American Graffiti - Original Cut Restoration (Mechanical Assistance/Telecine Experts Needed!) (* unfinished project *) - lots of information...

The original 1973 theatrical cut a.k.a. the studio cut is very similar to the 1978 re-release version. Lucas was able to restore a few scenes that had been taken out by the studio in its original release after his success with Star Wars and create his director's cut (the same thing happened with THX 1138 that same year);

• The Louie, Louie sequence at the hop. 
• Terry's exchange at the used car lot just before the first hop sequence.
• Bob Falfa singing Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific after he picks up Laurie.

The audio was also remixed in Dolby Stereo for the reissue.

The original theatrical release has never been released on home video. Also, don't know if this info is true or not but according to IMDB:

"In the original release, John Milner is listed as having been killed by a drunk driver in June of 1964 in the closing segment just before the final credits. When the movie was reedited in 1978, the date of his death was changed to December of 1964, most likely in anticipation of the release of its sequel, More American Graffiti."

Looking forward to it! :) I'm sorry that I cannot be of any assistance and give any advice in regards to get a high quality scan made, hopefully those with the expertise in the field will chime in. I'm sure -1 and team would be able to let you know the details on their MO, lots of effort involved I guess.

Looks very promising, and Puggo has dealt with prints that looked a lot worse.

Lovely! You've actually renewed my hope there's a good scope print of THX out there.

skyjedi2005 will be over the moon when he sees this.

The scans look good. It would take forever to scan a nearly two hour film this way, unfortunately.

Puggo is your best bet for a SD transfer when his schedule permits. He would also be able to capture the soundtrack, which would also be of historical interest, since it was remixed later on.

The company that made his gear now sells HD units, but they are fantastically expensive. If you're going to keep the print in your collection, that may change several years from now.

Thanks for posting these frames, your print seems to be in fantastic condition! be gentle with it. :) I suspect that IMDB-info could just be inaccurate, they have been wrong in the past. An easy way to determine what version you actually got is to check the end credits, the re-issue was remixed in Dolby:

Fifty bucks?! I guess Ebay wasn't involved. ;)

Keep in mind Dolby was around as a noise reduction system at the time. We need to research this a little more.

If you could do a quick and dirty audio capture, then someone can sync it up with video of the current version and find out for sure.

SilverWook said:

Keep in mind Dolby was around as a noise reduction system at the time. We need to research this a little more.

Yes, of course. Silver is right, I missed the fact it says Dolby System not Stereo. I don't think there is another way than to check if those previously mentioned added scenes are included or not to be sure.

ww12345 said:

OK, that's what my print says, "Dolby System." However, it does say the "Some Enchanted Evening" bit, too. I wonder if they would have redone the titles just so that it would not have that in, from when the scene was originally cut? I guess it gives me an excuse to watch the movie... :D

If not "Some Enchanted Evening" is used anywhere else in the film that may also be a '78 addition. I don't remember if it is.

Pretty fantastic quality for a 16mm print of this vintage and for 50 dollars wow.

Wonder if that other print is the same dodgy adapted scope print listed years ago on the super8mm forums 16mm section.

I think it was sold for a far cheaper price perhaps the same chap never sold it or if he did the reseller wants what someone would not even pay for a pristine copy newly struck by the studio for home sale which we know would not be done.

Its really unfortunate the blu ray has the new 90's color timing and the cgi redone opening, because it is off the o-neg and is fantastic quality would be even better if it was scanned in better than just standard 1080 HD and they did less dvnr.

Of course the dvnr on graffiti is rather a light touch unlike THX and the movie was not completely ruined like THX. 

But neither film looks like the techniscope original on blu ray.

Really wish Lucas himself had not really fallen in love with DVNR and Digital regrading of films like he had in the 90's and 2000's.  All of his films on blu ray don't look how they should.  CGI, dvnr, newly done inferior sound mixes.