What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[Steve Klare]

I read the Clive Cussler Raise the Titanic novel back in the day and I thought it was a great read! Given what was then widely known, it's worth cutting the movie some slack! (Somehow Raise The Andrea Doria just doesn't work nearly as well...)

What's interesting is that there was a minority theory all the way back to 1912 that Titanic broke in half. I guess people didn't want to add that to the the horrors of the disaster that were known for sure. I read a book by one of the survivors that basically said "She didn't break in half. Trust me: I was there.".

[Dominique De Bast]

Some of the films bought Sunday at the Ternat film fair. First, two songs from a famous French singer, Claude François. Although he died (young, at the age of 39) in 1978, his songs are still known, even by young people. Then four Derann trailers (among them Titanic), with the original sound in English. Last : the three Film Office extracts of the French film : Les bidasses en folie. Good colours. As often, with the Film Office, you can watch the extracts separately or splice them together to get a kind of digest (works better on some films than on others). I bought the film mounted on two 120 m / 400 ft spools. I suspected the part labelled as 1 was actually the 2, so I decided to project both parts before splicing anything. So, it was indeed reversed but there were also (from the Film Office editing) scenes from the beginning of the film at the beginning of the second extract instead of the first one. So, it's nice when you watch that extract alone but not when you watch the three parts reunited so I put everything back in the chronological order. Took me some time, so the second Film Office bought will be for another evening.

[Janice Glesser]

Nice selection of films Dominique!

[Chip Gelmini]

Tuesday September 7

Steve McQueen

The Hunter

full feature decent color mono sound

[Graham Ritchie]

If you want a film to make you smile then "Airplane" is the one I have screened this Marketing 3/400 so many times, but never get bored watching it. Last night, it again to to the air, I have to say the color has held up really well over the years in this print, as for the sound, you can't fault it. One number is "Stayin Alive" from the Bee Gees....brilliant stuff

[Lee Mannering]

CURSE OF THE DEMON (aka Night of the Demon)

Used to have this on Standard 8 as a child (if ever I grew up!) and it scared the hell out of me. Anyway this was Super 8 silent which I magnetic striped and recorded the sound onto it edited. Makes a nice keep sake from the early 70's and still find it a bit haunting.

A good print from the USA

[Steve Carter]

Ah, Night of the Demon 1957 Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, and Niall (Zeus) MacGinnis, one of my favourite pictures from the first time I saw it when I was a lad. It's what you don't see that makes this a atmospheric picture, the mind can be so powerful at conjuring up images that are not shown, for its time the special effects are good and being shot in b&w adds to the tension, like another favourite of mine The Innocents.

[Stuart Budd]

Night of the Demon was on telly back in the 70s. Watch the smoke spiral down was amazing. Got it on DVD. Having the clatter of a projector and that movie or the old Sherlock Holmes movies would be brilliant. On the hunt!

[Lee Mannering]

A goody.
Used to run the std 8 film on my unbreakable Luch 2 projector, that was my entrance into 8mm in the late 60's. It still works by the way.

[Chip Gelmini]

The bug is back. Thankfully. A few weeks without power and I am relieved the theater is now active!

September 8

Intermezzo

also

Tennesee Partner

😀

[Oliver Feld]

The MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY from Derann made a great sunday afternoon! The pictures don‘t do justice to this breathtaking print!
And… Wow, Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard and Richard Harris; what a cast!
A masterpiece!

[Graham Ritchie]

Brilliant Oliver

I only have the Scope trailer, but the full Super8 feature really would be something.

[Lee Mannering]

Very nice Oliver one of our favourites but only have the trailer scope and the old short. Fun tho.

Carry on Sreaming for us in my top ten S8 features. Vivid Agfa colour and looked excellent on the HID lit Elmo.
That Dress!

[Carter Bradley]

This past Saturday night I hosted my film club with a theme of "Comedy/Happy Endings/Feel Good" movies. The program was (1) Castle Films' 600' Comedy Trio ("What Indians?," "The Reluctant Astronaut," Marx Bros. "The Stowaways"), (2) "The Muppet Movie" (Walton 400'), (3) W. C. Fields' "The Bank Dick" (Universal 8 400'), (4) "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (Piccolo 300' plus the two Disney Super 8 Home Movies 200' extracts, "Whistle While You Work," and "The Dwarf's Dilemma.") I edited these three reels in the correct order, and the audience thoroughly enjoyed hearing Snow White speak fluently in English and German! (5) "Our Man Flint" (Ken Films' 400'), (6)"Anchors Aweigh" (Ken/MGM 400'), and (7) "The Perils of Pauline" (all four Castle Films' 200' extracts). I am already planning my Halloween program!

[Melvin England]

It would be interesting to see the 1x 600' edit......

( Is this the first time anyone has ever quoted themselves???)

Anyway....

In my last contribution to this topic I noted that I watched my newly acquired full length scope feature of Raise The Titanic and ended with the remark that it would be interesting to see the 600' edit, never thinking I would get to see it unless I spotted a copy at Blackpool or elsewhere.
Then, soon after, up popped a PM from one of our colleagues saying that they have both the scope and flat edits and would I like to borrow them to watch?

So tonight, the man cave witnessed the projection of both 30 minute versions, scope and flat and was really interesting to see how they compared.
My verdict is that, although I am perfectly happy with the full feature, the condensed version is really REALLY good and sticks rigidly to the storyline which flows beautifully and is quite sufficient to tell the tale. Of the two, I would certainly recommend the scope version over the flat one. Although the edits are the same, there are instances in the flat of people talking to each other off screen either side of the frame, and certainly two instances where someone was pointing to important information on a wall chart which was just missing. The impact of the ship re-surfacing didn't have the same impact either.

The fact that I was able to give this screening at all just shows the great comradeship that is being created amongst forum members, to which I am grateful. I wont name names but that person knows who they are and to him I send my thanks.

( Viewing the flat version and noting the missing frame information has made me think just how much better it would be if my flat Poltergeist feature was scope! One day......... One day.......!)