What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[Steve Klare]

A couple of years ago, I did something smart, that had just a tinge of dumb to it! My Super-8 200 Footers were outgrowing their storage place, so I decided to pick a category and give it storage of its own. (-seems smart so far...right?)

So I picked out all my Sunday River Productions railroad films and I got them their own perfectly sized tote. They would live together well protected and organized and I'd never have problems finding them when I needed them.

Smart? Well...not entirely! By gathering them all apart from everything else, I've kind of isolated them and I really have to make a conscious effort to watch them: never on a whim. As a result, I often go quite a while without enjoying them (-Dumb!).

These are actually very special to me. I have my home movies: camping with my parents, canoeing with my wife when we were single, hiking with my little boy, who's going to be 20 this summer. Next to this group, these are the most "me" of all the films I own. My very first Super-8 print was a Sunday River, even before I had a machine to show it on. My second, third and all the way through to the ninth were also. (I got a Blackhawk...sooner or later!)

These are wonderful films: all regions of the world, any decade from the 1930s through the 1980s. Color, black and white, silent and sound. (Sadly, no 'scope: what they missed!). Railroads and Railways long gone, in many cases: lost worlds. The photography and scenery are often wonderful: there are often cases you don't even need to particularly like trains to appreciate these films.

What brings us here now is yesterday I picked up my 66th Sunday River print (-after a dry spell of maybe three years), and even before it lands in the mailbox, I felt like celebrating!

I found that accursed tote and picked out seven to watch: it felt good!

Two Foot Gauge in Maine
The Bridgton and Harrison
Narrow Gauge in Portugal parts 1 and 2
Super-Power for the Steep Ones
Revenue Freight
The Complete Silverton

I turned up the sound: maybe felt the trains down in the floor a little!

(Maybe I should find them a shelf!)

[Lee Mannering]

The Ten Commandments

Part one complete part two tonight.
it was in Spanish but put English to it a few decades ago and what a pile of 400ft reels in two boxes.

[Steve Klare]

Tonight, my Sunday River Film Festival continues...

Little Joes and Boxcabs (Electric locomotives of the Milwaukee Road. "Little Joes" were named for Stalin, since these were built for use in the USSR, but were held back due to Cold War shenanigans even after completion.)
Below Zero (Steam heritage operations where the only place to stay warm looked to be right next to the firebox door!)
The films of Otto Perry Parts 2 and 3. (Sad: I had Part 1 on the hook about 10 years ago and somebody sniped me!)

Otto Perry is a very highly regarded railroad photographer these days. He produced a tremendous quantity of great stills and motion pictures of railroads throughout the United States during the late Steam era, most of which still exist (Much of his collection was donated to the Denver Public Library). It goes to show how opportunity presents itself: he basically started out as a mailman who loved trains and cameras!

Part 2 is color and the images survived the years variably. Part 3 is entirely black and white and is awesome to watch!

One thing to watch for in these films, is what happens during really long scenes. Here and there some 30 or 50 car train is pounding past the camera, and as the caboose swings into frame, all of a sudden the train accelerates like a jet plane on afterburner! (-kind of surprising for a narrow-gauge cattle train!). Obviously Otto is using a windup camera and his spring has just run out!

Tonight everything was silent: didn't even power-up my amp!

[Chip Gelmini]

GIGI
Scope full length

[Steve Klare]

It's HERE!

(NOT a screen shot...but close!)

N&W Articulateds Class A showed up a couple of days ahead of schedule yesterday, and I screened it last night.

The Norfolk and Western was a mountain railroad, and a coal railroad. This often meant heavy 100 car trains going up long steep hills. This did some spectacular things to their steam locomotives: they grew to immense sizes. Very common were articulateds: two engine frames under a common, very large boiler with a hinge in-between so they could bend around the curves. They had problems to solve: there are few things more awkward in life than having to stop a 10,000 ton freight train almost at the top of a 5 mile grade to take on water. The odds are excellent you are going to have to back down to the bottom and try again: your momentum is gone and those steel rails are slippery. What the N&W did was have a second tender carrying extra boiler water: just keep going and tank up on the downgrade where it just may actually be smart to stop! The cheap coal available to N&W meant they were among the last US railroads to dieselize: they continued to develop and build new steam engines well after the others gave up. This means these were among the most modern of their kind.

This is one of several N&W films I have. They were shot on 16mm by an amateur filmmaker with a pretty good eye and a taste for Kodachrome. This is a good thing, because the N&W was basically made for color. The scenery is big and green. Their trains were beautiful, especially the passenger ones. They had an absolutely classic streamlined passenger engine which pulled long trains of burgundy coaches. The bonus is that when we watch these films, we are immersed in the 1950s. We see beautifully dressed families standing on the platforms waiting for their trains and all throughout, (now) classic 1950s American cars, in the bright colors they came in are coming and going.

