Many of you have written to me to tell how you used to, like I, avidly collect the 8mm masterpieces that were known as Castle Films. In the age before home video, they made you feel like you had an actual home film library.
The most widely-circulated Castle Film was Have Badge, Will Chase, which was a four minute chunk of a not-great movie called Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops. It was one of Bud and Lou's biggest flops and I think you can see why just from the title. If I said we can watch Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, you think of scary monsters and Lou Costello playing terrified and lots of opportunity for unexpected things to occur. If I say we can watch Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops, you think, "Hmm…one washed-up comedy team running into another." Even in '55, no one was sitting around saying, "You know what the movies need? The return of the Keystone Kops." Heck, they didn't say that in 1926.
Most Castle Films were sold in stores or mail-order catalogs and came in two versions — a one-reel edition with 200' of 8mm movie film…or a 50' reel which ran around four minutes. Have Badge, Will Chase only existed in the 50' length and most copies were given away free when you bought a certain brand of 8mm movie projector. For some reason, many camera stores wound up with hundreds of 'em and were just giving the films away or selling them for fifty cents each, back when the other 50' Castle Films were two bucks.
It was quite common back in the sixties…and now someone who still has a copy (someone else besides me) has transferred it to video and posted it on YouTube, which is a nice intermingling of generational video. I like the fact that they didn't add music to the transfer since silent is the way I always experienced this film. (To clarify: The 1955 version was, of course, a talkie. But most Castle Films until late in the company's run were silent since sound 8mm movie projectors weren't common.) If they'd added in the sound of a whirring projector and put the whole thing on the wall of my childhood bedroom, the experience would be complete. Here's the film…