Tonight my Brother came around with his excellent colour version of Flying Leathernecks with John Wayne, an RHO release from 1951.
This film has been commonly available as a 4 x 400ft b/w version released by Mountain films many years ago. This rare colour version was sold to us here in Plymouth by Roger Lily of Movieland international.
I havnt looked at what the film stock is but my word, this is one beautiful colour print with absolutely gorgeous stand out colours and no fade what so ever. The image isn't quite pin sharpe but i tell you this, as the movie uses a lot of real WW2 footage it actually blends in perfectly with the look of the image being ever so slightly soft..
For a 1951 movie the film does contain a few gory glimpses of bloodied bodies and crispy remains of Japs after American attacks on there positions.
The sound it fair to good, volume is very loud, bass is about right but speech, while good, is ever so slightly over recorded but not to the extent that audiences take any notice. We are just fussy.
All in all, this a great boys own WW2 action movie with a capitol A. We did have the b/w version before this one, but add the colours and its a totally different film. Suffice to say the b/w version was quickly sold on. Condition wise, the print is in very good order with only a few very minor light black lines and you have to be looking hard to see them.

For those interested, and with the help of wiki, here is the plot,
Major Dan Kirby (John Wayne) arrives at VMF-247 ("Wildcats") as the new commander when everybody in the unit was expecting Captain Carl "Grif" Griffin (Robert Ryan) to take over. Kirby is strict and makes this understood from day one. Assigned to the Cactus Air Force during the Guadalcanal campaign, Kirby has few planes available and a lot to accomplish with a field attacked daily by the Japanese. His pilots are young and behave like "kids", sometimes disobeying orders and foolishly losing precious pilots and precious planes. Kirby is requiring maximum effort, and Captain Griffin is not as tough as Kirby wants. Griffin stays closer to his young pilots, one of them his own brother-in-law, Vern "Cowboy" Blithe (Don Taylor).
Kirby for his part hates the decisions he has to make, knowing that he is sending pilots to their death, but the success of his missions is the most important thing to him. He keeps this secret from the rest of his squadron. The hard conditions of the war force Kirby to get even stricter with his exhausted pilots. He even refuses sick leave to men with malaria or to allow planes with problems to return to base. Tension between Griffin and Kirby soon peaks. Griffin recognises the hardships Kirby faces, but he is often more driven by his sentimental side.
Kirby is a fan of low-level ground attacks to support the Marine units, but HQ does not approve of his tactics until Marines are dangerously imperilled by the Japanese. Kirby then adjusts squadron tactics, despite losing a number of pilots while trying to prove his point. In his most successful operation, he leads his squadron in an attack on a huge Japanese convoy – a scene likely based on the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
Promoted to Lt. Colonel, Kirby is given the chance to organise low-level attack tactics in the US. Kirby then returns to the front, to the same unit and aircrew, now equipped with F4U Corsair fighters. Kirby leads his men against Japanese troops and Kamikaze attacks during the Battle of Okinawa. During a crucial moment in the battle, to avoid splitting his formation, Griffin denies assistance to his brother-in-law Blithe, and as a result Blithe is killed. Kirby is shot down and injured but is picked up by a Navy launch. Since he is now to leave the squadron, he has to appoint a successor. He appoints Griffin CO of VMF-247, as he understands that Griffin now can place the lives of his pilots second. They split with a friendly promise to meet again. Kirby admits that every moment in which he is required to make a decision is a nightmare, but that comes with the territory of being a leader under these circumstances.
Throughout the film, M Sgt. Clancy (Jay C. Flippen), an old Marine veteran and comrade-in-arms of Kirby, provides comic relief. To the consternation of other units on the island, Clancy uses unorthodox creative methods to obtain provisions for his unit.

Looks nice Tom, it must have been the 4x400 I had some years ago, I think that print was on the soft side too, but as you say it all seemed to blend in well with the original war footage,nice in colour though,Mark

Considering how old this print must be, it just goes to show how wrong so many distributors were to switch to the cheap crap Eastman stock. This is obviously Agfa or Fuji i assume but either way, those blues greens and yellows just jump out at you.