Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Nothing More than Murder by Jim Thompson

This is topic Nothing More than Murder by Jim Thompson in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 05-03-2015, 12:18 AM:

I've just started reading a few books by Jim Thompson, and thought some of you folks might be interested in this one because (from Wikipedia):

quote:
Nothing More Than Murder is a 1949 crime novel by Jim Thompson. It focuses on a murderous plot by small town theater owner Joe Wilmot, his wife and his lover. Wilmot's scheme unravels slowly amid his foibles and travails as an independent businessman. A great deal of information and jargon about movie theater operation of the day is woven into the plot.

He talks about film exchanges, projectionist unions, Simplex projectors, and why you need to replace your "nine hundred watt Mazda" with carbon arc to show a new colour print.

"Most of the time you could tell the men from the women characters but they all looked like they'd been brawling in a jelly closet. This print is brand new; that's the trouble with it. What little color stuff you've played in the past has been old and those Mazdas would shoot through it. But there's more and more color coming in, and you'll probably be getting a lot of new prints."

The story is pretty good too.

The author must have spent some time in movie theatres to learn how it works. Here's your opportunity to take a trip behind the scenes in a 1940's movie theatre.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 05-03-2015, 11:49 AM:

Read it years ago would make a good film

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 05-03-2015, 04:17 PM:

> why you need to replace your "nine hundred watt Mazda" with carbon arc to show a new colour print.

I'm not sure that makes sense. I would say that 99.9% of the theatres, at least here in the USA, were using carbon arcs since the days of silent movies. Edison's first projecting Kintoscope came with a carbon arc lamphouse.

Portable projectors used in schools, carnivals, and trade shows used incandescent mazda lamps, not theatrical projectors. Further, although the color temperature would be off, mazda lamp projectors have no problems playing color films.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 05-03-2015, 06:26 PM:

Did they ship nitrate film in water? There are numerous parts of the book that describe receiving a print off of the film truck and then rewinding it while water sprays off of it. (In fact, that water contributes to the setup for the murder.)

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 05-04-2015, 10:56 AM:

No, they did not ship nitrate film in water. Water would have damaged the emulsion as it would with safety film.

Further, nitrate film produces oxygen as it burns, and will burn submerged under water.

Some early nitrate shippers (1000' reels) sealed tighter in an attempt to contain any fire. By the time the studios went to 2000' reels in the 1920's, the same octagon cans used until recently, although made of heavier steel, were in use.

Nitrate film when new did not spontaneously ignite, nor was it any more dangerous than any other combustible material. After all, this was run though carbon arc lamphouses with an open flame behind the film gate. These days, the newest of nitrate film is at least 75 years old, and now it is a different story.

The Landmark Loews Jersey still has it's original nitrate house reel storage bin. There is an exhaust chimney from the top to the roof of the theatre, and a water pipe that allowed the projectionist to flood the containers in the event of a fire. It is a permanent installation made out of thick insulated metal (unlike the later ones), and was designed to contain a fire within it, not put it out.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-04-2015, 12:00 PM:

i occasionally use flash cotton when I perform magic. It's essentially the same stuff as nitrate film but in a different form.

It comes sealed in plastic bags, wet with water, and you have to dry it out and fluff it up before you can use it. One cotton batt, about the size of an index card, will fluff up to about the size of a grapefruit when dried. The better you fluff it, when dry, the bigger and better the fireball when it is lit.

I don't know if nitrate film was ever shipped wet but, since other things I know are made from nitrocellulose are shipped wet, the idea makes sense.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 05-06-2015, 08:10 AM:

Nitrate film was never shipped wet. As already stated, the gel emulsion would turn to.. well, jelly... gluing the layers together irretrievably. Thompson may have experience with flash cotton and assumed the film would be treated the same way. Wet nitrocellulose can be shipped like almost any material (maybe not by air though?), dry is now dangerous cargo and prohibitively expensive to ship.
Years ago I worked with a few older projectionists who had been in the trade during the nitrate era. It was common for them to torch a trailer now and then just for the fun of seeing it burn - quite impressive - and to emphasize to rookies what would happen if carelessness allowed a film fire.
Old booths are basically fireproof vaults. For good reason.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 05-06-2015, 09:00 AM:

Many years ago I was at a party at a friends house, and someone brought a 2k reel of nitrate film to burn. Back then, we all had heard how flammable nitrate film was, but we had never actually seen it burn. The reel was placed horizontally on top of a cinder block, a few feet was unwound and lit on fire. It burned up to the reel like a fuse, and stopped at the film with a small, maybe 3" flame, for around 20 seconds. Just as we all started saying that this was not very impressive, a whooshing sound was heard, a ball of fire formed around the reel, and a jet of fire shot up higher than the height of the house. It burned that way for almost 5 minutes, and when it was done, the steel house reel was glowing red and partially melted. We all turned to the guy who brought the reel and asked if he could get more for the 4th of July.

I've had a healthy respect for nitrate ever since.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-06-2015, 06:44 PM:

I also did a demonstration on Nitrate to some booth member moons ago.
Our booth still had the fire shutters intact over the port and viewing windows.
The chains were still attached to the shutters with the lead break in the middle of each chain.
Both booth doors were still lined with tin.
The XL's still had the upper loop, fire dowser, trip drop mechanism still installed,

Went outside, took a three foot strip of each stock and showed them the difference.

Obviously, the nitrate went up in a flash while the safety couldn't stay ignited.

-Monte

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 05-07-2015, 08:34 AM:

SMALL. older theatres once had carbide, later low intensity carbon. Neither had good color. Note that even the Strong Utility lamp was described as a "high intensity" carbon lamphouse. Low intensity was useful for old spotlights.

Posted by Richard P. May (Member # 3598) on 05-07-2015, 10:02 AM:

During the nitrate era, junk film was shipped in steel drums filled with water to Kodak for silver recovery.
This, of course, was the end of the line for worn out prints, and the water made no difference.