Just thought this might be fun ... List your favorite prints and why you love them

I love my The Adventures of Robin Hood print. It's a fun film, though I wouldn't rate it 10/10, but rather 8/10. The print is absolutely gorgeous and colourful. Just love that feeling of good old Hollywood

Next is a nice Marketing print, Death on the Nile.

Will add more films later

Currently my favourite film is the 1949 film 'The Masked Pirate' AKA 'The Pirates of Capri', with Louis Hayward. My copy is a theatrical print with censor certificate. I bought it earlier this year, watched it several times already, and can't decide whether to watch again tonight or tomorrow. Very nice condition, much better than the sellers grading. This is one film I could never part with at any price.

Gosh! How do I choose a favorite print? Well, how about just one of them? This is one that I wanted badly enough that I had it shipped from the U.K. to the U.S. It is "The Champ" from 1979. It is (in my opinion) well edited, it has very good sound, and still has a satisfying level of color left in the print. It is a 400 foot reel, which runs at about 17 minutes. I still get choked up when I see it. The MGM clamshell packaging is still nice.

How's the colour on that Champ print (any screenshots, I mean)? And feel free to choose more than one, as I asked about favorite printS :-)

BTW: Can we have those pictures in the cover section too?

Will try to get some screenshots going forward. I apologize. The color is sort of faded, but not terribly so.

Super if you manage, we all like to see screenshots (I assume)

Can we use your cover scans in the Cover section? I've added them, but can remove them if you don't want them there

Hi everyone,
Just away to check some more of my prints.
Going red or brown or Vinager Symdrome.
Like How The West Was Won has V S.
Ivanhoe and Ben-Hur has gone red
A few are needing the joins renewed between the white leader and there're

Regards
Tony Laing

It seems we are better living in a cooler country; I don't have anything with VS. I have seen people mentioning prints that are not really that old, maybe 80s or 90s, that have got it.

I am not sure this is possible, but I bought my first 16mm on eBay from the US and didn't know about VS. I got it, unpacked it and then the smell hit me. It smelled and it was VS. Now, 2 years later, it has been lying open on a shelf a little away from the rest of the prints, it does not smell anymore. Only a little smell of chemicals. I smell no vinegar anymore. Cold Norway cures VS?

I think it's more likely to be a problem in hotter climates. I keep all my Super 8 in a cupboard away from sunlight.

But to get VS gone from a film is supposed to be impossible. But now, mine do not smell of vinegar anymore and it really did. I know the smell, I hate it (I had a bag of crisps the first time I was in London and didn't know what Vinegar and Garlic was ... It was baaaaaad and had to throw it) ... That smell of VS was so strong in that print. I want to check my 35mm of Stir Crazy soon, it was also given to me due to the VS smell. If it's gone, I'll start a "Get rid of VS prints ... Send it to me for free" :-)

When I started in this hobby, I don't think anyone had heard of VS, and remember reading about prints turning red. It would be terrible if I discovered some of my loved prints were getting VS,, because they are irreplaceable.

Vidar, how could you, Salt 'n Vinegar crisps, food of the gods. The only "vinegar" prints I have were a box of std 8mm purchased in '93
from someone in ACE magazine, they did have that smell, so I kept them in their own box away from other films, now they are twisted to hell and will be disposed of. The other was a lovely b/w 16mm of "By The Light of the Silvery Moon", not really my kind of film, but
I'd bought a few from this chap and this was going very cheap, due to the smell, so nailed it. I soaked this film for weeks in FilmRenew,
used some of the special sieves that absorb any gases and the film is still here, the process seems to have been halted, the smell is very faint but the film is still watchable. I hasten to add that it is in cardboard boxes, not cans. Vidar and Robert are quite right when they
mention climate, that surely must be a factor, the cooler the better. I'm pleased to say that I've never had one of my own collection fall victim to the dreaded syndrome, although was saddened when screening my 4x200' "Jason & the Argonauts", that part two had faded, the
other reels appeared okay, just this one, still, that little film has entertained myself and many others over the years, so it doesn't owe me anything. As for picking out favourite prints, wow, that is a question I can't answer, I have so many in genres like horror, Italian western, sci- fi, comedy, adventures, I'd be spoilt for choice, as are many members no doubt.

