Grahame
N's Web Pages
MICROSCOPE
ON PATHÉSCOPE 9.5MM PRINTED FILMS
By the late
Gerald McKee
The following excellent article
describing the background to 9.5mm printed films issued by the
Pathé-Baby company in France and the Pathéscope company in the
UK is taken, with grateful permission, from Gerald's book: "A Half Century of
Film Collecting" -
now sadly out of print.
When collectors get hooked on the 9.5mm cult, their first
interest is in the films that are available. As they become more
engrossed, they begin to find the fringe topics of 9.5mm films as
fascinating as the picture content. But where do you find
information on this? Pathéscope provided very little, so one had
to rely on personal experience; not easy for the younger
collector nowadays, with vintage material getting harder and
harder to find. After half a century of involvement, I feel that
some of my accumulated knowledge will be useful for collectors.
1. 1922-1927. FRENCH
FILMS FOR THE 9.5mm PATHÉ-BABY PROJECTOR
The first 9.5mm subjects were issued only on closed spools
(or cassettes) holding 8.5metres of film, which was all the
original Patbé Baby projector was designed to show. These tiny
films (Pathéscope in England always called them - slightly
inaccurately - 30ft. reels) ran for only 1 minute 20 seconds, if
projected at the then, "official" 9.5mm speed of l4fps.
With the use of the notched titles increasing the running time by
almost any amount, some early factual, notched "30
footers" could run for several minutes if they had many
stills and titles. In fact, these were a good read rather than
actionful entertainment, though this concept could be useful as a
teaching aid, making such reels true pioneers of visual education.
Photographic quality in these early films was generally good.
There was a tendency to make the prints fairly contrasty to
offset the dim lighting of the projector. Definition was
variable, some prints being noticeably sharper than others, while
steadiness was consistently good. Occasionally, in addition to
the Pathé stencil colour films released, there were a few
subjects printed on amber tinted-stock looking like their famous
16mm Kodascope rivals.
|
The earliest French subjects were usually
introduced by a trade-mark title of the Pathé cockerel
with Pathé Baby written beneath it, or the amusing
Pathé Baby chick just hatched from an egg. The earliest
English versions simply had a main title without the
preceding Pathé trademark. The inter-titles on some of
these 30ft. subjects were printed in a small, not
particularly clear, type-face. Far better were the
hand-lettered titles in bolder style. Early notched
titles consisted of a single frame to be held by the
de-clutch mechanism, but were soon superseded by two or
three frames when it was found that a single frame could
be damaged by heat.
|
Another characteristic of very early French 30ft. shorts was
their sprocket holes (with rounded ends) and the centre spindle
of the cassettes slightly different to later versions. By the
time the design of the 30ft. cassette and its contents was
finalised, the 60ft. cassette was introduced. And with it, a
modification to the top spool holder of the PATHÉ BABY
projector to take the large cassette; the lower take-up chamber
could already accommodate the additional film.
Watch an early 30ft 9.5mm French Pathe
print of "The Tamandua"
FR 1911 on You Tube - http://youtu.be/W6Ck-d9eJe0
Once this improvement was available, Pathéscope issued to
their dealers a little 60ft. publicity reel Multum in Parvo
("Much in Little"). This covered their range of
releases for home shows in brief clips, the best of which was
Ruth Roland trapped on the roof of a runaway coach (from the 2 x
60ft. version of THE TIMBER QUEEN) and Gloria Swanson in The
Tempest (their 3 x 60ft. version of STATION CONTENT). Parts
of this interesting reel were included in John Burgoyne-Johnsons
look at 9.5mm history: LIGHTS OUT AND THE STARS APPEAR (1972 -
Super8 and video). [ed: The LIGHTS OUT AND THE STARS APPEAR
film is available on DVD +R at £7.95 (post paid in the UK) from
Grahame Newnham - presto @
pathefilm.freeserve.co.uk (no gaps in actual e-mail
address)]
It was not long before some early subjects had to be split
into several 30ft. parts to cover a complete story. This led,
especially in France, to longer films being released in numerous
30ft. (or 60ft.) parts - an unsatisfactory procedure analogous to
the 78rpm gramophone presentation of symphonies being broken down
into five minute parts, each equal to the running time of a
single side of a l2in. disc. So, we find LE DROIT À LA VIE (Abel
Gance) in no less than 24 x 30ft. parts or PECHEURS D'ISLANDE in
12 x 30ft. or 6 x 60ft. parts. The constant rewinding necessary
between reels must have destroyed any dramatic impact these films
would have had. It's hard to understand how this form of home
entertainment ever became popular. This mode of presentation
survived in France longer than in England, with many features
issued in multiple 30ft. and 60ft. parts, even when 300 ft. reels
became available.
