3-strip Technicolor, year by year (1 Viewer)

[benbess]

A new HD transfer of The Picture of Dorian Gray has appeared on Amazon Prime, and it looks very good to me. Those Technicolor inserts of the painting are wonderful and increasingly horrifying. The painting was done by a very good painter, Ivan Albright, and it now is in Chicago's famed Art Institute: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/93798 A good slow burn horror-suspense film, and one of the best Twilight Zone-like movies created before that show made miniature versions of this kind of thing a weekly event.

 

[Eric Vedowski]

If "Dorian Gray" gets a Blu-Ray release I hope they include the MGM Passing Parade short subject "Grandpa Called it Art." It includes footage of Albright and his painting for the movie.

 

[benbess]

According to the web site of The Film Foundation, they have already done a restoration of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, a classic 3-strip Technicolor Western directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. The cinematography for this film, by Winton Hoch, won an Oscar. I'm wondering why this hasn't been released on blu-ray, if a restoration has already been done. Is it perhaps an older restoration, that needs to be re-done for the blu-ray era?


http://www.film-foundation.org/common/movies/browse_films_v2.cfm?clientID=11004

 

[Lromero1396]

According to site web site of The Film Foundation, they have already done a restoration of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, a classic 3-strip Technicolor Western directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. The cinematography for this film, by Winton Hoch, won an Oscar. I'm wondering why this hasn't been released on blu-ray, if a restoration has already been done. Is it perhaps an older restoration, that needs to be re-done for the blu-ray era?


www.film-foundation.org

That's another perfectly marketable title that Warner has been dragging its feet on....

 

[ROclockCK]

There were more than 30 Technicolor movies released in 1944, a big increase from the previous year's 20. My guess is that the Technicolor Corporation somehow expanded even with the shortages of World War II, and made more 3-strip cameras and hired more people.

We do have this very nice all-region Blu-ray of Ali-Baba and the Forty Thieves from Eureka:

I'm a little surprised there have been such sporadic reviews and seemingly little discussion about this Blu-ray. Thankfully, I ignored most of the screen caps available which don't really do it justice in motion. I thought Universal/Eureka did a smashing job with this title overall...very clean and stable without being mauled by overprocessing. On balance, one of the better Technicolor transfers I've seen on Blu-ray, and one of my happiest blind buys last year. So no qualms about recommending it to forum members who might still be sitting on the fence.

 

[Robin9]

We do have this very nice all-region Blu-ray of Ali-Baba and the Forty Thieves from Eureka:

I'm a little surprised there have been such sporadic reviews and seemingly little discussion about this Blu-ray. Thankfully, I ignored most of the screen caps available which don't really do it justice in motion. I thought Universal/Eureka did a smashing job with this title overall...very clean and stable without being mauled by overprocessing. On balance, one of the better Technicolor transfers I've seen on Blu-ray, and one of my happiest blind buys last year. So no qualms about recommending it to forum members who might still be sitting on the fence.

It has been discussed in the International Blu-ray threads. Everyone there agrees that this a magnificent BRD.

 

[ROclockCK]

Ahhhhh...still discovering the many nooks and crannies of this site.

 

[Bob_S.]

Didn't see Barkley's of Broadway listed, wasn't that 3-strip?

 

[lukejosephchung]

Didn't see Barkley's of Broadway listed, wasn't that 3-strip?

Yes indeed...Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers' only Technicolor feature production together!!!

 

[Dr Griffin]

 

[Bob_S.]

Wow. Amazing.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Yes indeed. A great little short film. Thanks for posting....

 

[ahollis]

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

 

[fanddlover17]

Moreso, UCLA has already done a fine restoration from the original elements that could be utilized for a Blu-Ray. A complete list of the live-action Technicolor 3-strip shorts from 1933: Audio Productions Musical 1-reelers Bolero, Dance of the Hours, Fingal's Cave, Hymn to the Sun, Les Preludes, Unfinished Symphony Doughty & Assoc. Inc. Advertising shorts Congoleum Playlets No. 1-6, George Washington Coffee Playlets No. 1-3 General Films, Inc., Race Night Shorts Wilding Pictures Advertising Shorts Seeing is Believing (2-reeler), World's Fair (1 reel)

Interesting list. So what exactly was the first film in 3-strip Technicolor, and was it released in 1932 or 1933?

