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.
This is a "quad reel" film, 600 feet capacity per reel except reel 4 which has 350 feet on it, so the total film length is around 2100 feet or so. I am thinking that this could be the full length feature, not selected scenes.
Vinegar Syndrome: my nose came up NEGATIVE on all of these reels ...
Regardless, please 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 ...
HORROR EXPRESS - Super 8 Film
Distribution not stated at the beginning of the reel
*** The labels indicate this film was released by Granada, Madrid but then I noticed that the credit to Christopher Lee has his name mis-spelt as Cristopher Lee and the on-screen text used to indicate locations in the film look very French language to me.
Title: Horror Express (1972)
Stars Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing
Set in 1906, the film's storyline follows the various passengers aboard a European-bound Trans-Siberian Railway train. They are soon stalked, one by one, by an alien intelligence inhabiting the frozen body of an ancient primitive humanoid brought onboard by an anthropologist.
Labelling is on the side of each library case, manually typed! This must have been labelled a LONG time ago, how long since you have had a typewriter in the house? Labelling has also been hand written on each reel
4x 600 feet clear DASCO reels
White leader film is fitted to all reels and reels 3 & 4 have film clips.
Colour
Sound
Supplied in four EUMIG (Japan) Grey/Cream hard plastic library cases with a drop down front door. These are similar in appearance to the POSSO & DASCO library cases.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
Film stock and each reel is undamaged
NO physical damage to library case numbers 1 ~ 4
NO significant discolouration to any case, although they look to have been well used in the past.
NO odours resulting from "Vinegar Syndrome" i.e I could NOT detect any vinegar type smells coming off any reel
NO personal names on the library cases or the film reels - just the identification of each reel
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 four reels for around ten minutes each, I wish I had more time to test view this movie because it looks really interesting.
Very very lengthy lead-in on Reel 1 with the title and loads of credits to just about anyone involved in the production of this movie. Strangely, no front shots of the distributor or film company.
All reels have a White leader, followed by quite long lengths of clear or Black film (no images at all). Reels 2 only has a "countdown" and show the film part or reel number but reels 3 & 4 just get straight back into the movie, no countdowns or reel numbers on screen at all.
Across all four reels, the colour is not bad but not great either! The usual Reds & Pinks but there must be Green still present because overall the film looks "Sephia like" and just a hint of Green in some scenes. I couldn't see any Blues though BUT I do see some scenes that look Purplish, which to me indicates there may be some Blue in the picture but it is not very intense. Even with this overall Sephia like look, it was a good watch!
The sound on each reel is clean, clear and of a "normal" level.
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 actually better than portrayed.
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 reel itself and the library cases and that the film stock appears to be in 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 all of the library cases together as a pack of four, once again in a large sealed clear plastic package, in an attempt to reduce further deterioration of the film stock (this was a suggestion I received from a film enthusiast, the aim being to try and slow down the eventual film chemical breakdown)
