Vampyr - Curiosities from Classic and Cult Cinema

Robert Herring: the cinema around 1927 as seen in 32 pictures

08-05-2012

‘The Way. A design in triple exposure, devised by the famous American photographer, who is working without a studio. Directed by Francis Bruguière.’

Films of the Year 1927-1928 is an annual type of book, consisting of 32 stills and an introductory essay by editor Robert Herring that outlines how the cinema developed into an art form – an anything but self-evident concept at the time the book was published.

Herrings views on the artistic film are still interesting today: ‘In the best films, both theme and story unfold so that there is a weaving of the two sets of images, the apparent and the real. This method, used by Von Stroheim, enables a spectator to take what he likes, to see as much as he is able to see. There is an example of what I mean in The Student of Prague. Veidt [Konrad Veidt, the actor who plays the protagonist—V.] is in a cheap café, drinking, dancing, singing. But he suddenly cannot bear it, and there is a close-up of his head, with the cellist’s bow drawing across his temples. No one imagined that this was a literal representation; they knew the bow was not real, but symbolical of his mental strain, of the way the music suddenly jarred on his nerves and became, somehow, the jar of the whole world going against him.
In Hotel Imperial there was a symbol, done by super-imposing, which meant one thing and meant also another thing. An exhausted officer dreamt of a battle; shadowry cavalry charged through his brain, and a drum beat, beat, beat. The place on the screen where the drum beat was exactly the place of his temple when the dream dissolved. The cavalry faded away, and the drum faded, but the beat—beat—beat went on, his white forehead the white drum.’

Super8glamour: a chance to lay hands on vintage erotic 8mm films

By: Vampyr

06-05-2012

8mm Movies

Most visitors of this site have probably never even touched them: the erotic super 8mm and standard 8mm films that pleased their parents – or perhaps their grandparents – on rainy days. Anyone wanting to make up for lost time now has the chance on Super8glamour.com, a webshop of Dutch origin (but in the English language) that exclusively sells vintage 8mm sex films, or glamour films as these were once called in the UK. The site offers a lot of German films (Lasse Braun, Busen), but also titles from the United States (Roxbury Press, House of Milan) and Scandinavia (Color Climax). Most films are from the 1970s and early 1980s.

At present, there are about 130 films on offer, but some 200 more will be added in the next few months, the site promises. For most films, there is a picture of the film box and a short description, extracted from the text on the box. The site also gives gradings for film condition and color quality. Prices range from about 10 to 15 euros, with a few exceptions.

In the first week of May, Super8glamour published a hefty sales catalogue, promisingly titled A Treasury of Vintage Erotic 8mm Films. The catalogue lists considerably more films than the site does: about 350. We especially liked the large pictures of both front and back covers of the film boxes, and a number of indexes, a.o. an index of film titles and an index of actresses and actors (where known). The catalogue sells for € 4,50 and, according to Super8glamour, is a real treat for both film collectors and anyone interested in vintage erotica. More on the catalogue soon on Vampyr.nl.

Jason King keeps a Stiff Upper Lip

By: Vampyr

30-10-2011

8mm Movies

We have to admit we are not as disapproving of German dubbing as we used to be. In part, this is because dubbing simply is a fact of life: quite a lot of all European super 8 films were made in Germany. Moreover, it doesn’t make sense to complain about the wrong language when dealing with genres like euro horror, martial arts or asian monster films, which almost depend on dubbing.

Jason King, however, is another story. Dubbing this perfectly British television series verges on blasphemy. Seventies icon Peter Wyngarde, who is hero Jason King, probably ranks as one of the most thoroughly stiff upper lip Englishmen in television history, and his trademark diction is matchless. That said, we have to admit the German actor who was in charge of dubbing King does try to make the most of it in his rather effeminate voice.

Der Doppelgänger
Jason King debuted in 1971 and stayed for exactly one season. It’s all about international crime and espionage, and about the blondes, of course, that King just can’t live without. Vampyr saw Der Doppelgänger, one of two titles in two parts released by Ufa-ATB.