 

[Will Krupp]

Interesting list. So what exactly was the first film in 3-strip Technicolor, and was it released in 1932 or 1933?

Disney's animated "Silly Symphony" short FLOWERS AND TREES is credited as the first three-strip production and it was released in late July 1932. Animated short subjects were initially targeted to show off the new system for two reasons. Firstly, film stock in 1932 was too slow to get an acceptable live-action image from the three-strip camera no matter how well the set was lit. Animated cels weren't actually in motion, so the exposure could be set at whatever was necessary to get an acceptable image. Secondly, Technicolor only converted one of its lines to process three-strip films that year (they did it by pairing two existing two-color lines end to end, essentially knocking out two lines at a time they were still processing two-color release prints) so they couldn't handle large amounts of three color prints and 10-20 minute shorts were ideal in that the processing of a completed print "moved" faster.


Disney released three-strip Silly Symphonies at a rate of about one a month after that. The first "live-action" three strip Technicolor material can be seen in the finale of 1934's THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE (MGM) released in February of that year.

 

[Will Krupp]

Wow what great news! It seems as though an actual original Technicolor dye transfer print of the elusive DANCING PIRATE (1936) has been unearthed in, I think, Australia.


The third three-strip Technicolor feature in release following BECKY SHARP and TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE, PIRATE laid an egg at the box office and was rarely revived over the years. Like BECKY SHARP it was sold to Astor Pictures in the early 1940's and reissued in two-color Cinecolor release prints. The original negatives were neglected over the years and the title fell into the public domain. Before 2012, it was believed that DANCING PIRATE existed only in a black and white TV print. Starting around 2012, it also began appearing in its Cinecolor version, but neither version gave solid hints as to what it must have looked like in its original form.


According to this post

:

http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20355


the title was undergoing an HD scan as of last summer in preparation for a blu-ray release with BECKY SHARP.


a small clip of the newly discovered print was also uploaded to youtube:




If you've ever tried to sit through a home video version of this you'll realize what a revelation this is. It's beautiful!


The movie itself is pretty terrible (it bombed for a reason) but maybe seeing it in a watchable form will help it. I hope this is actually happening!!

 

[ajabrams]

According to this post

:

http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20355


the title was undergoing an HD scan as of last summer in preparation for a blu-ray release with BECKY SHARP.

-----------------------------

Will - As much as I wish this was true, I read the post and though it mentioned an HD scan, I think it referred to a theatrically exhibited version - I see no mention of a Blu-ray release. And as for Becky Sharp, the comment was that it would make a great double-bill with the restored Singing Pirate.


If you know any more details, please let us know, but I'm afraid it seems there's no definite news about BD releases of either film -- (yet?)


Hope you're keeping warm!!

 

[Will Krupp]

----------------------------


Will - As much as I wish this was true, I read the post and though it mentioned an HD scan, I think it referred to a theatrically exhibited version - I see no mention of a Blu-ray release. And as for Becky Sharp, the comment was that it would make a great double-bill with the restored Singing Pirate.


If you know any more details, please let us know, but I'm afraid it seems there's no definite news about BD releases of either film -- (yet?)


Hope you're keeping warm!!

Thanks AJ and I apologize as I was conflating quotes from two different sources. Though I mis-credited it to the nitrateville post, the blu-ray mention is actually from Alexander Kogan's description of the clip he released to youtube:


DANCING PIRATE (1936) was the world's first 3-Strip Technicolor musical feature movie. Until 2015, the only versions available were Cinecolor, a washed-out version made from only two of the 3 original color negatives. FATW, which has an exclusive license for the Rodgers and Hart music in the soundtrack, in 2015 located the only known original nitrate 35mm release print and has digitally mastered it. This snippet illustrates the richness of the original color pallette. We plan to release it in BluRay together with its companion picture, BECKY SHARP (1935), the first 3-strip Technicolor feature film.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

More info here: http://www.filmsaroundtheworld.com/Technicolor_Firsts.php

 

[Will Krupp]

Thanks for the link Mr Furmanek, that's great!!