted by Brad Kimball (Member # 5) on November 10, 2008, 09:02 AM:

My first were also bought off a black spinner rack back in 1970. My mother took me into a ZAYRES (a Boston area K-Mart type store) and I was able to pick out five 50'ers and a new Standard-8 Keystone K-104 with a daytime viewer attachment. The titles were "Dr. Painless", "Dr. Cyclops", "Badmen Of Arizona", "Son Of Frankenstein" and "Ride 'Em Cowboy". "Cowboy" for some reason always lost the loop in the projector and I spent the entire 3 minutes turning the machine on-and-off in attempts to stop it from jumping. Never figured out why it was only during "Cowboy" that it would occur. I guess the unit didn't like the taste of Abbott & Costello celluloid. My dad discarded the boxes and spliced all 5 titles onto a metal 400' reel so I could watch them all without reel changes. I'd watch the reel while eating breakfast in the dining room every morning before school. BOY O'H BOY - Those were the days!!!!!

DOUG**** Is the footage different on the ATLAS "Frank. Meets Wolfman" than on the Castle version? When did Castle give Atlas the rights? Weird......

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on November 10, 2008, 09:34 AM:

Brad,

Atlas actually put out a few different titles with footage from "Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman". That first film starts with Larry Talbot waking up in the castle ruins (In the feature, this comes after the mob chases the Wolfman and he falls through a hole in the ground) and finds the monster encased in ice. He digs him out and they look for the doctor's journals. Talbot then seeks out Frankenstein's daughter. He's invited to join that evening's festivities. The monster shows up that night and Talbot whisks him away in a horse drawn cart.
There are at least two other 200' excerpts (and numerous 50' versions) from Atlas that include the beginning grave robbing scene and the climactic battle. I'm sure Atlas did not obtain rights from Universal. The grainy prints look like they were taken from a 16mm positive and they include Atlas' amateurish but charming homemade titles. It got me hooked!

Doug

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 10, 2008, 09:55 AM:

Good heavens, Doug,

If you combined all those excerpts, you could have had about a, what, 40 minute or less digest of that Frankenstein film?

Posted by Brad Kimball (Member # 5) on November 10, 2008, 10:08 AM:

I'm so surprised that Universal didn't sue them.

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on November 10, 2008, 10:23 AM:

Possibily it was Public Domain, like many Laurel & Hardys.

cheers,

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on November 10, 2008, 11:42 AM:

Atlas was a curious distributor. They also released their own versions of films with Laurel & Hardy, Chaplin, Popeye, etc. I own a couple of different excerpts from the L&H "Babes in Toyland". I have a feeling that aside from dealing in bootlegs, Atlas either was an outlet company for a few of the big guys or picked up discarded prints from labs. You can find Columbia's 4 part "7th Voyage of Sinbad" in generic Atlas packaging under different titles, but the film inside is the same.

The strange thing is that even though the prints were poor, the folks at Atlas seemed to care about the editing and the dialogue titles. It looks like they used the old Letraset do-it-yourself home movie kits, but they interspersed the titles wisely to get the plot across, sometimes better than the major companies.

Osi, I was contacted by a fellow collector (Ray Faiola) who told me he had sound striped four of the Atlas "FMTWM" cut downs along with some of the Castle footage and ended up with a 40 minute sound print of the film way back in 1971!

Doug

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 10, 2008, 11:42 AM:

That's possible. that is how "It's A Wonderful Life" ended up on Super 8 , as well as a lot of other earlier releases during Super 8's heyday.

Posted by Charles Phelps (Member # 1341) on November 12, 2008, 06:14 AM:

Hi group,

I have been visiting this site off and on for a couple of years and decided to take the plunge.

My first films were Castle's "The 'Original' Frankenstein" and "The Wolfman's Cure", ordered from Captain Company out of Famous Monsters. I ordered a few more films from them over the years but most would come from K-Mart photo departments. There were none in my hometown so visting a place that had one was always cause for celebration. I accumulated a mix of Castles and Kens, 200-footers and 50-footers and had about 30 by the time 8mm went bye-bye.

In 1997, I was searching for a laserdisc of "The Invisible Man" and someone on message board referred me to eBay. After winning the disc, I did a search for Castle Films and got over 100 hits. The next thing you know, I am trying to get all the films I didn't get when I was a teenager. The count now is somewhere over 400. Crazy, ain't it?

I do have one of the 200' Atlas Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman rip-offs. It is basically an edit of the last couple of reels.

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on November 12, 2008, 10:10 AM:

Charles,

Welcome to the Forum! Our stories are similar, and the biggest kick I get is when I get hold a film that I wanted as a kid!

Doug

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