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 this reel, 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 "dog film sniffer" 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 to 75 years later ... everything eventually fails
Please be realistic and keep all of this in mind.
Now, on with the description ...
LARRY PARKS As Al Jolson (Jolson Sings Again) - Super 8 Film
Columbia Pictures Home Movies
1949
I would imagine this is a "selected scenes" version released for the home market by Columbia Pictures
Single 400 foot reel
Commercial release for the Home Movie market
Original cardboard outer box.
In brief, this motion picture continues the story from The Jolson Story, where Larry Parks brilliantly lip-synced Jolson's hits while portraying his 1940's comeback entertaining WWII troops
400' Bright White (unbranded) plastic reel
Colour
Sound
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
WARNING!
I had some issues running this film and took a closer look only to find there is definite side sprocket damage on the film stock, in fact in one section the sprockets have disappeared altogether! I noticed that "further" into the film length, things appeared to settle down but I really didn't want to run anything further through the projector.
I would recommend that this offering is considered for the original box and/or the reel - the film stock is highly suspect!
The reel is undamaged and has only J.S.A handwritten on one side.
Outer packaging is in reasonable condition, no tears but some light "mildew like" spotting. No smells though!
Vinegar odour was NOT detected coming off the film stock
NO personal names or other writing on the packaging
TESTING:
Test machine: ELMO 1200ST
Leader film is fitted and it fed into the projector no problems (sprocket holes looked good to begin with but then all hell broke loose ...)
My Oh My this film stock has issues, at least at the beginning of the reel! After initially loading into the projector fine, suddenly (around the time the credits are rolling on the screen) I had some trouble maintaining a stable picture & sound. I then stopped the film and took a closer look ... this film stock is damaged, for how much length I do not know though. I can see some sprocket damage and in one section I looked at, the sprockets are not there any longer! I ran the film just a little further on, manually making sure the sprocket holes were lined up properly with inside the projector and it did seem the damage had disappeared, at least for the moment ... I did not continue to run the film through the projector though.
For what it is worth, this is another colour film where the Blues in particular have all gone off on a picnic ... they just aren't there any longer. I can see lots of Pinkish Red tones and at times, Green (the footlights in one scene) and the Black/Greys aren't too bad either but the lack of Blues is obvious. This may all be a moot point considering the condition of the film stock but ...
While running correct (the non-damaged area of the film stock), the sound was fine - easy to understand and listenable music.
After around only five minutes of play time, I had enough and was not prepared to keep running this film through the projector so I have no idea what the condition of the remaining film may be - I would rate this film stock as being in poor condition, based on my brief tests.
Regardless of the condition, I have now packed away this film into a sealed, clear plastic package to protect at least the outer box and reduce the further degradation of the film inside.
