What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[Melvin England]

..... so it is a fairly "recent" print as far as super 8 goes. The "There Ain't Nothin' Like a Dame" would be fantastic, particularly if it was also in stereo (appreciate this copy won't be) as the stereo separation of the singing voices on the soundtrack cd is massive. I would have thought that either "Bali Hai" or " I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair" would have been a more suitable second choice. But hey! I am now on the look out.......!

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Melvin

I had a look at a old Derann trailer list it includes "South Pacific" new at-14 pound.

Under musicals not trailers..."South Pacific" "1958" reel, "There's Nothing like a Dame" and "Honey Bun" 1/200ft Col Scope price code "E" ie 25.99 pound Year, 2006-2007.

[John Armer]

I watched a 600ft reel of HOLLYWOOD: THE DREAM FACTORY. Nice colour but a few marks from the master. A good documentary about MGM. Who put this out? It's the sort of thing Perry's might have released, but I suspect Derann got the negative from somewhere - Red Fox?

[Melvin England]

Thanks for the info Graham.

I did not know about the 200' scope version at all. I will certainly look out for it. I do recall, however, that at one of Ged's interview events at Blackpool in either 2022 or 2023, he did mention that one of his biggest regrets was not being able to secure the rights to release South Pacific as a full length feature (although I do believe there are a few really decent copies originating from Italy) therefore did not expect to hear about this one from you.

Interesting to note that my original trailer, the one splattered with on screen reviews from celebrated film reviewers, came in a Derann box. My new one was just in a plain box. It surprises me that of the two, Derann chose to release the less favourable "review" version as the second version is far better, unless they released BOTH, or the box was swapped before I bought it?
.

[Graham Ritchie]

Nice selection there Melvin, regarding "South Pacific" Derann did release a nice 200ft Scope reel, here are a couple of earlier screen shots well worth looking out for.

[Melvin England]

Earlier this week my latest Ebay purchase dropped through the letter-box, so I thought it would be a good idea to test it this evening before leaving feedback. It was two musical trailers on one 200' spool.

Oklahoma - 1x 75' Trailer

South Pacific - 1x 75' Trailer - Now I know I already have the trailer, which I have viewed several times recently (like last week), BUT this trailer is completely different to my first one. My original one has reviews from various people splattered across the screen as bits of the film run in the background. This one concentrates on scenes and songs from the film...... and is far better in my opinion. So, let me confirm, there are at least TWO different non-anamorphic widescreen trailers out there for this film. Both this and the Oklahoma trailer had good colour so the seller will get favourable feedback.

But now, onto the real reason I cranked up the projector this evening. As it is Christmas I wanted to spend some time in the company of four great lads. I'm not mentioning any names but you will know full well who they are......


Help - 1x 60' Trailer

Yellow Submarine - 1x 100' Trailer

A Hard Day's Night - 1x 50' Trailer

The Making of A Hard Day's Night - 1x 100'

Mod Odyssey - 1x 300' - I think there has been some bits added to this reel as there are obvious signs of two types of film makes being used.

A Hard Day's Night - 5x 600' - I know this film does not run that long to warrant 5 reels....but that is what it came on.... brand new, originally.



Was it a great night ?


yeah! Yeah ! YEAH!

[Steve Klare]

I remember that “Sinbad”!
-Friday Night Feature at the Ocean Holiday years ago!

[Douglas Meltzer]

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Columbia 4x200' silent. I have the feature, but I wanted to revisit one of my favorite cutdowns. Columbia did a great edit job on this one.

[Melvin England]

After savouring the delights of 16mm the last two weeks, it was back to super duper 8 tonight.

The line up was as follows....

South Pacific - 1x 60' Trailer - Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor. I know I saw it a few weeks ago... but .. so what !!

The Sting - 1x 75' Trailer - A very faded but good trailer to the corking Newman / Redford film.

The War of The Worlds - 1x 50' Trailer - The original 1950's version.

Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus - 1x 200' - Well... it's the festive season!

A Walt Disney Christmas - 1x 400' - See above!!!!

The Wizard of Oz - 4x 600' - The Garland classic. I know it is not long enough to justify 4x 600' reels but that is how I got it, with reel 3 only being about 250'. My copy in superb condition.

.

[Lincoln Thorn]

Earlier this week I screened Mickeys Christmas Carol and It's A Wonderful Life for my family at my parents home.

It was a treat to watch with the Christmas tree all lit up.

[Graham Ritchie]

After giving this ST600 good clean, and as it had not run in a long while, I screened three "Look At Life" films on one Eumig 600 foot reel.

1...."Village Of Violins" from1960, although it has some fade its still an interesting film to watch. I bought this print new long ago.
2....."Holiday Camps" 1963 this print came new from Derann and has excellent color and sound.
3....The last of the three L/L is "The Eagles Nest" from 1962, again superb color/sound print.

"Look At Life" films are great to watch.

I took a couple of photos of the projector two days ago, just after screening those above films, it ran well with no problems at all.

[Steve Klare]

Last night (and the night before)

Buster Keaton in Steamboat Bill Jr. This is a 4x400' Blackhawk which was united (-and yet still divided) onto 2x800'. It is a scored print: very theatrical sounding organ music.

This is an absolute classic!

-It's the one where the house collapses behind Buster and the open window in the upper floor ends up falling over and around him. It's said that Buster Keaton broke almost very bone in his body, and seeing him in a movie like this one, that seems entirely plausible!

[Chip Gelmini]

Dec 3rd INTOLERANCE

Dec 7th BIRTH OF A NATION

Absolute classics! Full length with added magnetic score.

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night it was my special edition of "A Walt Disney Christmas" I bought this film new many moons ago, although the color has faded a little bit, its still very much in the ball park. A couple of years I ago I started thinking about removing both the "Santa's Workshop" and "The Night Before Christmas" extracts and replace them with the full length Derann prints that had stunning color. Apart from removing the leader numbers and making the tails shorter I spliced them both into the middle, leaving the original "Toy Tinkers" and the final "Pluto's Christmas Tree" alone. Watching this special edition does look good, although the film is now on a Eumig 600 feet reel. Checking the total footage, it does come to about 425 feet, remember though the original extracts were on acetate film "thicker" and the Derann prints on polyester being "thinner" so footage wise on the reel is not showing that great an increase. Adding those two full length films in the middle gives my old print of "A Walt Disney Christmas" given the viewing experience a boost.

Second film tonight was "The Snowman" on 600 foot. My original purchase from Derann was of a stereo print, many years later I came across the 600 foot mono version locally and it was the mono version I screened last night. The print is in excellent condition with only a tiny bit of fade, The mono sound is very good indeed, I suspect, and it looks like its pre-striped Super 8 film stock, before Derann were forced to do there paste striping after pre-striped film stock was discontinued.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Lincoln,

As am I! Derann put this out in 2005, ending a big gap between full length feature releases. M&C on Super 8mm was the result of a group of Forum members working with Derann to obtain the source material and gather enough pre-orders to make it a viable release. This print is from the first run of 20.