All the 30ft. and 60ft. films had the title of their contents
printed on the paper label stuck round the circumference of the
pressed steel cassette; a strip of paper including the 'Guarantee
Band' that sealed the film exit, ensuring that the customer knew
he was getting a brand new film. The labels were normally printed
black type on a white, yellow or green background. Some French
releases had hand written labels in beautiful French 'menu'
script. But, for the collector lucky enough to find them, the
most interesting labels (only on a few French 30ft. reels) are
those printed in silver lettering on a black background - the
identification of films in PATHÉ
STENCIL COLOUR. New film releases were announced by leaflets.
Even the 'Baby Cine' Film Library catalogue was no more than a
folded sheet. Pathé of France Ltd. did advertise the "Baby
Cine" system in the general press as well as photographic
journals.
2. 1927-1929: 9.5mm SUPER REELS
FROM JOINVILLE
In 1927, the 300ft.(100metre) so-called 'Super' reel arrived,
which in its original notched title form was considered to be
equivalent in running time to the standard 35mm reel of
1,000ft.(300metres). The maximum length of a feature (always
condensed from the cinema original) was two reels. Catalogue
numbers were prefixed S/ for Super.
Some of the first English releases in one reel did not have
the Pathé logo on the front, this was superseded by having the
main title card with 'Baby Cine (or Super Cine) Presents' above
the film's actual title. Its replacement: an attractively
lettered "Pathéscope Presents" on a plain-black
background, was an improvement. "The End" was
invariably in the same lettering style but surrounded by an
ornate Art Nouveau border.
The inter-titles of this era were all hand-lettered.
Occasionally, they were decorated with little cartoons
appropriate to their content; perhaps the best known film with
these is The Leghorn Hat, but this was not unique. Some
early Our Gang and Harold Lloyd subjects (e.g. A Trip to
Paradise) also had decorated titles.
A useful innovation with these new 300ft. reels was to have a
printed label gummed to the clear part of the leader, giving the
title of the film and - if needed - its part-number.
Printing standards were high. The projected images were
notably steady and the photographic quality was remarkable for
its high definition and excellent gradation. These images tended
to have a warmer tone than those in later releases. whilst it's
an insignificant detail, one notices that the actual developing
time was written on the film's master and printed on to the
leader. (ed: later this was the actual film length, not
developing time)
The cellulose acetate base, the factor determining the
longevity of 9.5mm prints seems to have been unusually tough at
this time. There is less sprocket hole splitting than in later
prints. The only noticeable fault, brought about by storage in
too dry an atmosphere is that certain films surviving from this
era tend to bow or 'cup' due to shrinkage of the base material. I
have also seen as a result of this, instances where the emulsion
has stripped from the base.
The earliest single 300ft. reels were sold packaged in rather
rough corrugated card boxes with the title printed on a label and
a 'Guarantee Band' sealing them before sale. The card boxes
usually had a card-carrier for the film covering half of the
spool, with the film held in place by 'knicker elastic' fitted
with a hook mating with an eye on the card. Over the years, the
rubber in these bands has perished leaving the cotton remains
ineffectively holding the film in place. In some versions of
these containers , two half-boxes hold the spool, sliding into an
outer sleeve. A strange feature of this packaging was that it
bore no mention of the manufacturer's name. Similar packaging was
used for subjects in two 300ft. parts; the maximum length at the
time. While these old boxes may cause flutters of excitement for
the keen collector, they certainly had nothing in the way of
customer appeal (apart from their titles) when they appeared on
dealers' shelves back in 1927.
