It is indeed Paul, I thought Sinatra was a pretty good actor myself, I also liked the Detective, a little long as a feature but a good film.

Week 8, Film 10

The Silence of the Lambs,

This is such a good title to have been released on 8mm. A top quality Derann LPP print with pin sharp image throughout and with belting stereo sound via our old analogue amp, this is a top title guaranteed to keep any audience glued to the screen. Joined onto 2 x 1200ft spools.
The one oddity about this 8mm release is that in a couple of scenes during the early part of the final 600ft reel you clearly see the boom microphone at the top of the picture, you never see this on the DVD or a TV viewing, its very short lived but very clear, any ideas why this is so visible on this release?

Tom, I can only think of the Boom microphone in view is because it was filmed in Open Matte where the film is masked at the projector gate top and bottom. Predator was also filmed like that which is why the Derann release was 4:3 full frame. I don't remember any microphones in shot but there was video information at the bottom of the screen when we see through the predator's eyes.

That is the beauty of film. We at home can see more picture than everyone else, even those paying to see it at the cinema .

Graham S

Looks great, Too bad you can’t mask Super 8 (I assume?) Is it possible to mask an Elmo 16-CL? I have some films with microphones popping down a lot. I remember seeing Once Around, great film with Dreyfuss, but cinema forgot to mask it and it is perhaps the worst I have seen regarding mikes

Thanks for the replies Vidar and Graham, it is quite comical what shows up on a super 8 print, but must repeat, it isn't a downer on the film in anyway or form but it raises a little smile when you see the mic pop in and it is quite clear, I think it happens twice but other than that, it stays out the way as it should do. On the predator print they get away with it more because most people will think its just to do with the view the predator see's.

Week 9, Film 11.
Witchfinder General. Super 8,
This week was another viewing of the 1968 British period folk horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Hilary Dwyer, Robert Russell and Rupert Davies.
The super 8 print released by Walton films was somewhat messed about in the editing process for some odd reason. As well documented in the 8mm world, walton decided to completely remove the pre title sequence which itself sets the mood of the film perfectly, this has been totally removed and this version begins with the end of film credit sequence as the start. We' have always been use to this and no longer take much notice but it makes no sense why Walton did this, Aside this hiccup, the film is fine and our print, on Fuji stock, is holding up well on colour with no fade, we have edited the movie from it's 4 x 400ft onto two 800ft spools.
In addition to the walton feature (and the two 200ft excepts they did), there is also a German 200ft edit which does contain the original opening, unfortunately, they are only in the German language, (no problem for those who can re-record) but also, I believe all of them will be faded to red unless someone can confirm otherwise.

Michael Reeves, the films director was only 24 years old when he made this movie, he died in London a few months after the film's release. After shooting Witchfinder General he was suffering from depression and insomnia, for which he took tablets and received a variety of treatments from medical and psychiatric practitioners. On the morning of 11 February 1969, Reeves was found dead in his bedroom, aged 25, in Cadogan Place, Knightsbridge, by his cleaning lady. The coroner's report stated that Reeves's death (from a barbiturate overdose) was accidental, the dosage being too marginal to suggest intention.

If he was able to make a movie like this in 1968 aged 24, we can only imagine what other films this young director could have given us in his lifetime had he have lived.

Nice one Tom,I remember seeing this one on the big screen ,I’m sure it was on a reissue can’t be sure though.Funnily enough I have a 200 copy with no titles.I use this one to test my machines.I think it came as part of a job lot years back,the colour and sound is still very good.
As you say the director Reeves would undoubtedly have gone on to greater things,it’s quite surprising how many films he had a hand in prior to this one.He was second unit director on one of my favourites The Long Ships with Widmark and Poitier.

