OK, well yours was a new one for me! I thought I knew everything about the filming of GWTW but that one threw me..
Speaking of Selznick, among other Technicolor features exhibited over the weekend, Duel in the Sun (1946) will be projected. This is a combo of two nitrate prints, one coming from Martin Scorsese for this event. Flowers and Trees (1932) from a 1933 release print that is believed to had seldom been projected, as it shows zero signs of wear and super minimal shrinkage. Three-strip Technicolor's public debut. The Wizard of Oz (1939) - through many color comparisons and years of research, this particular print is believed to be the closest to the original colors in a projectable state. Of course there are variations in IB printing, but the point of the lecture was that don't expect the colors to be as bold as home media releases. That said, they say it doesn't take away from the film's beauty, only that expect to see it like its your first time. Sepia and color. The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair (1939) comes from a 1940 release print. 35mm Technicolor, so not the 16mm Kodachrome release. Not really a feature film, but it still shows off early Technicolor. Also, not the best image, so they say, yet still vibrant through the scratches and such. There are some other three-strip Technicolor shorts and trailer, and of course Black Narcissus (1947) which is a 1947 release print that's owned by the Academy. The B&W selection is pretty dope, too!
My bad. The Band Concert (1935), the debut of Mickey Rat in color is the one with little wear. Flowers and Trees required some perf repairs, and is the print from MoMA w/ a brief section of 1.45% shrinkage during the title. Manageable shrinkage after that.
I remember my old editions of "The Perfect Vision" had some great articles on this topic in their early days around 1990. Still have them. Learned as much from them as from college. Wonderful history. John M......
TCM ran it some weeks ago and it looked pretty good so I can only expect the WA disc to look even better.
And now for something slightly different … This popped up on YouTube about a month ago: a 2 minute excerpt from the longer ( I think about 7 minute) finale of the b&w movie “Kid Millions” photographed in 3- strip Technicolor by Ray Rennahan. From Warner Archive, dvd only. I have this is one of my “backlog” stacks, I’m confident my dvd looks FAR better. By the way, the search seems “case sensitive” - Kid Millions 1934 gets me there, Kid millions does not! Anyway, the clip starts with the “Goldwyn Girls” going up a ramp to the top of a set made to look like an old fashioned hand-cranked ice cream machine, holding ingredients to drop into the mix, singing along the way. To me, the color finale alone makes it worth the modest (about $10) price of the disc, utterly surreal! There are parts of the movie that are wildly politically incorrect, such as star Eddie Cantor in blackface in between the young Nicholas Brothers (!) Also features Ethel Merman and Ann Sothern.
You made me laugh! By the way, “Duel in the Sun” that EVOLVIST is set to watch in a vintage IB print is known in some circles as “Lust in the Dust”!
I thought the movie was pretty solid when I saw on blu-ray. It'll be interesting to see what a second viewing will bring. I think it gets an undo bad rap. That said, it definitely isn't as good as it costs.
That's what I had heard as well. Nitrate film would be uncontrollable -- gas jets, they can turn off whenever necessary. I wrote a number of those articles myself from about 1988-1991 or so. We did the restoration on all those for Disney when I was at Lowry Digital in Burbank. The most memorable short I worked on was "Mickey's Trailer," which really looked good. This was the first time I was aware (2011-2012) that they could take the three YCM color separation negatives and digitally combine them together with Nuke and precisely track any shrinkage, weave, or jitter. It's a pretty amazing process.
I came very close to buying this a couple of months ago, before the 3D Archive announcement JUST FOR THE TECHNICOLOR. Now I find that by waiting it’ll not only be in 3D (and I AM equipped) but will also have an included “2D” blu- ray of better quality than I was previously thinking of buying (“win-win”!) I THINK I saw a pic of the dual 3-strip camera in a sleek looking “blimp” somewhere in LONG Bob Furmanek (of 3D film archive) thread at Home Theater Forum that I failed to grab at the time and have never been able to find since. The same rig was used for “Flight to Tangier.”