I thought that this old topic MAY get some response from some newer members if it was reopened so here it goes...
Some of my favorite prints:

These are 200' silent/subtitled
-Konga
-Mighty Joe Young
-War of the Worlds
-The Incredible Shrinking Man
-Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde

Good idea to open some of these older ones. Things change also, so soon Alien will be here :-) I KNOW that will be my favorite print, unless it's totally crappy quality (I think it's good though)

Certainly looks it up to now Vidar!

You'd like to think people would be totally upfront and honest at these prices Vidar, so I am sure all will be fine.

As you say, our favourites list changes each time we get more and more prints. For a favourite to me, I base it as much upon the condition of the print,as I do on the content. It's no good saying Star Wars is my premium print if it is scratched to death. It's a combination of all aspects including labs used, stripe quality, original negative condition, colour stock used and of course, the film itself.

It's actually quite rare in my experiences when all of these boxes ticked, score a 10, but I do have one or two or maybe a few more thinking about it, that I would say are right up there on all counts and these mainly come from the peak quality era of what Derann turned out while pre striped stock was still in abundance.

Some people fail to realize, that often, even when you purchased a brand new print from Derann all those years ago, there was no guarantee at times, that you would get all reels looking or sounding the same. Often they came from different batches and were printed at different times etc for the same feature. So reel one could look totally different to reels four or five and so might other aspects like the quality of the sound etc.

Totally agree, but a print can be excellent, even if you don't like the content, but that would not make it your favorite print. :-) Alien looks to be both good colour and the content, I know I love

I had content in mind. I have one print in particular, that the quality is good, but it would put you to sleep.

I must be a little weird then Vidar in that respect. I do find myself having favourite films that are not necessarily my favourite movies of all time.
Hunchback Of Notre Dame being one such example.

While it's a film I enjoy, I don't put it on par with some of the other Disney films released, but as a print on super 8mm, it is about as good as it comes on the print I have. Therefore I would place it in my top 10 favourite FILM's that I own, easily.
Simply because it is an entertaining enjoyable spectacle that really showcases the format.

Film is an artform and as such, a thing of beauty to feast your eyes upon when it's engineered to the highest standards it can possibly be.
That's how I see it anyhow, and I truly appreciate the very well made and cared for prints.

My Die Hard print is among my top desirable titles, but rightly or wrongly as I've said, I prefer to watch this film as spectacle, using other methods of projection shall we say. This is simply because, as a print, it's good, but is certainly nowhere near the highest of standards that can be achieved on Super 8mm from the best negatives and using the best stock. This applies to colour rendition and exposure levels on my feature.
The sound wasn't great either to begin with, but that was easily sorted thankfully.

Memories Of Me was a print I had years ago on Optical sound first time around in the hobby. It is my example of what Timothy is saying here.
Print quality, sharpness and colour tone was beautiful, but as a film, it could never feature in anyone's favourite list.
Guaranteed to have you asleep inside 10 minutes! Great for insomniacs!!

It does have to be at least worthy of all factors of consideration, I'd say. Then it's a balance between content and quality of print for me, to be a favourite.

I think, as far as favourite films, it would be which films would I be loathe to part with, well, my IB Tech 16MM "One Million Years B.C"
would be top of the list, along with my Babs Steele horrors in both gauges, a nice colour 16mm "Journey To The Centre of the Earth"
would be in there too. The list could go on, but space is limited.

I think my favourite print changes over time, but I'm consistently impressed by the Universal 8 400ft INVISIBLE MAN. My print is sharp as a tack, has really good contrast and the digest is really well edited and fun to follow. I just wish they had the ending of the film in it where Claude Rains declares "I meddled in things man must leave alone".

John and Hugh,
I can understand why those would be at the top of your list! "The Invisible Man", I would like to see for sure. I wonder how the 400' of "The incredible Shrinking Man" is? I lost an auction for that awhile back :-(

I think my favorite print would be Mickey & his pals. This is the Super 8 with high lights from Lonesome Ghosts, The Clock Cleaners, The Boat Builders, The Whalers and Hawaiian Holiday.

I don't like such collected highlight reels normally, so this may seem a bit odd. The reason I choose this film is that this was the first Super 8 I bought. In addition my son loves it.

One of my favorite prints is actually a very simple, 200' Super-8 / B & W / Silent reel. It's Ken Films "Von Ryan's Express" which is superbly edited. When I finished watching it I thought to myself, if all of Ken Films releases had been edited that well maybe they would be revered in the same way that Castle Films are today.