HISTORY:
I am not a 'film buff' and my "world" is 'the arts' and more specifically, music, artwork and hand crafted/decorated chinaware's.
An extremely unwell associate has asked me to find new owners for THEIR large collection of photographic and film items ... this is one of those items. I am often asked "THE QUESTION"
So how many films do you have, Russ?
My response is ... boxes and boxes of them, perhaps 500+
I have been honoured with the trust and care of these films, to the owner they are an important part of his life and I respect that. Each film is VERY SLOWLY (I have a lot of other things to do as well!) being evaluated, run through the projector (currently an ELMO ST1200D) and if needed, addition packing added to protect the film more.
ALL film stock is safely away in my storage units, nice n cool and out of harms way while I look (and smell!) each film ... NO ONE can just casually "browse" the collection. My associate wouldn't like that and neither do I.
Due to my previous working life in technical fields, I tend to be quite detailed in my item descriptions, please READ all the details to decide if this item may interest you.
Vinegar Syndrome: my nose came up NEGATIVE on these reels, however ...
From time to time I have noticed a "vinegar smell" coming off some films that I have been checking. I have been contacted by a learned ex film professional who has provided some pointers about this vinegar smell. Thank you kind Sir!
It seems that the presence of this odour indicates a chemical reaction is underway which will affect the base material of the film - over time. Most of these films are already around 50 years old, how much longer will they "survive" I wonder? No-one can provide a definitive answer to that one ... it's a bit like "the earth WILL be hit by a comet, one day, but no-one knows when"
This chemical reaction which is indicated by the Vinegar odour can (over time) affect both colour and black & white films equally, gradually becoming worse as time passes although I could not find a reliable guide as to how much time we are talking about - months? years? No-one seems confident enough to commit to a time frame.
If you "click" on the CAVEAT EMPTOR (Buyer Beware) in Red above, buried there is a link will take you to the esteemed National Film And Sound Archive Of Australia page which talks about this Vinegar Syndrome problem. These people at NFSA know their stuff ... the most disturbing aspect which jumped out at me is the possible effects of this chemical reaction on HUMAN health. Be careful when handling one of the "vinegar beasties", even just breathing the vapours is apparently not a good idea for sustained periods!
Having said all of this, I will ALWAYS indicate film stock that is producing this Vinegar odour in my description - although "aged", my nose still works (sort of!). I will still run the film through the projector for "testing" but have no way of knowing how advanced the chemical reaction may already be - unless the film stock crumbles in my hands! Hmmm ... not a good sign!
I still have a ton of films to investigate (the owner of these films was a BIG film buff in the 1960's ~ 1980's) and so far only a small percentage have proven to have the air of Vinegar about them ...
I have also been advised that even if NO smells are being produced, chemical reactions may be underway but as yet undetectable by the human nose (Hmmm ... is there such a thing as a "film sniffer dog" such as Border Patrol uses at the airport?
It really comes down to ... these films are OLD, probably they were never intended to be viewed up 50+ years after being released ... everything eventually fails
Please be realistic and keep all of this in mind.
Now, on with the description ...
This 3x reel motion picture is NOT in any external packaging at all, three reels loose which I have now repacked as detailed below. The information that follows is from my own observations and towards the end of this lengthy description I describe my observations of the motion picture while I partially played each reel (just five minutes or so of each reel)
SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (John Wayne) - Super 8 Film
Argosy - RKO Radio Pictures
1949
This drama follows a retiring U.S. Cavalry Captain Nathan Brittles (played by John Wayne) on his final patrol, tasked with preventing a massive Cheyenne uprising after Custer's Last Stand, while also escorting his commanding officer's wife and niece to safety, a mission complicated by rising tensions, romance among his young officers (who vie for the niece's attention, symbolised by a yellow ribbon), and Brittles' own poignant struggle with aging and leaving his beloved military life behind.
Labelling on each reel is minimal, just a handwritten White label indicating the film title and reel number ... no personal writing.
Homemade reel clips are fitted to each reel so that the film doesn't easily spill from the reels.
3x 600' (8") (2x TUSCAN USA & 1x EUMIG ) plastic reels
Colour
Sound
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Reasonable condition overall
Film stock and the EUMIG reel is undamaged, but I did notice a small piece "missing" (or is it the design?) from the central hub of reels 1 & 3, the TUSCAN's - they both still function fine but they appear to have this hub minor damage, just not sure about whether this is normal or actual damage. All three reels have the leaders fitted and "homemade" film clips
NO Vinegar smell coming off any of the reels
NO personal names on any of the film reels
TESTING:
Test projector is the ELMO 1200 that I have on hand at the moment.
Each reel has been examined and test played individually ...
All reels examined and they look to be clean, sprocket holes (at least those that I could see) are undamaged .... so away we go, let's take a look at some John Wayne!
I only ran each reel through the projector for the first five minutes or so of each reel to observe the picture and sound, the first thing I noticed is the film dyes have degraded, particularly the Blues but there is not a lot of Greens around either! This means the film displays distinctly Red-Pinkish with some Yellows and plenty of White. Across all 3 reels, this colour degradation is quite consistent i.e all reels have their colour degraded by roughly the same extent although I felt the last reel (3) had more Greens and perhaps a touch of Blues as well - see the scene photograph with the Green lantern on the desk.
I also noticed that there were a couple of vertical lines on either side of the screen AT TIMES, I think this indicates some scratching to the film but I am not sure about this. These lines were only sometimes visible and at other times, they were not present.
Fortunately the sound across all reels is good, with clear crisp audio and plenty of level.
In my opinion, after this quite brief test viewing, I am happy that the film is as stated on the reels and the film stock appears to be in fair 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 added some Silica Gel packets (moisture absorption) and then sealed each reel separately within clear plastic. All three reels are then also packed as one within another sealed clear plastic packaging. There being no canister or outer box, these will be shipped well protected in a custom box made for the purpose.
