What's new

Movies filmed in color but shown in black in white? (1 Viewer)

PaulBigelow

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 5, 2002
Messages
139
Hello,

What films have been filmed in color but, for whatever reason, printed and shown in black and white?

The recent "The Man Who Wasn't There" comes to mind, but how about any older, "classic" films?
 

Patrick McCart

Premium
Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 16, 2001
Messages
8,196
Location
Georgia (the state)
Real Name
Patrick McCart
Young Frankenstein was filmed on real B&W film stock according to the interviews on the DVD.

Also, many early Technicolor films exist in B&W only.
 

Neil S. Bulk

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 13, 1999
Messages
3,356
Real Name
Neil S. Bulk
The first portion of Movie/Movie was apparently filmed in color but meant to be shown in black and white. The transfer on my old CED disc got it right, but a cable showing I watched a few months ago showed the whole movie in color.

Neil
 

Mark Philp

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 11, 2001
Messages
302
Location
Syracuse, New York
Real Name
Mark
This was a fairly common practice during the 1940's. Many times a studio would re-release a couple of films as a double feature and one or both of them would be printed in b/w to save costs. I can't remember specific titles, but I think that Fox did it quite often. Studios would often license their older films to smaller distributors such Realart and they too would release them in b/w.

In the early days of TV (actually right up into the late'70s) stations could choose to book color films either in color or b/w. That started back when most stations were still broadcasting in b/w and had no use for color prints. The distributors would charge a "booking fee" of $150 for the use of the color prints (in addition to the license fee) so many smaller stations continued to run b/w prints just to save money. Of course, film was phased out in favor or tape in the early '80s so the practice stopped.
 

Haggai

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Messages
3,883
The original question was more about classic films, but another one that (partly) falls into this category is Dead Again. As explained on the DVD commentaries, they filmed everything in color, but when a lot of people (it might have gotten as far as some test audiences before they realized this, I don't quite remember) found it difficult to tell whether this or that scene was set in the present or in the past, they changed all the scenes from the past into black and white.
 

Peter Kline

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 9, 1999
Messages
2,393
Two early television series come to mind. "Science Fiction Theater" was filmed in color well before color television and shown in black and white for many years. Later episodes of the "Lone Ranger" were filmed in color but originally shown in black and white. Also a series of "soundies", films that featured pop peformers that were shown on television or in theatres were filmed in color but released in black and white.
 

James Lambert

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Mar 12, 2003
Messages
118
I believe Ed Wood was filmed in Colour for insurance for the studio. If memory serves Burton has said the studio were uncomfortable with a B+W film
 

Dennis Nicholls

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 5, 1998
Messages
11,396
Location
Boise, ID
Real Name
Dennis
The classic series Victory At Sea was put together from actual combat footage, much if not most of which was originally in color. I've seen other documentaries that showed the same clips but in color.
 

Rob Lutter

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2000
Messages
4,523
The beginning of Rocky Horror was supposed to be presented in B&W (till the 'Time Warp' sequence). This cut exists on the DVD and comes from the color print.
 

Bill Williams

Screenwriter
Joined
May 28, 2003
Messages
1,697
That happened to me when I got a VHS of Superman II about 12-13 years ago. Though the film was shot in color, the videotape processed it and showed it as black and white. I ran it through three different VCRs, and it came up black and white every single time. I took it back to the music store where I bought the tape and showed it to the clerk, and he got me a refund on it. Later on, on a trip to New Orleans, I found another VHS of the film at Tower Records and bought it, and that time it was in color.
 

Richard Carnahan

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jun 24, 2001
Messages
70
The William Castle version of THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1963) was photographed in England in color but released theatrically in the U.S. in black and white. Later it was released to television in color.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,815
Messages
5,123,809
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top