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There are many almost forgotten cinematic masterpieces and when I found William A. Wellman‘s classic WINGS on BluRay 2 years ago I was completely fascinated of the touching story, the outstanding camera ideas and the breathtaking aerial shots. I then asked in the Forum if there is a Super 8 full version. Some collectors replied, there is a cutdown on Super 8 and a Regular 8 full feature. It took two years of waiting and looking for a print and finally some weeks ago, I found it on eBay.com. The price was more than okay and - I missed the auctions ending… But I was lucky: although there were several observers no one bid. The seller re-instaled the film on a lower Buy-it-now option and now I own it. The feature arrived safely from Ohio, USA in Berlin, Germany.
I cleaned the print and today I screened it.
It is a mute print, so I took the soundtrack CD by composer J.S.Zamecnik (which of course is not the complete score).
Of course You cannot compare the BluRay image with Regular 8 and not every reels contrast is perfect, but the print is wonderful and catches all the atmosphere and action, as I know it.
There are 7 reels with all „Paramount“-leaders and tails attached, reel 3 ends with the „Intermission“ card - and to me the film looks complete on 18 frames/second. The sharpness is okay and there are only a handful of title cards which You can’t read because of a too light image.
Also the special effect „bubbles“ which appear in the „Jack sees bubbles“ scenes in Paris are visible crystal clear. Amazing if You think of this really really small Regular 8 format.
As a huge fan of WINGS I can only recommend this print. (Maybe some of my fellow collectors know more about its distributor?) I will keep this feature as a treasure to my collection and gave it metal cans with a design, because there was no original box.
I cleaned the print and today I screened it.
It is a mute print, so I took the soundtrack CD by composer J.S.Zamecnik (which of course is not the complete score).
Of course You cannot compare the BluRay image with Regular 8 and not every reels contrast is perfect, but the print is wonderful and catches all the atmosphere and action, as I know it.
There are 7 reels with all „Paramount“-leaders and tails attached, reel 3 ends with the „Intermission“ card - and to me the film looks complete on 18 frames/second. The sharpness is okay and there are only a handful of title cards which You can’t read because of a too light image.
Also the special effect „bubbles“ which appear in the „Jack sees bubbles“ scenes in Paris are visible crystal clear. Amazing if You think of this really really small Regular 8 format.
As a huge fan of WINGS I can only recommend this print. (Maybe some of my fellow collectors know more about its distributor?) I will keep this feature as a treasure to my collection and gave it metal cans with a design, because there was no original box.
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