HISTORY:
My "world" is 'the arts' and more specifically, music, artwork and hand crafted/decorated chinaware's.
I am not a film enthusiast but an associate has asked me to find new owners for THEIR large collection of photographic and film items ... this is one of those items.
While the world of 8mm/Super 8mm is not my area of expertise, I am doing my best to establish the condition of each item that I am listing.
I tend to be quite detailed in my item descriptions, please READ all the details to decide if this item may interest you.
This reel looks to be a compilation made from two films, previously in their own boxes but the owner has moved both films onto this one reel and some parts of the old boxes used for identification. The outer box is a plain ordinary Hanimex box.
Now, on with the description ...
CASTLE FILMS (2 ON ONE REEL)
A) Title: FRANKENSTEIN (The Original with Boris Karloff) 1931
Selected scenes
B) Title: FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN (1943 Bela Lugosi & Lon Chaney)
Selected scenes (begins with the grave robbers opening the coffin of the Wolfman)
Each "selected scenes" film runs for approximately 7 minutes.
Catalogue #
Film A: 1061
Film B: 1022
Estimated 370 ~ 400 feet on this reel
Black & White
Silent (NO Sound at all but with "sub-titles")
Run time total: approximately 15~16 minutes
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
Very good
Film stock and the Blue PLiO MAGIC (Made in USA) 7" reel are undamaged, there is NO leader film fitted with the movie beginning with clear film and then straight into scenes from each movie with quite scant titling.
Outer all cardboard HANIMEX box is holding together ok, assisted by a strip or two of cellotape.
NO writing on the reel and plain outer cardboard box has parts of the two films original packaging stuck on it for identification.
TESTING:
Test projector is the ELMO 1200 that I have on hand at the moment.
Film looks to be clean and in good condition, sprocket holes are not damaged.
I ran this reel through the projector for approximately 10 minutes, watching all of the original Frankenstein and the beginning of Frankenstein Meets Wolfman. No issues with the film quality and on screen text explaining from time to time what was going on.
There is no sound, you need to concentrate and watch for the text on the screen that tells you what is happening although just watching the movie and it is pretty easy to get the gist of what is happening.
Film A is a classic horror from the 1930's, damn that professor was clever creating man from "spare parts" and bringing him to life, but unfortunately the monster had no soul. Some tragic events occur which really upset the local villagers and everyone is out to get Frankenstein, eventually burning him to deal while in a wooden windmill.
Film B is more of the same type of horror (Frankenstein horror movies were very popular with the young folk back in these days) although I found this film was a bit "slow" to get into the horror "action" with a lot of time spent opening up Wolfman's coffin but finally some "nice" horror follows.
SPECIAL NOTE:
I always include a couple of "off screen" snapshots of the first two films is showing, my camera decided to play up on the third film so no screen shots of that one.
My digital camera is antiquated (colour balance? what's that) - like I said, this is one OLD camera and it's limitations are definitely showing up in these sample photographs.
I take the screen shot in very low light levels, the camera flash is turned off (otherwise the picture is flooded with White) and the camera shutter speed is very slow.
This means I have trouble getting sharp photographs, especially when there is movement on the screen and I have noticed that after viewing quite a few films now, that my poor OLD digital camera is tending to emphasise the Red's and Yellow's in the photographs anyway - in real life the on-screen picture is not as Yellowish as recorded in the photographs
In my opinion, after this reasonably lengthy test viewing, I am happy that the film content is as indicated on the box and that the film stock appears to be in pretty good technical condition.
I am very fastidious and careful with these films (I am after-all doing this on behalf of another person) and I have now sealed the inside reel in clear plastic along with a couple of packets Silica Gel (at an enthusiasts suggestion) and then packed it back into the original cardboard box AND sealed the film again within clear plastic - waiting for a Super 8 film Black & White horror enthusiast to enjoy!
