Universal 8 .... Oorg!

[Osi Osgood]

OK, I'm obviously happy that Universal 8 existed in the first place, ( previously "Castle Films"), but boy, could they're quality control be hit or miss. It appears that much of the time, they rushed these digests out as quick as they could. It's not as noticeable with some of their digests, but when it came to the space film digests, such as the Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers digests, the color grading/timing could range dramatically from shot to shot. I have mint condition color copies of the Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica digests, and the space shots are terrible, literally from shot to shot. This continued all the way to the end. Take the Blues Brothers digest, from scene to scene, it's just awful. You go from reddish shots in the parking lot, to the shot where the customer asks "Do you have miss piggy?" which suddenly has GREAT color, as much of the destruction of the mall has, to back to very mediocre color once again. I mean, did anybody really pay attention to the process? Did they get a test print, look at it and say, "WTF?!". Now, I know that with quick fade eastman, these issues can come up pretty quick, but when you have a completely unfaded print, or so you think, the issues become oh so glaring!

[Mike Newell]

Some titles came out as going pink when they were new. High Plains Drifter, Duel and Smokey & the Bandit being examples. Universal 8 were well edited and generally print quality was very good.

What the executives should be hung for is releasing titles like Incredible Shrinking Woman Disco Beaver , The Nude Bomb and The Electric Horseman .

Can you imagine if they had issued 2x400 versions of the Universal Horrors movies like Frankenstein Dracula etc Also, why did they not issue flat 400 versions of Creature from Black Lagoon and It Came from Outer Space.

[Bob Kuzyk]

When Castle Films switched over to Universal 8 in 1977, they re-released around 30 of the old Castle 200' releases as 400' (mostly horror/sci-fi, Abbott and Costello, W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers). The majority came out in September with a smaller batch the following year (March, I believe). I think they were anxious to standardize on the new name and 400' format and discontinue the old Castle Films releases.

The 400' ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN was apparently done by two labs- because some of the prints looked really good and others looked horrible (I was lucky and got one of the good ones).

The editing suffered as well. It was obvious that many of these were rush jobs.

The Marx Bros. MONKEY BUSINESS, for example, combined the Castle 200' THE STOWAWAYS and MONKEY BUSINESS- I think they even retained the freeze frame from the end of THE STOWAWAYS.

The 400' PSYCHO was basically just the Castle 200' with two extended scenes added (one before and one after the shower scene). They even kept the super-fast Castle Films opening titles and credits. The Castle Films version was an excellent 200' edit but I felt that PSYCHO was a popular and important enough movie to warrant a complete re-edit with the new 400'. Instead, you ended up with three extended scenes from the first hour of the feature and about 4 1/2 minutes of short scenes from the remainder.

As I recall, some of the other Castle re-dos consisted of a few extended scenes taken primarily from the second half of the feature.

Fortunately, once they got past the Castle re-dos, the editing improved (particularly the 2x400' titles) and I think U-8 went on to have the overall best-edited Super 8 digests.

Osi: I think U-8 was sometimes behind schedule on their releases. When I ordered ANIMAL HOUSE, I called the dealer weeks later asking about it and was told they were still waiting for it.
Mike: At least they folded before they could release SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT III. 😀

[Mike Newell]

Yes , Bob that was a blessing they did release Smokey & the Bandit II to us 🤢

According to the rumours John Wayne Hellfighters was going to be released as a full feature by them. Up there with Jet Pilot and The Conqueror. Hellfighters is one 200ft digest that covered the entire movie.

[Bob Kuzyk]

I remember a dealer telling me he received a survey from U-8 about possible feature-length titles they should release. Unfortunately, U-8 changed course and shut down operations instead.

It looks like THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN was the most recent U-8 movie to be released (January 1981).

I know this is heart-breaking, but I'm looking at a list of other Universal releases from the early 80s and thinking of the 2x400' titles that might have been, had U-8 held in there just awhile longer:

1981-
BUSTIN' LOOSE
THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER
AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON
GHOST STORY

1982-
ON GOLDEN POND
CONAN THE BARBARIAN
DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID

and- the biggest heart-breaker of them all:
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL

I'm thinking U-8 might have gone to the 3x400' format as well, since Marketing, Ken and Columbia/Warners had done so.

[Mike Newell]

You do have to hand it to Universal 8 their release programme was “shotgun” or “varied”.

Least ET made it as a full feature release “under the counter” anyway.

There was an unconfirmed rumour that cheech and chong was released by them. There is a reference to Portland Films having that release.

[Mike Newell]

Yes, Cheech and Chong was released no artwork white boxes 2x400

[Mike Newell]

Catalogue

[Bob Kuzyk]

I recall a dealer telling me that CHEECH AND CHONG'S NEXT MOVIE was cancelled. I figured it was because it didn't do as well as their previous film (UP IN SMOKE). Apparently, some prints still made it out the door.

I think the final Ken Films 3x400' releases also came in plain white boxes (THE TIME MACHINE, VIVA LAS VEGAS and CINCINNATI KID). At that point, Super 8 was no longer being sold in stores and they probably figured it wasn't worth the time or expense for packaging.