Seven Footprints To Satan in Silent Horror Forum

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Seven Footprints To Satan

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PJAceto	Seven Footprints To Satan	Lead	[-]
Apr 2 06 10:20 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I picked this film up recently after reading a post about it. I thought that post was here but a search turned up nothing. The only DVD that seems to be available comes from a poor Italian copy of the film. The quality of the print is not an issue for me, I just wanted to see this strange film from the director of Haxan. I figured I could translate the titles on the fly as I watched it on my PC. After all, how many titles could there be? Well, 9 hours and 165 title cards later, I'm beat. Web based translators really just translate one word at a time and pay no attention to context or idiom. I used an Italian-to-English dictionary more than the web. I was able to get about 95% translated to my satisfaction based on the context of the dialogue. It would be a waste not to share this effort with all of you, so I've posted a PDF of it on my site. Get it here. If anyone finds an error, please let us know in this thread.
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Doug69Ford	Re: Seven Footprints To Satan	#1	[-]
Apr 2 06 11:34 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I really appreciate you sharing this effort. I have a copy of the film that I haven't watched yet, and now I don't have to worry about my own (very poor) Italian skills.
GaryP11111	Reposts	#2	[-]
Apr 2 06 11:37 AM Burgomaster Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	mikedecay Member (3/22/04 11:48 pm) 205.184.160.53 Reply \| Edit \| Del All 7 Footprints to Satan! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well! What a movie this is! Witchcraft Through the Ages is cool but it doesn't keep me riveted mainly because the danish style of filmmaking at the time wasn't adherring to the 3 part storytelling structure. Well 7 Footprints to Satan in a way continues that seemingly running blindly story structure. But what just makes your head spin and overload is the barrage of lon chaney-esque characters slinking around, werewolf-ish character, mad gorilla, SATAN himself all in a mansion hunting for these two characters trapped in the house after being kidnapped. Most of the intertitles basically consist of "ALL HAIL SATAN!" "RUN TOWARD THE GRAND STAIRWAY OR YOUR SOUL WILL BE SATAN'S!" story?! slightly but who cares! characters?! barely at all! tons and tons of fun?! oh my god yes! overload of goofy spookshow stuff! Directed by Benjamen Christensen but interesting how very different the mood is here since this is so tongue in cheek compared to Haxan-Witchcraft Through the Ages. Perhaps that was due to being leaned on by hollywood studio heads??? Anyone else seen this?! love/like/hate????! borisandbelarule Member (7/13/04 3:56 pm) 24.12.56.126 Reply \| Edit \| Del Re: 7 Footprints to Satan! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haven't seen footprints, but I've got Haxan and in three different efforts I've yet to get through it without falling asleep. Granted, it's always been after midnight and it's hard to watch a silent movie that late, but still.... Anyway, where did you get 7 Footprint? I'd like to check that out. GaryP11111 Administrator (12/11/04 12:57 am) 205.188.116.132 Reply \| Edit \| Del Re: 7 Footprints to Satan! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a very nice 35mm print with Danish intertitles in the Fondazione Cineteca Italiana, Milan. However, the bootlegs floating around are from a lesser quality (by a lot) print with Italian intertitles (like the print in the Museum of Modern Art in NY). Even though I've only seen the poor bootlegs, it is easy to see that SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN is an astonishing film. Once Creighton Hale (playing a more enthusiastic, traditional hero than the skittish, reluctant hero he played in THE CAT AND THE CANARY) and Thelma Todd are brought to the mansion against their will, the viewer is treated to a menagerie of grotesques popping out of secret panels, from behind doors, inside cupboards and caskets and even from behind a bed. There's an apeman, dogman, dwarf, ape, hag, hooded cultists, assorted henchmen and fiends, an oriental villain played by the wonderful Sojin and the hooded mastermind who happens to go by the name Satan. Imperiled women burst from behind doors and are subdued and recaptured by gunmen. Mysterious shadows haunt walls and doorways. Each weird encounter segues into the next, sometimes at breakneck speeds. The onslaught of weirdness, compounded by Hale's incomprehension, imparts a surreal, dreamlike state to the proceedings. All he wanted was a little adventure in his life and he sure gets it. There are some nice lighting effects, too. I recall one particular shot in which the lighting projected a filigree or spiderweb-like pattern of shadows throughout the interior of a large, ornate room. Set design also deserves praise, especially the bat-winged throne room where our hero encounters Satan and his infamous seven steps (along with harem girls, slaves and disciples in evening clothes). The throne room resembles a macabre TV game show complete with a scoreboard. SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN is a lot of fun, with manic pacing, deft camera work, skillfull lighting and the largest collection of creeps this side of the House of Frankenstein. Still, I'd love to see even that Danish print of SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN. It was shown at the Pordenone SIlent Film Festival in Italy several years ago. GARY L. PRANGE "Sic gorgiamus allos subjectos nunc."
