Quote: A guest wrote in post #16

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Agree with your post #5, Robert. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the “heyday” of Super 8 digests, and when these prints were mass produced, quality control wasn’t the hallmark of the package film industry at that time. For example, ALL of my MGM digests suffered from soft focus and poor sound quality. (And most of these were musicals, for Pete’s Sake!). Those and others are the prints I’m pruning and giving to some of my film-collecting colleagues.

During those years, one held one’s breath when first projecting a just-purchased (expensive) Super 8 print, given it was a total crap shoot as to the picture and sound quality.

I recall Universal 8 also releasing Jet Pilot and Hell’s Angels (?) as features, and the serial Pirates Treasure, but I could be wrong on any of those.

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I know this is an old thread, but I was looking up PIRATE TREASURE -- I'll start another thread about that.
Yes, U8 released, in full-length:

*SCARFACE
*HELL'S ANGELS
PIRATE TREASURE (12 part serial)
*JET PILOT
*THE CONQUEROR
RICHARD PRYOR: LIVE IN CONCERT
Something about RFK or JFK, I can't remember.

The only one I have from the above list is HELL'S ANGELS, and the quality is excellent -- as good as it gets for a b&w film fom 1930. I got this about 2 or 3 years ago, and had never even seen the movie before. It is 100% B&W, and the sequence originally in color is in B&W here. It would have been nice to have it in color, with the caveat being if it had been on LPP stock, which I believe hadn't yet existed in the late 70s when U8 first released this. The actual content of the movie exceeded my expectations. I expected it to be a typical static early talkie -- it was anything but. Because it was pre-code, it was very edgy -- not only the action sequences, but the scenes with Jean Harlow.

SCARFACE would be nice to have, but I'm surpised that people are saying in this thread that the quality was not good. It is the weakest of the gangster trilogy of 1930-1932, the others being LITTLE CAESAR and THE PUBLIC ENEMY (both produced by Warner Brothers.) Those with an * above were produced by Howard Hughes, so U8 must have had some kind of deal with his estate.

My overall experience with buying packaged films in the 70s was positive. Most of what we (my parents and I) bought was from Blackhawk. We weren't afraid to return a defective print, yet we only had to do that once. On 1 or 2 occasions, we were sent the wrong film!

For digests, Castles were always excellent quality. Those U8 color 2-parters were also excellent quality -- at least the 3 that we bought back then.The color has held up pretty well after almost 45 years, which just a slight fade -- but nothing beet red. Still very watchable.

The few M-G-M/Ken films that I have, I bought used many years after the 70s, and all are excellent. The Tom & Jerrys have held their color well. I watched one tonight, and checked the film stock -- it had no markings, which is interesting. Other than a handful of T&Js, I have A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, which is excellent B&W quality.

I have seen different copies of several film prints made in the 70s era, and regardless of the distributor, all are not equal. Hindsight is 20/20, and we don't have time machines, but no one should have been afraid to return a bad print.

My experience with Niles is different also. Most of what I have, are those that I've bought in the last 20 years or so, and I've never seen one bad enough to toss in the bin, or not good enough to watch repeatedly. As has been noted over the years, their Sherlock Holmes releases with Basil Rathbone were excellent.

Some of the lesser known distibutors, like Thunderbird and Glenn Photo, can be hit or miss, and it is only in the last few years that I've obtained some of their prints.

Red Fox is/was known for their quality, and their ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD on LPP stock is a must-have! I wonder how it compares with Derann's, which used the same neg.