What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[Douglas Meltzer]

Joe 90 - Joe the Pilot

The first episode of Gerry Anderson's TV series about a 9 year old spy who gets brain downloads. Supermarionation all the way!

[Steve Klare]

In part 2 the filmmaking became a little bit lax here and there, particularly in essentials like focus and composition.

-maybe after the first 10+ cartridges, he was becoming tired!

(Can't blame him: the most I've ever shot in a day is five!)

I've found that often you go someplace to make a film, or you go there to enjoy being there. More than once, I've intentionally NOT made a film for this reason!

[Steve Klare]

Tonight a night of (almost) random grabs off the shelves:

Terminus: A 1961 British Transport film about a day at London's Waterloo Station. It's tempting to call this a "railway film", but it's really not. It's a "people film": all sorts of people are going to all sorts of places for all sorts of reasons. There are military men going off on missions, there are convicted men going off to prison. A couple is going on their honeymoon, and several baggage handlers load a coffin on a train. In the background, all sorts of railway workers keep things going from the men who are operating the switches to the nurse who takes a cinder out of a boy's eye who got a little too close to a steam locomotive. In one fairly disturbing sequence, a little boy is separated from his Mom and in the end rescued by a policeman and reunited with his mother in the station offices. This is all the more disturbing because the little boy wasn't acting: Mom abandoned him for the sake of the camera!

Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway, September 1972, Part 1: Back 52 years ago, some unknown, intrepid soul with a Super-8 movie camera shot a LOT of Kodachrome in the very earliest days of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway. The Denver and Rio Grande had succeeded in getting rid of 64 miles of their 3 foot narrow gauge lines along the New Mexico/Colorado border to a heritage group that became the Cumbres and Toltec. The footage is ancient Kodachrome and is just stunning! The mountain scenery is beautiful and the trains are obviously freshly shopped. If it has been projected a lot, it has been projected very carefully: there's not a mark on it.

I love this because being camera reversal instead of a "print", it is a one of a kind footage of a historic event: the rebirth of a great railroad which continues to this day. I found it and Part 2 on eBay a few years back and I feel privileged to have them in my collection! Something very special about reversal footage is the idea that the film on the reel was actually "there and then", wherever and whenever we are seeing events on screen. (-kind of an eyewitness.)

I'd give our unknown (-and likely deceased) cameraman bonus points if it had sound, but I can't criticize: I've never shot an inch with sound myself! The eye behind the camera may or may not have been a "film guy" in the sense that you or I are. He was most certainly a "train guy" and he recorded a historic event using the latest motion picture technology at hand: Super-8. Some people like this caught the film-bug in the process, others moved to video for the convenience when they could. Maybe it was sensible to go electronic, but maybe it was artistic to stay with film.

To this day, I still like bringing a camera and couple of cartridges when I go to a railroad museum: this is the kind of a film that I may have shot on my own, if I wasn't 2,000 miles away...and ten years old! (I really wanted a movie camera at that age!)

It's ALSO tempting to call this one a "railway film", and in this case it very much IS!

Tomorrow: Part 2!

[Graham Ritchie]

True about timing Steve, Gary was brilliant to deal with always helpful, good times.

[Steve Klare]

Sounds good to me...

-its about time I watched my own!

I wrote to Derann in the later years and asked Gary Brocklehurst if they had any new "480" prints in stock, he wrote back "No, but a nice used print just arrived.".

-timing is everything! I wonder if not for that lucky accident if I'd ever have gotten the chance to see this film.

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night "Ride Of The 480"

[Steve Klare]

A Mystery Reel!

I was organizing some stuff when I found a 400 Ft. case and full reel. It was interesting: Super-8 sound on a Standard-8 Reel. This means I have never projected it because none of my sound machines can mount an R8 reel. My editor can, so I ran the first couple of feet and saw it was a Stooges Short!
This is actually the first Three Stooges we have ever had here. Maybe because my Mom forbade me from watching them when I was a little kid! (-some "violence....thing!") -So it's always had the allure of forbidden fruit! I've wanted to for a long time, but I've just never gotten around to picking any!
The film was Uncivil Warriors (1935): the Stooges are Union (ummmm...) "Intelligence" Agents infiltrating a Confederate headquarters and learning what their military capabilities are. Naturally, nothing that happens came out of any Army field manual! (-to say the least!)
I found a spare 400 foot 8mm reel (-of the proper persuasion!), spliced on some black leader after some white leader and we enjoyed it tonight! We agreed this one is CineSea Worthy and after years of enjoying Stooges Shorts there (Mom would understand!), maybe it's time to have a horse in that particular parade!

-but the mystery remains! How in 2024 did an unknown Super-8 film magically appear like this? Was it part of a pile of reels I picked the obvious gems out of and since this one wasn't marked, did I shove it to the side? Did I actually buy it and forget? (...I sure HOPE not!). It was in my house, so I guess it's my film. I don't remember paying for it, so I guess that makes it kind of...free!

[Chip Gelmini]

I got my latest brand new super eight Full length print Yesterday on Saturday, June 22 gorgeous color from the J-E-F FILMS REG'D library 1960s the time machine

[Steve Klare]

I have the German Language Piccolo Das Boot. There is no language barrier here: when you have a bunch of guys in a damaged submarine up to their necks in seawater screaming in terror, there is no translation necessary!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Steve,

I've watched the German version. I will soon start matching up the audio for re-recording into English.

[Steve Klare]

Doug?

Hast du Die Augen der Laura Mars auf Englisch oder Deutsch ausgesehen?

(Es würde leichter auf Englisch für uns sein!)

I like buying German language prints on eBay US: there is never much of a battle!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Eyes of Laura Mars Piccolo Film 2x400'

[Osi Osgood]

We watched a fairly rare cartoon on super 8 that I just acquired, "Mickey (mouse) plays Santa". A short, slightly edited black and white gem. Rarely ever seen this one on Super 8.

[Graham Ritchie]

After the blu-ray last night I found time to again screen this one straight after, I never get tired watching it

[Chip Gelmini]

Over the past weekend I settled down and watched two great movie musicals. A Star is Born from the early 40's; then on the next night I watched the early version of Till the Clouds Roll By.

They just don't make movies like this anymore.......excellent screenings despite the brown copper fade. Everything super 8 sound.