GaryP11111	Re: Seven Footprints To Satan	#3	[-]
Apr 2 06 11:38 AM Burgomaster Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Nice work, Paul! GARY L. PRANGE "Sic gorgiamus allos subjectos nunc."
Chesterbelloc	Re: Seven Footprints To Satan	#4	[-]
Apr 2 06 1:11 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I appreciate the work, Paul! Now I'll be able to really enjoy SEVEN FOOTPRINTS when I watch it again.
hnicolella	Re: Seven Footprints To Satan	#5	[-]
Apr 2 06 3:01 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* I used an Italian-to-English dictionary more than the web. I was able to get about 95% translated to my satisfaction based on the context of the dialogue. It would be a waste not to share this effort with all of you, so I've posted a PDF of it on my site If anyone finds an error, please let us know in this thread. A vhs version with translated titles has been around for a year or so, sold by places like "Darker Image". I'd bet your tranlsation is more on the money than theirs and it's great that you shared it. I've noticed though that often when I've received translations of German or French silents that I've had in the original language, they don't really make a whole lot of difference in understanding the story. Perhaps it's just the need for simplicity of plot in silent films-or at least the better ones. Usually there's only a few bits of information that can't be figured out from context (and maybe with just a little knowledge of the language). Of course, there are exceptions. No way ALGOL can be followed without a translation but then again that's not a particularly good movie. I did have a German titled version of Dreyer's MICHAEL and later, when I saw it in English, I realized I had the story ALL wrong. As for 7 FOOTPRINTS, it's one crazy film ,a hellzapoppin fun house ride that takes the "old house mystery/comedy" genre of the silent era about as far as it can go. A pity Christensen's HOUSE OF HORROR and HAUNTED HOUSE are lost but I can't imagine they're as looney as FOOTPRINTS. Henry
haevensnacht	Re: Seven Footprints To Satan	#6	[-]
Apr 2 06 5:14 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I had gotten FOOTPRINTS around 7 years ago when my sister was taking Italian in College and she sat through this archaic flick for me to translate the title cards. As stated before, there's not much to it. I forgot what all those title cards meant, but the story is simple and the film is totally visual anyway. I'm still angry that no company has taken the Danish print and done anything with it. Where's Kino? Milestone? Image? The Danish Film Institute released a nice double dvd of Christensen's first two films that were region 0. Turner must still own the rights and the lack of demand for the film must be what has it's restoration handcuffed.
GaryP11111	Re: Seven Footprints To Satan	#7	[-]
Apr 2 06 5:52 PM Burgomaster Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* I'm still angry that no company has taken the Danish print and done anything with it. Where's Kino? Milestone? Image? The Danish Film Institute released a nice double dvd of Christensen's first two films that were region 0. Turner must still own the rights and the lack of demand for the film must be what has it's restoration handcuffed. That's possible, but archives can have all sorts of constraints and contingencies placed on them by individuals and other entities that have donated films to archives. Those who have seen the Danish print consider it a revelation of Christenson visual style that gets lost in the murkiness of the MOMA print. I recall Jon Mirsalis writing how he reversed his opinion about SEVEN FOOTPRINTS (from unfavorable to favorable) after he saw the Danish print at a film festival. GARY L. PRANGE "Sic gorgiamus allos subjectos nunc."
peeknocker	Benjamin Christiansen	#8	[-]
Apr 4 06 9:25 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	"Seven Footprints"? Wow! What a surprise to find people on a horro board talking about that. I've never seen this film. I actually thought it was lost. I recently purchased an excellent dvd of Christiansen's first two films from the Danish Film Institute. I also have the fabulous Criterion disc. I've been fascinated with this latter film since failing to return a videotape of "Witchcraft Through The Ages" about 25 years ago. One of my favorite films, PERIOD. I MUST get my hands on a copy of "Seven Footprints". Funny, I never even considered for a moment that it was actually available!! THANKS GUYS!
GaryP11111	Re: Benjamin Christiansen	#9	[-]
Apr 4 06 10:57 PM Burgomaster Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Interest in SEVEN FOOTPRINTS took off in 1996 when Turner Classic Movies scheduled to broadcast the film one morning. You can imagine the excitement. (I stayed home from work to make SURE it would be recorded properly.) When air time arrived, SEVEN FOOTPRINTS was "withdrawn" for another film. The official excuse (published in Video Watchdog) was that the print was not up to the quality expected by TCM subscribers and that it would be rescheduled after it was properly restored. That was ten years ago. Though SEVEN FOOTPRINTS is the only one of Christensen's trio of First National fright films to survive, the Vitaphone sound disks for his THE HAUNTED HOUSE (1928) survive. GARY L. PRANGE "Sic gorgiamus allos subjectos nunc."
