Most prints of any Super 8 title?

[Osi Osgood]

Of course, I don't know the actual number of printed reels, but my vote is for Star Wars super 8 sound, 200ft Ken Films. Reason being, I always see them everywhere, and these were even give-a-ways in a number of Super 8 sound projectors as a free bonus. Your choice, ladies and gentlemen?

[Carter Bradley]

Based on their availability on Ebay, I would think Ken Films' "The Sound of Music" 400' color/sound was a top seller. Also, I once read that the "Whistle While You Work" excerpt from Disney's "Snow White," 200' color/sound was their top seller.

[Graham Sinden]

I would say possibly a castle films title but cant say which one. They sold big numbers of Standard 8 films but did these sales go into Super 8 as well .

[Robin Khlop]

My guess is that Castle Films' "Have Badge Will Chase" headliner on 8mm/super 8 is one of the more common films out there, seeing as is was often bundled with projectors.

[Graham Ritchie]

Collecting films since the 70s, this is the one without a doubt .

[Brian Fretwell]

And still being advertised on Ebay as "rare", no doubt.

[Osi Osgood]

That box is from one of the later clam shell editions and, occasionally, they might be late enough to have been printed on LPP.

[Graham Ritchie]

A few years ago Brian they were selling second hand "Star Wars" 400 footers with good color at a one of our film "convention" for only $5-10 each, and you were lucky to get that, how times have changed. .


Excuse my spelling its getting bad, just changed it I meant convention not conversion

[Tony Ferrara]

I was going to mention the "Have Badge Will Chase" headliner, too. Actually, the 200 foot sound edition doesn't show up that much, funnily enough.

I don't have it, but how about "Jaws". I know there was a 200 foot version, and 600 foot-plus 2 parter. I don't think there are too many prints of the latter though. I'm not sure if there was a 400 foot version.

I have always passed since I know most, if not all, will be badly faded. I know there is a new release available but it is pretty expensive.

"A&C Meet Frankenstein" must have been a big seller. "No Indians, Please!" was the first Castle A&C release (I think 1948, though, almost 20 years before Super 8 was invented) and shows up a lot. There are tons of Laurel and Hardy Blackhawk prints of their silent-era shorts. "That's My Wife", "Double Whoopee", and "Sugar Daddies" were often half-price, and advertised nationally in local newspapers. There are only a handful that are a bit harder to get. The Blackhawk Chaplin Mutuals are plentiful, too. "One A.M." and "The Tramp" were usually in the half-price specials mentioned above. So was "Uncle Tom's Uncle" by Our Gang (aka Hal Roach's Rascals).

[Brian Fretwell]

I believe, from postings on the Derann Facebook, group that the Superdad trailer may have had the greatest number of UNSOLD prints as they had a great deal of trouble getting rid of them.

[Joe Caruso]

Many Castle Std 8mm prints never found their way to Super 8 due to decisions based on sales and popularity...as is well-known, the sci-fi/scare editions, comedies and cartoons were always in demand. Every time I got a "new" Castle catalog, the additions would be different and some retracted. People are still wanting all these to this day...

[Osi Osgood]

Shorty, in your opinion, which are the hardest Castle Films releases to find?

[Tony Ferrara]

Yes, Shorty, an example would be the 3 extracts from "Here Come The Coeds". Not sure why they put the kibosh on them -- not a coincidence that they were all from "Co-Eds". Maybe some sort of rights issue, like the one for "It Ain't Hay" not being available for so long on VHS and DVD until that big DVD box set -- and it was missing from those initial 4 DVD box sets that came out around 2003-2004. That always confused me, since I saw it a million times on WPIX Channel 11 on Sunday mornings.

I have the 3 "Co-Ed" extracts, in sound, on 16mm. Were they ever released in sound on Standard 8mm? Anytime I see them listed, they are silent.

For those who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, they are Abbott and Costellos; the titles are/were:

1. "Kitchen Mechanics" -- atypical (for A&C) violent slapstick cleaning up a kitchen. Always cut out by WPIX on TV. I can see why this probably wasn't a big seller.

