3D Help restore the Golden Age 3D movie 'September Storm' (1 Viewer)

[Bob Furmanek]

Thanks to Matthew Hartman at High-Def Digest for this terrific review!

"As modern blockbusters flood 3-D screens, it's important to take a look back at the classics, the trailblazers who paved the way for what we enjoy today. 'September Storm' may have been made at the tail end of an era but the film is an important piece of history none the less. Thanks to 3-D Film Archive, 3-D Space, and their releasing partner Kino Lorber, this film gets to breathe new life outside of a film storage can."

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/43549/septemberstormkickstarteredition.html

 

[revgen]

I finally received my discs today and watched the film on my OLED. The film looks far better than it did when I saw it at the Aero theater. It's not perfect, but considering that it was coming from a printing negative that was going vinegar, it looks very good. Excellent depth throughout the picture. The underwater 3-D cinematography is easily the visual highlight of the film along with Joanne Dru showing off her bathing suit on the beach. The 3-D depth is stronger than the 3-D on The Bubble and that's no easy feat. Combined with 2.39:1 AR widescreen, it packs quite a visual punch.

The storyline is a bit mediocre, which isn't surprising. The only portions that are even remotely interesting are Robert Strauss' character's descent into madness. However production values are very good despite the substandard storyline. Shot on location in Majorca, Spain, with scenes featuring Spanish dancers, a storm sequence with stormwater rocking the ship back and forth, and beautiful shots under the sea searching for sunken treasure, the producers did the best the could to make the film look like an A picture. Thankfully, the film is a short 90 minutes, so it doesn't overstay it's welcome.

The British 3-D short, Harmony Lane was also a visual treat. It's basically a vignette featuring different Vaudeville style acts. Singers, dancers, jugglers, and comedy shot in a stagy style in 3-D. I especially like the way they dressed the set with cardboard hangers and props set in various stages of depth. The film elements for Harmony Lane were in obviously better condition than September Storm and it shows.

Asher Dann gave a very interesting interview about the production of the film. Apparently folks in old Hollywood loved to gamble quite a bit.

Overall, I enjoyed watching both films and I'm very glad to have been able to donate to a very worthy cause. Big props to Eric Kurland, Bob, Greg, and the 3-D Film Archive for a job well done.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Looky what showed up today!
View attachment 36558

 

[Interdimensional]

the extended review I posted on Amazon. Some sections are perhaps a bit redundant for the knowledgeable folks that post here, but I felt the need to go a bit more in depth than I typically would.

I've watched September Storm several times now, and have become rather fond of it. It's no lost masterpiece, but it does have a good number of appealing qualities, and the 3-D cinematography enhances this considerably.

Only a very few 3-D movies were released during the 1960s. At that point 3-D was perceived as a fad that had died a death in the 1950s, plagued by technical issues. Despite the various issues encountered in dual-projecting 3D, most of these films were competent, often highly impressive in how they made use of the 3D format. Digital technology now enables us to present them flawlessly as they were, without the synchronization or alignment issues that could crop up in the past. In a lot of ways modern 3D cinema doesn't live up to the promise of these earlier pioneering efforts.

September Storm is a relatively standard adventure suspense movie that becomes something special when viewed in 3-D. I found the first half played very much like a travelogue, it moves along at a leisurely pace, a bit like taking a holiday. I found this all very pleasant: beautiful picture postcard views; nite-clubs; music; - and then we set out on our little cruise. It may seem as though there's not a whole lot going on there, but I found it all engaging, and more importantly it gives a lot of room to establish the characters to where we feel like we know them.

Joanne Dru is delightful and charming, Mark Stevens really carries the film. Robert Strauss provides a certain goofball menace. Asher Dann does somewhat better than expected, given his inexperience, and at times seemed to have some some real screen charisma. His better scenes are with Joanne Dru, who also shows a lot of chemistry in her scenes with Stevens.

