What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[John Burgess]

Last night one of my favourites, Ice cold in Alex, great WW2 story apparently based on a true story. 2hrs 10 mins all in one go. Great cast, John Mills, Anthony Quale , Sylvia Simms and Harry Andrews. Print quality quite good a few lines here and there,who cares when you are watching such a good movie ! Sound quality excellent. I must have watched it a dozen times over the years it’s just one of those films. A few screen shots taken with my mobile phone
John

[Mike Newell]

Hi John

Great movie. Who released that on 8mm was it DCR?

Mike

[John Burgess]

Hi Mike , I bought this feature at the Blackpool convention many moons ago. There were 7 white unmarked boxes on a dealers table. I had a quick look at a few feet of film and couldn’t identify it , the main title follows an intro and I hadn’t pulled out enough film , first glance looked like a war film,The dealer couldn’t answer my questions and had no idea what it was. Go on he said give us a tenner it’s worth it for the reels and boxes. When I got home and viewed it more closely , you can imagine my surprise! So no I have no idea who released it, there is no indication on leaders etc, you may be right about DCR. I can’t tell you how chuffed I was , that’s the beauty of film fairs you never know what you might find!
John

[Mike Newell]

You did well there John. Blackpool in the golden days always did turn up gems? It’s not a title that I can recall being about too much . DCR did tend to release a lot of WW2 British films but I could be somebody else maybe Powell or the ones who rented titles like Ritz Films. They always attended Blackpool and sold titles at reasonable prices. Let’s see who chips in with information.

Mike

[Brian Fretwell]

After seeing a You Tube video about it and the Blu Ray I watched the Columbia 400ft of Close Encounters of the Third Kind which had not faded as much as I feared. I had bought it on a Bring and Buy as "Eastman, slight scratches colour fade" but it is still very good in the darker scenes.

[Lee Mannering]

Been nice to join in the 60 years on BOND celebrations at the cinema. We've not been able to make all the screenings thus far but have filled the gaps with our own film prints.
Moonraker Optical sound feature. Pretty shade of pink but back in the day how unique was it to have this on 8 to show to family and friends in your home cinema.

If you want to catch a few at the Kinema the Odeon chain seem to be showing more than The Vue and Cineworld etc.
For Your eyes only at The Vue 28th (Also on S8 Optical sound)
Octopussy 9th July

[Graham Ritchie]

Watched one full 800ft reel of Buck Rogers in the 25th century tonight. On the front it had the 200 footer 2350 7;12 minutes then followed the 2/400 foot version 7000 at 16minutes 7001 at 16;08 minutes.

The date on the print was 1979 still not to bad fade wise, no scratches with good sound. It was a bit of a blast from the past

I don't know if the below link works, but will give it a try

[Osi Osgood]

Boy, I would love to find a copy that looked that good! The fade is not bad at all. Color reproduction could be very hit or miss on those U8 digests anyway. I'm not sure, but I think that there was some footage that could be added from the 200ft, to the 2x400ft. You would do the super 8 crowd quite a help, if you were to put up a YouTube of the whole 2x400 digest!

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Osi

I don't think you-tube will let me do that, its a good idea, but they can come down on you regarding copyright, small extracts are about it that I can hopefully get away with. Just about every up-load to you-tube will have a copyright claim against it for films made by others, most copyright holders seem ok with extracts but they can block it if they really wanted to. My own made videos are not a problem at all, and using you-tube copyright free audio library is good value, providing you name the artist and title in the credit being the only condition.

[Lincoln Thorn]

Just some cartoons!

[Brian Fretwell]

Donald Duck's Dilemmas, Goofy's Golden Gags (both Buck Labs) and The Old Mill (US Print). The colour had held up better than I thought especially on the Donald Duck one. The Old Mill is fading but all colours are still there, a lot of it was mainly the brown wood of the mill anyway, but the birds are still blue, even if not as bright as when new.

[John Burgess]

Angels One Five, WW2 RAF , operations room drama at a Kent fighter station during Summer 1940. Really enjoyable gripping stuff , great print on St 8.

[Osi Osgood]

Graham, people have had the full length 2x400ft digests of Empire Strikes Back up on YouTube for years, and never taken them down, so if you wished to, I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't have a problem with YouTube if you did it.

[Janice Glesser]

John Burgess Terrific print... Really nice contrast.

[John Burgess]

Thanks Janice, it’s funny but b/w to me always suits these war films,colour almost looks over glamorous . I suppose as well most of my features are b/w anyway which suits me, I love that vintage look,colour prints on st8 are pretty rare. Talking of which I shall be screening in the next few days Last train from Gunhlll, a film I haven’t screened for ages , colour just about holding, but a great story line and a good watch.
John