Knightriders (1981): 35mm Workprint Reels - Tom Savini & Amanda Davies love scene
Pittsburgh: Laurel Entertainment, 1980. Very Good. Item #49851
Pittsburgh: Laurel Entertainment, 1980. 35mm color workprint reels; no sound; approx. 4 min. Roll 516, scene 1952, takes 13-16 per visible clapboards, absent the footage used in the finished film. Inspected and viewed in a new HD transfer by The MediaPreserve in Pittsburgh (included, in various formats). Colors in the transfer are balanced and sharp, with a pleasant grain. Countdown leader at start of first reel, with white leaders added by MediaPreserve to tails of the two smaller reels (adding about 44 seconds of black in the combined transfer). Coverage from both angles used in the finished scene—with the transfer we’ve managed to clumsily sync the reels back together with their finished-film shots at the cuts (viewable here, NSFW for tame nudity)—the first reel cuts where the film’s footage begins, the second picks up after the used footage ends and leads at the end directly into the third with the same clapperboard visible on either side of the cut. In the black between takes at the end of the third reel we find a split-second blip from another angle of the room catching Romero and the crew, and the reel ends in grease-pen Xs. Minimal nudity, the most revealing take having been used for the film, though there remains a fair bit of play with Savini's chest hair.
Romero’s self-professed second favorite of his own movies (after Martin), Knightriders follows a traveling troupe of motorcycle jousters, with Ed Harris in his first starring role as the King trying to hold the group to Arthurian principles. In this scene, having abandoned the troupe for the promise of fame and funding from flashy promoter Bontempi, Black Knight Morgan (Savini) and TV producer Sheila (Davies) make love at her place before she reveals she lives there with another man, at which point we see a first glimpse of Morgan’s doubt about his new circumstances.
From the estate of Nick “Bomba” Tallo (1947-2022). A mainstay in Pittsburgh film and television production, Tallo worked, most often as a grip or gaffer, on Romero’s films from Knightriders through Two Evil Eyes, Savini’s Night of the Living Dead remake, and on dozens of films and television series, from Sleepaway Camp and The Mothman Prophecies to The Dark Knight Rises. Occasionally he would snag a bit role as well, most recognizably as the seltzer-bottle-wielding motorcycle raider in Dawn of the Dead. His long-standing job was with Pittsburgh PBS station WQED spanning almost 30 years and 570 episodes as floor manager on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, where he was known and beloved for his humor and regular on-set pranks, and where he met George Romero, who was himself an early second-unit director and cameraman for the show.
These reels were discovered while cleaning out Tallo's home, hidden under the false bottom of a steamer trunk in his bedroom where he kept them with a loaded revolver — clearly they were of value to him. He and Savini were friends as far back as high school. Knightriders was Tallo's first credited crew job (as a grip), and he also had an uncredited screen appearance near the end as the Red Shirted Customer in the cafe when Billy returns to get his revenge on the corrupt small-town cop.
[Link to full reel footage available to serious inquiries upon request.].
Price: $1,800.00