Original footage from some of Hollywood’s most iconic films for sale

By Imogen Howse via SWNS

Original footage from trailers for some of Hollywood's most famous films - including Jaws, Psycho and James Bond - is up for sale.

Excalibur Auctions have gathered rolls of 35mm film and sound stock used between the 1920s and 1970s.

Some of the reels - packed in their original metal tins - were never released in the films' final cuts and have therefore never before been seen by the public, making them exceptionally rare.

The highly-desirable collection also includes unique master elements of prints, trims, negatives, mute footage, soundtrack and sound effect material.

The lot - are being sold by someone in the film industry - features material from Sean Connery's Goldfinger, as well as the iconic shark tale Jaws.

Film from classic horror Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is also on offer - as is the original master trailer reel for the 1960 movie Brides of Dracula.

Fans of war cinema will be pleased too, with footage from Zulu and Oscar-winning Bridge on the River Kwai.

And lovers of foreign cinema may be able to get their hands on the original trailer for Italian classic La Dolce Vita.

There's even something in there for Beatles die-hards, with trailers from A Hard Day’s Night and Help! both included in the auction.

Film studios would approach this company to task them with creating trailers for the movies they were producing - with this process often considered the springboard for much of the success of these well-known films.

Jonathan Torode, from Excalibur Auctions, explained: “In basic terms the film publicity company was producing a mini film, to advertise a new production.

“The process required elements to be created such as the titles, opticals, and credits, which were sandwiched together with the live action and sound.

“This included film negatives and magnetic sound, which was transferred and became the optically read soundtrack included on the final print and can be seen on the edge of final negatives and prints.

“Such was the art of this, that the company to some extent was an ‘unsung’ studio in itself, producing not just the trailers and titles for movies, but also often handling print for posters and other publicity materials surrounding the film.”

There is no current estimate for the collection, as this sort of thing has never before been offered at auction.

Torode said the market will be able to decide "the true value".

“The entire auction has been arranged to allow the market to decide the true value of these unique pieces,” he said.

“As nothing like this has been offered for sale before there hasn’t been a precedent. Some may sell for hundreds, others thousands, it depends totally on the fans, or museums, as these are a piece of cinematic history.”

Those interested can bid for any piece of the archive via an online auction at Excalibur Auctions between May 3 and May 27.

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