What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Graham Ritchie]

The blu-ray picture quality of "The Caine Mutiny" is an improvement over the previous DVD release and well worth getting. I did post some screen shots of it in the past on this topic. Humphrey Bogart performance is outstanding as the Captain, I would say one of his best.

Regarding the Super 8 release, as with some other Columbia titles, there were some with a running time of 20 minutes. My copy of "Born Free" was one example, Iver films also released a 21 minute version would you believe on a 400ft reel of "Call Of The Wild" which I had years ago, that was a good edit and a nice color print.

Anyway back to Columbia, prints of "The Caine Mutiny", Bill Davidson did a review of it in "Movie Maker" May 1976, "Mountain Films" in which he states, quote "A good story, well edited, with excellent sound, however, tends to orange and blue".

That might have been around the time of many complaints of the English labs not up to scratch compared with US imported prints. The running time is stated in his review as 20 minutes.

[Ed Gordon]

The blu-ray picture quality of "The Caine Mutiny" is an improvement over the previous DVD release and well worth getting. I did post some screen shots of it in the past on this topic. Humphrey Bogart performance is outstanding as the Captain, I would say one of his best.

Regarding the Super 8 release, as with some other Columbia titles, there were some with a running time of 20 minutes. My copy of "Born Free" was one example, Iver films also released a 21 minute version would you believe on a 400ft reel of "Call Of The Wild" which I had years ago, that was a good edit and a nice color print.

Anyway back to Columbia, prints of "The Caine Mutiny", Bill Davidson did a review of it in "Movie Maker" May 1976, "Mountain Films" in which he states, quote "A good story, well edited, with excellent sound, however, tends to orange and blue".

That might have been around the time of many complaints of the English labs not up to scratch compared with US imported prints. The running time is stated in his review as 20 minutes.

That is very interesting Graham. I didn't realize there were so many versions of digests released back in the day. My copy was in the classic yellow generic box with stickers on the front for titles and catalog numbers. Here is a photo of the box I found on an old post:



You had to make your own spine labels with title and running time. On my copy I had written the actual run time as 21 minutes.

As for the quality of the image, the development process is critical. When I worked at Technicolor we would play with different developer formulas to produce very fine grain images which required extending the development time as I recall. I used to buy double eight film stock which I used to fill the 25 foot double eight reels and then develop and split them myself. I still have some old B&W 8mm films that are so grainy, they are barely watchable.

[Mike Newell]

Main problem with the Caine Mutiny is the use of stock footage which rings true with Enemy Below and Flying Leatherneck. Enemy Below Blu ray is still disappointing but Flying Leathernecks is an improvement.

It would be quite interesting to get exact timing on Caine Mutiny 8mm. Did Columbia prints have acres of clear leader at the start I seem to remember that from some of their releases where like that. Major Dundee , Bridge on the River Quai and Lawerence of Arabia were less than 20 minutes. Could be a case there was a more generous US release and UK release. Did Portland / Mountain distribute for them?

Ironic, if Columbia did release 20 minute 400s as most of their prints have turned and or suffer verbal overdose from a enthusiastic commentator.

[Ed Gordon]

...It would be quite interesting to get exact timing on Caine Mutiny 8mm. Did Columbia prints have acres of clear leader at the start I seem to remember that from some of their releases where like that. Major Dundee , Bridge on the River Quai and Lawerence of Arabia were less than 20 minutes. Could be a case there was a more generous US release and UK release. Did Portland / Mountain distribute for them?

My 400 foot reel of Caine is full, but still has a little less than 1/4" space left on the reel. It does have the full original leader for reel one on it with the countdown leader. The timing I did way back then did not include the leader.

I pulled out my Columbia Classic print of On the Waterfront, and it is filled to the reel edge. It runs 24 minutes. There is a sticker in the box that says:

1954
1976
500 Ft

I also looked at some 400 footers from Ken Films and Fox and they are much shorter. Columbia seems to have been more generous with run times that others (at least within my collection). The shortest Columbia print I have runs 19 minutes.