The first reel opens with some skirmishes about drug traffic and takes us on a tour around several capitals of the world, where a lot of talking heads do little more than fill the screen. The film gets more interesting, though, when a gadget typical of the seventies pops up: the radiographic control that hoods have built into King’s Rolls Royce. And when, near the end of the first reel, Jason King’s double appears, we are even getting curious about the second half.
Unfortunately, however, the number 2 box holds a second number 1 reel. Very disappointing, indeed, as we won’t be able to return the film after more than thirty years – in spite of the hefty recommended retail price of 149 German marks that can still be seen on a worn sticker.

Credits
Jason King: Der Doppelgänger (Uneasy Lies the Head, UK 1971-1972). Super 8-verson: Ufa-ATB, in two parts: nos. 211-1 and 212-1. Each part is approximately 350 ft (18 min) super 8 color sound, dubbed in German.
The other title released by Ufa-ATB is Die Steine von Venedig (Stones of Venice), also in two parts: nos. 209-1 and 210-1.

The End of an Era? Derann Film Services Close Down

By: Vampyr

24-10-2011

8mm Movies

The announcement came unexpectedly: after a one-day clearance sale, UK based Derann Film Services, probably the largest of the surviving 8mm dealers in the world, closed down on September 11, 2011. According to managing director Adrian Simmonds, son of Derek and Anne Simmonds who founded the company in 1964, this was ‘in essence due to the astronomical rising costs that the local council, insurance and utility companies continue to impose on small businesses’ and ‘the decline in general to the high street trade’.

Although we wouldn’t want to challenge these considerations, we still think there is more to it. The 8mm trade hasn’t exactly prospered during the last few years. Prices of used films dropped, organizing the yearly Northern Film Collectors Convention became increasingly difficult, and the number of Derann’s own super 8 releases – acclaimed for many years – declined steadily. It was for a reason that, on the company’s homepage, plasma tv’s and bluray players took the place of the 8mm and 16mm business. Let’s face it: the 8mm community simply has shrunk over the last decade.

The European 8mm collector has to take much trouble over buying decent films, now that Topfilm of Amsterdam has ceased trading as well. But worldwide, active dealers can still be found. Vampyr will make a list shortly.

Blackpool in Late Afternoon Colors: Holiday

By: Vampyr

23-10-2011

8mm Movies

At least till the 1970s, the seaside resort of Blackpool was a major center of tourism in the UK. Rarely if ever the city was depicted as beautifully as in John Taylor’s short documentary Holiday (1957).

This travelogue neatly presents all that is to be expected from life in a seaside town: the beach, the sea, the fair, having a snack and fireworks at night. Still, the film never gets boring or predictable. For the most part, we owe that to the fresh approach of director Taylor: he had cameraman David Watkins shoot large sequences candidly, which resulted in a documentary much less contrived than many others from the decade. Moreover, in spite of the commotion of its subject these fifty year old images ooze a mild quietness – maybe due to the limited use of live sound. The beautiful palette of late afternoon colors, reminding of Technicolor, effortlessly evokes the atmosphere of a lost era. And, well, we’re prepared to put up with the dixieland score of the Chris Barber Jazz Band.

Holiday was produced by British Transport Films, an organisation set up in 1949 by the nationalized British railway companies for making documentaries on transport subjects. Between 1949 and 1982, it made hundreds of documentaries and travelogues (extolling the virtues of places that could be visited via the British transport system – mostly by rail). Director John Taylor was awarded an Academy Award in 1966 for another British Transport production, Wild Wings.

Vampyr saw a 200ft (10 minute) super 8 print released by Derann Film Services. The image quality is excellent: a very sharp image and brilliant, saturated color. However, this is a condensed version, as the original running time is 17 minutes. According to a post on the 8mm Forum, a complete 8mm edition seems to have been released by Barry Wiles Films. Holiday is also part of the impressive dvd box set The British Transport Films Collection, released by the British Film Institute, which presents a total of 125 films on 18 discs.

