This is a film i wanted to see on the big screen but didn't want to pay big bucks. I saw this on TV and wasn't too sure if i liked it or not, but remember thinking how good it would look on t he scope screen. This was around 20 years ago. As chance would have it, this copy came up on a dealers list described as "A" condition. Well, let me review this actual print first,
It's an LPP polyester pre striped stereo copy, The actual print quality, as you would expect, is A1, superb colour, very sharp print with very good sound all be it i can only play it via a stereo amp and get twin mono which i am happy with., it still blows the roof off. The condition of this actual print is also very good BUT, i was surprised at how many lab marks there are mainly at the end of reel two/start of reel three, then on reels 3 and four there are some very light lines which are on the material not the print, some of those light lines you see move from left to right and dissapear out of site. I was a bit pissed off with the dealer advertising this as print and sound A/A. Obviously he did not check it. (familiar? ), or he knew at this price it would sell and be kept, (as it was).
Having said all that i only paid £120 when this title was usually going for £160/£200 when it came up. At first i thought it may have had white box specials making up reels 3 and 4 but they were all in full art boxes, but then, the dealer at the time could have easily acquired those, i myself often asked dealers for new boxes for second hand films and 90% of the time they sent them free of charge to me.
The only option i had was to either return it for a full refund, losing the postage which was always a film dealers con.
If goods were faulty, postage should have been refunded BOTH ways. Companies today would not get away with that little money maker.
Anyway, it was that or keep it not knowing when another one may turn up. Overall it's a good print and a fun movie with a little annoyance but fortunately no audience has ever mentioned the lab marks.
As it happens, i do recall reading about some lab marks on this titles so i wonder if anyone else could let me know what there copy is like. I suspect this one may have come from a second or third run perhaps.
Kathleen Turner was a stunner of the 80s, it was such a shame to see her go downhill so fast with severe Arthritis where the pain was so bad for her. As the disease worsened and the medication greatly altered Turner's looks, along with excess alcohol consumption that Turner said she used to kill her physical pain, her career as a leading lady went into a steep decline and Turner was seen in fewer and fewer very successful films.
You just never know whats around the corner in your life!

I wont put up the plot as anyone reading this will get bored.
In a nutshell, A mousy romance novelist sets off for Colombia to ransom her kidnapped sister, and soon finds herself in the middle of a dangerous adventure hunting for treasure with a mercenary rogue.

I like both this and Jewel of the Nile. Good, fun action adventure ... Got a 16mm scope, but it has Norwegian censors work on it sadly. Not too much cut, but at least the scene with the crocodile biting off the arm is gone

I wouldn't have thought there was too much in this film to censor Vidar.
I know it's slightly abridged on TV if they show it in the afternoon sometimes, having said that, if a movie that we have on 8 or 16mm is shown on TV we avoid it now and only watch our own.

Your print appears perfectly fine to me Tom. I have only two reels of this so for the full film, you'd have to ask Del who I know either has this film or has had it at one time or another.

I asked a while ago if anyone found their print overly dark especially in the cave scene. My odd reel is especially dark in this scene and may have a grading fault if others are not the same.
White sparkle, a few lab marks here and there and even an occasional white line at times are not uncommon, especially on well run negatives which many prints were struck from.

This wouldn't qualify the print as a reject print contrary to common belief right now it would seem, just simply be symptomatic with what you can expect at times dependent on whereabouts our films fit in with run sequences.
If you ordered a print immediately after release, brand new, than chances are very often you got an immaculate first run print, the earlier struck, the better.

Even then, this may not have applied to prints struck from old master material that Derann acquired from other dealerships who then ceased trading and sold all of their negatives to Derann.
Ken films, Red Fox etc etc etc.

When you look at prints like this one of Tom's and then look at a film I once had sent to me that looked that it had been railroaded by an express train, then a lab defective print becomes extremely obvious and self evident!

No mistaking the two!!

You would be shocked how much they fucked up 80’s movies. I think Friday the 13th was cut around 20 minutes. Not a drop of blood but n a gore film? People just disappear from the film, no idea where they went. Robocop around 13 minutes I believe it was

Now they let shit like A Serbian Film through with no cuts, though they decided later to withdraw it.

Norway was hell for lovers of gore

I can't imagine why anything from Robocop would ever be needed to be cut.

that Serbian Film was disgusting. i only saw a couple of bits on youtube,(if you can believe they let that on there) and i was totally bemused that anyone would want to commit crap like that to film. it makes the exorcist look like a day at Disneyland. The makers should be locked up. weirdo's.
Back to this one, i would say it is a little darker than Deranns normal stuff but bare in mind a lot of this film is set at dusk,night and in misty rainy jungle, overall i wouldn't say it was dark. on the night scenes the image is actually very good, similar in contrast to the Fog. The greens in film are really vivid.