Some Technicolor trailers were shown this morning. They were: The Four Feathers (1939) Incendiary Blonde (1945) Virginia (1941) Belle Starr (1941) Leave Her to Heaven (1945) They were all pretty beat up on the surface, because they'd been projected a lot, but no telling warpage nor overt shrinkage. It was really cool. An interesting artifact, Synchromy No. 4: Escape (1937-38), an avant-garde work, with a dated print of 1948 in Cinecolor 2-color process, that was donated by the cinematographer himself, Ted Nemeth. The moving animated triangles are supposed to represent how the mind works when listening to music. In this case it was Bach's Toccata and Fuge in D Minor. Flowers and Trees (1932) - This is a 1933 print and it looked way better than I thought it would. It looked spectacular, to be honest. It's really amazing that I'm watching an 89-year old nitrate release print of the first Three-strip Technicolor film of any kind for public consumption. The Band Concert (1935) - This is a 1937 release print. They weren't kidding. It looks like it's rarely been shown, if shown at all. Of course they have to screen these, as a test, and to make corrections, before they show it to the public, but for all intent and purposes, we're still one of the very few to have seen this print screened. By the way, I saw the film cans that houses the original Three-strip negatives for The Wizard of Oz (1939). Contrary to urban myth, Jimmy Hoffa's body cannot be found in ths film's cannisters.
A few 2-strip Technicolor clips from lost films, all uploaded to YouTube by someone named Bill Green: Tap Dance Chorus 1930 - at the start, “stooge” Curly Howard says to his seat mate “Watch closely” The March of Time 1930 - there is Part I, Part II, and Part III, all worth watching. There’s also a Part IV, but not in color. A tantalizing look at what might have been!
Phew, well I've just read through the entire thread and want to thank everyone for their knowledge and enthusiasm for a subject I find very interesting. Now, I want to ask about, and recommend, Jacques Tourneur's overlooked 3 strip western Canyon Passage. Any of you guys out there seen it? It's well worth picking up a copy. Tourneur is a master director and his first western is a cut above most westerns of the time with real depth. I have the old Paramint blu, which I'm very happy with, but I read the Kino Lorber is an improvement on that. Check it out and I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Canyon Passage Blu-ray - Dana Andrews
Looking at the screen grabs, I find the Universal looks brighter than the other two and more pleasing despite being only dvd quality.
That's a beautifully-shot film -- one of the classic WB B&W films of that era. All things being equal, if I'm given a previous reference to look at for a new mastering job, I tend to pop the highlights a little bit more and try to extend the dynamic range, but I also try to dig into the shadows and bring a dash of detail out if I can. It's a balancing act. I want anybody who put the two images side by side to say, "hey, the one on the right [the new one] has a lot more 'pop' to it and is more interesting to look at." Dark and muddy is not what we want. But old Technicolor films are notoriously hard to work on.
Enjoy! I saw a nitrate print of The Third Man (1949) this weekend. The last two reels came from the BFI. The American print looked as if we were watching in 1949. It was that clean! Much thanks to BFI for rounding out the experience, otherwise the last two reels would have been acetate.
EVOLVIST, you mentioned a few days ago that you were lined up to see IB Technicolor prints for DUEL IN THE SUN and BLACK NARCISSUS (Wizard of Oz, too?). Has this now happened, and if so, will you report on your impressions?
Hi, Bob. Yeah, I've made notes while the images were fresh in my head, but then I wanted to get back home and make some comparisons between home media, and think of various iterations of Technicolor and nitrate in general. I should post some thoughts before the weekend is out. Honestly, the Tech IB images are still floating through my head. They made a very strong impression, as did the entire fest. Plus, I got to talk to some film preservation experts who work at Eastman, so that might be of interest, as well.
So I didn't see the nitrate print tonight as there was a fault with the safety feature of the projector. They did screen a sparkling new print made for the BFI Archives instead. Time watching 'Mildred Pierce' is always time well spent so I'm only mildly disappointed. That said I have a ticket to see a nitrate print of 'Blood and Sand' (1941) on Sunday so I hope the fault is fixed by then! Rita Hayworth in Technicolor...
