8mm Forum: Wouldn't it have been great if......

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Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on September 17, 2012, 03:59 PM:

I always regret that longer versions of the Planet of the Apes
films were never done,there was too much plot for the little 200's and a well edited 400' to each title would have
been perfect.
Likewise with the excellent Corman/Price/Poe films, I actually
thought that these films were going to be done that way, as it
turned out just a couple of titles made it from Ken, a shame
because Roger Corman is one of those very rare directors,like
Mario Bava,that can make very entertaining films that belie the
fact that they were made on a childs pocket money,but are a
delight to watch.A nice thought to have been able to have well
edited 400's of these classics never happened.Any other missed
chances out there?

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on September 17, 2012, 05:39 PM:

Hi Hugh,
It never really ocurred to me until you mentioned it, that the Poe films never made it to super 8 as 400ft digests.
What a huge mistake by AIP. These films would have surely been among the top selling digests. Maybe it was their CinemaScope format that discouraged AIP, perhaps thinking that only a handful of collectors would posess an anamorphic lens, and that a letterboxed or pan/scan version would not do the films justice. Or perhaps Corman had something in his contract that prohibited S8 cut downs of his movies. Anyway, we can only imagine how great they would have been.

Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on September 17, 2012, 05:47 PM:

Speaking of Corman, how about "X The Man with the X-ray Eyes"

This is a great film as well...very repeatable.

Bill [Smile]

[ September 21, 2012, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: Bill Phelps ]

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on September 17, 2012, 07:28 PM:

Hi Paul and Bill, yes I agree the Ray Milliand film would have been
good release, alas not to be, if they had done them even flat or
slightly masked,they would have made nice souvenirs of a series
of classy films,made even more stylish by Floyd Crosby's lensmanship, as well as the beautiful title sequences.
A couple of missed efforts "Journey To The Centre of The Earth"
and it's sister film "The Lost World" would have been welcome
colourful additions to our home screens,imagine them as 3x400's.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on September 18, 2012, 06:49 AM:

These titles are all available on 16mm, of course.

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on September 18, 2012, 07:46 AM:

Speaking of AIP, I was always surprised that Ken never did anything with GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER. They really seemed hell-bent on releasing any AIP property with a Japanese monster in it, and that one had recently had a pretty big TV advertising push for its theatrical release.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 18, 2012, 01:24 PM:

I agree Hugh! I've always been amazed that 20th Century Fox didn't do expanded versions of these, at least a 400ft!

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on September 18, 2012, 02:31 PM:

I agree about Planet of the Apes too, especially the first one. And cinemascope would have been very important for that one too (especially that final scene!).

A 3 x 400 scope digest would have been great for POTA.

James.

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