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"Mabel's Strange Predicament"
"Caught in the Rain"
"His Favorite Pastime"
I also need them but they are near impossible to get. I'm not sure if they were ever released in 8mm. Perhaps by Atlas films (and others of the same ilk) under some unrecognizable title.
I also need "His New Job", so I guess I have competition when it shows up on the auction site!
BTW, do you have Blackhawk's THE CHAMPION? It is missing footage, so you need to get Official's SPARRING PARTNER for most of the missing footage, but there is still footage on the Flicker Alley DVDs (and Youtube) not on those versions. And SPARRING PARTNER and THE CHAMPION (200 feet each) from Official are missing all the Edna Purviance scenes! Though the way they are edited, I believe her scenes all occurred after the footage from SPARRING PARTNER ends, anyway.
It's hard to get all the footage pre-First National for Chaplin on film since all versions were edited differently over the years. And -- post-Mutual, Chaplin re-edited a lot -- so even then it's hard to get all footage from the orignal takes and camera angles on film!
I assume you are trying to collect all early Chaplin on film. Do you have another version of THE CHAMPION? Just curious.
I'm trying to complete my Chaplin on film collection -- as much as reasonably possible. Still need some RBCs -- but I doub't I would ever buy A KING IN NEW YORK. The RBCs shows up a lot -- but I've passed when the price was too high.
Most of the Blackhawks are fairly easy to get. HIS NEW JOB is one of the few elusive ones for me, though it was only a couple of years ago I decided to try to get them all after having the complete Mutuals for a long time. Even there -- I don't have each Blackhawk version. For example, Blackhawk released at least 3 versions of THE ADVENTURER -- I "only" have 2 of them.
I assume you are trying to collect all early Chaplin on film. Do you have another version of THE CHAMPION? Just curious.
I'm trying to complete my Chaplin on film collection -- as much as reasonably possible. Still need some RBCs -- but I doub't I would ever buy A KING IN NEW YORK. The RBCs shows up a lot -- but I've passed when the price was too high.
Most of the Blackhawks are fairly easy to get. HIS NEW JOB is one of the few elusive ones for me, though it was only a couple of years ago I decided to try to get them all after having the complete Mutuals for a long time. Even there -- I don't have each Blackhawk version. For example, Blackhawk released at least 3 versions of THE ADVENTURER -- I "only" have 2 of them.
No, I'm not trying to collect all of Chaplin's early comedies, just my personal favorites of his. No, I don't have any version of "The Champion." Also, my copy of "One A.M." is kind of odd... it starts off with Blackhawk's introduction slides that are typical of most of their films, instead of their "Blackhawk Films Presents" title card. Same with "Behind The Screen," I believe.
Well, there were at least 2 versions of each Mutual released by Blackhawk. Pre-1975, and Decemeber 1975, when David Shepard did his first of many restorations of these 12 films. The ones from December 1975 were around for a long time and became the basis for Shepard's first video releases of these films.
The pre-December 1975 versions contained main titles and the Blackhawk "prologue" typical of most of their silent film releases. For the 1975 restorations, the "prologue" became just one "slide" or "page" and was duplicated on the various video releases. That prologue was followed by an imitation of what Shepard thought was the original design of the titles when first released by Mutual.
It sounds like you have the 1975 restorations of the films you mention. If you have the original boxes, the last 4 digits of the catalog number on the label will be 8X0 -- 04 -- 25 XX where X can be various numbers. 810 for standard 8mm silent, 860 for Super 8 silent, 880 for Super 8 sound, etc.
I originally only collected the 1975 restorations, until I discovered a few things:
- Some shorts had footage in the pre-1975 version not in the "restored" version. (and vice-versa.)
- The image quality of the pre-1975 version on some shorts was superior, usually when they had used a Kodascope source. THE RINK is an example of where acquiring the pre-1975 version is a must -- stunning image quality! Of course you need the 1975 "restoration" as well for completeness in collecting, as well as for footage -- though I don't remember what scenes are in one and not the other.
I still don't have all the pre-1975 versions of each short.
Collecting Chaplin on film is interesting, to say the least -- just when you think you're "done", you find out that you're not!
Well, there were at least 2 versions of each Mutual released by Blackhawk. Pre-1975, and Decemeber 1975, when David Shepard did his first of many restorations of these 12 films. The ones from December 1975 were around for a long time and became the basis for Shepard's first video releases of these films.
