What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[Paul Adsett]

.... 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.......!

I also have that scope highlight print from South Pacific and I agree with Melvin that there could have been a much better choice than Honey Bun for the second segment of this great 200ft reel. Nevertheless the print quality of this whole Derann reel is excellent, with pin sharp focus and rich saturated color. I have re-recorded the whole reel in stereo and, as Melvin thought, the Dames number is absolutely stunning now, with great audio clarity and stereo separation. So now its one of my very favorite short reels.
I also have the letterboxed original trailer reel which is also excellent, and also now re-recorded in stereo. So together these two reels are a great representation of the film.

[Steve Klare]

Maybe 10 years ago my Mom was visiting and I showed her some films. One of 'em was some random Castle short: I don't even remember which one anymore. Mom worked at Universal on Park Avenue in the Castle Films Division. She programmed stone-aged computer systems to send consignments of Castle Films to retailers. She quit just before I was born.

She thanked me for showing her that: 50+ years later, it was her first one! It seems the whole time Castle Films had never set up a projector and showed 'em a reel! Now, maybe it's just me, but (for example) if I owned a bakery, I'd let the people who worked the cash registers or did deliveries have a box of donuts a couple of Fridays a month: just to give 'em the big picture of what the company does! (-Make 'em proud!)

Why did it have to come to the kid she quit Castle Films to bring into the World ending up being the one to finally show her a Castle Short? (Good LORD! -was this my sole-purpose in being here at all?!......-now what?! )

The even bigger story here is I also showed her that same Derann South Pacific Promo Reel. She really enjoyed watching it and she told me something I'd never heard before: When she and my Dad were still teenagers, he took her to see South Pacific on Broadway as their first date. (-benefit of not going to college: he was nineteen years old and possessed actual money!)

Mom is gone some years now. If it wasn't for that one night there's no way I'd ever have learned that singular fact about my parents. I told my sister: she didn't know either!

Is it possible, that among the many reasons we show people films is just to get them talking?!

[Brian Fretwell]

Yesterday, after watching Casablanca on TV I just had to put on the Bugs Bunny version "Carrotblanca".

The BBC also showed "What's Up Doc" the Ryan O'Neal/Babra Streisand film which also features the song "As Time Goes By", coincidence???

[Douglas Meltzer]

Knock on wood!

[Osi Osgood]

That was a wonderful story, Steve.

[Melvin England]

Now the festivities are in the past, time to crawl back into the Man Cave for my Saturday night entertainment and what was my final show of the year.

It consisted of......


(No South Pacific in any shape or form!!!)

Royal Wedding - 1x 75' Trailer - Fred Astaire and Jane Powell

My Blue Heaven - 1x 75' Trailer - Betty Grable

Calamity Jane - 1x 50' Trailer - Doris Day

Saturday Night Fever - 1x 100' Trailer(s) - Both the trailer and the teaser.

Muhammad Ali v Leon Spinks - 1x 400' - The boxing match that Ali actually LOST.

Rocky - 5x 600' - Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith.


.

[Jason Ewing]

I'm new to the forum and the only film I have is home movies from my childhood. If anyone has duplicate films they would like to pass along for a reasonable price, it would be great to have a few to run through my projector.

[Lincoln Thorn]

Screened EMPIRE STRIKES BACK for my family this evening.

[Brian Fretwell]

Derann's "import" 400ft of Taste the Blood of Dracula" and what I thought was the first part of the Derann 3x400ft of The Road to Bali followed by part 3. When checking further I found the first part must have been from a US full feature release as it is a Cine Magnetics print. Still with a "Road" film the fact that a lot is missing doesn't spoil the jokes.

[Melvin England]

No film shows in the Man Cave for the last 4 or 5 weeks or so. The reason is that I have just been on a trip...... across the pond, no less ! No, it wasn't to the USA on this occasion, but much further south. I was island hopping in the Caribbean visiting such places as St.Kitts, Barbados, St.Lucia, St.Maartens, Grenada, Antigua and several more. As you can guess, it was fantastic. I took a lot of video when there, so I have a huge editing job in front of me....not that I am complaining. Sadly no super 8 though.

Anyway, tonight, it was business as usual up there with the following programme of films....


The Fog - 1x 50' - Trailer

Soda Squirt - 1x 200' - A Flip the Frog cartoon featuring caricatures of Laurel & Hardy, The Marx Brothers, Mae West and others.

Warner Brothers 25th Anniversary - 1x 200' - A Who's Who of stars on their books all those years ago.

Star Trek - "Space Seed" - 3x 400' - The one with Ricardo Montalban as Khan, who re-appeared in the film Star Trek II

The Ghost of St.Michaels - 4x 400' - Will Hay comedy also starring a very young Charles Hawtrey.

.

[Brian Fretwell]

A few trailers for me too. Robin Hood (Errol Flynn) just arrived new from CHC, the re-release trailer - low grain and great colour. Phil said that due to delays he had cancelled the order with the lab but they actually arrived so were mentioed in the last newsletter. Also Two Gone with the Wind trailers, one the original, one the re-release trailer for the 70mm stereo version (which has much better colour.

[Graham Ritchie]

Gave the GS1200 a run last night with my favorite Scope reel, all the following films are on one Elmo 1200ft reel, with "The Never Ending Story" due out soon from Imprint, which I must add I wont be getting as its very expensive which I should add has everything in in it except the kitchen sink, well almost. I thought I would run the old Derann print I bought from them long ago. I did start to think that this print had slight fade 20 odd years ago but to date it still looks the same, so I was wrong. Anyway I still consider this Scope release to be one of the best 600ft digests that Derann released.

A couple of previous screen shots below which includes "She Flies" a must in scope and "Peter Pan" 2005 the live version trl, and of course "Super 8 The Movie" which back in the day we ran both the 35mm prints.

[Douglas Meltzer]

I watched a number of trailers, including one from Steel Valley for the 1946 Stairway To Heaven (A Matter of Life and Death).

[Douglas Meltzer]

Gremlins - Derann 2x600', mono version.

It had been a long time since I last screened this. A very nice print with an excellent edit by Keith Wilton.