The original 'Super' reels supplied, consisted of steel
cheeks each with five spokes, painted in black. The aluminium
centre, with tongues to hold the film, was rivetted to the
cheeks. The actual core was of brass, with two holes in the steel
cheeks to connect with the drive spigots, (imitating 35mm
practice). These well made spools bore no manufacturer's name,
simply 'Made in France' embossed on a cheek.
Towards the end of this period, Pathé commenced the issue of
a new series of British productions especially for the British
market. Most of these subjects, for which Pathé only held the
rights for a short time, were soon withdrawn. Many of these
titles are desirable, not just because of their rarity but
because they are unusually interesting. Pathé introduced a new
set of catalogue numbers for these: '20000' etc. Even here, with
their usual inconsistence, the first titles were given '10000'
numbers. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE FLAG LIEUTENANT SB/12058,
was the only subject from this series that remained in the
catalogue for long.
3. 1929-1933 THE GOLDEN AGE
Pathéscope Factory (North Circular Road,
London,UK 1929)
This was the period when features in as many as five 300ft.
parts were introduced. Titling for new releases became more
standardised. After the aforementioned 'Pathéscope Presents',
the main and inter-titles were all lettered in printed type
called 'Cheltenham Condensed Bold'. The style was neat but not
particularly attractive; certainly not as pleasing as the
(stencilled) broader lettering style chosen for the inter-titles
in most 35m theatrical prints. One might have thought that the
reason for this standardised type was because of the demand for
various different language versions of these 9.5m releases. But
this does not seem to have been the case. The French Pathé
versions had a totally different typeface for their titles.
With the introduction of the more powerful LUX
projector, 300ft. reel releases with notched titles were
gradually phased out - without any positive announcement by
Pathéscope in their own journal! One result of this in longer
films was to have superimposed sub-titles; a useful way to save
valuable footage. But this technique was not used consistently
and many films had an uneasy mixture of separate and superimposed
dialogue titles. The catalogue numbers for the new 'running
titled' films were pre-fixed SB/ for Super Bobine.
This was the time of the release of most of the UFA and
Vitagraph subjects, invariably of excellent print quality. The
definition, steadiness and overall photographic gradation were
probably the best ever achieved by the Pathé laboratories. The
images were of a colder black than those in the earliest super
reels, indicating that a different emulsion was used. [ed: by
now Kodak Ltd in France, had merged with Pathé's film coating
division and all printing (and camera) stock was made by
Kodak-Pathé in France]. The base was different, too. Over
the years, this has not "cupped" in the way of the
first super reels, but well-used prints do suffer from sprocket
hole splitting. It is noticeable that some of the sprocket holes
had square-cut corners, rather than the (correct)
"cushioned" corners. But examination of many prints
indicates that corner-splitting can occur with both types.
To celebrate their UFA collection, Pathéscope released
another of their rare publicity films: Extracts from the
Pathé Catalogue, a selection of well chosen film releases
like SIEGFRIED, THE SPY, THE PRISONER'S SONG etc. with other
items. It was well presented with animated titles and intercut
shots to give this reel the look of a superior trailer.
Pathéscope sensibly ensured that its print quality displayed the
finest films in their archive at their best. Today, this reel is
ideal for giving audiences an impressive view of the heyday of
the home cinema.
To identify titles and part numbers on reels, there was a
improvement on the paper labels. These were superseded by
printing title information photographically on leaders and
trailers. Another innovation, and an admission that the notched
title idea had its snags, was the provision of a double set of
main titles at the start of a film. If the first set became
damaged by heat and wear, there was a second set to replace them.