[Mike Newell]

Fascinating Ed, never knew On the Waterfront ran to 24 minutes..Wonder do any other Columbia releases run that length?

[Ed Gordon]

Great question Mike. I started a new topic for it at

https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/vbb/f...-own#post65980

[Mike Newell]

The Damned. A rare Hammer sci-fi movie directed by Joseph Losey and featuring a very young Oliver Reed. Interesting movie with scientists experimenting with children who have been exposed to radiation and can now survive a nuclear war but are deadly to all those they come into contact. Similar to Children of the Damned except the children are the victims. Downbeat ending but interesting watch. Oliver simply eats the screen when he features and 1964 Weymouth is like from a time capsule. Great print restored. Full length with US and UK versions.

[Graham Ritchie]

I first watched "This Is It" at Reading cinemas and enjoyed it, Two nights ago I projected the blu-ray using the Epson VP. One particular number for me that really stands out is "Earth Song" the visuals that go with are very impressive.

[Mike Newell]

A mystery film that was sitting on one of my shelves. Obviously, I’ve bought it watched it once and forgotten about it. Likely the Spanish title didn’t help.

Anyway, it’s The Black Sleep a vintage horror movie from 1956. A variation of the mad scientist story with a doctor who has developed a Black Sleep portion that imitates death. He has plans to do brain surgery to save his girlfriend and do medical research to save thousands of lives. Needless to say it doesn’t work out

Crackerjack cast Basil Rathbone as the mad doctor Bela Lugosi in his last complete movie, Lon Chaney as mad mute monster Mungo an earlier failed experiment , John Carradine and big Tor Johnston from Plan 9 from outer space also feature. Quite brutal and morbid at the end but good viewing. Similar to later American International films.

Good transfer on Blu ray

[Graham Ritchie]

Sunday night at the movies with "Zulu" 1964, I first watched this film in the old "La Scala" cinema in Dunoon, Scotland, during the summer of either 1964 or 65 can't remember exactly which summer, but do remember "Zulu". The film is a fact based account of the British stand against overwhelming odds of Zulu's in the Battle of "Rorke's Drift" 1879 South Africa.

Filmed in 70mm, the transfer to blu-ray is really outstanding. Although "Michael Caine" gets the mention on the front cover, The film "Zulu" really belongs to producer/actor "Stanley Baker", the man responsible for it.

One thing that does annoy me a we bit, is the spoken introduction by Richard Burton gets cut short, that's a pity. Apart from that, the fact that most of the film was actually shot in Natal, South Africa with real Zulu's. Its an outstanding production, in later years upon Stanley Baker death, the chief of the Zulu nation was to pay a tribute to him.

Anyway here are a couple of earlier screen shots, for me there are some films that have stood the test of time, well "Zulu" for me is one of them.

[Brian Fretwell]

Ken Wilton showed one reel in 35mm at a GBBF one year (I think it was a Technicolor IB print). That was of great quality.

[Mike Newell]

The Zulu Blu ray is a big upgrade from DVD. Well Recommended.

[Mike Newell]

Rio Grande Blu Ray upgrade from Eureka. Big improvement from the DVD. Still a few grainy soft focus moments but it is an old movie. Good western could live without Sons of Pioneers moments but Ken Curtis was Ford’s son in law so nepotism rules.

[Richard Bock]

They Live By Night-1948 (Criterion Blu-Ray) My favorite film noir, directed by Nicholas Ray. Based on the novel, Thieves Like Us. Howard da Silva gives a memorable supporting role performance. His line "We're gonna look and act like real people" is one for the ages. Actually all the supporting performances are memorable!Kathy O'Donnell in one of the leads will melt your heart

[Graham Ritchie]

Watching a bit of American culture the other night

Spider pig Spider pig... remember the song from the movie still have the 35mm trailer somewhere.

I wonder where the 35mm print we ran went