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Post by antifrodis on Jan 5, 2011 2:45:29 GMT -5
The only downfall will be that TCM will probably plaster their logo in the corner of the screen at all times. A small price to pay for seeing (hopefully) restored, uncut Our Gang silents. I'm not positive, but I think TCM only keeps the logo on shorts when they're being shown as fillers. During marathons (IIRC), they keep the logo off, outside of the usual pop-up every twenty minutes to remind viewers what channel they're watching. Well, I guess the logos stay. TCM-HD has a smaller logo than the standard def channel. Hopefully these will show up on DVD someday soon.
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Jan 5, 2011 2:57:55 GMT -5
So far, the films all seem to be complete, including Mama's Little Pirate. I guess that the real test will begin when the silents start to air. Most of them I've never seen in their entirety, and many I've never seen at all. In particular, I'm eager to see a complete version of The Champeen!, as well as the films that featured Scooter Lowry.
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Post by Mark on Jan 5, 2011 4:48:22 GMT -5
Has anyone ever seen that original opening title to "Fire Fighters"?? ;D
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Jan 5, 2011 5:36:30 GMT -5
I really liked the music in Saturday Morning, especially the version of Bicycle Built for Two that was played. Was the music in the short taken directly from the original film, or did it have to be redone in some way due to the age of the movie?
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Post by antifrodis on Jan 5, 2011 10:22:36 GMT -5
I really liked the music in Saturday Morning, especially the version of Bicycle Built for Two that was played. Was the music in the short taken directly from the original film, or did it have to be redone in some way due to the age of the movie? These films never had soundtracks originally. What you're hearing was added very recently.
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Post by antifrodis on Jan 5, 2011 10:30:52 GMT -5
Well, so far with this Our Gang silent marathon, I've only seen a few things worth noting. The original title screen for "Fire Fighters" was shown. "The Cobbler" is a nearly complete version. "Seein' Things" contains a whole lot of footage not found in the common version, although it was missing the beginning.
Everything else I've seen has been derived from the same ol' prints that we've seen from the various common sources for the silents. The transfers have been better, but with the TCM logo plastered all over everything, it's kind of like breaking even. The opening credits are almost all remakes, and the other credits screens were removed or not recreated at all.
More complete versions of these films are available. It's a shame they didn't take the time to find them. The credits for each film list "Mackinac" as the company responsible for the films. I belive that's the same company that now owns whatever footage Laughsmith was working on for their now defunct dvd set.
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Post by mtw12055 on Jan 5, 2011 10:43:12 GMT -5
Still haven't watched that marathon (though I'm recording it). How did "Saturday Morning" look?
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Post by moglia on Jan 5, 2011 11:51:25 GMT -5
This is exciting! Could this possibly mean that a DVD release may happen around that time? If this set is from Mackinac, I wonder if Paul has any info about all this. Sadly Paul/Laughsmith is not involved. He had to turn over the materials in what ever state they were in as part of the lawsuit. Go to silent news on www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?t=7983 for more info.
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Jan 5, 2011 12:42:35 GMT -5
Still haven't watched that marathon (though I'm recording it). How did "Saturday Morning" look? Saturday Morning looked pretty good to me, but I haven't seen as many prints as others on the boards here, I suspect. Speaking as one who was seeing the film for the first time, though, I was impressed by the quality of the picture. I've been going nonstop along with the Our Gang marathon for nearly seventeen hours, now, ever since it began at 7 P.M. yesterday. I think I can make it all the way to 7 P.M. today, if I don't sit still in one place for too long... :-)
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Post by Mark on Jan 5, 2011 13:18:57 GMT -5
We're on "Official Officers" by now. I'm glad we're at least getting better picture quality and transfers on all of these, and the speed has been slowed down. Even if they're not restored.
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Post by antifrodis on Jan 5, 2011 13:22:25 GMT -5
Still haven't watched that marathon (though I'm recording it). How did "Saturday Morning" look? "Saturday Morning" is the same intertitle-less print you've already seen. The transfer is better tho'. It's missing the footage of Farina and Ernie at home (among other things). "Dog Days" did have the beginning footage with Pineapple and Farina that is missing on most prints, but it was missing a bunch of the party footage later in the film...and the intertitles weren't original. The quality on a few of the films is pretty nice ("High Society" for example). "No Noise" looked horrible and was probably from a Mischief Makers print. I've seen the full film, sans opening credits. I wonder if this is all that Laughsmith had for their project? It's certainly better than what you see on all the "bootleg" sets available, but it's still far from what I was hoping to see.
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Post by antifrodis on Jan 5, 2011 14:26:52 GMT -5
Reading on another board, it sounds like Laughsmith was far from finished with their material, but Mackinac, who now owns the rights to the films, just patched together what Laughsmith left them with. Ah well. At least they're being shown on TV for once.
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Post by mtw12055 on Jan 5, 2011 16:09:48 GMT -5
Let's also hope that what's being shown on TCM today is merely a preview of the future DVD release. It does seem likely that Laughsmith were unable to finish all of the films they attempted to release on DVD. There were a handful of titles not shown on TCM that the company hope to release (i.e. "Our Gang", "Your Own Backyard", "The Smile Wins").
I wonder if Robin Cook still has any involvement in these projects.
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Post by littlerascal4891 on Jan 5, 2011 22:21:59 GMT -5
I just checked my DVR list... 52 Our Gang episodes. I'm still smiling about it!
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Jan 5, 2011 23:47:54 GMT -5
I'm very pleased, as well! :-) I was able to record on my VCR the thirty-one silent films that were shown. That was part of why I had to stay awake for the entire marathon; I had to be right there to monitor the recording and make sure that nothing went wrong, and to stop the machine in between films (reason: limited tape space). Of course, if a release of these Pathé silents comes out on DVD, I'll be right there waiting to buy it.
After twenty-four hours of Our Gang, though, it feels kind of odd to not be watching it. I think I'll pull out one of my DVD sets now and plug back in to the experience. ;-)
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