Mark Hodgson	Re: SEVEN FOOTPRINTS	#10	[-]
Apr 6 06 7:04 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I watched the Italian version recently, having read the book, so I roughly knew what was going on with the steps at least. It's a wonderfully fast-paced mad movie, as breakneck as a two-reel comedy, but done for thrills and chills. The tape was very fuzzy indeed, I'd love to see a proper print or DVD of the film - it's quite unique and a lot of fun.
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hnicolella	Re: SEVEN FOOTPRINTS	#11	[-]
Apr 6 06 7:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* watched the Italian version recently, having read the book, so I roughly knew what was going on with the steps at least. The staircase test and the title is about all the movie takes from the book. Henry
Andy Sheets	Re: SEVEN FOOTPRINTS	#12	[-]
Apr 12 06 2:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* The staircase test and the title is about all the movie takes from the book. I've read the book but haven't seen the film. I seem to recall reading that author Abraham Merritt wept when he first saw the movie.
BixB	Re: SEVEN FOOTPRINTS	#13	[-]
Apr 12 06 6:34 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* Though SEVEN FOOTPRINTS is the only one of Christensen's trio of First National fright films to survive, the Vitaphone sound disks for his THE HAUNTED HOUSE (1928) survive. Vitaphone Project database of known existing materials lists the discs for reels five & six of SFTS. Joe Busam Producer Monster Kid Home Movies
mikedecay	Re: Seven Footprints To Satan	#14	[-]
Jun 4 06 11:29 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	heeeeeeeeey! people actually care about this! awesome!! well.. here's where I bought the only english language version available... pkavel.tripod.com/ he's got a lot of other great stuff toooo! just an old guy on his own who translated it aswell! :)
hnicolella	Re: Seven Footprints To Satan	#15	[-]
Jun 5 06 12:46 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I didn't know that Pete Kavel was still in business. I've heard that he's been very ill. Henry
borisandbelarule	Seven Footprints to Satan	#16	[-]
Jul 17 12 2:49 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Had the luck to stumble across the version with English subtitles (although they're pretty lousy) some time ago on youtube and burned it onto a disc. Just brought it out today and watched it. I have to say it's the worst-quality print of a film that was so enjoyable it didn't bother me. It's really hard to believe that in 1929 they could put together such a fast-paced, surprise-filled horror comedy! Loved the different characters, and the twists and turns all the way to "seven steps" scene near the end. I've had so much trouble trying to get through Haxan (three times at least... fell asleep every time), I decided to do a daytime adventure here. Had no trouble following the plot, and dozed off not once. I guess it got pulled from youtube because I couldn't find the link today. Does anybody know if they did some sort of a "sound" version of the book and maybe named it something else? This was a pretty well-written story, especially for its time.
doctor kiss		#17	[-]
Jul 17 12 3:37 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	borisandbelarule wrote: I have to say it's the worst-quality print of a film that was so enjoyable it didn't bother me. The good news is that the Cineteca di Milano has recently undertaken a restoration of the Italian-language print, having finally reached an agreement on the rights after countless years of slow-moving negotiations. While it's only been screened at a couple of European festivals so far, there are apparently plans in the works for a wider (digital) release eventually. There's a six-minute excerpt from the restoration at YouTube, courtesy of the Cineteca di Milano, which at least indicates how substantially improved the movie now looks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX5N_yCcGzc
Wich2		#18	[-]
Jul 17 12 9:03 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	>It's really hard to believe that in 1929 they could put together such a fast-paced, surprise-filled horror comedy!...This was a pretty well-written story, especially for its time.< They weren't all talentless dumbies back then, babr!
borisandbelarule	Seven Footprints to Satan...	#19	[-]
Jul 17 12 10:44 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Lol... I guess that does sound pretty strange to say, Wich. But it does seem like in a lot of those silents, and even in the early talkies, the acting is kind of stilted and the storyline simplistic. This had stuff hitting you from all angles. That six-minute restored clip is very clean... thanks for posting, doc.
HalLane		#20	[-]
Jul 17 12 10:51 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	doctor kiss wrote: There's a six-minute excerpt from the restoration at YouTube, courtesy of the Cineteca di Milano Wow, that clip looks fanTAStico! Diggin' the clarinet & bongo score too. And I totally forgot that Thelma was in it. Hot Toddy! Thanks, doctor!
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