Tonight i viewed my latest purchase which is a 3 x 1600ft version of the 1965 war film The Battle of the Bulge. I havnt looked to see what film stock it is but the colours are superb with no fade what so ever. This is most definatly a movie for the scope screen and being 16mm is pin sharpe. The full feature runs for 167 minutes however this version runs for around 120-125 minutes which i knew before is purchased it. I have never sat through this film before so this was something that didn't bother me, this shorter edit makes for a faster paced action packed film which i prefer and being the short length it will have much more repeatability. The opening logo is "A Warner TV presentation" so the fact it is scope is quite interesting. Although my Brother knew where the edits were, I myself didn't so none of the cuts were abrupt. Overall, this is a very good print with some light lines here and there and a few splices. With great colour, and sound and full of action and a hoard of big Hollywood stars of the times, this is a purchase i am more than pleased with.

Looks really nice, not sure I ever seen this, at least if I did, must be on VHS, which is not as nice as your film :-)

Looks very nice Tom, a nice scope print, Mark

If I hadn't known beforehand this was 16mm and scope, I'd have said this was a super 8 airline print, because around about 2 hours was the maximum time they could handle in the cartridges, I would think the story behind this edit would be fascinating if we could find out, as an editor would have had to be paid to reduce the original running time. I've heard of 16mm flat prints being used on oil rigs back in the day, but scope! As Tom said, as he didn'treally know the film, the edit was good (I've always found the longer running films like "Ben-Hur" make easy abridgements), so he didn't miss anything, and to have a WB TV opening as well, the mystery deepens?

The only trouble with the three hour and longer movies is the repeatability. Dances with wolves is a rare exception for me as i have viewed my 16mm print five times since i bought it.
This film being just over two hours gives it much more appeal for repeat shows and brings those action battle scenes closer together making it even more action packed. It hasnt given me any desire to need to see the full edit and being a 1965 movie, having this fantastic colour and scope image just makes you realise it isnt ever going to be the same on tv.

That looks great Tom; how many 16mm features do you have now?

Found tis on IMDB:
The original 1965 theatrical release in the UK ran 212 minutes 1 second.
The film was originally screened at about 170 minutes. When it was initially released on North American home video in the 1980s, it was trimmed to a mere 141 minutes. Most of the cuts involved was seen as "unnecessary" battle footage, such as when Guffy's tanks arrive in the first major battle scene to back up Major Wolenski's battalion and, later, portions of the German day attack on Ambleve are missing, among other scenes. The 1990 video and subsequent home video and laserdisc releases run 156 minutes (in order to market the film on a T-160 videotape) and restore the original Overture, Intermission and Exit Music. Four key scenes are still missing:
1. Colonel Hessler and General Kohler meet Schumacher's paratroop contingent just after they leave Kohler's office.
2. After Kohler shows Hessler the colossal war room, Hessler goes outside and inspects his tanks.
3. After Pritchard tells Kiley he is being transferred to the United States, Kiley and Maj. Wolenski discuss what should be done with Germany after the war.
4. The most famous missing scene occurs right after the nuns ask Hessler for aid in Ambleve. It has a young French boy attempt to assassinate Hessler. Hessler allows the boy to live, but has his father shot instead. Immediately after this scene, Major Wolenski has a meeting with Hessler in which he confronts him about the Malmedy Massacre.
Some TV versions are nearly complete. TNT aired one in the late 1990s which was missing the Overture, Intermission, Exit Music and also excised most of the Cinerama footage of the train making its way through the mountains. The pan-and-scanning on this version was significantly different than that on the previous VHS releases.
The Warner Brothers DVD released on 3 May 2005, restores all of the missing scenes as well as a fifth scene featuring James MacArthur and George Montgomery. The disc runs only a few seconds short of 170 minutes. The film is also presented in the correct 2.75:1 aspect ratio, not the 2.20:1 ratio which TV and Laserdisc versions were framed at.

That looks great Tom; how many 16mm features do you have now?


Robert , That's like asking a women her age!!! Ha Ha ,Mark .

Very nice print Tom,looks great in scope.

Mark, around 40 now, plus trailers, (i know what your thinking, so much for 30 ).
This was another of those titles that was offered and i couldn't turn it down simply because the subject is one that both my Brother and i enjoy, and the fact the colour was first class given the age of the print made it an unrepeatable purchase and of course, it's scope. I dont think i have seen this movie for sale before on this gauge.
Robert, thanks for the extra information, but at the end of the day it is so much better than i anticipated and i myself cannot see where the edits are so it has been done very well.

l need to list my 16mm features, I think I have between 50 and 60; never expected to get so many. I could have bought many more, but unlike Tom, I don't a downstairs room to store them, and they are all upstairs in a box room. That is a lot of weight on the ceiling, not to mention 3 oak bookcases.

Tom,

Really nice--another winning title for the Photiou film collection. One thing I really like about these older war films is that all of the tanks etc. and explosions are the real thing, not CGI.

Thats exactly right Greg, much better than CGI created crap, the thing with this film is that it recieved a lot of criticism for its inaccuracies. When i viewed it last night my Brother, as always, enjoyed pointing them out, the obvious being that the Tiger tanks are not Tigers, they were some conversion of American tanks, along with the troop wagons that were actually American half tracks with the German emblem and also some first WW guns. At the end of the day he has fun picking holes in war films but for me, it's just a good old all star, all action war film which as the images show, makes for a very good two hours of escapism.

Just as an addition, the overture, intermission and exit music titles amount to seven minutes, cant imagine me ever wanting that put back in

This looks like a great print Tom. But I remember reading that you hate tv-edited and censored prints. So why do you accept digests and shortened versions like this one? I recently viewed my tv-edited and censored 16mm prints of 48 hours and Altered States. The color was great and I really didn't miss the extra violence/language/nudity that was missing. Now, I would not have minded that being in them, but viewing these films I didn't miss it.

Tony, you make a very good point. This print was kindly offered to me by a collector who made it very clear that this print was a shorter edit. It is a scope print and being a big war movie this makes all the difference, the colour is unfaded which, for a print of this age, is very rare. With this version being trimmed for time the action is closer together which makes it even more action packed. Around five to six minutes thats missing is the overture, intermission and exit music which is of no bother or consequence to this movie. This particular title hasn't been edited for gore, violence or language so nothing from the action is missing. Apart from that, the price offered was very good and i cant ever recall seeing this title, unfaded in scope ever coming up for sale.

When a TV print is a comedy or horror, the edits often impact on the intended comedy or horror. As an example, a film i would very much like is Scrooged with Bill Murray. When i saw it on TV they made a number of small snips and each one took the comedy impact of these scenes away completely. Another example is Crocodile Dundee. The super 8 airline print was quite heavily edited with several snips and one whole scene. Again, it took away the comedy impact of those scenes which,(only in my view) ruined the film, Dundee was sold on after one viewing and replaced by the DVD.
I guess when i said i want to avoid TV edits i should say, avoid where possible.
The aforementioned titles are films i would not buy as TV versions for the simple reasons mentioned. I guess its a case of judging a title as its offered.
Hope that makes sense