Powell Films was started by ex BBC cameraman Tony Powell in the early/mid 1970’s when he opened his first shop in a place called Englefield Green which was located near Egham in Surrey, He later re-located to another much larger shop premises in Berkshire called Ascot, which was renown for its famous horse racing events.
They were particularly well known for releasing good quality Super 8mm B/W prints of classic British comedy films such as Hobson’s Choice, The Ghost Train and The Happiest Days of Your Life. Other notable releases were A Night to Remember, Convict 99,The Malta Story, Angels One Five and Days of Thrills and Laughter. In 1975-1976 a deal was done with Universal Pictures/Rank to release 5 x 400ft Standard & Super 8mm Black & White prints of there films on a limited basis to purchase or hire including.
A Touch of Evil-Orson Welles-1958; Winchester 73-James Stewart-1950; The Phantom of the Opera-Herbert Lom-1962; The Benny Goodman Story-Steve Allen-1956; Munster, Go Home!-Fred Gwynne-1966; A Gathering of Eagles-Rock Hudson-1963.
Once the contract ran out the unsold/hire films had to be returned to Universal/Rank.
In 1979 I started working for CIC (Cinema International Corporation) who were then the UK distributor of the Universal films current and back catalogue. As a junior member of staff I was asked to empty out a cupboard and came across a very large box containing most of the above releases without an proper boxes. Sadly all these prints had to be taken down to the chief projectionist Bob Smith who was ordered to destroy the lot via hacksaw and a trusty bucket of water.
Funnily enough I mentioned this to Tony Powell when I met him at a Movie Maker Super 8mm convention at the Rembrandt Hotel in Knightsbridge, London, SW7 in 1979 and he couldn’t recall anything about this deal or having to have to return all the unsold prints!
Tony Powell also had a deal with Rank Film Distributors and released some very popular Horror films such as Hammer’s Hands of the Ripper, the sublime Vampyres directed by the late Jose Larraz, The Devil’s Rain directed by Robert Fuest and the barely released Nothing But The Night starring Christopher Lee which was produced by his short lived production company Charlemagne Productions in 1973.
The above films were all available in abridged colour sound 4 x 400ft editions edited to 72 minutes as per the Rank contract and also condensed 400ft versions edited to around 18 minutes. The 4 x 400ft version would cost 86.50 British pounds to buy which was a lot of money back then. The cutdown of Hands of the Ripper was excellent retaining most of the films bloody climax and the full end titles too. My copy is sadly faded but still has a bit of colour left.
Powell Films also like Derann Films pioneered the release of optical sounds films too and released 400ft condensed versions of John Ford’s The Quiet Man, John Wayne’s The Sands of Iwo Jima and Rio Grande in both magnetic and optical sound versions.
In December 1979 the shop moved again to the West Country namely Camborne in Cornwall where it remained open until Tony Powell retired several years later.
© Mark Williams 2019
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