What 16mm Films Did You See Last Night?

[Steve Klare]

The Hummingbird

I found this film about three years ago and was very pleased! I really enjoy birds and the hummers are likely my favorites. They are a wonderful example of the adaptability of nature. Both they and the ostrich are "birds", but look how different they are and live!

Hummingbirds are almost magical: there are stories that Aeronautical Engineers still don't quite understand how they can fly at all! The Ruby throat migrates across the Gulf of Mexico and nobody knows how they store up all the energy this requires. They share something in common with the Polar Bear: they have no fear of mankind, although for the tiny bird, it's not because they can kill and eat us easily! Hummingbirds so easily evade capture that they have basically no natural enemies, human or otherwise. They have the reputation of encountering people a lot more more curious about us than anything close to being afraid.

So I watched this film tonight: a little sunshine and color on a fairly grim Winter day: just the thing!
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It's a retired Library print (-many thanks to the good folks at the Public Library in Abilene, Texas!), so it's a little experienced (-not bad, really), but by and large it's wonderful viewing. The color is excellent. -good thing too: faded color with such spectacular creatures and scenery would be kind of a tragedy!
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The film follows a Canadian Naturalist all over the Americas encountering dozens of species from the smallest to the largest.
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Kind of a strange thing I get from this film is hope. This is not "big" hope for important things like Peace and Understanding among Peoples, noooo...nothing that noble, but actually hope for another film! (Much wiser people than me will need to work those other things out...assuming they ever show up!)

This film is from a Canadian TV series called Profiles in Nature. Years ago I had one of these on VHS about my favorite filmmaker: Bill Mason. Finding this one gives me hope that Spirit of the Wilderness is out there too! (-and hopefully in at-least equal condition...)

(In the meantime, I'll do what the hummingbird does and just stay persistent about it!)
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[Janice Glesser]

Thanks Steve for the additional embellishments on Teddy Roosevelt! I am in no way a writer like you, but I know what I like when I see it. Teddy Roosevelt was a very interesting person.. Someone who lived life to the fullest. I would have loved to have met him. The documentary did mention him being shot and giving his speech before getting treatment. Unbelievable!

[Steve Klare]

He was quite a guy! A sickly boy, he basically fought it off by leading "a vigorous life". On Oyster Bay, maybe 10 miles from here, he'd shove a rowboat into the water and row about 3 miles north, and if he had time, he'd drag the boat across Centerport Neck and row to Connecticut, too! Did he have them send a car for him? No: he rowed back.

One day when he was campaigning for reelection, a man fired a pistol shot into his chest. After preventing the crowd from lynching his attempted assassin, he delivered his planned speech and only then allowed his staff to take him to the hospital to have the bullet removed.

-he had to deliver the speech from memory: his 50 page script had a bullet hole through it. It's entirely possible his gift for long speeches saved his life by slowing down that bullet just enough!

First President to fly in an airplane, even if it was after he'd left office, it was back in the era when a plane was basically a big kite with a primitive engine!

Trivia: John F. Kennedy was the youngest elected President, but TR was the youngest President, since he succeeded William McKinley after he was assassinated and was several years younger than newly elected JFK.

Sagamore Hill, his estate, is maybe 30 minutes away from here. I've been going there every couple of years since I was a little kid. Mom described it as "a man's house": Teddy Roosevelt was a prodigious hunter and basically if a room doesn't have a moose head or a bear skin rug, then it probably has a sink and a bathtub or stove!

[Janice Glesser]

Last night I watched a 40-minute documentary on Teddy Roosevelt... Bully! I just love these old educational documentaries.

[Steve Klare]

Larry,

I think she was a little baffled by the present at first, but "reviews" since the show have been quite positive! My wife has been to CineSea quite a few times and she "gets it" where film is concerned.

I recognize this is my thing, but I try to make it benefit the rest of the family too. (-makes it feel less...selfish.)

This was something I wanted to do for her for a couple of years, but the last time there was a *M*A*S*H* episode on eBay I got sniped! In this case the price was right and it was "Buy it Now". it was mid-December and gift-giving season was going full-force: it just seemed the right time to seize the opportunity and make a present that was a little-bit special!

We now have an ongoing pact: if I see one, I'll let her know, and we'll take it from there. (Time will tell!)

This was a Frank Burns *M*A*S*H*: personally, I'd like to have a Charles Winchester one. Charles was a much more worthy opponent for Hawkeye, much the same way Yosemite Sam was more formidable than Elmer Fudd!

[Larry Arpin]

Never got around to watching that Christmas movie but did watch EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS.

[Larry Arpin]

I'm a big fan of *M*A*S*H* and remember that episode well. Started watching maybe 2nd or 3rd season, then every Mon thru Fri when it was syndicated and now have all 11 seasons on DVD. I've seen good color episodes for sale on Ebay but they go for too much.

Did you get a big hug and kiss from your wife? Or that snear look of 'what's this'?

[Steve Klare]

My wife is a big fan of the *M*A*S*H* TV series. I bought her a 16mm episode for one of her Christmas presents. We finally got around to screening it last night.

