What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[Osi Osgood]

What might be our last reel before we move, we watched, again, the Blackhawk release of, "The Silent Partner", starring Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown, Bob Hope, Zazu Pitts, and many of the silent film stars that were still around as of the Mid 50's. Buster stars as a washed up actor, hanging out in a saloon, watching on TV, as people he made stars, are now on top. It does some great going back in time, showing how "Buster" became a star, and some of the stunts are quite impressive, being that Buster was already in his early 60's by the mid 50's. I believe it was called the CBS Playhouse, and it is a self contained, full story. For Buster fans, I really do recommend it.

[Steve Klare]

I once bought a really sleazy DVD of The Railrodder off E-bay, and the The Railrodder in of itself was so awful (transfer of a very experienced library print, I think) that I wound up buying the official DVD from the National Film Board of Canada. (-much better!)

The Silent Partner is on that same bogus DVD, and I liked that part of it enough I kept the disk!

Buster very quickly became my favorite Silent Era star once I saw a few of his films.

Buster Keaton - The Art of the Gag

[Graham Ritchie]

Finished tonight with "Once Upon A Mouse" this print I bought second hand from the Derann list, the print was excellent but let dowm by the sound quality, after owning it for a couple of years I thought I would ask the good folk at Derann if they could re-record the sound track for me. The end result was, a really nice print with very good sound.

[Steve Klare]

NOTE: by 2/3 majority, this was an 8mm Show!

Tonight:

Faces of Man: Germany (Kodak Pageant)
Singin' in the Rain (Just the Songs) (ELMO ST-1200HD M)
Night Mail (ELMO ST-800M)

-Sometimes I plan these things, sometimes they just kind of happen. (This was a "just happen" night.)

The simultaneous dual gauge, three reel, triple different machine rewind at the end went much better than any reasonable gambler would ever expect! (I think maybe next time I'll do two and then the third!)

[Douglas Meltzer]

I watched lots of Ken Films 50 footers, still deciding which ones to edit together and sound stripe.

I was a Teenage Werewolf
War of the Colossal Beast
The Spider
The Giant Behemoth
The Monster That Challenged the World
Trog
First Spaceship on Venus
The Beast with Five Fingers
The Thing
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster
Battle of the Monsters (Ghidrah part one)
Rodan
Godzilla vs, the Thing
Master of Terror
Mighty Joe Young
I was a Teenage Frankenstein



Love those boxes!

[Chad Pagel]

I watched lots of Ken Films 50 footers, still deciding which ones to edit together and sound stripe.

I was a Teenage Werewolf
War of the Colossal Beast
The Spider
The Giant Behemoth
The Monster That Challenged the World
Trog
First Spaceship on Venus
The Beast with Five Fingers
The Thing
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster
Battle of the Monsters (Ghidrah part one)
Rodan
Godzilla vs, the Thing
Master of Terror
Mighty Joe Young
I was a Teenage Frankenstein


Love those boxes!

The graphic art of those back in the day are priceless. I love it.

[Douglas Meltzer]

I picked six Ken 50' films that I'll splice together and add sound to. These are some of Ken's better edited ones.

The Giant Behemoth - Like the 200' version, this one starts with the monster capsizing the ferry. Then it cuts to the sub firing the torpedo and killing the beast.

The Spider - Despite what it says on the box, the title is Earth vs. The Spider. Mostly footage of the giant spider attacking the town. No real ending, but fun to watch!

Trog - The 200' cutdown is nicely done and so is this 3 minute edition.

Frankenstein's Cat - Fun Mighty Mouse cartoon, Works fine as a 50' film.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf - Starts with the transformation in the gym, then it ends with the confrontation in the doctor's office.

War of the Colossal Beast - The film that teaches us if you grab high voltage transmission lines you will just....vanish.

These will be shown at CineSea 25 next week. I loved these 50 footers as a kid (still do!). The 200' silent releases were $5.95 back then. The shorter ones were only $1.95!

[Melvin England]

My first Saturday night film show for ages. At least it is dark at a sensible hour now to enable the room to be totally dark which is always best for super 8.

It was a bit of a strange one today, because when I woke up this morning, the film was not in my possession. It arrived on the doorstep late morning so I just had to thread it tonight and see what it looked like..... apart from the fact I had never seen it before.

So.....

1x 400' - Mickey Mouse - The First 50 Years. (not the one mentioned above).