With the arrival of longer features, a superior style of
container appeared. This was a blue card box imitating a film
can, with the lid completely enclosing the lower part. The title
was printed in blue on a label edged with yellow and the
'Guarantee Band' was two labels printed in enlarged imitation of
9.5mm film to seal the film in its box. The manufacturer was
fully identified now with a triangular Pathéscope 'Safety Film'
label stuck on the lid. Many of the UFA subjects and other
important multi-part titles (like LES MISERABLES) were supplied
in these attractive containers. Soon, single part subjects were
issued in the same form.
Two excellent new spool designs appeared from France. One,
bearing the name 'Pathex' was made completely of unpainted
aluminium. This lightweight spool with three double-spokes on
each cheek, was probably the best of all Pathé's spools. The
other design had the two steel cheeks, with three double spokes,
bearing the name Pathé and the French 9.5mm logo. The centre was
of aluminium with a brass core. An English made version of this
also appeared, this having 'Made in England' and Pat. no. 360307
stamped into the steel.
For a brief while, during the changeover from notched to
un-notched titles, Pathéscope provided sets of running titles
for popular notched films. These were simply spliced in by the
customer. To accomodate the extra footage a special 400ft. spool
was available to hold a 300ft. notched film with replacement
running titles. This had the same appearance as the original five
spoked Super Reel but with a slightly larger diameter and smaller
centre. It would have made sense for Pathéscope to switch
permanently to a 400ft. reel, the correct equivalent to a
1,000ft. 35mm reel; just as 400ft. 16mm and 200ft. 8mm Kodascope
reels were. As it was, the 300ft. reel with running titles
remained as an awkward, non-standard length, with a silent (16
fps) running~time of 12 minutes.
The simple lists of new releases were superseded by the
"Pathéscope Monthly", which first appeared in August,
1929. This new magazine, well printed in sepia ink on cream art
paper, gave illustrated details of all the new film releases
along with hints for the home movie maker. It was sent free to
customers on request. At its time, it was probably the first
movie magazine for amateurs to appear in this country. The
objective of "Pathéscope Monthly", given in issue One,
was "...It will be a great help to readers in making their
choice of film". In other words, its prime target was the
home projectionist interested in films to buy or hire. In Autumn
1929, the first film catalogue appeared, a bulky 92 pages of
synopses of subjects, well illustrated and matching the
"Monthly" with its sepia on cream combination.
4. 1933-1940: SUPER REELS FROM
CRICKLEWOOD
All the 9.5mm film releases until 1932 were printed in France
at Pathe's Joinville factory. Then, the Pathéscope Cricklewood
works and laboratory gradually took over the printing of films
for Great Britain. Some of the first films printed at Cricklewood
were with notched titles, but with the changeover to 'SB' running
titles, the output was soon switched exclusively to these. On the
whole, printing at Cricklewood was of a high standard, even if
not quite matching the outstanding quality of the (post-1927)
films from Joinville. Though they were very good
photographically, the positive Pathé stock being imported from
France, there was a tendency to unsteadiness in some prints. This
lack of steadiness could be observed as lateral float as much as
vertical movement of the image. Perhaps this slight fall-of in
standards was due to the vast call on the facilities at
Cricklewood; not only was there the big demand for copies by the
expanding number of 9.5mm libraries, but also numerous short
Mickey Mouse and Popeye subjects required for the various toy
projectors that were appearing.
The films prepared for English release by the Pathéscope
Cricklewood laboratories (identifiable by their five figure
numbers all prefixed by 30 (e.g. SB/30054 THE WHITE HELL OF PITZ
PALU), were often titled in the Cheltenham Bold type.
