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 Post subject: Speed Driver. The 1980 Fabio Testi HYPERFILM!
PostPosted: 31 Jan 2022, 18:15 
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The FRENCH poster for Speed Driver. Same poster used for the Blue Shine Corporation SECAM VHS.

So I got my little Sony VCR working yesterday and it's quite brilliant. It's super quiet and has lots of whirry noises and things that all sound very high tech and lovely and, well, everything!

I figured I'd have a look through my mini collection of Speed Driver VHS cassettes as I have a bit of a project to do with them. If you can help at all with some of it that would be excellent and much appreciated.

So I have 3 different copies of Speed Driver (unlike exospherically magnificent 1986 HYPERFILM, Death Flash, which I have a rather sumptuous 3 exact same UK big box copies of :D). Those are:

Speed Driver - 1980 Blue Shine Corporation FRANCE SECAM :sick: (Big Box) VHS - Runtime Unspecified
Speed Driver - 1988 ITALY Titanus Distribuzone re-release (Big Box) PAL VHS - Runtime 113 mins
Speed Driver - 1986 JAPAN Toshiba (Regular Box) NTSC VHS - Runtime 106 minutes

Note that the SECAM cassette is a French dub, the Italian PAL cassette is original Italian audio (mono), and the Japanese NTSC cassette is an English dub with hard-coded Japanese subtitles. All of them are presented as 4:3 and have weird aspect ratio's. Between the Italian and Japanese releases, the Italian release is the best quality in my opinion. It has dirt and cue marks throughout that signal to me that this is some sort of telecine of the original negatives. The Japanese release is more washed out and has the traditional VHS softness to it. It has the same odd aspect ratio masking. The SECAM cassette is a disaster because, well, it will only work on about 6 video recorders in the entire known world. Because it's French. And SECAM. The only people that like SECAM are Julien, a shirehorse in it's late 40's named Colin that lives round the back of a bakery in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, and Pope Gregory The 9th.

Sound is mono (guessing the proper, original audio track) for the Italian release and Stereo for the Japanese release. No surprises with the audio. Both are great, though of course the original Italian audio is preferred for Poliziotteschi connoisseurs!

I haven't gone through each release carefully enough yet to check for any potential censorship or alterations of any kind. However I did notice that the opening titles to the film are totally different!

The original Italian release has a green Speed Driver logo and yellow credits in Italian. The Japanese release has a red Speed Driver logo and red credits in English. The same applies to the closing credits on both releases. Here's some screenshots I took with VLC after quickly capturing both cassettes with my Elgato and lovely new little Sony VCR! :D


The Italian opening header:

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The Japanese opening header:

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Title logo differences. Green (Italy), Red (Japan):

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Italian credits (sample):

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Japanese credits (sample):

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Note that the title card that first appears, Salvatore Smeriglio presents, does also appear on the Italian version as Salvatore Smeriglio presenta. It doesn't appear for as long as the credit on the Japanese release and I couldn't get a quick enough snapshot of it to show you alas.

What I would love to do is find some subtitles for the Italian release and use ALASS to time sync them up. I can't find any anywhere though. Sure this film is rare as hell to find as it is (no not online you sailor of the Seven Seas, I mean the actual releases of the film). The Japanese VHS popped up once (in any searches that I myself have made, YMMV) over the last 7 years or so, and it was commanding a ¥30,000 price tag. The Italian Titanus release has also only turned up once in the same time frame. Though I did spot another release from Italy a couple of years ago that has a nice emerald green back cover and the poster art on the front. It may or may not have been an earlier release, closer to 1980 perhaps? The French SECAM :sick: release I found in a village classifieds outside Nantes, or somewhere near there I think. The cover art if in French, with the English title Speed Driver underneath it.

To round off my little Speed Driver collection I also have an original 1980 cinema lobby poster which was found in the vaults of an old cinema in Palermo that had closed down a few years ago. I completely treasure that poster. Mainly because of it's provenance, not because it's in anywhere near acceptable condition. I don't have the soundtracks on anything other than streaming services. To the best of my knowledge there was no official release from 1980 so I've not looked further.

So anyway, what's the deal with Speed Driver? Why this film?

No particular reason at all to be honest. It's just a poliziotteschi that I've taken to heart. I hope you get to watch it some day too. Just not via some moody Potatovision® bootleg. :thumbup:
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 Post subject: Re: Speed Driver. The 1980 Fabio Testi HYPERFILM!
PostPosted: 03 May 2022, 11:56 
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Speed Driver collection update! Now featuring a Greek edition! :)

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 Post subject: Re: Speed Driver. The 1980 Fabio Testi HYPERFILM!
PostPosted: 03 May 2022, 14:13 
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I took a few snaps from the DVD-R backup supplied by the seller (currently making my own VHS capture of the tape and the cassette playback is much more stable on my setup).

This really does look like a straightforward telecine (though the 4:3 formatting choice is odd. How is this done on a telecine?). It's got a green tint on it at the start but clears up a few minutes in. Issues aside, this English dub with Greek subtitles is in my opinion the best version of Speed Driver out there for the past 40 odd years right now.

