'The Poseidon Adventure' Super 8 sound 400ft shrinkwrapped 'new' print from EBay

[Alan Paterson]

Hi folks,
Just thought I'd share with you a recent strange experience. I bought a shrinkwrapped as new print of 'The Poseidon Adventure' from an EBay seller thinking that it may well be faded but then again, maybe not. It arrived with shrinkwrap on it like it would if it was new. On removing the shrinkwrap, there was no vinegar smell. Oddly one corner of the box had a piece of yellowed cellotape on it.

On removing the film from the box, the film was tightly wound on the reel and it had a piece of tape saying 'A Filmatic Print' holding the head down. This puzzled me as I thought all Ken Films releases were printed in the USA, not Nottinghill Gate, London.

On projecting the film, the amount of dirt that built up on my projector gate was surprising. A new print? Surely not. The film was very grainy, the colour was okay but the sound was muffled. I haven't been able to see which film stock it was from the edge of the print. The image was not sharp by any means so I wondered if someone had made a contact print from an original.

The box had original artwork on the front but a plain solid green back with no design or text. I've attached a few pics so you can see the box.
Has anyone had a similar experience?

[John Fedko]

Alan . I have this USA version and its poor quality . The sound is not good , the color has faded as is often the case with these . Just poor quality . Almost everything I get from the UK or EU is always better film stock and sound but I can tell you my USA version of this is just not good . If someone has a decent copy of this I’d love to hear about it .

John

[Brian Fretwell]

The "Jumbo" on the label indicates this was a Mountain films print they bought the rights from Ken and printed in the UK, I would think from dupe negs hence the grain.

My copy is a US Maritz Lab print which is now rather pink.

[Rob Young]

Brian is spot on. Mountain did the same with the 400ft Star Wars; the US prints were sharp, the Mountain copies not very good. The Mountain "Jumbo" label...part of super 8 legacy!

[Mike Newell]

Definitely, Mountain print. I remember there were complaints about their first 20th Century Fox prints in comparison to US. Bill Davision and others harassed them and they had to up their game.

I bought new Coffy and Sand Pebbles 400s still sealed with round Mountain sticker on the back of the box. Both perfect colour which I have never seen ever for those prints . They were two part boxes. I suspect the plain all in one box you have shown was the 1st run dupe negs they used.

Wonder was The French Connection 400 any better?

[Rob Young]

Mike, I have the 400ft Superman from Columbia in a card box with one of those round blue mountain stickers on the back. It is grainy as anything, so I wonder if they did a similar deal with Columbia on this; ie printed them over here with inferior results.

[Alan Paterson]

The only thing that's good about the print I've got is the colour. Apart from that it's very poor print with double the film grain than normal. The sound is low level and muddy.

I have bad memories of Mountain as I bought 2 of their 400 ft cut downs (Butch Cassidy & French Connection) via their Mailmaster operation. There was no sound for the first 2 mins on Butch Cassidy, so I returned it to be replaced. They claimed there were stretched sprocket holes on the print I returned but offered to replace it for almost the price of a new print. I declined and never knowingly bought anything else from Mailmaster/Mountain.
Strangely I never had 'stretched sprocket holes' on any other prints I ran on my Norisound 310, which was very kind to film.

Funny to find one of their prints waiting to catch me out at this late date.

[Mike Newell]

Mike, I have the 400ft Superman from Columbia in a card box with one of those round blue mountain stickers on the back. It is grainy as anything, so I wonder if they did a similar deal with Columbia on this; ie printed them over here with inferior results.

Rob , I would suspect that would be right. Collectors don’t help the matter by swopping film boxes Disney and Laurel & Hardy come to mind.

[Mike Newell]

The only thing that's good about the print I've got is the colour. Apart from that it's very poor print with double the film grain than normal. The sound is low level and muddy.

I have bad memories of Mountain as I bought 2 of their 400 ft cut downs (Butch Cassidy & French Connection) via their Mailmaster operation. There was no sound for the first 2 mins on Butch Cassidy, so I returned it to be replaced. They claimed there were stretched sprocket holes on the print I returned but offered to replace it for almost the price of a new print. I declined and never knowingly bought anything else from Mailmaster/Mountain.
Strangely I never had 'stretched sprocket holes' on any other prints I ran on my Norisound 310, which was very kind to film.

Funny to find one of their prints waiting to catch me out at this late date.

Mailmaster my first super 8 Royal projector. £79.99 if I remember right. Thought it was the worst projector in the world but then I met a Cinerex scratch machine. Mountain home produced stuff was always iffy in terms of quality. One hand on the focus knob for those little adjustments.

Derann of course confused the issue for later collectors by reprinting some of their titles. Tall in the Saddle Citizen Kane and King Kong features spring to mind. As great improvements on the originals.

Best thing about them was Portland Films shop.

[Jim Schrader]

My copy of adventure I checked it 2 years ago and listed it as no issues with sound and listed the colors as good to vg still I bought it in 2003