Most Embarrassingly Bad prints ...

[Osi Osgood]

What is the most embarrassingly bad print that you have or have had in the past, that is of such incredibly bad quality, that you would be embarrassed to even show your family or guests? I had a feature is "Satan's sattelites" that was so bad that I never even finished watching it, I just sold it on.

[David Baker]

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN ( 400 ft. U-8 ) . Over - exposed to the point of faces disappearing !

[Paul Adsett]

I had a full length feature print of the Ealing Studios horror classic Dead of Night. A superb film for sure, but the Derann print was just awful, with totally washed out highlights and really bad sound. Just an atrocious print that I could not bring myself to suffer upon an audience. Can't believe that Derek let that one through on the market,

[Mark Silvester]

Hi, Paul,

yes I remember that print, it was a4x400 with the absolutely atrocios sound.. - I sent it straight back and exchanged it for a lovely copy of the 5x400 Hitchcock classic "Suspicion". It was a nice print that one.

Its a funny thing I tried like mad to find a top print of Dead of Night....especially when I collected 16mm...I never got a "sniff" of one???

Mark

[Steve Klare]

I have one that's a downright classic of bad!

My Yellow Rose of Texas has all the usual sins: softness, exposure, sound...

-but what pushes it across the line into last place is a couple of times during the feature the frame line slowly rolls up to mid-screen and then retreats back down to the bottom!

Every so often I catch myself watching this turkey and realize I've hit bottom. (Maybe it's time to work on some project instead...I have unbuilt models of cars I haven't owned in years!)

Just as a joke, I proposed this one as a nominee for Saturday Night Show at CineSea maybe 5 or 7 years ago. Just as a counter-joke, Doug put it in the election and I had to campaign against my own film!

[Mike Newell]

Brand new print from Lees Cameras of the worst vampire film ever Creatures of Evil soft focus and sound faults. White Zombie was another example of sellotape or bad splices. Took 5-6 hours to watch and the print was abysmal. Once bought a rare western feature The Shooting with Jack Nicholson which was pure washed out and pink. A bootleg that had totally turned.

[Osi Osgood]

Paul, since Derann bought a lot of other film company's existing stock when they closed, could that have been a print from another studio that Derann did not print, but sold?

[Osi Osgood]

Oh, I forgot, " My Favorite Brunette", a very good Bob Hope comedy, with Peter Lorre, ( always love seeing Peter Lorre), but that Niles print was just lousy!

[Lee Mannering]

Grease Marketing. Sometimes they could be great other times reelly poor.

Funny when you look back at your 1970s collection but soft,flat and wobbly sound I still love them.
What does that say? How much better the quality is today oh yes.. Still like the nostalgia of the old stuff tho wobbly or not.

[Steve Klare]

My Marketing Grease is just a touch soft: not so much that I can't stand it, but just soft enough I keep trying to focus, but I can't ever completely dial it in!

(It seems just perfect if I watch it without my glasses.)

What's worse is a few years ago a member on here said his was as sharp as a tack but the color was off: my color is great!

(-some days you just can't win!)

[Mike Newell]

Derann were famous for their white box specials which effectively were defective or unpopular prints released via their lists or at conventions. The defective ones were either milnor to mild faults to complete batch runs that’s either the print was too dark/light plus ones were stripe or sound was below par. Remember buying Adventure of Robin Hood from them brand new and it was truly awful. Sent back got another print from next run which was significantly better but didn’t hold a candle to their early print runs. I asked Mike Dimmock what happened the faulty Robin Hood prints and he said they were sold at conventions for maybe for £50 to £60. So they are out there.

[Carter Bradley]

My vote is for either the Marx Brothers "Duck Soup" or "Horse Feathers" (U8 400'). I can't remember which one, but Universal 8 obviously used a public library 16mm print which is plagued by (I estimate) 30+ splices! How could someone not notice the multiple jump cuts and missing sound bites? After viewing this print, I thought (a) "We're Not In Kansas Anymore" (laugh out loud), and (b) this is not Castle Films' quality!

[Joseph Banfield]

Yes, my 3x400' Marketing release of Grease was also very soft and the colors were fading, which is why I sold it off several years ago.

My ugliest print is "The Bond" (1918) Super 8 release from Blackhawk in the yellow box. That film has the worst contrast I've ever seen and looks totally washed out while the Blackhawk intertitles look great.

Another not so nice print was Blackhawk's 3x400' Super 8 silent "Safety Last" that had very weak contrast...looked more like gray and white instead of black and white. Perhaps I just got a print from a bad lab run though. Anyway, sold that one off too because of that!

[Rob Young]

I remember hiring that 3 x 400ft Grease when I was a teenager. Kept trying to focus it until I realised...

Another contender was a copy of Columbia's The Mad Magician in 3D.

Poor old Vincent Price was so lacking in density he was almost a ghost. Add to that a hopless 3D effect and you had a near transparent crossed eyed mess.

[Osi Osgood]

Sometimes Blackhawk would print titles that, even though they were way below they're usual standards, it was a significant historically notable or lost film, hence the very good titles, but lousy image quality. Some of the Universal 8 Marx Brothers were certainly iffy. I had a " Night at the Opera" that was largely light Grey's and blinding whites. Other titles like Monkey Business were terrible, but due to the studios poor 35mm elements, especially the "I don't want ice!" sequence.