Derann Film Labels

  • Hoppity Goes to Town

    Hoppity Goes to Town

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    Released in 1941, under its original title ‘Mr Bugs Goes to Town’, much of this movie’s financial failure was blamed on the fact that it was released on 5 December, just two days before Pearl Harbor was bombed and as a result of that failure  Paramount fired Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer and took over…

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  • Revenge of the Vampire

    Revenge of the Vampire

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    This film (Original Italian title ‘La Maschera del Ddemonio’), was rejected for UK cinema release by the BBFC in 1961 and was essentially banned, only after some heavy censoring did it get a release in 1968 and it was this version that we used to produce our 8mm prints. I have only very recently found…

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  • Wake of the Red Witch

    Wake of the Red Witch

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    One of the feature titles on our contract with Ivy Film in New York. Starring John Wayne, Gail Russell and Gig Young, it was produced by Republic Pictures and released in 1948.  With Wayne in probably in his most romantic role as Ralls, Captain of the Red Witch, which he deliberately sinks in an act…

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  • Gulliver’s Travels

    Gulliver’s Travels

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    Released in 1939, this was only the worlds second full length animated motion picture and although it was box-office success, it never managed to recover its enormous cost, which went nearly $500,000 over budget. Unlike Disney’s ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, which was all hand drawn animation, Max and Dave Fleischer decided to use…

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  • Look at Life (Generic label)

    Look at Life (Generic label)

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    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…

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  • Adventures of Captain Marvel

    Adventures of Captain Marvel

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    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;…

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  • Ukulele Man

    Ukulele Man

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    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…

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  • The Derann Labels: Pathe Pictoral (Generic)

    The Derann Labels: Pathe Pictoral (Generic)

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    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…

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  • Long John Silver

    Long John Silver

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    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…

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  • The Quatermass Experiment

    The Quatermass Experiment

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    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…

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