Starblack (Giovanni Grimaldi, 1966)

Man, what jerk collectorā€¦ what are they saving it for, really? They could be the one to help make the film finally available to the worldā€¦

The last time I was active in this topic years ago, I spent a lot of time looking for different 35mm prints and emailing a few people that had posted online about having one, but was never able to track any downā€¦

Do you still have any contact with Colosseo, would they be interested in trying to work something out for a different country release perhaps?

Yes, really a jerk.
Meanwhile I doubt that this collector really has a copy. Could be a fake because I doubt that any private person could ā€œresistā€ good cash just for lending a 35mm print.
I am still in touch with Colosseo du to the upcoming releases 2019. I may ask if they could release that title in other countries than Germany but I doubt they would do.

If you do talk to them, perhaps they could strike a deal with some other company such as Arrow who is doing a lot of spaghetti releases? I wish I was in some kind of better situation to help make something happen here, knowing that it is possibleā€¦

I will ask them about the current situation and let you know.
STARBLACK is one of the most wanted unreleased titles in Germany,too.
It was only released on 8mm with a running time of about 22 Minutes. The rest seems to be lost.
There are rumours that the movie was shown on German RTL TV in 1986 but no collector has a copy of that print. Also very strangeā€¦
Since 2012 some friends and me are collecting 35mm and 16mm prints of Spaghetti Westerns and we are in touch with many private collectors and also public archives. No one seems to have STARBLACK :frowning:

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I would think that anyone releasing it currently would be looking at a very good seller, given its rarityā€¦ the closest I came was a Dutch guy who said he had a 35mm print that was part of a large collection they had bought, and were selling, but they said they already sold it and I couldnā€™t get any other info on itā€¦

Thatā€™s pretty cool you and friends are collecting printsā€¦ are you able to screen them or just collecting?

In case anyone is interested, I found that moldy tape on this Brazilian marketplace, and there looks to be a couple other sellers with it available. However one of them seems to just be selling a DVD and one of the others just has a photo of the case which also has mold on the case, so the tape probably does also. I also have never seen any reports on the quality of the Brazil Sagres release:

At this point, Iā€™m still even just trying to find a better VHS copy than the one which has been circulating as DVD forever now

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We are able to screen them in a small cinema club and one time per year we also organize a festival weekend with 9 movies.
In this thread here you may find a overview about what we screened in the last years (it`s in German but anyway a look at the posters should help :wink: )

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Any chance @ENNIOO would trust me with his VHS to do a fresh transfer? :thinking:

I am currently considering purchasing a Time Base Corrector for finally capturing the SECAM VHS I have of Alberto Mariscalā€™s El sabor de la venganza - a TBC will be required to get any kind of decent picture out of this SECAM tape, but would also help stabilize picture for any VHS transferā€¦

However the only TBC which was still being manufactured/sold is now discontinued this year and prices have skyrocketedā€¦ I did find one seller so far who still lists it as available (not confirmed) for a decent price (still not cheap) so I would need to sell it after using it for a few transfersā€¦ so time would be limited for my ability to use it (if it actually is available to buy & Iā€™m able to set aside funds)

Anyway, if I could get hold of a Starblack VHS during this time, I could also do a new transfer.

Considered buying one of the Brazilian tapes linked above, but they look probably all in very bad shape and half the sellers are maybe just selling DVDRs of the same version we already have. Meanwhile, I am checking around for any other copies also.

This is all just ideas I am tossing around in my head, so its not something I can definitely make happen, but am considering options.

If @ENNIOO wouldnā€™t want to send his tape over, I totally understand and would not take offenseā€¦ or maybe he could have it transferred by someone closer in location.

EDIT:
The shop listing the TBC as available seems to maybe be defunct, I donā€™t knowā€¦ when I try to add to cart it gives a server error so I would have to contact them direct and see whatā€™s going on, but it doesnā€™t look good.

Still, this VHS could maybe still be transfered without a TBC and get a better picture than the current DVDR version. There are some other options such as using DVD recorders, although they donā€™t work quite as well as a true TBC. Still, you can get a good picture if the tape is decent.

