What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[Douglas Meltzer]

2 recent CineSea purchases. Love the artwork!

[Osi Osgood]

Graham, I so totally admire your cartoon collection!

[Steve Klare]

Southern Pacific Steam Parts 1 through 4

I got going in the film hobby because of railroad films. I've diversified a lot in the years since, but a good railroad film still gets the adrenaline going!

Some dutiful railfan, maybe around the time I was in college and distracted (and broke) bought all four 200 footers (with sound) of Sunday River Productions' series Southern Pacific Steam. He then united them in sequence on an 800 foot Elmo reel and treated them kindly for about four decades.

When his time had passed, his estate put this on eBay and now I'm taking care of it. Left to my own devices, even if I had managed to scare up the money, my own prints of this would be silent: I was 20 years away from getting into sound! (I was 20 years old...what did I know?!)

This is great footage: I'm guessing it originated on 16mm Kodachrome. I'm a little suspicious of the sound. This was around the dawn of VHS and Sunday River was feeling the heat. Their new releases at that time were more likely to have sound editions, whether the source film had soundtrack or not. So this could be a dub, but that's OK since if it is, it's a really good one.

This is footage of most of the classes of Southern Pacific steam operating at the end of steam service in the 1950s. It is centered around San Francisco, but goes out into the Sierra Nevada where the really big ones are pulling (and pushing) really long freights up the hills. It includes footage of the very last operation of a steam locomotive in regular Southern Pacific service.

Something like this is kind of handy at the end of a long day: just one film to pick out and thread up, just one to rewind and put away.

-not a lot of effort for the reward of a half-hour of enjoyment!

(Let's save the multi-changeover, multi-format shows for the weekend!)

[Brian Fretwell]

Same here, it would be appropriate now as it has Silvste(r) McCoy playing Renfield and I am watching the Dr Who Season 25 Blu Rays that feature him at present.

[Melvin England]

Yes, Doug.

I also have Dracula but not seen it very often and not for ages, so I think I should resurrect that one from the grave very soon so to speak!

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[Douglas Meltzer]

Melvin, those U-8's are indeed nicely edited, particularly The Sting. It tells the complicated story very nicely.

Speaking of U-8, I hadn't seen their 1979 Dracula (2x400') for a while. It's also an excellent edit.





Not overly faded, I tried out a light blue filter on the projector lens.

[Melvin England]

Tonight's offering in the Man Cave included 3 real chestnuts that were very popular years ago, but no one seems to mention anymore.


G.I.Blues - 1x 50' Trailer - Mr. Presley stretching his vocal chords.

Gone With The Wind - 1x 60' Trailer - Just purchased on Ebay UK and landed on my door mat this morning, so just HAD to see it. Great copy!

National Lampoon's Animal House - 2x 400' - Classic comedy from the fraternity of 1962 .

The Jerk - 2x 400' - Steve Martin in fine zany form.

The Sting - 2x 400' - Mr Newman and Mr Redford vs Mr Shaw !



The 2x 400's are all great edits and at a running time of approx 30 - 35 minutes or so, they can showcase the full feature far better than most of the 1x 400' edits can. Pity so many other 400'ers didn't get this treatment.

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[Brian Fretwell]

For halloween the trailers to Son of Frankenstein and The Gost of Frankenstein then as I have no real Jeckle and Hyde - Dr Jeckle and Mr Mouse (Tom & Jerry).

[Graham Ritchie]

Well the GS1200 has not been getting a lot of use of late, not a good idea with that projector, so ran one of my favorite 1200ft reels two nights ago. One thing I do notice, is how bright the picture is with that lamp conversion and Thomas great piece of advice in doing it a while back.

All up nine reels of cartoons, color wise, the Castle releases I bought new a million years ago still are pretty good. The Walton "Two Mouseketeers" well that one stands out looks as good today as when I bought it new during the 1970s. Then its "The Dwarfs Dilemma", followed by "I Wan'na Be Like You" plus a few more on that reel was certainly fun to watch, but how the years have passed since buying them, so its certainly a bit of a nostalgia trip to screen these gems again the other night.

PS A couple of screen shots from the last one

[Graham Sinden]

Thanks Brian.

[Brian Fretwell]

The edit of Scrooge was a bit strange,Marley's ghost and the first two Spirits (Christmas Past and Present) were replaced by an intertitle, bit that did give time for a longer scene with Chistmas yet to come. So basically the set up, the revelation and the new Scrooge. Not bad though.

[Graham Sinden]

I'm with you Brian as I watch the new Christmas Trailers reels and Madagascar Penguins well out of season. I love Christmas but sometimes it is just to appreciate the quality of them.

What was the edit and quality of Scrooge like. I was interested in that 600ft at BSTR but realised I had spent too much already so left it. Still Blackpool to come .

Graham S

[Melvin England]

They should complement each other nicely!

All you need now (and you have probably got them already) are the Tom & Jerry + Disney versions of The Night Before Christmas.

[Brian Fretwell]

I bought the cut down of Scrouge at the Big Screen Scene revival and was checking it for pairing with Mickey's Christmas Carol at Christmas.

[Melvin England]

A little bit early for Scrooge, Brian, IMO. Another 6 or 7 weeks perhaps.....

Anyway....

The Man Cave has remained silent these last 3 Saturday nights. I have just returned from a trip around the Med. and Adriatic visiting 6 countries no less, 4 being brand new to me. And.... yes.....I had a wonderful time, thanks.

However, last night it was business as usual watching the following delights.....




Historic Film - 1x 200' - A Pathe documentary on restoring very early film, featuring movie sequences of Queen Victoria for example. Very interesting.

The Fabulous Musicals - 1x 600' - A classic episode from the Hollywood and The Stars collection narrated by Joseph Cotton.

Showboat - 4x 600' - Ava Gardner and Howard Keel. A film that I purchased from a well known collector years ago that still looks as good as the day it was printed. Wonderful colour.


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