I know that like myself this will surprise many of you! This was a title that I’d always associated with Mountain Films, but it would seem that Derann was the original owner of the 8mm rights and that at some point, Derek and Peter Burt, of Mountain Films, traded the rights of some their titles.
This often copied tale of a young boy who discovers aliens in his backyard, and knows that they are taking over the minds of the local townsfolk, only to find to his horror that no one believes him, has become a small classic of the 50’s and was remade by Cannon Pictures in 1986.
It was distributed by British Lion in the UK, but the 8mm rights were obviously purchased from a distributor who had picked them up for a theatrical re-release at sometime in the 1960s. It could have been any one of the many UK distributors who earned a living picking up new, but cheap European or American product or re-release packages. Eagle, Butchers, Border, Monarch, New Realm, Supreme, Golden Era, Grand National, Miracle, there was a thriving number on or around Wardour Street at the time and Derek dealt with all of them.
The label was another put together by Derek, who also would have printed it. I found two examples, using a different coloured paper, so it looks as if he may have been using up odds and ends. In both cases it states black & white, so, like so many feature releases of this period, I believe it never had a release in colour, at least not at Derann.
[As a postscript to this entry, I ought to mention that the next page in my portfolio only contained a sheet of white paper on which was written (in my handwriting) ‘Nightmare in Wax’. Apparently this too was a title the became a bargaining tool in some deal or other with Mountain Films, but in this case there were no unused labels lying around. This of course was the 1969 horror starring Cameron Mitchell, which had been given a theatrical release in the UK by Grand National Pictures.]
Label courtesy of Peter Brooke at ‘SPROCKETS’ .
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