I always wanted this. Saw it first on Betamax, have one of the 200’ ones. Almost bought a Black & white 4x400’, but passed on it as I wanted it in colour

Nice one

I have seem a few 16mm full features come up for sale with the weird US title, The conqueror worm!! This quote from wiki seems to explain it, makes no sense to me though,

In the United States, where it was distributed by American International Pictures (AIP), Witchfinder General was retitled The Conqueror Worm (titled onscreen as Matthew Hopkins: Conqueror Worm) by AIP to link it with their earlier series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations directed by Roger Corman and starring Price; because its narrative bears no relation to any of Poe's stories, American prints book-end the film with his poem "The Conqueror Worm" being read through Price's narration.

Unfortunatly, these full feature are usually faded or well on the way. I think after 40 years now I'll just stick with this one. The fully restored disc versions do include extra footage that was cut by the censors, namely the last scene where Ogilvy Kills price with the axe, this is a few seconds longer and does make much more of an impact. Also, there was interior scenes re-shot for the German audiences, allegedly, again, i quote information from wiki.

Several additional nude scenes were filmed during the production. Set in a pub and involving local "wenches", the sequences were reportedly solely intended for the film's German release version. Reeves refused to take part in the filming of these sequences and they were completed by the crew after the initial versions of the scenes had been shot, with Tigon's Tenser acting as director. According to Waddilove, Louis M. Heyward appeared at the location only to ensure those additional scenes were filmed. The credits read, "Additional scenes by Louis M Heyward". According to Ogilvy, this was an in-joke because for Reeves, "additional scenes" meant "some prick of a producer putting his oar in and messing up what the director had done".

Week 10, Films 12 and 13.
Two mini features,
Airplane and The Warriors

This week with only me viewing I decided to view two mini features, both originally 3 x 400 marketing releases and each mounted onto an 800ft reel running for a round 45/50 minutes each.
Marketing were quite clumsy with many of their titles in the editing department but these two along with a few others were fairly good, both full features of these titles only had running times of an hour and a half so they couldn’t really go wrong, having said that, we all know how they decided to remove all traces of the original titles on their second batch, what were they thinking? The one thing marketing did have was an excellent selection of titles, and this was two of them. Both holding colour fairly well, but with the Warriors set mostly at night, a little fade is noticed a lot more.

I got these too, but my Airplane is the full feature, minus the censored scenes … Is the three parter airline release too?

Your Warriors still has very good colour, unfortunately, fade is setting in on mine so now it will be up on ebay and its one that peed me off as it is one of my favourite films.
The Airplane release was edited from a theatrical release as I'm sure all marketing films were. The one thing the Germans did really good on Super 8 was keep scenes as they should have been and not tamper with them for a general audience, they wernt sappy about censorship at all. We all know what castle films did with the 200ft edition of High Plains drifter, that was laughable, it was a shame as the edit itself from the feature was quite well done.
If you read about the way many cinemma films were edited here in the UK it can make for ridiculous reading. Even a film like Waterloo here in the UK is still edited for horse falls, it really does get unbelievably ridiculous when you see what the TV can put out now.
Sadly, most of the marketing films are going the way of the red hue and to be honest, I can no longer sit through a movies that was once glorious in colour but now has a red look, not these days where a 4K image can look so good for so little money. In a single sentence, I am no longer happy with any fade so those films will only go one way for us. As I said before, I want a smaller collection but a better quality collection.

The Trap, 1966 staring Oliver Reed & Rita Tushingham.
4 x 40ft Walton release (now on 2 x 800ft).[/b][/u]

This week we viewed our super 8 Walton abridged feature version of The Trap. I have also added a full review of it on here with screenshots so for those who may be interested, please click on the link here,

The Trap. 4 x 400ft colour sound. Walton release.

I dont see this one come up for sale very often if at all, so I have no idea how many prints were struck nor do i recall seeing it in any of the Walton catalouges, but as always, I'm happy to be corrected on this.

