Ged Jones

  • Look at Life (Generic label)

    Look at Life (Generic label)

    by

    We released the first 6 Look at Life shorts almost at the same time as the first batch of Pathe Pictorials with the rights purchased from Rank Film Distributors along with a number of features. The title were: ‘The Black Arrows’, ‘The Cinema Steps Out’, ‘For the Record’, ‘Music By The Mile’, ‘Goodbye Piccadilly’ and…

    Read more: Look at Life (Generic label)
  • Adventures of Captain Marvel

    Adventures of Captain Marvel

    by

    This 12 chapter Republic serial was the first depiction of a comic book superhero on film and is possibly the best serial to hit the silver screen. The 12 chapters are 1. Curse of the Scorpion; 2. The Guillotine; 3. Time Bomb; 4. Death Takes the Wheel; 5. The Scorpion Strikes; 6. Lens of Death;…

    Read more: Adventures of Captain Marvel
  • Ukulele Man

    Ukulele Man

    by

    At sometime in the late 60s or early 70s, five years before I my joined Derann, Derek had  purchased four titles from Tom Blakeley, one of which was ‘Off the Dole’, a film that Tom’s father John Blakeley had produced in 1935. It starred George Formby and had been George’s third feature film, all I…

    Read more: Ukulele Man
  • The Derann Labels: Pathe Pictoral (Generic)

    The Derann Labels: Pathe Pictoral (Generic)

    by

    Derann had almost 30 Pathe Pictorials by the time we closed our doors, but had started with just a handful from various sources even before I joined in 1975. During that same year we would succeed in signing a contract at EMI which would include a number of Pathe Pictorials: ‘Hollywood’, ‘Auto Cine’, ‘Steamboat Down…

    Read more: The Derann Labels: Pathe Pictoral (Generic)
  • Long John Silver

    Long John Silver

    by

    This 1954 Australian made swashbuckler, is a sequel of sorts to Walt Disney’s first live action movie “Treasure Island”, released four years earlier in 1950. Robert Newton’s performance as Long John Silver is so iconic that it is thought by many to be the origin of today’s stereotypical “Arrrrr”-laced pirate and he would continue in…

    Read more: Long John Silver
  • The Quatermass Experiment

    The Quatermass Experiment

    by

    This is perhaps one of the most celebrated Science Fiction thrillers of all time and was the one that put back the word ‘Great’ in Great British films, but it’s also the thriller that put Hammer Films on the road to becoming the worlds favourite horror movie studios. Based on the 1953 BBC 6 part…

    Read more: The Quatermass Experiment
  • Invaders From Mars

    Invaders From Mars

    by

    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.…

    Read more: Invaders From Mars
  • The Fall of the House of Usher

    The Fall of the House of Usher

    by

    This film, which is somewhat of an oddity and and is now getting regular showings on ‘Talking Pictures’ in the UK. It was made by the low-budget company, GIB Films, produced by Ivan Barnett, who also worked as director and cinematographer. The film was made in 1948, but it wasn’t released until 1950. It was…

    Read more: The Fall of the House of Usher
  • The Flesh Eaters

    The Flesh Eaters

    by

    This little gem was released to theaters in the USA in 1964, however it wasn’t until it was re-released in 1968 that ‘Grand National Pictures’ (GNP) got around to releasing it in the UK.  Over the years the film has developed a cult following due to its gruesome, if somewhat primitive, special effects, including some…

    Read more: The Flesh Eaters
  • Psycho

    Psycho

    by

    “Derann Film Services, that very enterprising library, enters the package movie market with a bang – or do I mean scream? For here is one of the most famous modern shock sequences in modern cinema, now available for shrieking at, or dissective study, in your own home. Very nicely abridged into eight minutes that include…

    Read more: Psycho