Occasionally - as the masters had titles in English - they
retained their original main title cards; for example, the
notched versions of THE WRECKER and MOULIN ROUGE, and Hitchcock's
THE MANXMAN. In some films, like S/30024 WEEKEND WIVES, certain
original inter-titles were retained, giving an odd mixture of
these plus the Pathéscope Cheltenham Bold versions. Generally,
in the mid-30s, with an increasing number of new British silent
releases being mute versions of talkies in English, original
main-title cards were retained. In films like SB/30320 NO LIMIT,
a mute version of a talkie, specially written inter-titles and
superimposed dialogue sub-titles were in a more modern type-style
than films prepared at Joinville, usually mute adaptations of
French talkie releases, still with the familiar Cheltenham Bold
typeface.
Watch the 9.5mm Pathescope 1 reel release
of "The Wrecker" GB
1928 on You Tube - http://youtu.be/7Xc9yIkSAjM
Watch a 9.5mm 60ft print of "The
Dippy Do Dah Club" ("The
Knockout" US 1923) on You Tube - http://youtu.be/QOWEV0zQ0Z0
From Cricklewood came the excellent new 'Pathescope Presents'
with its neat lettering, fading up and superimposed on a
background of a super reel and the safety triangle logo, with the
whole title sequence fading in and out. The new 'The End' was in
plain, bold lettering. Identification was still being printed
photographically on the leaders and trailers. British
300ft.(100m) reels were now supplied in another type of blue card
container: with a lower section reinforced at its circumference.
The label bearing the film's title was printed in blue, with the
statement 'Film printed in England', beneath it. The lid had the
familiar Pathéscope 'Safety' label, and was sealed with the
usual "Guarantee". They are the most familiar of the
Pathéscope film packaging of the pre-war years. The actual reels
were made in England, still under pat. no. 360307, and had black
enamelled steel cheeks with three double spokes as previous
designs. The main difference was that the aluminium centre only
had a simple slot to hold the film and was fitted to the cheeks
by the folded metal tongues often used in toy manufacture. They
were remarkably well made spools, light but strong, many
surviving over 50 years with no signs of rust. 30ft. and 60ft.
films were printed at Cricklewood. These were still supplied in
traditional cassettes (projectors like the ACE were designed for
them), usually imported from France, though sometimes made in
England. For unexplained reasons, these cassettes had different
descriptions embossed on their cheeks; 'Baby Film', 'Pathé
Baby', 'Pathex' and 'Pathéscope' . These had the title-bands
printed in red lettering on a white ground, they were sold in
thin-card boxes printed with the familiar Pathéscope triangle
logo and the film's title.
At this time, in addition to these longer subjects there also
appeared little l5ft. films, printed at Cricklewood and cut from
familiar Pathéscope movies, for the various 9.5mm toy projectors
that were beginning to appear as the result of the press campaign
against the fire risk of toy 35mm projectors. The little cartons
for these, printed in red and black for normal subjects, green
and black for Disney cartoons, made heavy use of the 'safety
triangle' logo in the fight against flammable nitrate film in the
home.
Home movie film from 9.5mm chargers processed at Cricklewood
was supplied for projection mounted in 30ft cassettes with a
plain band indicating they had been processed by Pathéscope
Ltd., with space for the film-maker's reference title. In
November 1934, the 200ft 'M' reel appeared. This was intended for
a new series of silent releases with SB running titles
(projection time: 8 minutes) taking over from what had been a
popular format: films issued on 3 x 60f t. notched reels. The 'M'
reel was also ideal for the full Walt Disney - and later - the
Max Fleischer cartoons that were beginning to appear. The first
'M' reels consisted of two cheeks of soft aluminium, rivetted
back-to-back, each with a single hole to facilitate the
connection of the film. Later, an improved design made completely
of black enamelled steel was provided. The 200ft. films on 'M'
reels were supplied in simple card boxes. in the same manner as
the shorter reels.
In April 1939, the 'O' reel arrived, an open spool of 60ft
capacity designed to replace the 30ft. and 60ft. cassettes. It
was well made of black enamelled steel, in effect, a miniature
'Super' reel, putting an end to cassettes. With the arrival of
9.5mm sound on film in June 1938, the 300ft reel (with a running
time of a mere eight minutes at 24fps ) was retained as the
standard unit, underlining what a pity it was that 400ft did not
become the standard length after the introduction of 9.5mm
running titles.
