8mm Forum: Film Distributors.

This is topic Film Distributors. in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on April 11, 2019, 04:02 AM:

In the not so distant past there were quite a number of Film Distributors and Companies world wide releasing 8mm and 16mm prints.

My top three favourites were :

( 1 ) Castle Films.

( 2 ) Ken Films.

( 3 ) Walton Films.

Which one's were yours ? [Smile]

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on April 11, 2019, 04:44 AM:

In no particular order.

Perrys Movies
Ian was always good fun when I travelled some distance to shop and Arthur was the man if you wanted to know anything about film printing.

Derann Films
Hundreds of varied titles and a huge amount of knowledge from the staff. Gary was always funny, Ged of course and our Derek Simmonds who will never be forgotten.

I will have to include David Guest here and one of our more recent prominent professional traders sadly now gone. He had secured so many collections in his time we always had a constant run of new films to choose from on a visit. A very warm welcome always and a fascinating family. David resurrected the North West Film Fair taking a huge financial risk all for the love of film.

Those names here in the UK we will never see the like of again regretfully.

US wise I must take the liberty of including Steve Osbourne who has shown a commitment to film for a long time now and I can speak for others saying we truly appreciate his efforts.

Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on April 11, 2019, 08:06 AM:

Cheers Lee.

I think i would have to add Perry's to my list too. Perry's had a great selection of Silent films and early sound rarities.

I liked some of the Derann Titles in the early Standard 8mm days but was not too interested in their later Super 8mm releases such as the Walt Disney Feature titles and Die Hard , Speed etc. With the exception of the Hammer releases and a handful of shorts and some newsreels and a couple of cartoons that was it for me so i never really bought much from them at all.

Therefore to be honest i don't really mourn the demise of DFS like some others here in the UK do.

Classic Home Cinema has also released some rare and great titles more in in keeping with my interests.

Of course all credit to Steve Osbourne in the USA for his releases.

[Wink]

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on April 11, 2019, 10:51 AM:

The film companies I did business with were Blackhawk films, Niles, Thunderbird, ken, castle, Columbia, Derann, Reel to Reel, Reel Images, Canterbury, Red fox, Disney,more craft,they were the main ones I supported! And its a good thing I kept some of there catalogs! It brings back a lot of memories!

Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on April 11, 2019, 12:33 PM:

Yes Leon Blackhawk Films had some brilliant releases too. Their print quality was a lot better than some UK distributors i could name.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on April 11, 2019, 12:51 PM:

Steel Valley (some quite rare titles), Griggs/Moviedrome/Essex, of NJ, Willoughby=Peerless, ESO-S (Harry Hilfinger, late out of Missouri way, Ken Films, Niles (dupey occasionally, still some great titles from them), Glenn Photo had some of the earliest and best looking prints in all gauges...Blackhawk #1, always - Shorty

Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on April 11, 2019, 04:08 PM:

Cheers Shorty for your listings. I agree about Blackhawk. [Smile]

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on April 11, 2019, 05:20 PM:

1 Universal 8 Super Digests and cut downs

2 Marketing Brilliant releases and prints if you didn't get a pinky version.

3 Perrys The 1st release I bought was funeral of Queen Victoria. I do wonder was it a reprint or was Messr and Young Ian there actually filming it. I also have fond memories of Santorini travelogue and that poor donkey going up that mountain.

4 Derann digests were generally crap in early days between Horror of Frankenstein and the United Artist edit them together jobs but they did get the hang of it in the end and their features were the best print and sound wise produced even those cute Disney ones. Mind you it was better to buy from the other dealers and get discount rate rather than buy direct from them.

Posted by Mark Silvester (Member # 929) on April 12, 2019, 02:20 AM:

Hi all

nice little thread - and keeping in the title of Film Distributor's.

1/ Derann - head and shoulders in front.

2/ Mountain Films

3/ Walton

4/ Universal 8 ( I agree with Mike best cut downs and digests by a country mile).

Its always enjoyable to think back to those early ..exciting days of the hobby...mind you I have to say I think that box art for Mountain films was absolutely brilliant,

Best

Mark [Smile]

Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on April 12, 2019, 11:22 AM:

Thanks Mike and Mark. This thread is getting to be very interesting indeed. I am glad you guys are giving the reasons why too. [Smile]

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