Save Abbott & Costello’s Africa Screams (1949) Kickstarter
Heeeeyyyyyyyyy, Abbott & Costello fans (and fans of classic comedy in general), the 3-D Film Archive has launched a Kickstarter to save Africa Screams (1949) before the elements deteriorate! Not only does it star A&C, it also features Stooges Shemp Howard and Joe Besser. Let’s bring this film to Blu-ray!
Here’s the link to the Kickstarter: Save Abbott & Costello
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3dfilmarchive/save-abbott-and-costellos-africa-screams/description
Save Abbott and Costello’s AFRICA SCREAMS!
This 1949 film is on flammable 35mm nitrate stock and deteriorating. Please help us preserve this classic comedy for Blu-ray release!
Since October 2015, my 3-D Film Archive has successfully restored seventeen vintage 3-D features for preservation and Blu-ray release. Generous backers have supported our two previous Kickstarter campaigns presented with 3-D SPACE: September Storm and El Corazón y la Espada.
I am now asking for your support to save and preserve an important Abbott and Costello feature that is deteriorating. The master 35mm film elements are currently on dangerous and flammable nitrate stock.
In 1986, I conducted a worldwide search and located the surviving 35mm nitrate elements on Bud and Lou’s 1949 feature, Africa Screams. I utilized the composite master fine grain for a standard definition analogue transfer to one-inch tape. The next step in making it available in good quality was producing a Special Edition laser disc release for Image Entertainment. Loaded with extras, the disc was awarded “Best VideoDisc of the Year in the Best Supplementary Material Category” in 1988 by Video Magazine.
Unfortunately, over the past three decades, my standard-definition analogue transfer has been repeatedly copied for various unauthorized releases on VHS and DVD. The quality that you are seeing now in circulating versions of Africa Screams is a far cry from the rich visual record to be found and ultimately harvested from the original 35mm high silver content nitrate masters.
Bud and Lou were riding high when Africa was in production and their latest release Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was breaking box office records around the country. Africa Screams is a terrific slapstick comedy with a delightful supporting cast, including Hillary Brooke, current third Stooge Shemp Howard and future Stooge Joe Besser, Max and Buddy Baer, Clyde Beatty and Frank Buck. The director was one of Bud and Lou’s favorites, Charles Barton.
It was a big hit in theaters but on the film’s 70th anniversary, time is NOT on our side. If Africa Screams is to survive in pristine quality, your help is desperately needed! Africa Screams was an independent production that is not owned by a major studio. It’s up to fans of Bud and Lou to see that it is preserved in optimum quality for future generations.
The goal for this preservation effort is to raise $7500. Those funds will enable us to do 4K digital scans of all the surviving 35mm elements which include five reels of original camera negative and nine reels of composite fine grain master positive. Once scanned, we will execute meticulous frame by frame digital clean-up of all dirt and damage, flicker reduction, image stabilization and grading to assemble a fully restored final 4K composite master.
This new 4K digital master will then be utilized for a Special Edition region free Blu-ray and DVD release. These discs will not be DVD-R or BD-R, they will be commercial discs pressed and manufactured to current industry standards.
There will be exciting extras on this release. They include a newly recorded commentary track by Ron Palumbo, noted expert and my co-author on “Abbott and Costello in Hollywood,” the definitive book on the films of Bud and Lou. Other extras will include photo galleries with rare production stills taken on the set, full color posters and lobby cards from both the 1949 and 1953 theatrical releases, industry trade advertisements – and a few surprises.
Rest assured, if this campaign is successful, you will have the ultimate and definitive release of Africa Screams.
Please make a pledge now to help us save and restore this classic Abbott and Costello comedy!
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