8mm Forum: A dozen 8MM movies I'm looking for info on

This is topic A dozen 8MM movies I'm looking for info on in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=011365

Posted by Darren Knight (Member # 5840) on March 23, 2017, 05:02 PM:

Hi folks,

I stumbled across this forum while goggling for information and hope that somebody can point me in the right direction..

Recently, while clearing some of my late father's stuff, I found a dozen 8mm film reels and I'm trying to find out if they are worth anything. I've found a few on eBay that are listed/sold for around £10-15 each but, so far, I've got nothing on the rest.

What I have:-

Cecil B. Demille's The Ten Commandments Vol. 1
Cecil B. Demille's The Ten Commandments Vol. 2
Charlie Chaplin - 134. The Constable
Charlie Chaplin - Charlie Gets His Man
Charlie Chaplin - Charlie Repents
Classic Comedies - 210. Mad Auto Races
Dean Martin - The Silencers
Harold Lloyd - Skyscraper
Hell Drivers
Hell to Eternity - The Epic Marine Story
Laurel & Hardy - Let 'em Rip
Lion Tamers

Could anyone help with any information on these? If any other details are required, I can provide it as long as it's on the box or someone tells me what to look for (I know nothing about 8MM films).

Cheers.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on March 23, 2017, 05:11 PM:

Charlie Gets his Man was a 75ft (ish) extract from Easy Street from Mountain, original price £1.25p. It must have been very early 70's as my copy also has in brackets after that £1.5.0d. I suspect Charlie Repents is a similar second extract from Easy Street.

I have a feeling Hell Drivers was a film about Demolition Derbies not an extract from the feature film of the same name.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on March 23, 2017, 05:11 PM:

Hello Darren,
The only thing i can say is this,
This is a dedicated cine film site so if you were to put them on here and ask anyone to contact you via the PM mail on this site with any offers. Failing that if, (& its a sore subject on here), you decide to list on ebay you would need to ensure you mark them as untested unless you have a projector to try them on. If you do,get some screenshots, this is the most important thing, people who want to buy super 8 films need to know there condition, E.G Scratches on the image, (black lines or big white lines on b/w film or Green on colour film),
IF, you do not have any means of testing them i can only suggest you list them at a realistic price , (maybe a few £) and list as untested.
If you look on ebay you will see, (what many of us hate and talk about), people listing short reels as untested but looks good at very stupid prices. If you do this you wont sell them.
I maybe wrong and if i am someone can correct me, but i dont think these are any titles that i would call desirable as far as prices go.

Hopefully someone on here may be interested and if so may contact you privately.
Hope this helps. [Wink]

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on March 23, 2017, 05:18 PM:

If other reels have the same size with "Cecil B. Demille's The Ten Commandments Vol. 1" therefore they are

200' or 60m length of films (around 6-7 minutes show)
B/W
Silent (but check if there is a label saying "sound")

For price wise, unfortunatlely, I should say that they are pretty common for film collectors and not something we desire to have. I guess, most of your reels will be around £5.

But try put them on Ebay, sometime non-collectors are fancy with Charlie Chaplin without knowing what is inside.

Hope that helps.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on March 24, 2017, 05:21 AM:

Darren
We have to establish the following:-

1) Standard 8 or Super 8
2) Colour or black & white
3) Sound or silent
4) Length of film

See attachment which shows the difference between standard 8 and Super 8.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_8_film

Number 2 is obvious
A sound film will have a brown magnetic narrow stripe on it.
The standard length is 200ft mounted on a spool which is 5" in diameter. A 400ft length would be on a spool 7" in diameter. There are smaller spools which would contain very short extracts from longer films.

These may be films released by Mountain who, unfortunately, had a habit of putting their own titles on which always causes some confusion.

I don't wish to be rude, but none of the films would have much value, if any, for a collector.

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2