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Topic: Horse Feathers on TCM

Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 03-29-2010 09:12 PM

Did anyone watch Horsefeathers on TCM? Just tuned in in the middle. One whole scene had several deep black scratches and lots of splices with frames missing.

Has Horsefeathers never been restored? Did TCM say anything about the bad print at the beginning?

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 03-29-2010 10:01 PM

I did not watch HORSEFEATHERS, Martin but I have been watching a lot of TCM movies lately. Two of the recent one has been music related. One was THE GREAT CARUSO and the other one was THE STORY OF THREE LOVES. Both of the movies were produced and released by MGM when I was very young and still in grade school but I still remembered them because of the very beautiful music. They were both photographed in three strip Technicolor but the prints that was shown was not IB but Eastman color and did not have that gorgeous IB color and picture quality I had enjoyed last week when I watched the restored THE AFRICAN QUEEN on Blu-Ray. I also watched Akira Kurosawas. KUMO NO SUJO (Throne of Blood) on TCM about the same time and all of the movies looked great.

I do not ever believe I ever saw TCM show a bad print. I am not saying they have not but if they did, there probably was a very good reason. There is a possibility TCM wanted to show HORSEFEATHERS but the only print available was the one you had seen. Even with print flaws , seeing a movie I love in that condition is better than not ever seeing it at all.

-Claude

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Joe Tommassello
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 547
From: Coatesville, PA, USA
Registered: Jan 2008

posted 03-30-2010 02:02 PM

Unfortunately that appears to be the best available version of "Horse Feathers". Back when they first planned to release it on VHS (when I was in that business) we inquired with the studio as to whether they would have a complete print. Universal looked high and low for a complete reel to replace that choppy dialog between Groucho, Chico and Thelma Todd but without any luck. Every print in their inventory in any format appears to have come from the same source - duped from a 35mm release print. Presumably when UNI purchased the TV rights from Paramount in the mid-50s that is what they were given. If a complete reel exists it would be a nitrate element from the pre-television era. Perhaps something will turn up sometime at a Paramount vault or even a print long forgotten at some God forsaken third world film depot (like in the case of Metropolis) or lovingly preserved by a private collector.

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Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 03-30-2010 02:04 PM

Title of thread edited so I don't go down in history as a total film idiot;.
Horse Feathers.

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Jack Theakston
Master Film Handler

Posts: 411
From: New York, USA
Registered: Sep 2007

posted 03-30-2010 03:14 PM

When MCA went to do the transfer, they found that the nitrate elements for particular reel had turned to dust. The missing reel was therefore filled out with a dupe neg from a print (probably the one donated by Paramount to UCLA once they sold their library to MCA).

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Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 03-31-2010 06:35 PM

I watched that show on TCM. Thanks for the explanation of the scratches. I was really needing to know the low-down on this!!

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