[Richard W. Haines]

You're welcome Sonnie. I don't want the other folks on this forums or fans of the movie to get
cheated.

I guess the good news is that it's been restored.

Another film that was restored (and looks sensational) was "Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd".
Again, UCLA found not the negative but the black and white separations used to make the Super
Cinecolor prints. These were the black and white protection masters (each B&W reel was the densities of one color in silver halides) that is still common for all Eastmancolor negatives since
even low fade stock can fade. The camera negative of the A&C film was lost but they found
the seps in England and made a new color internegative on modern stock which is actually sharper
than the Super Cinecolor originals. Once again, a number of terrible DVD versions of old dupes
are out there. They look horrid, don't buy them. Wait until the UCLA version is released some
day. It's strange since this movie is copyrighted.


Abbott and Costellos's other color film "Jack and the Beanstalk" is PD and all DVDs out there also look terrible and are all cut. It hasn't been restored for the simple reason is that I have the only uncut version of the movie. It's the sole surviving 84 minute cut (actually Lou Costellos' cut before Warner Bros. released it) in mint Super Cinecolor. The reason no one wants to master my print is the PD status. Everyone else will copy it immediately afterwards. If I had the extra money, I'd release it myself in high definition but alas, I dont' and need to utilize my funds for my films. At least it's preserved in my cold storage vault. It took me 15 years to piece together the uncut version from various sources. Very weird looking color but completely unfaded and lab mint.
It was in the orignial cinecolor lab cans when I found it...left in a camera store of all places.
Treasure hunting.