Selected Scenes: the Box Cover Art of Ken Films (2)

By: Vampyr

16-10-2011

8mm Movies

In an earlier post, we showed a number of box covers of condensed feature films that were released on 8mm by the American Ken Films company in the 1960s and 1970s. Below, Vampyr presents some twenty more covers, all of horror and science fiction titles.

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Exploitation Art

By: Vampyr

15-10-2011

Stills+Posters

A few years ago, Vampyr acquired a hefty collection of exploitation posters at an auction house in Haarlem, the Netherlands. All posters in the collection were issued by the Cosmopolis film distributing company of Brussels, Belgium, and date from the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Most of the posters have the Belgian halfsheet format of approximately 37 x 55 cm and are in both Dutch and French languages. Generally speaking, the design falls into two categories: full color posters with photographs or illustrations, and posters with black & white illustrations against a yellow, orange or red background.

Although there are some nice designs amongst the full color posters (the Ilsa poster shown here is our favorite), we think the second category is more interesting. Almost all of these posters have been printed by so-called split duct printing. This is a technique where two or more colors are printed at the same time, from one and the same plate, instead of printing them, as is more usual, separately from separate plates. On the printing press, the printer pours ink of the first color into one side of the ink duct, and ink of the second color into the other side. When printing, the two colors flow together in the middle. In this way, you only have to print twice (one time for black, one time for color) to obtain a multiple color effect.

Of course, this technique was applied for a reason: it saved money. But the combination of split duct printing and the stark black & white illustrations, and the consistent use of the red and yellow colors created a unique style and made these designs, however crude they may be, into something special.

My Frankenstein

By: Vampyr

13-10-2011

Magazines+Books

From the 1920s to the 1950s, especially in Europe, they were very popular: magazines presenting compact novelizations of recent movies. The French Mon Film, published weekly between 1948 and approximately 1962, is the most well known. Its format was simple: each issue contained a ciné-roman of about ten pages, richly illustrated with film stills. The movies were mainstream most of the time, but on rare occasions Mon Film selected a genre movie. The Curse of Frankenstein, a Hammer Film production from 1957 starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, is an example. It was novelized in no. 609, published 23 april 1958.

How to convert a story that is told mainly in images to a compact novel? The editors of Mon Film had some answers: use as much dialog as possible, emphasize the drama, and most of all: use a lot of images.

In each issue, some twenty stills summarize the plot of the film. When done well, this succession of images can tell the story all by itself, like a picture novel. But in the case of The Curse of Frankenstein, the editors could have done a better job. The cover photo was interesting enough, but many of the stills inside were static two-shots that did not exactly do justice to the explosive Frankenstein theme. Readers who didn’t care for the text and went to the photos instead, will have obtained a distorted view of the movie.

But don’t take our word for it. In the image gallery below, all photos can be viewed in sequence. We have added the original French captions. (Originally published in Vampyr vol. 5, no. 2)

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Selected Scenes: the Box Cover Art of Ken Films (1)

By: Vampyr

11-10-2011

8mm Movies

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Ken Films company of Fort Lee, New Jersey probably was the most important 8mm home movie distributor in the world. Ken specialized in abridged versions of feature films, initially released on black & white stock without sound. From the mid-1970s, Ken added color and sound to its range, but running times were kept at a low 9 or 17 minutes. Raw film stock was expensive, and the cost of complete versions was considered too high for the mass market that Ken Films was targeting. The company had distribution arrangements with many of the major film studios: Republic Pictures, United Artists, Warner Brothers, Paramount and MGM.

Over the years, Ken released a few hundred different titles. The films were always shipped in brightly colored cardboard boxes, many of which are still sought after by collectors. In the gallery below, we present a selection of Ken’s box designs for dramatic and action movies. In an upcoming post, we will take a look at the cover art for horror and science fiction.

More on Ken Films can be read in Vampyr Vol. 8 No. 2, recently published in Schokkend Nieuws nr. 92. Sorry, in Dutch only!

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