What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[John Armer]

Agreed - it was good to catch up with fellow collectors at Phil's Autumn Sale.

I checked the prints I got last night and Sunday night, but the highlight had to be a very cheap reel of WEST SIDE STORY. I know that Derann did a couple of official extracts, but this was just a 600ft reel from the feature. But what a reel! It started with the dance where Tony and Maria first meet, then onto the song 'Maria', then finishes with the song 'America'.

This was all of GBP 15 and a mint Derann re-print.

[Lee Mannering]

Good to see you to Brian and everyone else. Nothing beats being with like minded film people!
Thank you Classic for a nice time.

Projected in our camping tent, oh yes.
OH MR.PORTER Walton films.
TRAIN TIME
FLYING SCOTSMAN
NATIONAL ANTHEM God save the King. (Something I digitally made at home onto S8)

[Brian Fretwell]

A couple more obtained from CHC at the weekend before my Blu Ray viewing. "Lion Around" a B&W silent Donald Duck and the Tom & Jerrry "Solid Serenade", Walton with great colour.

[Brian Fretwell]

Also just back from the CHC event (good to see everyone there, including Lee0 Just watched a rather faded (cheap) Gone with the Wind re-release trailer with 2 good colour daysets on the same reel and the Look at Life "James bond's Island" great colour and sharpness. The latter took a while as I hadn't noticed it was wound tail out at first and wouldn't thread until it was re-spooled.

[Melvin England]

.... and for a change it WAS last night (Saturday) and not half an hour ago !


So, yesterday evening I screened a feature that I had just purchased the day before at CHC's August sale. The turnout for the sale was tremendous. A couple of guys from Norway, a forum member visiting for the first time, two brand new faces new to the hobby (young as well!) together with a lot of other familiar faces. An excellent few hours rummage !

Anyway, back on topic......

The Towering Inferno Trailer 1x 50' (to warm the projector up)

The Beautiful Briny - 1x 200' - Extract from Bedknobs and Broomsticks I have been after for ages.

The Third Man - 3x 800' - Classic Orson Wells / Joseph Cotton film noir. Pleased to say it was my first ever viewing of the film and was very impressed.

.

[Brian Fretwell]

It was a bit hit or miss for Walton (Studio Labs) mainly used Agfa or Fuji but sometimes you'd get a print on Eastmancolor or in the early 1970's 3M.

[Osi Osgood]

Great 1200ft reel, Graham! Walton was either lucky enough or purposefully used Agfa, and it was a brilliant move, as, all prints on Agfa, still look radiant today! As for me, I screened my new print of " The Third Man". I have already watched this new print three times since I bought it, ( I've only had it for about two weeks or so), but some films are infinitely repeatable! Best Orson Welles film that he was in, but didn't direct himself, butfrom what I have read, Welles gave a good deal of advice on camera angles and such.

[Graham Ritchie]

Regarding the Walton print above of "The Two Mouseketeers". I bought this print new back in the late 1970s and still regard it as one of the best color Tom and Jerry that Walton sold. Here are a couple of screen shots that I took a few moths back and even after all these years the color still looks great

[Graham Ritchie]

Well that was a fun night. I think I have watched these film way to much, as I can recite a lot of the dialogue before its spoken on the film, although in saying that, its a good memory test .

The GS 1200 is running well at the moment, giving a nice bright picture from 7.5 meters, its looking good with a nice on screen color rendition using the Osram 250 watt Xenophot lamp

Tonight again, with one full 1200 foot reel

1...Tweety Pie
2....Egg Cracker Suite.
3....Barber Of Saville.
4....The Two Mouseketeers.
5....The Dwarfs Dilemma.
6.... I Wan'na Be Like You 7....His Mouse Friday
8....Three For Breakfast.
9....Cat Napping

[Steve Klare]

I'm demounting the anamorphics and reverting to 4x3 tomorrow, so I thought I'd finish up 'scope with this:

IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD 2 x 400ft. Col SCOPE

800 Feet of Greed, Violence, Mayhem and other dark aspects of Human Nature! (-surprising they left out lust!)

It's different from every other Derann print I own: it was bought Stateside from E-Bay. Other than a few from CineSea all the rest have come from the UK, most directly from The Source!
.

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Doug

Its nice to see the color on some films staying good, "The Black Stallion" is one, very nice print those couple of earlier screen shots taken a while back look just the same.

I watched the blu-ray release of "Jeremiah Johnson" not so long ago. I really like films made with stunning scenery, this is one I never tire watching, good movie

Steve

I agree about Forest Gump, a while ago I was lucky enough to come across the musical trailer on 35mm which features The Byrds and extracts from the film, its really well done. Its number two on this 35mm reel of film just after Tina.

[Steve Klare]

I decided to go a little educational on my wife and son tonight, so I showed them this:

WEST SIDE STORY S/V Inc’s “Krupke”, “Pretty” and “Quintet” 1 x 400`. Scope. Col. Price code G

The educational difference is I projected it without the anamorphic for maybe the first minute: showed them how CinemaScope really works. ("See how skinny they all are?")

The reel itself is kind of special to me: when my soon to be 21 year old was in Kindergarten, my wife asked him "What do you want to buy Daddy for Christmas?", and with Derann literature in hand, this is what they agreed upon. (We already had "America/Maria".)

After that, we turned on the VP and watched Forrest Gump.

-I can't help but think if Gump had come along earlier there would have been some kind of Super-8 prints: it is a great story and the movie was meant from the very start to be on the big screen.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Graham, The Black Stallion print looks beautiful!

I watched The Saga of Jeremiah Johnson (approx 300') from Red Fox Films. This is one of those Robbins Nest behind the scenes promos that made it to Super 8mm. While it is totally faded, the print is sharp and I found it interesting to watch Robert Redford & Sydney Pollack at work.

[Graham Ritchie]

I haven't screened this one in years, so last night it was "The Black Stallion" feature on 2/1200ft Elmo reels. After adjusting the black masking and warming up the GS1200 "its winter at the moment" away we went, or should I say away I went, as I was watching it on my own. Half way through the lamp went out thought it must be the lamp. Wrong it was the wire at the back of the socket. The fix was easy, just replace the socket, clean the pins and away I went. I should add that the lamp life has exceeded my expectations, and it still looks really good. The Osram 250 watt lamp has really worked out well using a external power supply, color wise with this lamp "The Black Stallion" looks great".

All up it only took me about 10 minutes to change the lamp socket, another plus with using an external power supply I still managed to take a couple of screen shots before the socket packed up, afterwards it was even brighter. This print has lasted really well with no signs of any fade

[Melvin England]

After a couple of weeks indulging in 16mm, it was back to super 8 tonight.


Jurassic Park - 1x 600' - The edit just gets better and better every time one watches it. Breath taking !

Clara's Heart - 1x 1000' and 1x 800' - Starring Whoopi Goldberg. As you may guess, this one was (very good) optical sound. I have had this one for several months and finally viewed it for the first time tonight. A rare occasion when the first time I ever see a film, it is a super 8 version. A real luxury. It does have colour fade but not completely and has hardly a scratch on it so the actual image was really good. I know we quite rightly moan when our prints start turning to pink/red, but I am always grateful that the image itself doesn't fade, so as long as it is not beetroot or scratched to hell, it is worth watching.