Moronika
The community forum of ThreeStooges.net

Blackhawk Films

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline NoahYoung

For those that care, an interesting article from 1974 on Blackhawk. If for nothing else, it shows how quickly things can change for a business due to new technology -- in this case about 10 years later the company pretty much went out of business, although the name has been carried forth until this very day via Lobster Films on DVD/Blu-ray. The article mentions that there was "no end in sight" even though the first VCR as we know it today became available to the consumer a mere 2 years later.  (The first tape recorder for video was available commercially as far back as 1956, and for consumers in 1964!)

The heart of the article is actually about how they made their prints, which I thought might be interesting to post here due to the recent conversations on the restoration of the Stooges on Blu-ray. You can see how many generations away from the original negative Blackhawk prints were, yet they still maintained high quality. In fact, the article seems to say that the pre-print materia they worked with was often prints from collectors!

Blackhawk never printed Stooges shorts, yet they did sell most of what was available from Columbia in 8mm and Super 8 via their catalogs. The Stooges shorts in Super 8, particularly the "unedited" sound versions, were always better than even the best Blackhawks in Super 8 in terms of picture quality. I would love to see a similar article on how Columbia achieved this.
Burt Lancaster was too short!
- The Birdman of Alcatraz


Offline Mark The Shark

I got a Super 8 sound "Men In Black" from Blackhawk real cheap when they were having a fire sale of closeout Columbia titles (even though prior to this, I don't remember Blackhawk carrying "Men In Black" among the few Stooge shorts in their catalog). My copy had the sound slightly out of sync.

Interestingly, I also had a Super 8 "In The Sweet Pie And Pie" and in both cases, Columbia inserted a home movie "end title" with theatrical and television rights reserved, etc., which was accompanied by the shorts' original end title music. Then the "real" original end title followed, with end-of-reel static as the soundtrack. I am guessing all their Super 8 sound prints were like this?


Offline NoahYoung

Yes, many of my Stooges on Super 8 are like that. Not sure all of them, but could be.

Blackhawk might not have carried all the Stooges releases, at least not at the same time.
You can look here and peruse if u like: https://hmharchive.com/blackhawk-films-catalogs/

None of my Stooges have out-of-sync sound, but I have had a very small amount of films out-of-sync from other manufacturers. Depending on your projector, you can shorten or lengthen the lower loop to make minor adjustments to the sync.

I still get annoyed when I discover that one of my "unedited" Stooges shorts is indeed edited. "In The Sweet Pie And Pie" was rumored to be, but my print seems OK.
Burt Lancaster was too short!
- The Birdman of Alcatraz