This is one of the very few full length feature films we bought new which back in the day was £166.
We originally owned the 3 x 400ft version but found it very unsatisfactory with it's choppy editing and many of the parts of the film worth watching were removed. The dealer allowed us to send it back and put the refund to the feature.

Unlike the mini features, the full length films were supplied in a very basic square box with the marketting film logo printed all over it, each reel separated by a piece of flimsy card. A far cry from their excellent glossy cases for all other versions. The mini features and one and two reelers were printed in Germany, the full lengths in the States.

We bought this around 37 to 40 years ago. Compared to many other full length titles from this company, this one is still holding colours quite well. what is a little annoying about this print is that reel one suffers with a bit a fade, those opening titles use to be bright yellow, however, after this first reel the rest of the film is fine though clear to see the colours are less vivid than they were which after 40 odd years is to be expected on 8mm. It helps that 95% of this film is mostly bright lit indoor and sunny outdoor scenes so the fade doesn't show itself so bad but then, some titles do turn pink . It's an odd fade as aside reel one, there isn't the usual hue, or worse, (like godfather feature) red. The whites are still white and the blacks still very black.

With the help of wiki,
The Longest Yard is a 1974 American prison sports comedy film directed by Robert Aldrich, written by Tracy Keenan Wynn, based on a story by producer Albert S. Ruddy, and starring Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, Ed Lauter, and Mike Conrad. The film was released as "The Mean Machine" in the United Kingdom. The film follows a former NFL player recruiting a group of prisoners and playing football against their guards. It features many real-life football players, including Green Bay Packers legend Ray Nitschke.

This full feature super 8 print is excellent, all be it with some colour fade now. The image is nice and sharp with perfect contrast. The sound is very good and throughout the whole film never needed any volume adjustment at all.
The first six images are from reel one, this feature is mounted onto 3 x 800ft spools so when reel one is projected, you certainly know when that first 400ft reel ends and the second begins, the colour suddenly jumps back in, and the colours are a whole lot more intense than what you see here.

I'm sure it isn't everyone film but it has a very good mix of drama and comedy. The film also has actor Richard kiel who is credited on the end titles as Dick Kiel.

My late father was a friend of Ed Lauter, who appears in the film. I never got the chance to meet him, but he was the total opposite of the roles he was type-cast in -- he was a very nice man.

Always a fun film, but I haven't seen it in ages. Is the first reel on Eastman and the others SP?

I will check it but i am assuming for whatever reason, reel one must be on a different stock. Considering these full lengths were printed to order I cant understand why they would do that but it isn't uncommon. Fortunately, this is still a good print so worth keeping for another viewing or two before we sell off more films later.

Nice! Was it mounted on 6x400 originally?

It was indeed. From what i remember, all the marketing features were suuplied on multiple 400 reels,nothing larger.