My review is for the 400'/color/sound digest of "The French Connection" distributed by Ken Films. This copy was a Christmas present to myself last year. I bought it for the selling price of U.S. $9.99. The reel, in my opinion, contains the best parts of the feature film. There is some narration but it is minimal and lets the viewer know what is going on. There are a few beginning titles/credits before the reel begins. We are introduced to the main players in the film. Scenes include officer Doyle (played by Gene Hackman) chasing the mob leader into a subway tunnel, only to lose him. Later a hit man shoots at Doyle, only to kill an innocent passerby with an infant. Doyle chases the man, who escapes on a city train. Doyle takes over a brown Oldsmobile driven by a civilian and chases the train (which is traveling directly over him on the tracks) at a dizzying rate of speed. The exciting chase sequence now begins. The train eventually comes to a crashing stop and Doyle shoots at and kills the hit man. The final scenes show Doyle and the police force closing in on the mob. We see a gorgeous black Lincoln driving in reverse to avoid police and the mobsters are eventually apprehended at an abandoned building. We see a couple of subtitles telling the fate of the mobsters and the reel ends there. The mono soundtrack on my reel is the best of any that I own. The color is faded and my previous sound projector (now long gone) seems to have put some scratches on the right side of the frame. The latter 1/3 of the film seems to have numerous and continuous black specks down the center which may be a lab issue, but doesn't deter my enjoyment of this too much. The editing on this reel is terrific and you do feel that you see a complete (albeit a 17 minute) story. I highly recommend finding a copy of it.[img][/img]

They used to do a marvellous job of editing some of these features into digests. Some of these film lubricants may be able to help cover up your scratches Timothy. Probably some members here could tell you which ones. Don't forget to keep the film patch of your projector clean.

Timothy thats a really nice concise review here. I like the way you have included screenshots of the current state of your print.
Was your previous projector an Elmo by any chance because that's the part of the film they like to scratch ?
Keep them coming well done.

Dave,
It was a Bell & Howell Filmosonic (model 1744 I think).

Wonderful review Tim and now it makes me want to search for this version!

Ken films did a nice job of selecting the scenes for this. It's one of my favorites. The 200' reel comes up for auction much more frequently though.