There was a different method of pricing these sound films.
Instead of a fixed price per reel, as there was with the silent
releases, the cost of sound films varied according to the total
footage. So, for example, amongst the first 23 reels of sound
film issued with the basic rate of £2 per 300ft., the two reel
short THE SHOW'S THE THING [length 750f t.] was £5 (and must
have been a tight squeeze on 2 x 300ft. reels), while the one
reel Popeyc cartoon SOCK A'BYE BABY [length 255ft.] was only £1
14s (£1.70) It was the general policy to condense sound features
to short versions of four (32 mins) and six (48 mins) reels. For
some of these, new main titles were made by Pathéscope; not a
popular idea with collectors.
The picture negatives for sound printing were initially made
in France, at Joinville. But for the sound tracks, Cricklewood
printed by direct reduction from 35m negatives, and prints from
these were certainly superior to those from France where sound
films were printed from their positive master print to give
negative soundtracks, with appalling background noise. Especially
designed for the Pathé VOX home talkie outfit was the 900ft
spool; actually the French made Pathé '250' spool (250 metres =
820ft.) This was like an enlarged version of the later 300ft.
designs, but with a steel centre. It was possible to squeeze 3 x
300ft. reels on it, and films of three reels or over were mounted
on these spools. They were sold in larger versions of the blue
card 'Cricklewood' containers.
The "Pathéscope Monthly" flourished with its
monthly news of releases. It now had an attractive pictorial
cover, featuring the release of the month, and bore the
information 'Price Twopence', even though in practice, it was
posted free of charge to 9.5mm customers, or given away free by
cine dealers. It provided essential information for owners of the
new VOX sound projector on all the new sound releases.
There were two other innovations promoted by the successful
public relations exercise of "Pathéscope Monthly".
First was the monthly release of highlights from the bi-weekly
Pathé Gazette newsreels, entitled PATHESCOPE SUPER GAZETTE.
These started in April/May 1934 and carried on for 64 issues of
single mute 300ft. reels until August 1939. Obviously, readership
of the PM was essential, if you wanted to know the newsreels'
contents. The other development, publicised in the pages of
"Pathéscope Monthly" was the free loan of publicity
films. In March 1932, the first sponsored 9.5rnm movie. A DAY AT
BOURNVILLE was announced, soon this look at Cadbury's chocolate
factory was joined by IVORY CASTLES (Gibbs Toothpaste) and PORT
SUNLIGHT (Levers Soap). Other leading firms joined the scheme and
it remained in operation until the Pathéscope Film Library
closed soon after the start of the war. The films available were
well produced, often better than the documentaries sold by
Pathéscope; much appreciated by young enthusiasts with limited
pocket money. I know, I was one of them! From 1933, the bulky
green film catalogue appeared in several editions per year.
5. THE CRICKLEWOOD ERA 1940-1960
Not long after the declaration of war, Pathéscope, in 1940,
did two things to clear their shelves. They sold off their
obsolete 17.5mm film library, as well as other 17.5mm films they
had at Cricklewood. Then they disposed of all their remaining
stocks of 9.5mm notched titled films, some of them incomplete.
After the closure of their Great Marlborough Street showroom,
they disbanded their 9.5mm film library.
The buyer of all this Pathéscope stock was Illustra
Enterprises, the Wardour Street firm, long established in selling
surplus home movie films and equipment. Although in some ways
this was a sad move, for the impecunious young nine-fiver it was
a heaven sent opportunity to own some of the titles that had
appeared so alluring in Pathéscope's bulky, green-covered
catalogue.
