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 film may interest you.
This is a dual reel film, 600 feet per reel so I am thinking that it is the full length feature, not selected scenes. Quite a lengthy "intro" at the beginning of reel 1, credits to the principal actors, support, technical staff, director etc ... this takes a couple of minutes! Each reel has it's own DASCO (Made In France) library case with the drop down front door.
Now, on with the description ...
MURPHY'S WAR - Super 8 Film
Paramount - Dimitri De Grunwald
Title: Murphy's War (1971)
Stars Peter O'Toole
Suspense war time (WWII) action drama. Murphy (played by Peter O'Toole) is the sole Irish survivor of a British merchant ship sunk and its crew were machine-gunned by a German U-boat in the Orinoco River, Venezuela, during the final days of WWI - the killing of attack survivors hanging onto the debris by the evil Nazi's. Instantly reminded me of the US Administration being accused of the same behaviour towards Venezuelan vessels in the Caribbean in current times. Murphy is consumed by hatred and sets out to get his revenge. WWII may be coming to a close but Murphy's War has only just begun ...
Labelling is on the side of each library case, manually typed in Red. Each 8" DASCO reel does have the reel number or contents indicated. The labelling includes the letters GB which I guess means this was the England release.
NOTE: This labelling on the library cases has been typed, not printed - this indicates to me that these labels were made and attached a LONG time ago, probably in the 1970's
2x 600 feet 8" clear DASCO reels
This should provide just about one hour runtime in total.
Leader film is fitted to both reels, but no film clips.
Colour
Sound
Supplied in two DASCO (French) hard plastic library cases with a drop down front door. These are similar in appearance to the POSSO library cases but in my opinion, not made to the same standard - the plastic seems thinner and the drop down door is more "flimsy"
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
Film stock and each reel is undamaged
NO physical damage to library cases.
NO discolouration to either case
NO whiffs of the dreaded "vinegar Syndrome" e.g I could NOT detect any vinegar type smells coming off either reel
NO personal names on the library cases or the film reels
TESTING:
Test projector is the ELMO 1200 that I have on hand at the moment.
Each film reel looks to be clean and in good condition, sprocket holes are not damaged. White leaders all fed through the ELMO projector fine.
I test viewed each of the two reels for around ten minutes each, a little longer than my usual "test viewing" because I became "drawn into" this film, a really interesting movie in my opinion.
Initially I thought "Wow, the colour on this film is not great!" Reds dominate and not much sign of other colouring until suddenly, just after the credits, Yellow comes into play and from then on the film takes on a Yellow/Brown/Reddish tone with the very slightest touches of Green but I didn't see much in the way of Blues. Overall, the colouring is an Orange, Yellow colour with only the very slightest sign of any Greens unfortunately. Reel 2 continued this colouration, with no improvement in the overall colouring. Reel 2 runs continues immediately with the motion picture, there are no countdowns, titles etc on reel 2.
NOTE: I noticed when the credits were rolling on reel 1, the screen was shifted noticeable to the left side, leaving a blank band down the right of the screen. Once the film "proper" begins, this band disappears.
Sound across both reels is good and clean and it is easy to understand the dialogue.
SPECIAL NOTE:
I always include a couple of "off screen" snapshots of each reel as it is played ... now 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. Probably more so than any other film I have watched recently ... in real life the picture is not so "washed out" looking.
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 this movie has a LOT of movement) 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 in the photographs.
In my opinion, after this fairly brief test viewing, I am happy that the film reels contain the motion picture as stated on the library cases and that the film stock appears to be in fairly reasonable 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 decided to repack the film with a little extra care ... a couple of packets of Silica Gel have been added within the now clear plastic SEALED film reels inside each library case, this should keep any effects of humidity to a minimum. I have then sealed both library cases together as a pack of two, once again in a large sealed clear plastic package, in an attempt to reduce further deterioration of the film dyes (this was a suggestion I received from a film enthusiast to try and slow down the eventual dye degradation)