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So Iā€™m going to keep looking, but finding a TBC seems like its going to not be an easy taskā€¦ there arenā€™t any on ebay, and the ones sold in recent history are waaaaay out of my price range. So far I cannot find any shops with stock, and seems to be something that would have to be bought from an individual. Going to continue seeing what options are.

But like I said, Starblack could still be trasnferred without a TBC. I mainly need it for the SECAM tape due SECAM being tricky and producing various issues with display.

But, its not so urgent to try and arrange since so far, I wonā€™t be buying a TBC for a limited time window.

If there are any leads on VHS options for Starblack, post em up.

Not sure if it was ever released on VHS in US as Johnny Colt?

There is a Greek VHS release I believe? But donā€™t know anything about it.

The Israeli release posted above, but canā€™t find any info other than that thumbnail graphic which is saved in the post.

Sagres VHS (0040) - NTSC - 1990 (Brazil) - ā€œStarblackā€

Danish VHS release - ā€œDen Sorte Sherif-Stjerneā€
Letterbox picture, unknown audio

There exists also 16mm prints of the Danish release under same title

So until I, or someone, can track down a VHS to do a better transfer than the currently traded DVDR, I am now doing a clean-up re-encode of this DVDR version, with the help of the very knowledgeable jagabo from videohelp who provided me with a great filter script.

You can see a side by side video comparison here - but note that you will need to set to 720p while viewing or it will be full of compression blocking due to youtubeā€™s re-encoding, along with the very extended resolution of this side by side video being non-standard resolution:





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Definitely an improvement ! :grinning:

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Not only are the colors improved, but if you look at the video clip starting around 1:23, you can really notice on the original there is some bounce in the picture, which is more stabilized in the new pictureā€¦ along with some other improvements

Edit: Still working out some additional improvements with jerky movement such as in camera pans

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Yeah deffo. I watched this film a while back and I must admit while it obviously wasnā€™t the height of The Dollars Trilogy I quite enjoyed it. iā€™d love to see the film again via a better print than the bootleg I have.

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When final touches are put on this clean up, will of course be posted over at CG, but I think I will probably also make a public download link available for anyone who wants it here. Since invites are closed at CG, I feel bad posting about these without also making them available. I would offer to mail copies, but Iā€™ve been a bit overwhelmed with requests for this in the past and I actually havenā€™t bought blank DVDRs in years, although I may again soon for some upcoming work.

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Managed to contact one of the Brazil sellers of the Starblack VHS - and they want about $80USD just for shipping! Get the heck out of here ! Thatā€™s one heavy tape !

You should be able to buy a 16mm print with shipping included at that price ! :roll_eyes:

Hate these rip off artists!

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Iā€™m sure they just saw USA and were like, oh a sucker with money!

Well, they were half right !

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Must be someone at CG who can help out ?

I used to see spaghetti western titles on 16mm sales lists years ago, and they were generally really cheap, as few people in English speaking territories knew or remembered the films.

ā€˜Today itā€™s Me, ā€¦ Tomorrow itā€™s Youā€™ was being offered by an English dealer for just Ā£25, but I resisted, as my place is really cluttered enough. Kind of regret that decision :thinking:

Might check at CG, but kinda figured anyone who would have access to this one is maybe not paying attention at this pointā€¦

It seems to be pretty rare in all formats. I was surprised to see the few Brazil listings on that siteā€¦

I hear ya on not collecting more clutterā€¦ Iā€™ve largely started to sell off stuff unless its actually something I genuinely like, rather than simply collecting. 16 or 35mm prints would be pretty cool to have, but not sure Iā€™d ever be able to actually make use of them

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Yeah ā€¦ itā€™s great fun to have a real movie show, but itā€™s bulky, expensive and I was always worried that the projector might chew up a film ā€¦ so I never really relaxed watching them.

Any pennies I manage to save will go to another Almeria trip ā€¦ thatā€™s Nirvana to me :smiley:

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I sold my tape a few years back now. Have a dvd r from vhs though, not sure if its the same version as yours. But can send you a copy Aute.