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.
Now, on with the description ...
This 3x reel motion picture is NOT in an original distributors packaging, but instead in a tri-reel EUMIG library case with three separate doors. The information that follows is from my observations and towards the end of this lengthy description I describe the motion picture as I actually have played the reels.
GAINSBOROUGH PICTURES - Super 8 Film
Commercial release for the Home Movie market
OH, MR PORTER (1937)
British comedy starring Will Hay with Moore Marriott and Graham Moffat A rather inept railway employee becomes stationmaster who then devises a number of schemes to put his station "on the map"
Labelling information is sparse, but at least the owner did place numbered "dots" on each reel along with a small identification label, also at the top of the tri-library case and a label identifying the film on the underside of the library case.
Leader film friction fit reel clip on each reel, these look to be "homemade"
8" (450 Feet) unbranded smokey clear plastic reels, stamped Made In USA
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Very good
Film stock and 3x reels are undamaged, all have leaders and film clips plus "homemade" cardboard film clips to prevent film spilling everywhere!
The library case from EUMIG is a Cream colour with dark Brown drop down doors, interestingly there is a newspaper clipping from "yonks ago" with a review of this film.
NO damage to the canister/case nor to any of the reels. This means no cracks, no missing sections and no parts are mishapen due to heat.
NO smells detected from the case and the film stock looks clean and shiny
NO personal names or other writing on the library case and the film reels
TESTING:
Test projector is the ELMO 1200 that I have on hand at the moment.
All film stock appears to be clean and in good condition, sprocket holes are not damaged.
A White leader film is fitted to each reel, each reel is labelled.
I ran each of the reels through the projector for approximately the first four minutes, to observe the picture and check that the sound quality. Each reel begins with a long space of White, then Black followed by the 'countdown', during which there is a 'tone-burst' on the audio and then the movie begins or continues (Reels 2 & 3)
Being Black & White, I was watching for the contrast and grain of the images - all looks to be pretty good. If I was to comment at all about this, I had a feeling that Reel 2 (remember I only watched the first few minutes) seemed just slightly "less light - a little darker" if that makes any sense. Still perfectly watchable though.
The sound across all reels is very good, nice and clean and clear audio (dialogue plus background music) which I had no trouble following what was going on.
In my opinion, after this brief test, I am happy that the film is as stated on the case and looks to be in good technical condition.
I am very fastidious and careful with these films and I have now packed the film reels into individual sealed clear plastic packets, along with a couple of packs Silica Gel (at the suggestion of a "film buff") to maintain the current condition and then the entire outer tri-reel film library case has also been sealed in clear plastic - this "Golden Oldie" comedy now sits patiently waiting for a new owner.