Week 12, Film 15
The Three Musketeer’s, 1948 2 x 1200 (originally 5 x 600)

Most people in the film collecting world will know of this Derann release. This is the 1948 version of the musketeers starring Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, Vincent Price and Angela Lansbury.
This has to be one of Derann’s best quality features with colours so vibrant on-screen the film really does look like a Technicolour print, but as we all know, there were no IB Tech super 8 releases. Sound and image are very good here and I for one can’t fault the print in any way. This film was bought by my Brother when he visited the Derann shop many years ago, aside a few very light lines to the far right that pop in and disappear, this print is around 90% line free.
This is not a film I would choose myself, I much prefer the 1973 version with Oliver Reed and co, also known as The Three Musketeer’s, (The Queens diamonds), and this one was followed up by The Four Musketeer’s (The Revenge of Milady).
This 1948 version has the full story of both of the 1970s film in one movie.
I have added a review on here,

The Three Musketeers, Derann 5 x 600ft

Week 13, Film 16
Blitz on Britain Walton 2 x 800ft (originally 4 x 400ft)
This week is the last 8mm film for month so it was the Walton release of Blitz on Britain.
This is still one of the best war documentary cinema released films about Britain in WW2. It was written and narrated by Alistair Cooke with Henning Skaarup. It is a moving and unforgettable account of the famous defence of Britain, May 1940 to 10th May 1941.
This movie was the first full record of what Sir Winston Churchill has called one of the decisive battles of the world: the battle that was fought in the streets and homes of Britain
and turned every civilian into a front-line soldier. It traces the full ferocity of Hitler’s attempt to defeat Britain. It begins on the 10th May, 1940 and ends with the Great Fire of London exactly one year later. Using film shot in combat by both British and German crews, it sets the Blitz in the context of Nazi invasion plans… It is the story of the raging conflict between arrogance and guts… between military might and the dogged, spirited endurance of the people Hitler called ‘decadent’.
This print from Walton is good with some light base lines which doesn’t spoil the film at all. It was released on four reels, each with its own title and were all available separately or as the full 4 x 400 feature. This is also one of the very few Walton releases with no cuts, the original film only ran for 68 minutes. Image is clear and bright and the sound is very good.
Part 1, Britain stands alone,
Part 2, the Battle of Britain
Part 3, the London Blitz
Part 4, Britain survives.

Nice ones Tom ,I have some 16mm silent war documentaries and newsreels.
I think a lot of the younger generation has forgotten what our parents and grandparents went through,personally I do not think it should be forgotten.In fact some of the problems in Europe at present do leave cause for concern.
Any way nice selection of films👍👍

After we viewed this tonight we did say, "can you imagine todays young people going through this", They'd all moan about their mental health.
What this shows, and it shows it well, is how much of the population pulled together. One thing I didn't know was when a single member of the public was described as "cheeky" when he paid his penny to get into the London underground and stayed there to shelter from the air raids, it caught on quickly before a government minister made the underground open to the public for cover.

Week 14, Film 17
Duck you Sucker, aka, A Fistful of dynamite, 16mm, now with added extras.

Some months ago I bought a 16mm print of the Sergio Leone film, a fistful of Dynamite.
This print does have the original intended title, Duck you sucker”. It is a film many questions behind it in the film world due to the different versions that were released. The running time of this print was 122 minutes which was the US TV version, (as it states on the original MGM studios leaders), the original full uncut film ran for 157 minutes but was cut to 138 minutes for general release in the states and Europe with the shorter version having been altered to move the action on faster, much to Leone’s annoyance.
While I was happy with what I bought I wanted more, censorship annoys me in films like this so I have now added 15 minutes to include extended deleted scenes from the disc release which includes, the blowing up of the church scene which has Steiger trick Coburn into killing his German capitalist employer, this extra scene runs for just over five minutes and was not originally included in the general theatrical 138 minute version. Another fully restored scene I’ve added back in is the railway massacre sequence. A crane shot of hundreds of civilians being executed in huge pits by the army is cut to just over half a minute, reducing what looks like genocide to something much less overwhelming, this scene in my print has now been replaced by the fully restored unedited version and runs for a total of just over two minutes instead of 30 seconds and includes additional scenes of civilian’s being mercilessly executed as the camera pans to the train where Steiger and Coburn are hiding. These scenes were all either cut or removed in order to make the film less political and violent, adding these two extended scenes back in does makes a big impact at these points.
Another long pause has been restored, with music. In the last flashback in the Irish pub, after John shoots the British soldiers in slow motion, Sean nods mysteriously to John, either in approval of the killing of the Brits or, more likely, urging John to shoot him as well and cleanse him of the guilt of being an informer. The short version has John shoot his comrade almost immediately after shooting the soldiers, turning what seems to be a shared moment of truth into a much colder execution by John.
In addition to the three long scenes, I have also added back in a few of the cuts for violence.
Later in the year I hope to add one more scene which will be the full final flashback, this runs for around four minutes as opposed to the 30 seconds it is now but this will depend on where I am in the hobby later in the year.
For now it is job done and the added 15 minutes has improved this very good print no end, these screenshots taken last evening are a mix of the old and the new. This is still one of my favourite movies and I believe it is very much underestimated and misunderstood and the reason why it’s often misunderstood is because too many cuts were made for its release which altered and interfered with the storyline. By the time I finish with this film it will be another unique print with scenes inserted that are only on the DVD/Blu-ray releases.