This was the episode Hanky Panky where BJ Hunnicutt is comforting a nurse who just received a "Dear Jane" letter from her husband back-home and the… "comfort" violates the bounds of his Marital Fidelity (-so to speak…). Unlike many of the *M*A*S*H* doctors, this isn't his usual style and much of the episode is coping with the after-affects and regret.

This was a TV print: including black seconds of film followed by brief countdowns inserted several times where the commercials were supposed to run. It's a shame it's not in the original can: it would be nice to see TV station markings on it. I could imagine a real connoisseur of the series wanting something like this even without projecting it.

I was a little nervous about this one: the eBay seller described it as "plenty of color left". In some translations this becomes "red as a firetruck" once up on screen, but I'd rate the color here as good to excellent. Frankly, if I bought a new print and it showed up in this condition, I'd be fine with that.

Now, there’s another issue to consider here: a film collector gifting his non-collector wife a can of film has certain overtones of a fisherman giving his wife a row-boat! She just may jump to the conclusion that he’s really getting something purely for himself and the Yuletide Chill will come inside the house too!

-so I did something about that. Bear in mind I did put the film in the gift box with the picture facing downwards: -there’s nothing like that half-second of Christmas Adrenaline before I told her to turn the reel over!
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-it’s all about presentation!

[Melvin England]

A rather long session in the Man Cave last night as you will appreciate when I tell you that it was.........


Pieces of Silver - 1x 400' (just to warm the projector up)

Lawrence of Arabia - 3x 2200' and 1x 800'


See what I mean ?

[Melvin England]

Yesterday it was super 8, this evening it was 16mm.

I am pleased to say that I had an audience this evening whom I have been married to for several years!

The line up went like this......


Ginger Knutt's Christmas Circus - 1x 200' - Festive cartoon.

Runaway Choo Choo - 1x 200' - Looks like an early Walter Lantz cartoon.

Sgt. Bilko - 1x 1000' - An episode called His Royal Highness Doberman

The Waltons - The Torch - 1x 2000' - With Olivia in hospital, an old flame of John's returns to Walton's Mountain to take over running the Dew Drop Inn.

The Waltons - The Medal - 1x 2000' - A soldier appears in Walton's Mountain to deliver a posthumous medal awarded to Mary Ellen's late husband Curt, complete with a letter from The President.

I must say, the colours on both Walton episodes are beautiful. And hardly a scratch.

[Ken Souza]

Howdy

I thought I would chime in here I watched a beautiful 1999 print from the restored negative of Snow White. Screen shots don’t do it justice, it looks like Tech. Such a classic! Happy New Year to all.

[Steve Klare]

Last night, we watched Christmas in Germany: A Story of Giving

Christmas in Germany: A Story of Giving (YouTube)

This one is very special here because of a Christmas we spent in Germany five years ago. We have family there still in my Grandfather's hometown and they invited us to join them in their celebration. We went to Christmas Markets in Heidelberg, Mannheim, Speyer and Stuttgart and rang in 2019 in Munich. We celebrated in their homes and around their tables and it felt like we'd been together our whole lives! (Of course, a year later we could just as easily celebrated Christmas on Mars as things developed in the months that followed.)

The film follows the tale of a young girl who notices her neighbor's loneliness and finds her a gift in the Christmas Market in Nuremburg.

(You watch this one with some hot mulled wine and it's like you are there! -more wine certainly helps!)

-I felt a little regret when I re-shelved it until December '24, but I guess that's the destiny of Christmas films!
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[Larry Arpin]

My beautiful print of 20 Million Miles to Earth. Since it is close to Christmas I may watch a Christmas movie next.

[Melvin England]

Continuing my thread from the Super 8 forum of a few minutes ago ("What Super 8 Films Did You See Last Night ?"), in my marathon 7 hour film session watching my new films purchased at Blackpool 2023, I also viewed my new 16mm films as follows.....


The Jazz Singer - 3x 1600' - starring Neil Diamond. For me, this was the first jaw dropper of the day. A film I have always wanted on 16mm. Just imagine me sitting in the auction, letting all the other general nondescript 16mm pass by and suddenly.....THIS ! It was advertised as "with colour fade" but, quite honestly, there really isn't much and the sound was booming. A great find.

Then came jaw dropper #2......


The Deer Hunter - 1x 2200' 1x 2000' 1x 1600' - Oh my goodness! Some of the opening credits are missing and the closing credits do finish abruptly but, oh boy, the story is complete! The color has started to turn pink very slightly in places but all the colour was still present. Interesting to note that this copy was in masked widescreen of 1.85:1. I suppose it would have been too much to hope for a proper cinemascope version, but is certainly much better than having a flat version. The "bars" above and below the image have a pinkish hue instead of perfect black but certainly didn't spoil the enjoyment of this classic, classic film.


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[Dominique De Bast]

The French 1938 film Ca c'est du sport (That's Sport), the title has little to di with the story which is about mariages. Henri Garat sings in this film. He was one of the biggest movie stars in the '30s but died poor and forgotten at the end of the '50s. Pierre Larquey and Rellys, also well known in thir time play good roles. The difference between a mother and a daughter is only 8 years, so the casting is a mystery regarding that :-) Interesting : the coloured actress Princesse Khandou appears also in this film. There is very little known about her : she played in 5 films in the '30s, then disappeard from the movie industry.