Along with other aspects of Pathéscope's products, the
quality of spools and packaging deteriorated during the war. For
a while 300ft subjects were supplied on an extremely nasty spool
with cheeks stamped out in the kind of fibre used to make cheap
attache cases, and steel centres with too small a diameter (40mm)
to be used safely on projectors with super attachments. If used
on the most common 9.5mm projector then in use. the ACE with its
super attachment, these spools would cause the very kind of
damage (ripped sprocket holes) that gave the gauge and the ACE
their bad name with library operators! The inept way these
incorrectly designed spools were put on the market suggests that
the Pathéscope management at that time. did not understand the
limitations of the equipment they sold!
30ft and 60f t. subjects were on "open" spools with
solid Paxolin cheeks and steel centres, replacing the superior
'O' spool. Later on, 300ft spools having Paxolin cheeks with
three stamped out apertures and a steel centre of correct
diameter attached by the "toy technique" of bent tabs
appeared. These were not too bad; at least the cheeks remained
true. A similar - and satisfactory - 900ft. version was also made
with this design. Films issued during this period were packaged
in flimsy card cartons, with the title gummed to one edge.
Some wartime prints were made on lavender based positive
stock from Kodak's Wealdstone works, as supplies from Pathé of
France were no longer available. Kodak continued to supply
Pathéscope with filmstock until after the war, and the
normalisation of trade with Pathé in France. Wartime paper
rationing caused the closure of the "Pathéscope
Monthly" in March 1941. The green film catalogue was another
casualty. The last edition for many years, in 1941, was almost a
survey of the great days of Pathéscope; along with the latest
talkie releases, one finds remnants of the notched reels still
available (which must have been printed many years earlier).
6. THE POST WAR YEARS 1945-1960.
Three years after the war, the editor of "Amateur Cine
World", Gordon Malthouse, wrote a hard hitting editorial, -
'The 9.5mm User Asks Some Questions". Tbe essence of this
was that 16mm film libraries were outstripping 9.5mm with sound
films, which were "star-studded"... "spectacular
in range and up-to-dateness". Attention was also drawn to
old silent releases. "The lustre of the classics is but
little tarnished, but the level of entertainment of which they
were the peaks scarcely corresponds with the demands of
today". An indignant response from the Managing Director of
Pathéscope claimed that they had supplied "more than eleven
thousand projectors of various types and over two thousand
Motocameras during the past two years. We have printed more film
than ever before." Regarding the lack of attractive titles
for hire, he explained, "We pride ourselves with the fact
that we supply good quality, good entertainment films at the
lowest rate for cinematographers... but if full length features
are wanted they must pay considerably more for them." In the
austerity of these post-war years, Pathéscope's best new
releases were mostly sound film releases. The print quality of
these was satisfactory where there was good origination, though
in the case of some titles (e.g. Charley Chase comedies) where
origination was a projection print, the picture quality was
inferior and the sound tracks especially noisy. In the case of
some features, these were re-recorded for 9.5mm printing using
Brent Laboratories' 'glow-lamp' recorder to give variable density
sound tracks. Such tracks generally worked better with the
haphazard standards of the 9.5mm sound system.
Pathescope Ltd., 970 North Circular Road, Cricklewood, London NW2
factory, offices and film laboratories - "the UK home of
ninefive"
Towards the end of the days of the Cricklewood film
laboratory, there was an (unheralded) change in the geometry of
the printing. Instead of silent releases made for projection with
the emulsion facing the screen (Pathe's original standard), the
films were printed for projection with the emulsion facing the
lamp, (the way in which 9.5mm sound films had always been
supplied). Why this sudden change? The answer surely has to be
that the existing silent film printing machinery had become worn
out, and - with the diminished number of films now required - all
printing was switched to the remaining sound film printer. [ed:
The more likely reason was that master material was now mostly
sourced from 16mm not 35mm as Pathéscope had modified a printer
to produce the triple negatives from 16mm material]. This
was not a serious move, but another instance of the way
Pathescope were prepared to alter standards without notifying the
customer.
Picture steadiness on both 9.5mm silent and sound films was
not up to pre-war standards. Cricklewood now printed a number of
classic pre-war silent releases (like THE SPY etc.) as well as
the '30000' series, but with diminished photographic quality.
