Hal Erickson
2004-09-06 15:23:07 UTC
Some musings on a day off from work...
A few months back, TCM ran the 1942 RKO Radio B picture SEVEN MILES
FROM ALCATRAZ. The print was excellent, the film itself less so. What
I found interesting was that the negative seemed to have been struck
from a TV print--the giveaway being that, in place of the RKO beeping
tower at the beginning, the old familiar "C&C Movietime" card
appeared, followed by a freeze-frame of the first credit title, with
"RKO Radio Pictures presents" replaced by "C&C Television Corporation
presents" in the text.
For the uninitiated, C&C stood for Cantrell & Cochrane, a
California-based (and I guess,now Canada-based) firm which
manufacturer a variety of consumer products, notably soft drinks and
power tools. In 1955, C&C purchased the TV rights to approx. 740 films
from the vaults of RKO Radio Pictures, which was then on its last
legs. The films, released between 1929 and 1954, were sold to local
stations (in perpetuity, in many cases), with the proviso that C&C
products would be advertised when the films were tele
cast. Eventually, the C&C-RKO connection lapsed, but except for the
film packages seen by stations owned by RKO, the TV prints still
carried the C&C opening logo and "THE END" title card.
Stories persists that the C&C prints were quickly and cheaply churned
out in Mexico, explaining the substandard, murky quality of many of
the films. Conversely, there are those who report that the "original"
C&C prints--that is, those sold during the first wave of local-station
purchases in 1955--are in pristine condition; I can verify this,
noting that the print of HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) which was
shown in the Milwaukee market was as good as anything I've seen since
(though admittedly, this title was released separate from the original
C&C package, due to legal complications with the 1956 Anthony Quinn
remake).
For many of us who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, C&C Television and
RKO Radio were one and the same--in fact, I was ten years old before I
actually saw the "beeping tower" on a television screen. Thus, as far
as we were concerned, C&C was a wonderful, mysterious entity which
produced such marvels as KING KONG, GUNGA DIN and CITIZEN KANE.
Eventually, the first "TV children" came to realize that the RKO TV
prints had been altered, leading many of us to seek out original
theatrical-release versions of our favorite RKO films.
There were of course several reasons for this. For one thing, that
beeping tower was, in the terminology of the 1960s, "neato", as
awesome and impressive as the Columbia torch lady, the Republic eagle
and the 20th Century-Fox searchlights.
For another, many of the C&C prints were from the shortened reissue
versions. Films like GUNGA DIN, KING KONG, FOLLOW THE FLEET and I
REMEMBER MAMA were for several years unavailable in their complete
form. A curious exception was the C&C print of THE THING, which was
more complete than the version currently being seen on TCM.
Finally, those intrusive C&C titles were often ascetic and artistic
disasters. In the old TV print of MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, for example,
Orson Welles' opening narration, which originally began in utter
darkness and slowly dissolved into a lovely shot of Amberson mansion,
was overladen with the "C&C MOVIETIME" card, followed by a reshot
title card for the film itself--whereupon there was an abrupt, ragged
cut to the Amberson mansion shot, almost as if some idiot TV movie
editor had simply chopped off one of the opening scenes for time
reasons. Even worse, in many cases the local TV station would begin
running AMBERSONS just when the "MOVIETIME" title appeared, thereby
cutting off the first few words of Welles' narration. Unhappily, it
was the C&C version that was generally available to film societies
and schoolrooms in the 1970s.
In the same vein, whoever processed the C&C prints must have figured
that no one was interested in seeing the closing cast credits, which
were almost invariably removed following the "C&C Movietime" THE END
card. As a result, several of the main cast members of such films as
ROOM SERVICE and THE FALCON TAKES OVER remained uncredited in the TV
prints (you would recognize Ward Bond as Moose Malloy in the FALCON
film, but his name never appeared on-screen).
While most of the RKO films currently available have been restored to
their original form in the past three decades (though not always the
original quality), several circulating prints still bear the mark of
C&C. The various distributors who have controlled the RKO package have
tried to "camouflage" this by removing the C&C designation and
restoring the "RKO Radio Presents", and by reshooting the closing
titles, but still there are many films out there--THEY KNEW WHAT THEY
WANTED and STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR immediately come to
mind--which apparently do not exist in any form other than the C&C
version.
Any thoughts on these words, or additional reminiscences of "good-
bad-indifferent" experiences watching C&C prints? I'd like to hear a
few.