2. "Oysters and Muscles" (not a typo, it wasn't "Mussels" -- the "Muscles" refers to the wrestling scene.) First, Lou battles an oyster in his soup ala Curly Howard in "Dutiful But Dumb" and Billy Bevan in "Wandering Willies" (both available in Super 8, the former from Columbia, the latter from Blackhawk -- I have them both.) Bud, of course, is oblivious. Then Lou wrestles with Lon Chaney Jr. In a rare case of the Castle editors making a bad decision, they left out the Lou "tell him I'm all tied up" line. This is still a great extract that should have remained in the catalog.

3. "Fun on the Run" -- not to be confused with the Laurel and Hardy "Sons of the Desert" TV cut-down with the same title. Starts with the basketball game, with Lou thinking he is "Daisy Dimple", the world's greatest female basketball player. Lou wear a wig. (In college, Lou was an all-star basketball player, despite his height. He made all the trick shots, most impressive being bouncing the basketball on the ground, and it bounces up and it scores! Lou was a talented fellow!) Then the final chase scene, which, IMHO, together with the chase in "Pardon My Sarong" was their best. Another great extract that should have remained in the catalog.

Osi,

I'm not Shorty, lol, but I would think the hardest Castles to get would be those "Do You Like Snow" type ones. I have no interest in them -- I doubt many people did. For some reason, the Woody Woodpeckers are hard to get. I only have one -- bought new in the 70's, on Estar stock. The last time I watched it a few years ago the color was still pretty good, though not perfect.

The Frankenstein and Dracula extracts are hard to get only for the reason that people want stupid money for them now, but they are listed a lot -- probably by the same sellers over and over again because they don't sell for the $75 - $100 they are asking for. I got most of them a long time ago all put together on two 1200 foot reels for about $100, including some of the longer Universal 8 ones. Some missing main titles. Whoever did it wanted it to be like a 2 hour feature. I split them up onto individual reels after my first viewing. I don't have the Castle shorter version of "Frankenstein" or "Bride of", only the longer U8 ones. I don't have any of the Lugosi "Dracula", only the John Carradine ones. I don't have the short "Frankie Meets the Wolfman", only the longer one. Don't have any of "The Wolfman". I have the Castle and U8 "Son of Frankie" inter-edited (done already in those 1200 foot reels.) Also have U8 "The Invisible Man" and U8 "The Mummy", which came with the shorter Castle version inter-edited to make it more "complete", if you want to call it that. Have "Frankenstein's New Brain" but not "Trial of Frankenstein". Don't have "Man-Made Monster" -- that one is hard to find, unless you want to pay stupid money -- which I don't for an 8 minute mediocre film.

Just my 2 cents...

[Joe Caruso]

Actually, most of the travelogues are scarce for the most part. Took me the better part of three years to finally locate SAN JUAN..down to needing one last one; Fascinating Hong Kong (won't take as long to find this one)...Thanks for the information Tony, you know your knowledge as good as myself. Not sure I've seen your messages before on the forum, welcome in any case...Osi, most Castle editions are difficult to get, even though alot are on Ebay and through collectors. I'm speaking of gem-mint boxes with darn-near mint prints...this isn't always the case though...the earliest releases in both 16mm and Std 8 Silent, like the "Co-Eds" segments, were once plentiful and quick-sellers starting in 1947...have no idea why these were not made available in at least, Std 8 Sound 200', the negative was worn out and sales declined likely and they were withdrawn about 1965 (catalogs tell the tale)...the 16-Sound ones are around and looking for sharp boxes is a task, those flap-top hinges wear out so fast from excessive use...I'm after the 16-Sound 400' of HOLLYWOOD & BUST and MEET F with original boxes..The 200' S8Sound/Silent Horror run is always desired from collectors, some take advantage asking too much and hey simply don't move...Shorty

[Barry Attwood]

You may be surprised, but I remember Derek Simmonds once told me that the most prints of any one title was the 2x400' releases of "The Sting" and "Slapshot", not because they really sold extremely well (which they did, by the way), but because they were still being printed right up to the demise of Universal 8 because of fraud within the firm (incentive payments on logged sales!), and he said that he knew of hundreds of prints of each title being dumped in the Hudson River (most probably landfill).