2x 800' - We Dive At Dawn - John Mills in a submarine war adventure to blow up a brand new German destroyer. Good film. Although there were very few scratches and the sound quality good, the picture was a little too contrasty for my liking. I like it a bit softer.

Earlier on in the day I checked through 3 other films and took screen shots of them prior to selling on Ebay UK. Not mentioning the titles but suffice to say they don't surface very often on sales lists and should be live by Sunday evening UK time.

[Zack Sporre]

We watched Dog Heaven which has some heavy themes for my kids 🤣

[Zack Sporre]

A faded Niles Film print of Notes To You. Although the color is mostly gone I am nostalgic to this short as it was one of the few cartoons my grandma had on VHS and I loved watching it as a kid.

[Dominique De Bast]

Following a minor surgery last week, I was advised not to lift anything heavy until Tuesday (when they will remove the threads), so I only projected with my GS 1200 that was already on place. I used to vary the projectors very often in order to keep them runing but a forum member wrote once that he used the same projector for several films then tool another one and so on. I found it a good idea to preserve my back (I have several heavy machines), so not bad to "have to" use the GS 1200. It's a modified machine with large arms, a 250 w lamp and a 2/3 blade shutter. I've just watched "Eyes Of Youth", a 1919 (silent, of course) film in which Rudolph Valentino plays a small role. The film is about a woman that is offered to see what would happen in her future with three different choices, which is, I believe, not a usual subject for a silent film (although, I read on Wikipedia that there has been a silent remake in 1927 with Gloria Swanson). Yesterday, I watched Orchids And Ermine (1927) with Coleen Moore and...Mickey Roney. The story is mainly the classical master/valet exchange. The preeceding days, I screened also Love, Loot and Crash (1915), a Mack Sennett classic comedy Harold Lloyd played a small role in it but I read that after having watched the film and I confess I didn't recongnized him), The Perfect Clown (1925), with Larry Semon (and Oliver Hardy !) ; I must admitt I didn't understand the link with the title and the subject (from Wikipedia : "The story is about a clerk who is given $10,000 to deposit at the bank, but the bank is closed for the night so he tries to get to the bank president's house with the money."). I also watched two sound films (with the blade shutter st on "2" , which, as you know, gives more light ; unlike other projectors with the same modification, the access to the blade shutter is not so easy to change from 2 blades to three and vice versa so it's better not mixing 18fps and 24fps films, I my case I didn't know I would project "so many" silent films with this projector but the 250 watts lamp and the 1.0 lens gives a bright picture, even with a three blade shutter, so it was nice to "be forced" to use the GS1200 during one week. Heart Of The West (1936), a western with Wiliam Boyd is one of the two sounds films I watched, the other is the British film The Card (1952), with the young Petula Clarck. It seems that The Card was retitled The Promoter in the US.

[Brian Fretwell]

Nice choices there Dominique. I also agree that moving gs1200s when you still have stiches in is not a good idea. I've give it at least a week after they are removed too.

[Dominique De Bast]

Thanks for the advise, Brian. I intended to swich the GS with my Buckingham 9.5 but it may indeed be wiser to wait a few days more. Anyway, I will travel to Paris on Thursday to attend the friday 9.5 special projection, so I can wait. Yesterday night, I watched Take The Money and Run, with Woody Allen. My copy is sharp but fading. As it sometimes happens, some scenes are almost completely red while others are not affected at all. I may send the film to Alberto in Italy for a rescue. I will check one or two other films to save post costs by sending two big spools at the same time.

[Osi Osgood]

Well, "Notes To You', was originally a black and white cartoon to begin with, so faded color isn't much of an issue. I watched my films, sitting in a big pile, since I have not been able to unpack my projectors yet, from our move, but they are watched! Hah!

[Lee Mannering]

Take care Dom and hope you are back to full form REEL soon. Had a lump thing removed... upside a rather pretty surgeon.

Having finished dubbing S8 over a couple of days it's time to get some S8 on the screen.

Started digging out some of my purchases from the early 70's. Early Derann feature and later video nasty Night of the bloody apes was the start of it all pink red but still nostalgic. Seem to remember Derek saying he shouldnt sell it to me as i was too young. The new Blu Ray is worth a watch as well.
Copacabana 8 reeler over the weekend then Night of the big heat on Std 8 sound printed in the late 60's.

Film is such a wonderful thing as are the friends we make along the way.