8mm Forum: King Kong on Super 8

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Posted by Timothy Price (Member # 1832) on February 27, 2012, 01:17 PM:

Howdy All!

I have two 400ft reels (B/W/Sound) of King Kong released by Mountain Films. I have "Kong Battles The Monsters" & "Kong Terrorizes New York"

Each one came in their own clam shell case with box art.

My question is how many reels did Mountain release. [Confused]

I know there's another reel called "The Bride Of Kong" (which I'm looking for)

Thanks!

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on February 27, 2012, 01:23 PM:

I know that Mountain released the full feature (or am I mistaken, I do occasionally get things wrong). I had heard of those "digest" versions of Kong. I wonder if the print quality was as good for those digests as it was for the whole feature. Usually, digewsts tends to suffer in comparison to the features, as there tends to need a reprinting for a digest, which adds one more generation to the "dupe" process.

Posted by Colin Robert Hunt (Member # 433) on February 27, 2012, 02:50 PM:

Mountain did the full feature on ten reels and there was a eight reel version depending on the release date. Some of the releases was very good and some like all the Super 8 distributers varied in print quality. The Kong cutdowns in my opion was just as good has the feature. My long standing friend at Portland film shop in Shaftsbury Avenue London can back this up and to be quite honest most of there prints have stood the test of time. The edits so so and the few colour releases on most of the so called main distributer releases have faded badly so stick with B&W at least they do not fade.

Posted by Luis Caramelo (Member # 2430) on February 27, 2012, 03:02 PM:

hi! fellas i have the king kong by mountain in 6x400ft,it,s a great print,so i did know there also available the digest in 400 ft and abrigde version in 4x400ft i hope this will help

regards:
luis caramelo

Posted by Akshay Nanjangud (Member # 2828) on February 27, 2012, 03:15 PM:

Hi guys! I too have the 6x400' Mountain Films release. It led to a lot of discussion here a month or so ago. It's very good.

Posted by Allan Broadfield (Member # 2298) on February 27, 2012, 03:16 PM:

I also have the same super 8 Mountain print of King Kong. Don't know about any ten reel version, but this is complete, from the same shop in Shaftesbury ave. on 6x400 reels, complete with two censor certificates on the front, one an 'H' (for horror) and the other an 'X' certificate.
Print quality excellent.

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on February 27, 2012, 07:43 PM:

I think my King Kong has H certificate stands for "horrific" insead of "horror". May be long time ago it had the same meaning but different for today's conversation.

Btw mine is the full version 6 x 400' and was getting a bit bored at the first to second reel due to the length of conversation. What do you guys think with the abridged version of 4 x 400'? Is it more enjoyable or jumpy?

Posted by Timothy Price (Member # 1832) on February 27, 2012, 09:33 PM:

I love both of my Mountain Kong digests! Look and sound great! I scored the Mountain "Bride Of Kong" digest today, so I now have three....

Bride Of Kong, Kong Battles The Monsters & Kong Terrorizes NY.

Is there another?

BTW- If you Facebook, I've started a small film format page called...Collecting Super 8

Posted by Laksmi Breathwaite (Member # 2320) on February 28, 2012, 01:01 AM:

I have the 3X400 reel version which is really nice and tight. It has most of the movie and is a good digest with out the boring dialog. The print is clear and has good contrast and is bright with details. Sound is great and it is like seeing the full feature . Any way I think it is a mountian print but not sure it came from Ireland me lads!

Posted by Timothy Price (Member # 1832) on February 28, 2012, 06:07 AM:

Very cool Laksmi!

BTW- How the heck did you post those pics?!?! [Confused]

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on February 28, 2012, 09:07 AM:

Timothy,

My version of the photo uploading directions:

When you click on the "Post Reply" button, you're taken to the page where you type your reply in the message box. Underneath that box, on the left side is a link that reads "Click here to upload an image." If you click on that, you're taken to the Image Upload page. Scroll down and you'll see
a place to enter your user name and password. After doing that, click on the "Browse" button, which lets you choose the photo you want to upload.
Remember, the photo can't be any larger than 550 pixels wide and must be less than 200K file size. After you've chosen the photo, click the "Submit" button. If everything works properly, you'll see the "Success! Your Photo has been uploaded!" page. Copy the link for your photo and paste it into your response.
The photo should show up in your post!

Doug

Posted by Timothy Price (Member # 1832) on February 28, 2012, 09:30 AM:

Scored this one Yesterday! [Big Grin]

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on February 28, 2012, 10:58 AM:

Hi Tim,as far as I knpw those were the only three digests of Kong
put out by Mountain,apart from the twelve reel (6x400) and the
8 reel(4x400).The first run of prints were taken from a 16mm
source then that was scrapped and the rest of the prints were taken from 35mm.I remember when the full feature first
appeared in the UK there was a rush to buy this classic film,and
even though the first run of prints were not quite as good as the
later prints,it didn't seem to matter as the power and pathos of this lovely old movie shone through and provided a great
evenings entertainment.Enjoy your film.

Posted by Terry Lagler (Member # 1110) on February 28, 2012, 12:59 PM:

I have the 6X400 Kong (actually mine was in Heritage boxes)
I had Bride Of Kong at one point and seem to remember it starts off with Kong grabbing Ann and ending with the pterodactyl battle but cutting out the T-Rex fight. So I assume the T-Rex is in "Kong Battles The Monsters".
So does this mean the 3 parter is somewhat out of order?

Cheers
Terry

Posted by Timothy Price (Member # 1832) on February 28, 2012, 08:21 PM:

Awesome! That means I'll have all three!

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on March 01, 2012, 06:34 AM:

In response to Winberts query the "H" did indeed stand for
Horrific.This was in the days in Britain when "U" was for
Universal exhibition "A" Adults & accompanied children.The "H"
certification which started in 1933(same year as Kong's release)
was replaced by the "X" certificate in 1951.It also shows the S/8
release was from British origins.I understand there was a later
print done for America that was slightly darkened to conceal
some of the bloodletting etc

Posted by Allan Broadfield (Member # 2298) on March 01, 2012, 11:27 AM:

If you say so, Winbert, but I have only seen the British 'H' cert. refered to as 'Horror'in the past. See BFI screen online, Wikipedia history of certificates etc. However, the actual H cert. on the front of Kong does say that the film is in the 'Horrific' category, so it looks like the term was used pretty loosely.

[ March 02, 2012, 10:53 AM: Message edited by: Allan Broadfield ]

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on March 04, 2012, 05:00 AM:

Correct me if I'm wrong,but I'm sure there was a US release of
"King Kong" and I'm sure this was ten reels in length but the
print wasn't as good as the later improved Mountain.

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