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, keep the following in mind
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 still be underway but as yet undetectable by the human nose.
It really comes down to ... these films are OLD, probably they were never intended to be viewed up to 60 years later ... everything eventually fails
Please be realistic and keep all of this in mind.
Now, on with the description ...
SAMSON & DELILAH PLUS THE RELUCTANT ASTRONAUT
Super 8 Short Films - abridged or edited versions "teasers"
I refer to this as a "split reel", similar to a split release in the music world where two different artists appear on the one record, particularly 7" but also these occur on 12" Singles as well.
This 400' reel contains TWO shortened versions of completely different movies
Single 400 foot (7 Inch) dark Grey (Unbranded) reel
Commercial release for the Home Movie market
The outer cardboard box is the original packaging for Samson & Delilah, on the side of this box has been attached a dynatape label indicating the second film, The Reluctant Astronaut, also "lives here". This dynatape label can be carefully removed, leaving a nice original box for Samson & Delilah and remove The Reluctant Astronaut film from the reel and place on it's own reel - if the new owner wanted to go this trouble.
Here are some brief details of both films ...
SAMSON & DELILAH 1949
Film Marketing
Cat# 415-4
Colour
Sound
The Biblical tale of the Hebrew strongman Samson, blessed with divine strength but cursed with lust for Philistine women; he falls for the beautiful Delilah, who, bribed by Philistines, betrays him by learning his hair's secret, leading to his capture, blinding, enslavement, and ultimate, spectacular revenge by destroying the Philistine temple of Dagon, killing himself and thousands of enemies.
THE RELUCTANT ASTRONAUT 1967
Black & White ***
*** Take note that this is a Black & White version, not colour.
Sound
Roy (Don Knotts), a perpetually terrified 35-year-old man-child, still lives with his parents. He plays an astronaut at a local fairground, but his father (Arthur O'Connell) wants him to be a real astronaut and lands him a place at NASA. On arrival, Roy discovers he's just a janitor, but he keeps up the charade, which eventually gets him fired. When NASA wants to send someone unqualified into orbit to "one-up" the Russians, however, they send Roy into space, where things invariably go wrong.
I loved this film, Leslie Neilsen is amongst my favourite American comedy actors and I remember Don Knotts from my childhood playing in The Andy Griffith Show ... geez that's going back in time.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
Film stock and the reel is undamaged
The reel has extremely minimal labelling, a White paper label "ENGLISCH" (sic) and the catalogue number (415-4) also on a paper label - the contents of the reel are not specifically identified.
The full colour cardboard outer box used is for Samson & Delilah with a dynatape label attached to one side to indicate that The Reluctant Astronaut is also on this reel.
Vinegar odour was NOT detected
NO personal names or other writing on the packaging or the film reel
TESTING:
Test machine: ELMO 1200ST
Leader film is fitted and it fed into the projector no problems (sprocket holes look good and undamaged)
NO film clip is provided
Because I was uncertain exactly what this reel contained, it has been played entirely ...
The film begins ...
Grand opening scenes of Samson & Delilah, colouring looking very "Golden" and I could barely see any Greens or Blues in the picture, initially. As the reel progressed, I noticed that the Greens seemed to "lift their game" a little but the Blues really had left town, nowhere to be seen.
The sound quality and level is fine, no issues on this side.
This abridged version runs for around 15 minutes and is then almost immediately followed by the title and credit screens for The Reluctant Astronaut. The picture switches to Black & White and looks good - not Sephia or washed out looking, good contrast. I watched this short version of the movie for the remainder of the reel, around ten minutes I think it was.
The sound quality is also good, no issues with this at all.
SPECIAL NOTE: I felt I needed to add this little note ... whilst viewing the film on the screen, it doesn't look too bad, sure the Blues and Greens are significantly reduced but it has become apparent to me that my antiquated digital camera (very old, one of the first!) just isn't up to the task in regard to colour representation nor the ability to portray contrast properly. The screen shots I take are while the film is running too, that doesn't help provide a good image. The photographs look pretty woeful, in reality the film is not as bad as 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 and any special points (such as the film aspect ratio) can be seen. Yes, the colour in particular is not great but in real life they are not quite as bad as depicted in the photographs!
After test playing this entire reel for the complete length, around 25 minutes or so, I am satisfied that this reel does indeed contain the contents as marked on the outer cardboard box and that it is in fair ~ reasonable technical condition.
After viewing, I packed the reel (inside the outer packaging) into sealed clear plastic, along with a couple of Silica Gel satchels, it now safely awaits a new owner.