-As much as I love Black and White, this is just not the time and place for it!

The eBay description said "sound". I'll have to admit I was more than a little skeptical at first: none of the other films like this are. I kept an open mind, but as soon as the package warmed up I tore into it and checked the leader: Stripe! I thought "This may get interesting!". Sound there was! -great Big 4 cylinder steam locomotive pounding up and down mountain grades pulling long trains. In my own defense, I had the volume turned up no higher than I would have for Bugs Bunny or Laurel and Hardy, but halfway through the reel a door slammed closed upstairs (I was drowning out the TV: it's hard to keep a freight train quiet!). During the film my skepticism changed over to "Where did the soundtrack come from?", but the answer came at the end. The audio was lifted from commercial recordings of the same engines at work (-back in the day, people bought LPs of these recordings.) So it's a dub, but such a good one that until this title card I had no idea they were doing a Marni Nixon!

-so this is a winner: a nice, visually engaging film in good condition with an impressive soundtrack. It will come with me to CineSea for sure!

[Lee Mannering]

MOSES
Enjoyable UFA Agfa print with Burt Lancaster and more. In German at the moment but we can fix that.

[Dominique De Bast]

The 39 Steps (1935). Just when I was about to mention that projection, here, I heard one of my neighboors (there are five flats per floor) yeling FIRE. I opened the door and saw indeed smoke but we (other neighboors also went out). I called the firemen who arrived quickly (and in number !). It finally appeared that someone had put a fire in one of the large bins used in the 23 floors building. All that at midnight...At least, I enjoyed the 39 Steps

[Chip Gelmini]

January's been quite good so far......

DATE: TITLE: FORMAT: P/MONTH: ASPECT:
1/1 ALAKAZAM THE GREAT S8 1 2.66
1/3 THE ABYSS S8 2 2.66
1/11 THE FOG S8 3 2.66
1/13 2001 A SPACE ODESSY S8 4 2.35
1/19 GIGI S8 5 2.66
1/20 LADY & THE TRAMP S8 6 2.66
1/20 NO BIZ LIKE SHOW BIZ S8 7 2.66

[Oliver Feld]

Alfred Hitchcocks VERTIGO starring James Stewart & Kim Novak… Much more stunning on the big screen and a glorious print.

[Melvin England]

Quite a long night tonight (Saturday) in the Man Cave.


1x 50' Diamond Horse Shoe - Trailer

1x 50' Kiss Me Kate - Trailer

1x 50' The King and I - Trailer

4x 400' Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard (looking pretty in PINK!)

2x 1200' From Russia With Love - Mr. Bond returns after disposing of Dr. No (Optical Sound)

[Stuart Budd]

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. My only Derann print on 600ft reel. CinemaScope, so got a chance to use the 702 and anamorphic lens off Nick. Everything was good and fun. I really do need to get a permanent home for projecting!

That's a damaged 711R on the floor. Broke it's front foot in the post.

Back to the print. The Derann address on the 400ft label included with the 600ft reel had the Derann address without postcode. So can I assume this is from the 1970s. CinemaScope was an added stuck on label. I should take a pick, but packed away. Colour and fade varied but generally good and better when the room was darker. The overall edit wasn't bad. Hadn't seen the movie in years so can't compare but plenty of antics. Into and The End included. Plenty of scratches and speckles to add character. I hadn't cleaned or viewed the film previously.

[Chip Gelmini]

2010
sequel to Kubricks 2001 ASO

[Oliver Feld]

Chip, great photos of a great feature!

[Melvin England]

Another very enjoyable Saturday night up in the Man Cave.

The delights tonight were....


1x 50' The Rock - Trailer - Sean Connery / Nicholas Cage

1x 600' March of The Movies - A superb film covering the birth of the cinema to just beyond the arrival of the talkies. Lots of classic extracts including those first ever words uttered.... by Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer.

1x 600' Hollywood Dream Factory - Documentary about MGM narrated by Dick Cavett which includes an auction of the paddle steamer from Showboat and Dorothy's red shoes (Judy Garland) from The Wizard of Oz. Some extracts from the film and outtakes. Other extracts include Gone With The Wind.

4x 600' Calamity Jane - Doris Day at her outlandish best! It is always wonderful to see a super 8 copy of the film as a first time viewing of it ever. Great stuff !

1x 400' Calamity Jane Promo - Just wanted to see which song and dance routines they left out / edited from the full length. Great stand-alone item.

[Graham Ritchie]

Last week I thought I would screen this one, as its been a while. The print quality is stunning I have the film placed onto two reels so there is only one stop. I bought this film from the Derann second hand list many moons ago

No screen shots from last week, but here are a couple from a previous screening, same print .