Tell Tale Heart

[Frank Commins]

I recently picked up this Std-8 film and thought the note inside the box was kind of cool...

[Douglas Meltzer]

Frank,

I wonder if Columbia was being overly cautious here. This was the first cartoon to be given an X certificate by the British Board of Film Censors. Since it has a darker look than other cartoons at the time, they might have also been worried about complaints that the print was too dark and difficult to see at home.

[Osi Osgood]

Well, even the original color presentation of this cartoon was fairly dark in appearance, but that was certainly intentional. This UPA cartoon was specifically designed to be released in the 3D process, but strangely enough, never released theatrically that way, which is such a shame, as the design would have been quite striking in 3D. As far as I know, sadly, this was only released as a standard 8mm black and white sound edition.

[Frank Commins]

Wow, that's really interesting. I haven't had a chance to watch this print yet, so I'm hoping the years have treated it well. However, either way, your respective comments have made it all the more fascinating...

[Paul Adsett]

This must be it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flKOtXC4oyM

[David Hardy]

Frank i still have a 8mm sound print of this title which i purchased away back in the day . I sometimes screen it in a show along side my Super 8mm sound copy of Tim Burton's ' Vincent ' . One halloween i showed them both as an opener to my 16mm scope feature of Roger Corman's ' Tales Of Terror ' . They all went down a treat with my audience but sadly i no longer have my 16mm print of ' Tales Of Terror ' as it faded badly and a succumbed to the dreaded vinegar syndrome .

[David Hardy]

Osi Tell Tale Heart was also released in as a Super 8mm sound edition too. It is listed as such in the Columbia 1968 / 69 film catalogue . Still it's a shame it never was released as a colour edition too . Just think of the fun we could have had today screening it as a faded to red / pink print . Never mind though we can always stick a red filter gel in front of the lens and get the same effect today when screening the black and white copy .

[Osi Osgood]

Ha! I would like to think that somewhere, in some vault or private collection, there exists a 3D negative that was never used for theatrical prints. Although, it's pretty easy to see what 3D effects would have been used, one could manufacture a 3D version of this for modern release.