Do you own any colorized versions of films? (1 Viewer)

[JohnOPR]

Casablanca (from television broadcast)
The Maltese Falcon (from television broadcast)
They Died With Their Boots On (VHS tape)

None are exceptional.

Slightly different subject: I also have a 3-D version of "Hondo", which was shown on television about 20 years ago. Also, not exceptional.

 

[Steve Christou]

I did see some of The Longest Day colorized on tv, I didn't mind the coloring that much except that it was also pan and scan, shame.

The first colorized film I'd ever seen was It's a Wonderful Life, about 20 years ago. A terrible job on a beloved classic, the colors were all washed out too, I mean what was the point?

And somewhere in whats left of my vhs collection lurks a colorized Night of the Living Dead.



Here you go -

 

[GerardoHP]

Thanks a lot, Steve! Those look a hundred times better than the old colorization jobs, but it's still not Technicolor. Or even color by Pathe. ; )

 

[Al.Anderson]

I have a few; only Miracle on 34th Street and some 3 Stooges (my son's!) come to mind. I don't go out of my way to get these, but I differentiate between movies I consider art and those I consider chewing gum. Well, 'art' is probably too vague - if I feel the visual element of the film is important then I stay away from anything that alters that experience.

I got in trouble with my friends for similar heresy during my college days. The audiophiles believed in exact duplication of the source material. But when transfering my albums to cassette, if I didn't like the tone I had my way with the graphic equalizer. And songs would be edited to my liking! (For instance, I still think CTA sounds better without that whole "The whole world is watching" bit.)

 

[John Hodson]

After colorization, retro-3D is on the way...

'Legend Films' have been experimenting with creating new '3D' transfers.

Over at the DVDTalk forum, Legend exec. Barry Sandrew says:

Universal ...had us color produce an episode of "The Munsters" "Family Portrait" this year. They intended to include it as a special feature on the two series set but when they saw the quality of the final product they decided to release it as a single as well. The series and the special single episode were released last month and are available in stores. I think Universal is interested in seeing how well it does before colorizing more. Of particular interest, we not only colorized that episode but we also converted part of it in 3D as a test. The result is remarkable when viewed on a Samsung DLP HD set with LCD glasses. It looks like it was shot both in color and 3D.

Inevitable really...

 

[Joe Bernardi]

I have Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) which includes both B&W and colorized versions.

I watched it in B&W, then watched a bit in color. The color is not great, but it's not distractingly bad either.

 

[RolandL]

Let's convert a 2D film to field-sequential 3D. That makes a lot of sense. Why doesn't Universal release titles filmed in 3-D like "It Came From Outer Space", "Creature From The Black Logoon", "Revenge of The Creature", "Tarza, Son of Cochise" or "Jaws 3D"? Oh, right. I remember. They have a contract with Sensio to release those films only in the side by side 480p Sensio format. All you need is the $3,000 Sensio system. I'll bet that was a great contract with so many people owning the Sensio system.

 

[Krister_]

Hi guys,

Do you think they will color produce films with Bette Davis like All About Eve. I would just die to get this one in color and I would absolutely love it. I hope so much that the chances are good for it

 

[GerardoHP]

Well, since colorization is considered one of the lowest forms of commercialization for old black-and-white movies and ALL ABOUT EVE is considered one of the greatest classics of the cinema, I think it's unlikely that anyone would show the chutzpah to do it. But anything is possible...

 

[Will Krupp]

The wonderful milestone PHANTOM OF THE OPERA uses colorization to approximate the original two-color Technicolor bal masque footage that only survives in black and white. The colorized sections blend in rather seamlessly with the surviving color footage from the same sequence. I find restoration a perfectly acceptable use for computer generated color (such as in this case or when it was used to recreate the look of the 1950's Fred Astaire tv specials originally broadcast in color but only suviving in b&w)

yep...that's the only colorization I own

 

[MLamarre]

From what I've read, for the most recent DVD of It's a Wonderful Life (The 2-disc Collector's Set), Paramount restored the color version that appeared on TV so many years ago. I haven't seen it myself, and I would still probably stick to the B&W, but many people have been saying that it's one of the best color conversions of a B&W film to date.

IGN has a review of it here

 

[Simon Howson]

I don't think so. If something is colourised I won't buy it.

Or if I get something colourised from the library, I'll watch it with all the colour taken out using the chroma (?) adjustment on the TV.

 

[Edwin-S]

People complain that DNR makes movies look artificial and video game like. Well, I think that colorization actually makes B&W films look flat and fake. I looked at the stills posted earlier and, admittedly, the colorization job is well done, but they still look flat and artificial looking. All of the varying gradations between white and black are destroyed by the colorization and the feeling of depth in the picture just disappears.

 

[PaulDA]

No. Moreover, I don't plan to ever buy a colourized version of any film that was originally B&W (unless the ONLY way to get it is in a package with the colourized version). Anymore than I would colour in an artist's pencil sketch (famous or otherwise).

On the few occasions where I've rented such a film (mistakenly thinking it was B&W) I've done as noted above--turned off the colour.