The pre-December 1975 versions contained main titles and the Blackhawk "prologue" typical of most of their silent film releases. For the 1975 restorations, the "prologue" became just one "slide" or "page" and was duplicated on the various video releases. That prologue was followed by an imitation of what Shepard thought was the original design of the titles when first released by Mutual.
It sounds like you have the 1975 restorations of the films you mention. If you have the original boxes, the last 4 digits of the catalog number on the label will be 8X0 -- 04 -- 25 XX where X can be various numbers. 810 for standard 8mm silent, 860 for Super 8 silent, 880 for Super 8 sound, etc.
I originally only collected the 1975 restorations, until I discovered a few things:
- Some shorts had footage in the pre-1975 version not in the "restored" version. (and vice-versa.)
- The image quality of the pre-1975 version on some shorts was superior, usually when they had used a Kodascope source. THE RINK is an example of where acquiring the pre-1975 version is a must -- stunning image quality! Of course you need the 1975 "restoration" as well for completeness in collecting, as well as for footage -- though I don't remember what scenes are in one and not the other.
I still don't have all the pre-1975 versions of each short.
Collecting Chaplin on film is interesting, to say the least -- just when you think you're "done", you find out that you're not!
So the pre-December 1975 ones have no "Blackhawk Films presents" title card?
I'm saying that they don't have an opening "Blackhawk Films presents..." title card, the films just start with the prologue (and not on one slide/page either). I know for a fact that "One A.M." doesn't have a Blackhawk title card, it just starts with their prologue. I'll have to project them and get back to you.
This is what a pre-December 1975 Blackhawk Mutual looks like:
This is what a December 1975 restored Blackhawk looks like:
Usually on the prints of the restored versions, before the prologue card, it will say "Blackhawk Films" on screen. I don't remember 100% if it says "presents" or "release". I'd bet it says, "A Blackhawk Films Release."
If there are any splices between the leader and the start of the film, you never know what a previous owner may have clipped out. I've received Blackhawk prints (not necessarily Chaplin) with no main titles, starting with the prologue. Or main titles, splice, start of film. After "the end" the prologue shows up after a splice. Some people simply cut out the prologue and discarded it.
The following films from my collection are December 1975 releases:
"One A.M." (No "Blackhawk Films presents One A.M. starring Charlie Chaplin" title card; film fades in with prologue.)
"The Rink" (Film fades in with "Blackhawk Films Release" and then fades to prologue.)
"The Pawnshop" (Same description as "The Rink.")
"Behind The Screen" (Film fades in with prologue; no "Blackhawk Films Release" before the prologue.)
Only the Mutuals were restored in December 1975. No other Chaplin restorations on this scale were ever announced, though Blackhawk occasionally updated their pre-print material on all their films, not just for Chaplin.
It was through looking through these old catalogs that I discovered that they updated THE ADVENTURER at one point before the December-1975 restorations. My pre-restoration copy is a very early version before the semi-upgrade. I don't remember which catalog announced that upgrade. I do have my original box and can see that the catalog number was different than the semi-upgraded one.
The articles about the restoration are interesting. It may be semantics, but the "restoration" was pretty much using Blackhawk's newly acquired pre-print material of the Van Buren versions, adding titles back into those versions where they were missing, and re-doing all other titles to look more "authentic." They also needed to re-edit the music and effects scores to properly sync due to the addition of inter-titles on some films.
Why Shepard didn't do a comparison of the new negatives to their old ones to add missing scenes back in is beyond me. Perhaps it was a budget thing. In fact, a google search will reveal people complaining that he still didn't do a thorough enough job on the Flicker Alley release of the Mutuals, since some scenes are still missing that exist elsewhere.
I don't have each Blackhawk version of all the Mutuals, but pre-December 1975 ONE A.M is worth getting for additional footage not in the restoration, and THE RINK is worth getting pre-December 1975 for superior image quality. I have all the restored versions, but not all in sound.
I acquired A NIGHT OUT within the last year -- a BH print.
It's unfortunately a "Collector's Club" print. 2 reels spliced (but no splice marks present) onto one 400' reel. It'll have to do for now until I can get a BH print.
BHs are not always a panacea when it comes to Chaplin. It's fun to collect different versions from different distibutors and make up a more complete print as I did with THE CHAMPION. I haven't gotten around to it yet, but I might buy the pre-1975 THE VAGABOND from BH since it has a brief scene not in the "restoration." That scene could be in the Walton print as well. Depending on who you ask, the "restored" version has scenes out of order as well.
Walton prints of Chaplin are generally excellent, though they edited the Mutuals, and even have one-reel versions of a few. They also changed the titles of a few of the Keystones and Essanays.
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