The Night Before Christmas - Castle Films - 1946 (8mm)

This is an old black & white presentation of the holiday classic that was originally produced by Castle Films in 1946. This video was transferred from an 8mm print of the film that is over 60 years old, and was stored in marginal conditions for several decades. The film demonstrated some degree of deterioration, for which I attempted to compensate with careful cleaning and scanning of the film for digital transfer.

Castle Films also distributed this production on larger format 16mm film that included a narrative and orchestration soundtrack, but this was not possible for their 8mm version since film sound was not an option for Regular 8 or Standard 8mm film. (It was introduced to Super 8 in the early 70s.) As an alternative, when Castle Films produced the 8mm print of this production, they overlaid a captioned text narrative in the lower third of the frame that progresses throughout the film.

I found various parts of the original soundtrack on the net, but its incompleteness and limited quality was a determining factor in its exclusion from this digital transfer.

Instead, I added a new orchestrated film score to complement the captioned text, using royalty-free orchestrated music beds written by film score veteran, Richard Band, and customized using the SmartSound Sonicfire Pro software package.

The film transfer was performed on a WorkPrinter XP system invented by Roger Evans at www.moviestuff.tv, and was captured through a Canon XL2.

Although this video presentation shows a significant amount of image degradation due to the the deteriorated condition of the film, it is still an enchanting interpretation of a timeless holiday classic, and retains much of its character through the artifacts of an antiquated medium.

I hope you enjoy it.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Night
• Before
• Christmas
• Castle
• Films
• Black
• White
• 8mm
• lunarparcel
• holiday
• 1940s
• old
• Santa
• Claus
• antique
• transfer
• faded

[TtotheB123]

I too grew up watching this on our old 8mm projector. Watching it again brought back the memories of the sound of the projector running and the smell the hot light would give off. Thanks for uploading this. By the way, I noticed some people saying that the music is a bit creepy sounding. The music you used that starts when the man looks out the window and the words "Gave the luster of midday to objects below" was also used as the theme music to the horror film "The House on Sorority Row".

[lunarparcel]

@TtotheB123 Wow. Amazing catch on the music. It made me laugh in its oddly appropriate way. I guess it makes you wonder...how would you feel if you woke up in the middle of the night to have a strange an rummaging around downstairs. Still a bit off-putting even with the whole Santa thing. My young daughter still refuses to go out to the living room by herself Christmas morning for fear that Santa might still be there. It makes me laugh.

Thanks for the info, and thanks for the great comment.

[CTerrySGD]

Thank you for bringing this movie back to me and my family! We used to watch this every Christmas Eve at my Grandmother's house on a projector! It was a part of our Christmas Eve that left us with our Grandmother's passing! I don't think that our movie had sound either. The history of the movie is very interesting as well. Thanks again!

Chris

[lunarparcel]

Thanks for the comment. Merry Christmas to you and all the best for a wonderful New Year.

[knarfabknarf]

how wonderful. thank you. this is great and gets me more in the mood for st. nick.

merry christmas.

[lunarparcel]

Glad you enjoyed it. Wishing you a Merry Christmas.

[bijeto]

Excellent job of restoration lunarparcel. Very polished and the whole piece is very atmospheric. Now THIS gets me in the mood for Christmas. BTW Merry Christmas!

[ntlynch]

Thank you for adding this! We watched this every year on a projector!  Glad to find it on YouTube!

[greatgreatgrandma]

Why didn't you use Christmas Music.. This music is more for a Thriller movie than a Christmas clip.

[MosWis79]

@sfbridges1 Bear?

[RosieG1973]

Wow! Thank you for posting this. I remember this well. Every year when I was at primary school we were treated to a film show in the school hall at the end of our Christmas party and this was always screened. It brought back lovely memories! Wonderful to see it again!

[TheFrontrowkid]

The film may have been released in 1946 by Castle Films, but the movie itself appears to be older, like the Thirties. Many of the Christmas films put out by Castle were originally shown in theaters. With the post war baby boom, home movie outfits were very popular. Sears Roebuck and other stores selling camera equipment all had Castle Films for sale.

[sfbridges1]

@CTerrySGD

yes i had this too as a child, we had it on an original video cassette tape though. my mom pawned it after i fergot it when i moved out :(