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 ... this is actually the second copy of this release that I have found, so far ...
TORA! TORA! TORA!
20th Century Fox
KEN FILMS
Title: Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
Catalogue # F19
400 Feet
Colour
Sound (Mono)
Run time: approximately 16 minutes
It's 1941 and surely they (the Japanese) aren't going to attack? The rest is history ...
Tora! Tora! Tora! was the code word that the Japanese used for the attack, the full Japanese word is Totsugeki Raigeki, which in English implies “lightning attack” - the Americans at Pearl Harbour certainly were caught off guard, imagine their disbelief when the first bombs dropped.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
The original cardboard box is in very good condition, no discolouration, no damage
NO personal writing on either the outer box or the film reel
Film stock is undamaged with a leader film fitted but no film clip.
NO unusual smells detected coming off the film i.e NO VINEGAR smells
TESTING:
Test projector is the ELMO 1200 that I have on hand at the moment.
Film looks to be clean and in good condition, sprocket holes are not damaged.
White leader film is fitted
I ran the film through the projector for approximately the first five minutes, to observe the picture and check that the sound quality.
At the opening it appeared as though the picture was dominated by the Red colouring with an absolute lack of Greens and Blues but shortly into the film I then could start to see Greens and as the film progressed. Unfortunately this didn't include the Blues which basically don't exist. This means that the "ocean scenes" are dominated by Reds but when the actors are in the frames, their uniforms appear a Brownish even Greyish colour and not completely Red due to low level presence of the Greens. The short section that I viewed (about 5 minutes or so) was watchable although a bit like viewing a film through "Rose coloured glasses!" A funny thing I saw at the beginning of the film, the American officers are discussing if Japan REALLY was intending to launch an attack and I noticed the back wall of their office had one half which was the dominant Pinkish/Red but the other half of the wall was a Lime Green ... I think it was about this time that the Greens started "showing up" more in the frames. I am thinking that perhaps I should have watched the entire reel just to see what happened to the colouring (if it further "improved") but I didn't have the time to mess around watching film all day and taking some photographs.
SPECIAL NOTE: I felt I needed to add this little note ... whilst viewing the film on the screen, it actually looks "reasonable" but it has become apparent to me that my antiquated digital camera (very old, one of the very first 'point n shoot' models!) 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 are only a very rough guide for what to expect but 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. In my humble opinion, the colour rendition remains watchable, but certainly not brilliant.
It is interesting that the dye failures (Blue & Green) appear to most noticeable at the beginning of the reel, the film which sits right on the outer reaches of the reel and is most exposed to the environment.
The audio is good, no issues on this score.
I am happy that the reel inside the box is as stated on the outer box.
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 cardboard box, 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 box.
The outer box is now stored in a cool, low humidity environment while it awaits a new projector to live with.
