BACKGROUND INFO:
I am not a 'film enthusiast' and my past working life has revolved around electronics (many fields including communications, industrial and audio) and "The Arts", more specifically, creative arts such as handcrafted fine china, ceramics and landscape artworks.
An associate has asked me to help find new owners for HIS large collection of photographic and film items ... this is yet another one of those items. I am frequently asked "THE QUESTION"
So how many films do you have, Russ?
My response is ... boxes and boxes of them, perhaps 350+ films are now left for me to look through ... plus a few projectors
Another question I am often asked "Can I come and have a browse through the films?" Sorry, but the answer has to be a flat NO!
ALL film stock is safely away in my storage units, nice n cool and out of harms way, each day (or so) I will retrieve a few films, take a look (and smell!) at each film ... absolutely NO ONE can just casually "browse" the collection. My associate wouldn't like that and neither do I.
There is a lot of detail on this page plus even more HERE ... I strongly suggest anyone who is interested in this film to read everything carefully, including looking at the link. To not do so is at your own peril!
Vinegar Syndrome "smell test" ☑= Negative
THE EVIL ONE & PIT AND THE PENDULUM
Walton Home Movies
Super 8 format
Black & White
Silent
Catalogue # 829 (Pit And The Pendulum) A.824 (The Evil One)
400 Feet Cream-White unbranded reel (marked as made in Italy)
Two Vincent Price classics on one very very overloaded reel!
The Evil One is an interesting film (selected scenes) about a truly unpleasant character played by Vincent Price, set back in the 17th Century.
Pit And The Pendulum is a classic (I even remember this one), an enraged husband goes just a bit "nuts" and inflicts terrible torture upon those who he believes have betrayed him.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
The generic cardboard box has had the original box "fronts" cut out and placed onto this box on the front-rear and the sides. The box has seen some handling but all seams are intact.
This reel is BADLY overloaded, great care needs to be taken while handling as film spillage easily occurs, even with the film clip fitted.
Film stock, including the sprocket holes, appears to be physically undamaged and I did run almost the entire length of the reel through the projector.
TESTING:
Test machine: ELMO 1200ST
The projector film path has been completely cleaned prior to running this film through the machine. I now clean the film path after every couple of films (brushing) and with Iso Alcohol after every five films.
I ran the film through the projector for almost the entire reel due to there being two short films on the reel.
The first film, The Evil One, has good contrast and picture with frequent text boxes explaining what was happening. This was one very nasty guy (for example, to judge if a person is guilty of a crime he throws them in the water and if they float, they are innocent) Brutal justice which was more about his own personal pleasure. This film ran for around 7 minutes or so
The second film, Pit And The Pendulum, seems to be of a longer length (thus the extremely overloaded reel!) and again the contrast is acceptable although (in my opinion) not quite as good as the first film. Again, text boxes explaining the crazy thinking of Vincent in his role as this very disturbed man who is out to hurt those he believes have betrayed him.
Being silent, there is of course no audible dialogue at all or background music etc
SPECIAL NOTE: I felt I needed to add this little note ... whilst viewing the film on the screen, it actually looks "reasonable" but it has become apparent to me that my antiquated digital camera (very old, one of the very first 'point n shoot' models!) just isn't up to the task in regard to colour representation (it is good at the Red end of the spectrum but poor in the Blues) nor does it have the ability to portray contrast properly. The screen shots I take have been made with the film on pause (so the projector lamp is much dimmer) but I felt this method gave better representative photographs. The photographs are only a very rough guide for what to expect but in reality the film is not as "Yellowish" as portrayed in the photographs. I work with what equipment I have, room lighting etc ... if anything, at least you can see that the films have actually been run through the projector.
This film is now stored in a cool, low humidity environment while it awaits a new projector to bring it back to life again!