Here's some snaps for you to not enjoy at all because nobody aside from me cares. :lol:

Edit: I see Speed Driver in Greece is now on IMDB. Never saw it there before. It's known in Greece as "Protos sti via, assos stin tahytita".

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 Post subject: Re: Speed Driver. The 1980 Fabio Testi HYPERFILM!
PostPosted: 03 May 2022, 14:22 
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One other note to add to this thread is that Speed Driver was also available in Brasil. Here is a scan of the VHS release. Alas no chance of finding a copy any time soon I would wager. If anyone sees it though, please do drop me a message. :thumbup:

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 Post subject: Re: Speed Driver. The 1980 Fabio Testi HYPERFILM!
PostPosted: 17 May 2022, 20:24 
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Another quick update. This is the VHS cover for Speed Driver in Finland! The title given to this magnificent hyperfilm by our new NATO chums is Pääkalloenkelit!

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 Post subject: Re: Speed Driver. The 1980 Fabio Testi HYPERFILM!
PostPosted: 10 Jun 2022, 23:37 
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The ultimate version of Speed Driver has just shown up on eBay.

An original 35mm print, original Italian version on 6 reels. Talk about a holy grail!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/354060281172

If I could justify the shipping cost and heartbreak tax, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Only problem then is finding somewhere to clean it, scan it and correct it. Not to mention the thousands it would cost to do the work.

I'm gutted. :|

If anyone knows someone at a boutique Blu Ray label who could rescue this it would be great. I can but hope...

Edit: Found a company in the USA that does a professional service and a very rough calculation (using the basis that each of the 6 reels is 2000ft) you're looking at somewhere in the region of $3000-5000 for prep, wet gate 4k scan and colour correction. That's a very loose calculation but somewhere around it give or take.


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 Post subject: Re: Speed Driver. The 1980 Fabio Testi HYPERFILM!
PostPosted: 11 Jun 2022, 00:31 
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For the asking price its almost worth it to get it and sit on it until funds become available.
But the tax deal is another story, have no idea how much that would be, is it half?
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 Post subject: Re: Speed Driver. The 1980 Fabio Testi HYPERFILM!
PostPosted: 11 Jun 2022, 08:24 
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If you factor in shipping it's over double the cost of the reels. Then heartbreak tax on top is almost the cost of the reels again.

I could organise a crowd fund for the reels and scan/clean/correction but nobody would be interested in a super rare obscure film like this I doubt. Plus there may be lingering red tape that could get my collar felt.

I thought of similar when I came across a 35mm Aquarius print of Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave in a college archive in the USA. I wrote to several boutique labels and didn't even get a response. They either don't care for the find, the film or there's a bunch of red tape strangling it to death and its not worth the hassle or expense.

A shame really. Still, if there is interest it could be worth a look to do this myself via a crowd fund of some sort? Or if anyone who visits LDDB has any expertise in this area to offer advice?


Edit: Found the technical specifications for the original Italian print. It comes in at 3086 meters (about 10124 feet) across 6 reels with a mono soundtrack. So at about 25c a ft it works out at approximately $2500 to $3000 just to get the reels scanned. The reels have a noticeable shift so will need a wet gate scan and colour correction at around $150 an hour (going by one example I looked at).
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 Post subject: Re: Speed Driver. The 1980 Fabio Testi HYPERFILM!
PostPosted: 15 Jun 2022, 10:18 
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Just a small update on this, I am currently looking to buy the reels. Just have a tax, shipping and mathematics headache to work out first. Motion pictures have a different HS tax code for import to New Delaware so it could work out a lot cheaper to do this after all, but only if the weight of the 6 reels is less than 20kg.

I had a conversation with the seller about the condition amd provenance of the reels. There is a colour shift on the film, nothing to severe and no vinegar, but it would still need restoration and colour correction. The film reels were imported to the USA by the seller, from a theatre in Italy.

I very much doubt anyone cares for this film but I'll put the feelers out there anyway. Would anyone be interested in a crowdfund for this project? Basically getting the film scanned and restored, most likely a 4k scan but at least 2k.

The film is in original Italian language so will need subtitles doing up for it. I could do a rough draft myself using the English dub from my Japanese and Greek VHS releases. I am assuming there are services out there that offer subtitling, or I could do it myself but it will take quite some time.

End result being anyone who chips in will get a great copy of a rare and obscure film and a big thank you for helping fund a kooky project! I'm currently putting feelers out for quotes from different film labs to get an idea on what this will all cost, but it's obviously not going to be cheap and if its going to be done then its going to be done right and properly.

What do you think? Would you be interested in this project?
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 Post subject: Re: Speed Driver. The 1980 Fabio Testi HYPERFILM!
PostPosted: 16 Jun 2022, 14:45 
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Updating the collection with a German VHS release. This one runs at 88 minutes (which is really short in comparison to the other releases in my collection). It uses the Italian theatrical print with a German audio dub track.

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Also updated the collection photo. This is all of my Speed Driver cassettes at the moment. Judging by how much it will cost to scan and restore the 35mm reels I don't think I'll be adding them to my collection any time soon! :lol:


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