The St Valentines day Massacre. 400ft Colour Sound.

#1 by Tom Photiou , Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:58 pm

This is a 400ft film i kept meaning to add to my collection for years. I have never seen the full feature but it would be great to get a colour colour scope feature on 16mm. That said, this 400ft condensed version on super 8, released many years ago is a very good abridgement and does well to edit this film with no sudden breaks or obvious cuts leaving you wondering what happened. I was expecting this to be red but fortunately, it appears to be one of those prints that gets a slight bit of fade, then for some reason doesn't seem to get any worse. This particular print is in very good condition with plenty of colour left. All the blues greens and yellows are all very much in there. I cant say there are any issues with fade here, no red hue anywhere that i could see. The sound is excellent while the image, although good, isn't quite as pin sharp as some of the 20th century Fox titles released as a 400.
Overall, an action packed 1 minutes gangster film, very well edited with some great stars of the day, George Segal and Jason Robards.

With the help of wiki, here is a briefing edited for this print.
An organized crime war breaks out between two rival gangs in Chicago during the Roaring Twenties. The leader of the Southside Gang is the notorious Al Capone, who resents his nemesis George "Bugs" Moran's activity in the city. Moran, too, wants control of the town's bootlegging and gambling operations. His lieutenants Peter and Frank Gusenberg use threats and intimidation to make speakeasy owners do business with them in exchange for "protection." Peter Gusenberg also argues and fights with his moll, particularly over her extravagant spending of his money.
Wishing to eliminate Moran and his gang once and for all, Capone retreats to his winter home in Miami to establish an alibi while his henchmen, some dressed as police officers, ambush and execute five members of Moran's gang, including Peter Gusenberg, in a north side garage on February 14, 1929. Also at the garage, and caught in the attack, was mechanic Johnny May, who enjoyed being around gangsters.
A young Bruce Dern plays one of the victims of the massacre, and Jack Nicholson has a bit part as a gangster. Also featured are Jan Merlin as one of Moran's lieutenants and veteran Corman actor Dick Miller as one of the phony policemen involved in the massacre.


The following members like this: Greg Perry and Gwyn Morgan
 
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RE: The St Valentines day Massacre. 400ft Colour Sound.

#2 by Robert Crewdson , Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:24 pm

Looks very good Tom.


 
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RE: The St Valentines day Massacre. 400ft Colour Sound.

#3 by Tom Photiou , Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:54 pm

It is Rob, one of the better super 8 400s. The good thing about the very few pieces of narration in this one is that it is actually from the film itself and not the usual home movie added narration that bogged down many other films, one of them from Fox was Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid, the classic ending of that film was ruined by narration that wasnt needed.



 
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Last edited 04.05.2021 | Top

   

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