OK, news on this:

I bought the reel. Yes, I said reel, not reels. It was a single reel from a consignment seller, with no canister. He said the leader said "Hour 2" and "Unit 2", which I assume means it's the last half of the film. I have the reel now, but I haven't had time to unpack it or inspect it.

The second half is where all the good stuff/special effects happen, so I'm not terribly upset to only have that part of the movie.

I run a Facebook group on practical/optical VFX, and one of the members tipped me off to a transfer place in L.A. - for an HD scan, it'd be $275 an hour (the reel is about an hour). I spent $100 getting the reel and a canister for it, and I'd really like to know if anyone would be willing to chip in some of the $275 to get this reel transferred right (rather than just a one-light SD telecine).