Spoiler

After the intermission I felt it took a few missteps and as a result didn't fully live up to the potential of the premise. The shark attack advertised in the posters proved to be somewhat anticlimactic, presented as more of a nuisance than a deadly threat. Some of the characters turn, revealing rather unpleasant aspects of their personalities. The film seems unwilling to follow through with this and commit to any real dramatic climax, preferring to put the violence aside and return to more harmless territory. The ending as it stands is quite adequate, if somewhat middle-of-the-road.

With regards to the 'Stereo-Vision', as a friend put it: "the depth keeps on going". There's a lot of creative framing going on, with multiple levels of depth. In the club and restaurant scenes, characters are frequently placed in front of open or transparent partitions rather than flat walls. There is always something receding away from the focal point into the background, and usually one or two artfully-placed foreground elements. I didn't feel the undersea footage was as skillfully framed, although it was often highly effective and about as good as could be expected for the era. A small number of the diving scenes were murky and underexposed, sometimes in one eye more than the other. Despite these few scenes, the 3-D remained easy-on-the-eyes. It's visually interesting all the way through. There is one extremely effective 3-D pop-out as the conflict in the movie reaches a head. Pop-outs elsewhere in the movie seemed more incidental. I felt it likely that this was deliberately placed to heighten the danger and give the scene added impact relative to the rest of the film.

The restoration is among the best I have seen and makes the photography shine. Nicely lit indoor scenes, from the boat's beautiful wooden interior, to the laid back atmosphere of the dining spots. There's a few outdoor day-for-night scenes that don't look so great, but that's fairly typical for films of this period. For a substantial amount of the film we enjoy brighter sunlit scenes that bring a very clean fresh look to the unfolding drama, and the water is so gorgeous, you'll want to take a dip.

Extras:

I found Harmony Lane a very well made if rather dated little variety show. It's lamentable that the juggling sequence, which clearly would've featured the standout 3-D moments, only survives in 2d. I had thought that a musical featurette would've been better served with colour filming, but the fact is that the black and white photography has produced extremely crisp handsome imagery here. The stylized set design was clearly conceived to showcase the 3-D. I particularly liked the music shop with the instruments suspended from wires. I would've enjoyed the short more if the acts had been worked into more of a storyline, but that's not especially important for a showcase like this with so much talent on display.

Also included is The Adventures of Sam Space, originally released with September Storm under the title "Space Attack". A very unique 3-D animated short, transferred from the only surviving print.

If not for the preservation and restoration efforts of the 3-D Film Archive, all three of the films on this disc would in all likelihood have sat unseen and been lost forever. The small team behind this deserve a standing ovation. While it's too late to contribute to the kickstarter that funded this restoration, by purchasing this disc you support their important ongoing work.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

"If 3-D collectors haven’t already added this title to their libraries, I heartily recommend that they do so. It’s a fantastic demo platter of how much the process can enhance a project."

https://supervistaramacolorscope.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/swimmin-at-ya/

 

[StephenDH]

Things I learned from "September Storm":

The leading man should never be dressed like a sea-going rent boy.

No one has ever wanted to see Robert Strauss topless.

Don't cast foreign actors with incomprehensible accents even when they're speaking English (it's not like there's a worldwide shortage of actors).

If you don't have enough footage, padding out your movie with nightclub sequences in which dancers perform seemingly interminable flamencos, isn't going to fool anyone.

Underwater treasure hunters use lifting gear which seems to have been built by a 7 year old in a woodwork class.

You may be a millionaire but you've still let a moron look after your yacht.

Fun movie with the most irritating crew this side of "Gilligan's Island".

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Foreign actors?

Asher Dann is from Brooklyn!

 

[StephenDH]

Foreign actors?

Asher Dann is from Brooklyn!

I was thinking of the actor playing the millionaire boss rather than Asher Dann.
I knew AD was American but if I hadn't, his character's bizarre accent would have had me completely fooled.
The movie was also a reminder of how beautiful Joanne Dru was: it's difficult to concentrate on anything else when she's on screen.