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 400+ left now
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 three reels ...
Regardless of this, 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.
This 3x reel motion picture is NOT in an original distributors packaging, but instead the reels are in a plain Brown plastic like canister/case. The information that follows is from my observations and towards the end of this lengthy description I describe my observations of the motion picture as I have partially played all three reels.
Now, on with the description ...
AIRPORT (1980)
Paramount Home Movies (Selected Scenes)
Title: AIRPORT 1980
Shown in Australia, New Zealand & South Africa as FLYING HIGH!
Catalogue # Unknown
3x 400 Feet Black unbranded unmarked reels
Leaders on all three films are extremely short! However these are followed by lengthy pieces of plain Black film which acts as a leader in any case.
No film clips fitted
Colour
Sound (Mono)
I remember this one! Another favourite, a parody on all the air disaster movies and Leslie just cracked me up! Laughter ... just the sort of thing that is needed when you want to relieve the daily stresses and take a laugh at life ...
The story follows a traumatised ex-fighter pilot Ted Striker, who must overcome his fear of flying to land a commercial airliner after the crew and passengers fall ill from food poisoning.
Labelling on the outer canister and reels is pretty basic (typed text on the canister so this was labelled a long time ago) and each reel has a label ENGLISCH (sic) and and a small numbered "White dot".
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
Single plain Brown 1.3mm thick "plastic like" canister or case (label inside indicates it came from a company called STAMFORD, located in Chatswood Sydney) which easily holds all three reels, it could actually hold 4 so I have added some bubblewrap to stop the reels moving around inside too much. The outer Brown plastic canister is two part with a square shape (rounded corners) and a stiple-like exterior finish. To this outer case is a Yellow nylon strap secured with double rivets and a double buckle arrangement - very secure once strapped up but a devil to undo!
The only identification on the inside of the canister/case is a metallic stick on label "STAMFORD, Chatswood" - I can find no references to this company online, other than a film production company in the same area but I feel this is unrelated.
NO personal writing on either the outer case or the film reel
Film stock is undamaged with a leader film fitted but no film clip.
TESTING:
Test machine: ELMO 1200ST
The projector film path has been completely cleaned prior to running this film through the machine. I now have a "running sheet", my maintenance schedule if you like - I record when each maintenance is performed because I am running a lot of films through the machine.
Film looks to be clean and in good condition, sprocket holes are not damaged.
White leader film is fitted to each reel but my goodness, so very very short! Fortunately the leaders are followed by a Black/Purplish blank film which runs for quite some length before the movie runs so this acts as a leader in any case.
I ran the film through the projector for approximately the first five minutes of each reel, to observe the picture and check that the sound quality.
First thing that hit me was the opening introduction titles (before the main title, I think these were from the film distributor) - they are all in German language! That may explain the German text (ENGLISCH) on each reel perhaps. Fortunately after this screen preamble, the film 'proper' begins and all is fine - in English with no further signs of German (or any other) language.
Yes, while the picture is not brilliant, I can see Greens & Blues along with the usual Reds, Oranges, Browns etc - not full colour by any stretch of the imagination but nice colouring all the same - very watchable.
I checked across all three reels and the same result i.e all reels appear to be in roughly the same condition.
Fortunately, to go with this nice picture is the good sound, it is clear and at a good level - this is important as there are a lot of gags which need some explanation with the dialogue
I am satisfied that all three reels inside the canister are in fact AIRPLANE and in reasonable technical condition.
I am very fastidious and careful with these films, they are after all the property of another, and I have now packed the film back into the polystyrene case, added a couple of Silica Gel packets and then sealed the reel in clear plastic, then another sealed clear plastic packaging has been added around the outer case.
This film is now stored in a cool, low humidity environment while it awaits a new projector to live with.
