What is the longest runtime for 400 foot digests prints you own?

[Ed Gordon]

A few of us have been discussing 400 foot digest print run times over in the What bluray did you watch posts starting with post #926.

What is the longest running digest you know of?

Mine is a Columbia digest of On the Waterfront which runs 24 minutes. It is 500 feet long on a 400 foot reel.

[Mike Newell]

Great thread Ed. It would be interesting to see some other members responses. I wasn’t aware that On the Waterfront ran for 24 minutes. I have seen digest on a 400 reel and assumed it last the traditional 18-20 minutes. As discussed, this appears to be a Columbia phenomenal so were two versions issued. Longer versions in the US with shorter versions released in the UK.

Mike

[Ed Gordon]

RE: "Longer versions in the US with shorter versions released in the UK", I would have thought the longest versions to be from UK. I am under the impression that UK film buffs are more committed than US counterparts. We have Scarecrow video in my area, which says:

Scarecrow Video is the largest independent video store in the country with over 120,000 individual titles available for rent. We have everything from the latest new releases on Blu-ray (lots of them in 3D too) & DVD to rare and out-of-print films only available on VHS and Laserdiscs. We also have video games for Xbox 360, Wii, and Playstation 3 for rent.

Anytime I am looking for anything special, I will check with them, and they often tell me, "we have that title on order from the UK, check back with us in a few weeks..."

[Mike Newell]

It’s a bit of give and take. In the 8mm word we had to put up with edited/ butchered Tom & Jerrys and Laurel and Hardy’s from Walton whilst the US had full length versions from Ken and Blackhawk. Also, full length features were available from Universal 8 and Marketing that never turned up until video arrived. True Grit being an example.

[Brian Fretwell]

I have read here (I think) that Mountain Films, when they printed US titles in the UK would cut them even more to save money on film stock and processing, not only cutting running time but as a new printing negative would need to be made they went down a generation too.

[Mike Newell]

I heard that too Brian. That explains variations in print The term Jumbo version sticks in my head. Was that the longer version. Other dealers also bootlegged other official releases as well.

[Osi Osgood]

This tends to be a "Columbia Oddity", in that, even the runtime of they're cartoons would be different, based upon country. For instance, the U.S. Flintstone super 8 400ft releases were approximately 20 to 22 minutes, where the U.K. digests of the same title would be a paltry 15 minutes!

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Osi

All our Columbia prints that came here in NZ were imported from the US, "Born Free" came as a full 400ft reel giving the running time as 20 minutes as an example. I am surprised to hear that might not be the case in the UK, to be honest I can't imagine there would be any difference. Bill Davidson in his "Moviemaker" reviews would add the running times and "Born Free" as an example has the same running time in the UK as here.

[Osi Osgood]

Maybe someone can clarify as to whether this was just a case of the cartoons, and not the average digests.

[Barry Attwood]

I think some of Iver Film Services 400' releases ran in excess of 20 minutes, I know the 400' of "Call of the Wild" was at least that, as I've actually had it in on a 600' reel, as there was so much acetate stock on the 400' reel.

[Brian Fretwell]

Hi Osi

All our Columbia prints that came here in NZ were imported from the US, "Born Free" came as a full 400ft reel giving the running time as 20 minutes as an example. I am surprised to hear that might not be the case in the UK, to be honest I can't imagine there would be any difference. Bill Davidson in his "Moviemaker" reviews would add the running times and "Born Free" as an example has the same running time in the UK as here.

Bill Davidson always said that the US prints were better than the UK ones of such titles and if both were available he advised looking for the former.

[Mike Newell]

I remember when Erne Films were around they distributed movies films from a wide range of companies and there were two types of Flintstones releases available shorter UK versions and longer US versions.

[Melvin England]

A great value for money 400' (and a great edit) is Airport '75 with an official running time of 18'53"

Not the longest running 400' in the world, but one of the "Guduns !" *



* Good ones

[Osi Osgood]

The scope digest of "Silver Dream Racer", from Derann Films, comes in at over 20 minutes. With the full leader, it nearly comes up to the very edge of that 400ft reel. It's not a great film, but it's certainly worth the price of admission for those well staged race sequences in scope!

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Brian

I still have all my Film Making and Moviemaker magazines and look through them every so often. Bill Davidson was one of the highlights to read in Moviemaker, his reviews of films were very good. If I remember right the English labs did improve in time and I think he was to mention that somewhere later on, but there was always a strong following for the imports from the US from collectors.

Melvin

I bought Airport 75 when it came out and like you thought it was one of the "Guduns" . That same 400 footer was also released in Scope you could get from the Widescreen Centre. I wish I had got it but never did. Airport 75 was an excellent edit and if I remember right the print quality was good to. Sadly I think most if not all U8 have now faded away .