- Joined
- Dec 10, 2001
- Messages
- 6,722
- Real Name
- Bob
Dee, here's the story on TOP BANANA.
After it was a smash hit on Broadway, the show went on tour for a year playing in major cities across the country. Phil Silvers and the cast finished their successful run at the Biltmore theater in downtown Los Angeles. During that engagement, Harry Popkin (D.O.A., AND THEN THERE WERE NONE) negotiated with producers Albert Zugsmith (TOUCH OF EVIL, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN) and Ben Peskay to film TOP BANANA, exactly as it had been presented on stage in sold out performances across the country. They packed up the sets and costumes, and moved the entire company over to the Motion Picture Center Studios in Hollywood. That's where the film was photographed, and not on the theater stage which has been written over and over again for years.
The idea to film it in 3-D was in order to give the audience a choice seat at a top Broadway show. The producers envisioned this format as a new way to inexpensively film stage shows, and present them in theaters across the country. They even developed a rather complicated tracking shot for the opening of the film. The camera would be the person approaching the theater. They would go to the box office and buy their tickets, enter the lobby and proceed down to their seat in the 3rd row, center stage. The lights would dim, the overture would play and the show would begin. (This elaborate opening was abandoned in favor of a static shot of the theater marquee, which then dissolves directly into the stage show.) It was photographed with Natural Vision cameras, the same rigs that filmed BWANA DEVIL, HOUSE OF WAX, FORT TI, CHARGE AT FEATHER RIVER, DEVIL'S CANYON, THE MOONLIGHTER, SOUTHWEST PASSAGE and GOG.
The film was in post-production in September 1953 just as THE ROBE and CinemaScope hit theaters, and 3-D was starting to decline at the box office. While shopping the property around for a distributor (the film was independently financed) the producers announced they would release TOP BANANA flat only, citing the publics lukewarm response to the current 3-D releases. In early December, they signed a distribution deal with United Artists. Later that month, the success of some new 3-D releases (KISS ME KATE, HONDO, CEASE FIRE and MISS SADIE THOMPSON) prompted UA to announce in the trades that a 3-D version would be available for exhibitors.
Unfortunately, that is the last reference to any release of the stereoscopic version of this film. When it was sneak previewed, shown to the trades and released in February 1954, it was shown flat only. Despite UA's claim, there is no concrete documentation that the camera negatives were ever edited for a 3-D release.
The film was photographed in Eastman color, and processed by the Color Corporation of America laboratory (formerly SuperCinecolor/Cinecolor) in Burbank. The lab went out of business the following year. Apparently, all of the original elements were junked at that time. (The negatives were probably labeled under the production company name, Roadshow Productions.)
Sadly, the only material in the United Artists archive today is an edited 35mm release print of one side. That is the version which has been released on home video, and it's missing about 15 minutes of footage. There are no negatives, color separations, interpositives, dupe negatives, nothing. (The "lost" footage does survive in an uncut 16mm Kodachrome print struck in 1954. It was offered to the studio when they were planning the home video release, but they weren't interested. So much for archival consideration.)
I made a very interesting discovery just a few months ago. An original 35mm trailer was located by Jeff Joseph at SabuCat Productions. On close examination, I found that certain shots in the trailer were from the opposite eye of the surviving 35mm print! Dan Symmes at Dimension 3 was able to recombine these previously unseen left/right 3-D images from TOP BANANA into anaglyph, and he has a few of them on his website. If you have a pair of red/blue glasses, you can view these shots in 3-D at www.d3.com/lost.html (Be sure to put the red lens over your right eye.) The same page contains scenes from Warner Bros. THE BOUNTY HUNTER, another "lost" 3-D film.
I hope I haven't bored you with all these details. I've been reading wrong information for years about this film, and it's nice to finally set the record straight!
Bob
After it was a smash hit on Broadway, the show went on tour for a year playing in major cities across the country. Phil Silvers and the cast finished their successful run at the Biltmore theater in downtown Los Angeles. During that engagement, Harry Popkin (D.O.A., AND THEN THERE WERE NONE) negotiated with producers Albert Zugsmith (TOUCH OF EVIL, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN) and Ben Peskay to film TOP BANANA, exactly as it had been presented on stage in sold out performances across the country. They packed up the sets and costumes, and moved the entire company over to the Motion Picture Center Studios in Hollywood. That's where the film was photographed, and not on the theater stage which has been written over and over again for years.
The idea to film it in 3-D was in order to give the audience a choice seat at a top Broadway show. The producers envisioned this format as a new way to inexpensively film stage shows, and present them in theaters across the country. They even developed a rather complicated tracking shot for the opening of the film. The camera would be the person approaching the theater. They would go to the box office and buy their tickets, enter the lobby and proceed down to their seat in the 3rd row, center stage. The lights would dim, the overture would play and the show would begin. (This elaborate opening was abandoned in favor of a static shot of the theater marquee, which then dissolves directly into the stage show.) It was photographed with Natural Vision cameras, the same rigs that filmed BWANA DEVIL, HOUSE OF WAX, FORT TI, CHARGE AT FEATHER RIVER, DEVIL'S CANYON, THE MOONLIGHTER, SOUTHWEST PASSAGE and GOG.
The film was in post-production in September 1953 just as THE ROBE and CinemaScope hit theaters, and 3-D was starting to decline at the box office. While shopping the property around for a distributor (the film was independently financed) the producers announced they would release TOP BANANA flat only, citing the publics lukewarm response to the current 3-D releases. In early December, they signed a distribution deal with United Artists. Later that month, the success of some new 3-D releases (KISS ME KATE, HONDO, CEASE FIRE and MISS SADIE THOMPSON) prompted UA to announce in the trades that a 3-D version would be available for exhibitors.
Unfortunately, that is the last reference to any release of the stereoscopic version of this film. When it was sneak previewed, shown to the trades and released in February 1954, it was shown flat only. Despite UA's claim, there is no concrete documentation that the camera negatives were ever edited for a 3-D release.
The film was photographed in Eastman color, and processed by the Color Corporation of America laboratory (formerly SuperCinecolor/Cinecolor) in Burbank. The lab went out of business the following year. Apparently, all of the original elements were junked at that time. (The negatives were probably labeled under the production company name, Roadshow Productions.)
Sadly, the only material in the United Artists archive today is an edited 35mm release print of one side. That is the version which has been released on home video, and it's missing about 15 minutes of footage. There are no negatives, color separations, interpositives, dupe negatives, nothing. (The "lost" footage does survive in an uncut 16mm Kodachrome print struck in 1954. It was offered to the studio when they were planning the home video release, but they weren't interested. So much for archival consideration.)
I made a very interesting discovery just a few months ago. An original 35mm trailer was located by Jeff Joseph at SabuCat Productions. On close examination, I found that certain shots in the trailer were from the opposite eye of the surviving 35mm print! Dan Symmes at Dimension 3 was able to recombine these previously unseen left/right 3-D images from TOP BANANA into anaglyph, and he has a few of them on his website. If you have a pair of red/blue glasses, you can view these shots in 3-D at www.d3.com/lost.html (Be sure to put the red lens over your right eye.) The same page contains scenes from Warner Bros. THE BOUNTY HUNTER, another "lost" 3-D film.
I hope I haven't bored you with all these details. I've been reading wrong information for years about this film, and it's nice to finally set the record straight!
Bob