I think Sergio Leone would be very happy with your restoration.
What more can one say as a western lover most excellent.

Just a few more tweaks Gwyn, it's just whether or not to go the whole hog. I Hope one day someone finds the two missing scenes that have never been included in any release.
Villega's capture and subsequent torture scenes, without this scene there is a big jump, while it is clear he was captured, this scene would explain why he talked and how the army found Juan's family in their hiding cave to kill them all. Also the earlier scene between Sean walking away after blowing up the caravan and the church scene now restored in this print. The lost scene between the two showed Juan and his sons drag Sean through the desert, when Sean tries to drink water from a pool Juan urinates in it, may sound pointless but it would explain why Sean is dehydrated heavily face burnt from the heat and confused. I wonder if this footage is lost forever?

I think you are going to be hard pushed to find these scenes on 16mm if on any format.
I bet there is footage out there,but it’s in an unmarked can on an unmarked shelf and no one knows why it’s there.
Everything comes to those who wait.

Thats true, but i think in this case, (i think) the two scenes are very much gone forever, but who knows what may turn up one day.
The odd thing about this version, even before i added 15 minutes back in is this, bare in mind this was a TV version from some time ago, there are two parts in this version, (before I did anything to it) that are supposedly only in the restored 157 minute version.
In the initial U.S. versions, when Juan is about to be executed by firing squad, he hears John's voice saying, "Duck, you sucker." In the restored version, he hears John's voice saying, "Short fuse." In the film I have he does indeed say "short fuse".
Also, In the original released version, just before Mallory blows himself up, he says 'Duck You Sucker', causing Miranda to turn around and yell 'John!'. In the restored version the last line of Mallory is gone. Again, In my version, that line is not there so it's almost like a cross between the two versions so I have no idea when this print was struck, it's clearly a later re-print as it is on low fade stock.

Another great copy you have there, Tom! It is fascinating that we now are able to produce these missing parts!

Thank Eivind, being able to get short sections done for 16mm has restored seven of my 16mm prints. Without the new parts I would have either passed on the sale in the first place and in two cases, the films would have been sent back to the dealers as, "nothing like described".
This particular print has had the most footage made for it only because it was my choice to do so, as a TV print is was fine but the likely hood of finding a scope low fade 157 minutes version is probably zero so I will get this print as near as i can, its well on the way now and hopefully, another five minutes later in the year will get it as near as I need it which should make it 143 minutes. All part of the hobby and obsession with film

Week 15, Film 18
All this and WW2 16mm, b/w and colour, 1974

This film is extensively reviewed here,

All This and WW2 2 x 2000ft Colour & B/W

It is one of my favourite films in the collection, it is unusual and rare due to the fact it was withdrawn by 20th Century Fox just two weeks after its release in 1974 due to all the upset and controversy it caused at that time. This is a low fade print in very good condition. I would imagine there must other prints somewhere but as yet, aside this one, I have never seen it come up for sale.
There is so much in this film with 70/80% being real footage from all sides in the war, (not just UK and US) and the remaining being very short snips from Hollywood films and it works really well.