I bought this 17.5mm reel as a bit of cine nostalgia. It's marked 'Pathe Cinema' Paris. I believe the Nazi occupiers of France outlawed this guage, and made them use 16mm.

Hi Robert
Yes I read that too about the Nazis banning 17.5mm film in rural France.
Thanks for this post. I have a small strip of 17.5mm cutting somewhere in my clips collection.
Dave

Hi David, did you get it from Warton Parfitt?; he used to send samples of film when you ordered from him. One day I told him about an organised trip to Pinewood I went on in the 80s; we went to the cutting room, and people were looking in the bins for samples. Someone picked up a piece of 70mm and was told they couldn't have it, as they never threw 70mm away. They had some use for it (I forget what); a few days later I received a strip of 70mm from him. I have a small strip of 17.5mm as well. My regret is that I never made it to the Buckingham Movie Museum.

Hi Robert
Yes I did get it from Warton. He is sadly missed by collectors. A nice man.

What does 17.5 mm look like? I'd like to see a pic if it's much different. I have seen a pic of 9.5 mm and it's definitely different.

Hi Timothy. Here you are:
http://triggertone.com/term/17.5mm_Film

Thank you Mats! I will have a look.

Ill try to scan a piece Timothy and 16mm so you can see the difference. When I first got a piece, I thought it was 16mm and placed it over the top and was able to see the difference. Some films have been ruined by people who thought they were 16mm and tried to run them on a 16mm projector.

The scan is not that good, but I think you can see from this that the picture area in the 17,5mm on the right is larger than the 16mm on the left, also a difference in sprocket hole sizes.

I have quite a number of unusual film gauges and I am always looking for more...Plus I can scan virtually any film gauge...Here is a link to a scanned French 17,5 silent film version of an old Educational film called Family Life (1924)

https://vimeo.com/160815422
password - rural

Often the 17.5 films will be in condition so bad you cannot imagine how they got that way..I sometimes think the French buried them in the dirt to hide them from the nazi's.

I also have a small strip of 17.5 mm, also 4.75 mm and 28mm, as well as the more usual gauges. The 4.75 mm looks like the middle section of 9.5 mm. Did it run sideways through the gate of the camera or projector gate?

Interesting Steve, I haven't seen a guage that small. I believe Vistavision prints used to run sideways.