There was an even more serious fall~off in the case of what were
then the most popular silent subjects: the Chaplin comedies and
some other shorts. Although new main and inter-titles were made
to replace the old Cheltenham Bold versions, the actual movie
material was duped from worn masters, with noticeable splices
used in their repair, printing through to the actual release
prints. There was also a serious drop in the standard of
processing, due to poor control of the equipment; a problem that
was never properly rectified in the latter days of Pathéscope.
Customers used to the quality of the pre-war products were
disappointed at the fall in the standards from a firm whose
output was always highly regarded by amateur cine enthusiasts.
Even though Pathéscope concentrated on sound films, they
were not money-makers. Each release was said to lose the company
£500; it was only the sale of Disney cartoons to the juvenile
owners of ACE projectors that earned profits. At the very end, as
few as three sound prints were struck from a master, such was the
drop in saleabilty of Pathéscope releases.
As wartime restrictions disappeared, there was a return to
the pre-war 300ft. spool design. But these were not made with the
finesse of the earlier version. The gauge of steel sheet used for
stamping out the cheeks was heavier, and the centres were of
steel rather than aluminium. The 'O' reel was eventually replaced
by a neat polystyrene one-piece spool with a maximum capacity of
60ft. used both for the shorter releases for the ACE as well as
for the return of amateur films processed at Cricklewood. For a
while the penny-pinching practice of returning processed films
without a spool in a flimsy envelope was adopted, soon changed
after complaints from customers. Later there was a neat one-piece
polystyrene super reel, followed by two new, strong steel reels
(made by Posso in France) in both 400ft.(120m.) and 990ft.(300m.)
sizes.
The dramatic fall in popularity of 9.5mm film releases was
reflected in the film catalogues, several editions of which were
published in the 50s. In 1952 there was a total of 148,065ft. of
silent films, 36% of which were dramas (mostly titles originally
released in the 30s). By 1958, there was only 52,885ft. with a
mere 8% of drama. On the sound releases there were totals of
170,600ft. in 1952, falling in 1958 to 90,900ft; of these the
proportion of dramas were 38% and 47%, respectively. There were
no longer any sound cartoons, the license for the rights in
Popeyc and Betty Boop titles having expired. The fall in interest
was matched by the rise in popularity of TV thanks to the
introduction of I.T.V. Worse still, films being negotiated for
transmission on TV were the very subjects that in earlier days
would have reached 9.5mm. Clearly no one was going to pay for
9.5mm films when similar subjects could be seen on the 'box' for
no more than the license fee.
"Pathéscope Monthly" made a faltering
re-appearance as a simple news sheet, then in November 1949, it
returned in its pre-war format, still a free issue. After
April/May 1952 it became a bi-monthly. replaced in 1955 by the
small format - "Pathéscope Gazette" (now 3 shillings a
year!) with a change in policy, "It will cater for the 9.5mm
enthusiast, but information embracing all three substandard
gauges will be included", stated the editor. Few new films
were announced, but it had something for the collector with two
series: "The History of the Film Through 9.5mm" by
Kevin Brownlow, and "Classics on 9.5mm" by David
Gunston. In April 1957, this reverted to the original PM size,
but the old style had gone. In some issues the last 9.5mm vintage
releases, Chaplin's SHOULDER ARMS, PAY DAY and THE PILGRIM were
announced . [It should be mentioned that by now, in 1958,
Pathéscope having been bought by an English businessman, the
film releases also appeared in 8mm versions - editor]. The
final edition of "Pathéscope Gazette" appeared in
April 1959. Pathéscope went into liquidation in 1960, and the
Cricklewood laboratory/factory was sold. There was no more film
printing.
Return to: NINE-FIVE
MENU or return to: MAIN MENU
Last updated 26 April 2013 ...........
95pathe1.htm .............. Grahame Newnham's Web Pages
............ Copyright © MM G.M. McKee
08March2010 Pathescope Cricklewood premises photo added
26April2013 - You Tube film links added