--Hal E
A few months back, TCM ran the 1942 RKO Radio B picture SEVEN MILES
FROM ALCATRAZ. The print was excellent, the film itself less so. What
I found interesting was that the negative seemed to have been struck
from a TV print--the giveaway being that, in place of the RKO beeping
tower at the beginning, the old familiar "C&C Movietime" card
appeared, followed by a freeze-frame of the first credit title, with
"RKO Radio Pictures presents" replaced by "C&C Television Corporation
presents" in the text.
For the uninitiated, C&C stood for Cantrell & Cochrane, a
California-based (and I guess,now Canada-based) firm which
manufacturer a variety of consumer products, notably soft drinks and
power tools. In 1955, C&C purchased the TV rights to approx. 740 films
from the vaults of RKO Radio Pictures, which was then on its last
legs. The films, released between 1929 and 1954, were sold to local
stations (in perpetuity, in many cases), with the proviso that C&C
products would be advertised when the films were tele
cast. Eventually, the C&C-RKO connection lapsed, but except for the
film packages seen by stations owned by RKO, the TV prints still
carried the C&C opening logo and "THE END" title card.
Stories persists that the C&C prints were quickly and cheaply churned
out in Mexico, explaining the substandard, murky quality of many of
the films. Conversely, there are those who report that the "original"
C&C prints--that is, those sold during the first wave of local-station
purchases in 1955--are in pristine condition; I can verify this,
noting that the print of HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) which was
shown in the Milwaukee market was as good as anything I've seen since
(though admittedly, this title was released separate from the original
C&C package, due to legal complications with the 1956 Anthony Quinn
remake).
For many of us who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, C&C Television and
RKO Radio were one and the same--in fact, I was ten years old before I
actually saw the "beeping tower" on a television screen. Thus, as far
as we were concerned, C&C was a wonderful, mysterious entity which
produced such marvels as KING KONG, GUNGA DIN and CITIZEN KANE.
Eventually, the first "TV children" came to realize that the RKO TV
prints had been altered, leading many of us to seek out original
theatrical-release versions of our favorite RKO films.
There were of course several reasons for this. For one thing, that
beeping tower was, in the terminology of the 1960s, "neato", as
awesome and impressive as the Columbia torch lady, the Republic eagle
and the 20th Century-Fox searchlights.
For another, many of the C&C prints were from the shortened reissue
versions. Films like GUNGA DIN, KING KONG, FOLLOW THE FLEET and I
REMEMBER MAMA were for several years unavailable in their complete
form. A curious exception was the C&C print of THE THING, which was
more complete than the version currently being seen on TCM.
Finally, those intrusive C&C titles were often ascetic and artistic
disasters. In the old TV print of MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, for example,
Orson Welles' opening narration, which originally began in utter
darkness and slowly dissolved into a lovely shot of Amberson mansion,
was overladen with the "C&C MOVIETIME" card, followed by a reshot
title card for the film itself--whereupon there was an abrupt, ragged
cut to the Amberson mansion shot, almost as if some idiot TV movie
editor had simply chopped off one of the opening scenes for time
reasons. Even worse, in many cases the local TV station would begin
running AMBERSONS just when the "MOVIETIME" title appeared, thereby
cutting off the first few words of Welles' narration. Unhappily, it
was the C&C version that was generally available to film societies
and schoolrooms in the 1970s.
In the same vein, whoever processed the C&C prints must have figured
that no one was interested in seeing the closing cast credits, which
were almost invariably removed following the "C&C Movietime" THE END
card. As a result, several of the main cast members of such films as
ROOM SERVICE and THE FALCON TAKES OVER remained uncredited in the TV
prints (you would recognize Ward Bond as Moose Malloy in the FALCON
film, but his name never appeared on-screen).
While most of the RKO films currently available have been restored to
their original form in the past three decades (though not always the
original quality), several circulating prints still bear the mark of
C&C. The various distributors who have controlled the RKO package have
tried to "camouflage" this by removing the C&C designation and
restoring the "RKO Radio Presents", and by reshooting the closing
titles, but still there are many films out there--THEY KNEW WHAT THEY
WANTED and STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR immediately come to
mind--which apparently do not exist in any form other than the C&C
version.
Any thoughts on these words, or additional reminiscences of "good-
bad-indifferent" experiences watching C&C prints? I'd like to hear a
few.
--Hal E