Yes Tom, just from the two reels I have the colour is vivid and contrast is good.
It is just one scene in particular I remember thinking it was quite difficult to make out what was actually happening in the film.
It didn't last too long though, just one scene. All else looked great.

Ever seen a print with rolling orange spiralling blobs scrolling across one side of it?
It is quite common on Red Fox prints and is usually after a cut and lasts typically only a few seconds at the beginning of a new 400ft part?

I've seen this now on a number of occasions including my FL Time Machine print I once had.

Andrew, I bought the UK Robocop, it had a cut too actually. When he shoots between the girls legs, it was not in the UK version ... Norway cut all blood, melting dude hit by car and a lot

This one has that around 50ft before the end of reel four, these are a very light green but very prominent, they start from the top and appear to roll down the left side , it only last about 5 seconds but it stands out like a sore thumb, i know its common but baring in mind how much a new film cost upon its release it makes you wonder sometimes how it past the quality testing.
Although these images do look very good click on the one where Turner is on the river and you can see the line, on some scenes there are two or three and they stay there for a while then dance off to the right. if i had bought it new i would have rejected it and sent it back.

Vidar, it sounds like Norway is not a place to watch a full movie
I hate censors. Who are these idiots who dictate what we can and cant watch?

What type of print are you referring to Vidar? 16mm or 8mm for Robocop?

Very good write up Tom; I've seen both these films on TV and enjoyed them.

Robocop censor on the VHS and cinema release

Great review as per usual Tom, I'll dig out my Romancing print, I do remember it having lab marks and as Andrew says a light sparkle at the beginning of reels but it needs a re record as the previous owner decided to record sections at a time into Spanish on one track, I did run through the Blu Ray just to see if the sync box would sync up to Blu Ray discs (and it did) and must admit it sounded flippin amazing so it might have to be my next job, I'll report on it as I'm recording.

Well I've re recorded my Romancing the Stone, not re watched it yet but I did notice some sparkle that came and went throughout the entire film. Lovely sharp print though and the cave scene was fine, not too dark.

Thats pretty much how ours is Dell. Dark scenes are very good there was a couple of master material lines on reel 3 or 4 i think, cant remember which one now.

The overly dark cave scene seems apparently then, unique to my own two odd reels then which WERE purchased cheap from OZ as WBS.
They have lots of neg sparkle also and a few white lines printed through from the master but otherwise for much of footage, they look good.

I still haven't found a full print of this film but one day I'd like to find one.
Jewel In The Nile would have been nice too.
Sadly it wasn't to be aside from a trailer.

I wonder if this sparkle is on all of the prints then, on reel 1 when the film starts it's quite bad then eases, then you see a build up coming, it peaks and then eases again, weird as I haven't seen this on any prints before.

I have other prints where sparkle builds up especially when leading up to a reel change.
Beauty and the Beast for one has this in the wardrobe section.

There's plenty of it evident on All Dogs...too.

Generally speaking for our print, reels one and two are near perfect as you can see from the images, no sparkle at the start,the sparkle is more the ends of the reels, two and three are the more marked ones, with a couple of minor white lines within the sourced material. Certainly nothing to shout home about.
I will say though, if i bought this from new i would have rejected it. This print cost us £130 in the day. The only reason i kept it was because i had hears of this film being a more "dirty" print than most of the Derann 80s films so i guess we wont get one much better. Over all, this is a very good pin sharp print with good, (not excellent), sound.

Thanks for that Andrew and Tom, it does seem there were a few sub standard prints out there, as mentioned I have just re recorded mine as it was only in mono. I did notice the film is cut though which was a shame, the scene where the Croc bites his arm off is cut quite a bit. Not re watched it yet to see what the sound is like now.

thats strange why tour print is cut in that way. There arnt any cuts at all in that scene on ours. There is a lab splice on reel three but thats about it.

Same as Norways censor of this

#21

I think we have to be a little careful perhaps to define what actually relates to a sub standard print Del.
Many prints that had many runs made from the same negatives would of course suffer a little the further down the printing order dependent on when your actual own copy fell in the print run.

Whether or not this categorizes these later printed films from the same negatives as sub standard, I'm not so certain.

To my own way of thinking and perspective, prints which fall into any sub standard category have to also have some obvious printing defect, not just inevitable wear from running the master material many many times.

I personally look upon sub standard prints as those containing print marks, blotching, perforation or slitting irregularities etc etc, not a little sparkle from dust or wear to the master material.

Anything else is generally only to be expected from any actual real running fabric that is of analogue source.

Just an update on this film, I have just watched the first 15 minutes to try the new re recorded sound and found the sparkle acceptable, not as noticable on a scope screen, as mentioned it comes and goes but the sound has now gone from 5/10 to 10/10, wow, words cannot describe the sound quality compared to the previous soundtrack. Now cannot wait to view those magnificent men after re recording that one last week