- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,424
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
Nunnally Johnson is a name that's known to tried and true cinephiles, but possibly not to the more generally cinema public.
His career began as a writer, associate producer, and then producer, making his home at Fox, beginning in 1934. His credits include, Prisoner of Shark Island, Dimples, Jesse James, The Grapes of Wrath, Tobacco Road, The Woman in the Window, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, The Gunfighter, Phone Call from a Stranger, and How to Marry a Millionaire.
It's understandable that Fox would want to give him a shot a directing, which he received, via the support of Gregory Peck, in 1953, on Night People, an early CinemaScope film, released just months after The Robe.
It's a good film, not a great one, about a very, wealthy and connected business man, who feels that he's capable of teaching government and military how they should be run. Broderick Crawford plays the blustering businessman, a purveyor for axel grease, and Mr. Peck the military officer from whom he learns his shortcomings.
The major interest for me in this film, however, is none of the above, but rather the work of cinematographer Charles G. Clarke, also a Fox contract technician, and the perils of early CinemaScope.
From my perspective, one can see, and easily recognize every problematic facet of working with the anamorphic adapter lenses in this film.
One had to learn the exigencies of CinemaScope. I recall discussing the problems with Freddie Young, who in the early '50s was working at M-G-M London, and shot the first UK CinemaScope film, Knights of the Round Table, released in December of 1953.
He has spent an enormous amount of time testing the format, and after breaking the screen down into five or so sectors, came up with a formula of what not to do, and where not to place his actors, unless there was no other means of getting a shot.
Every one of those early rules in broken in Night People. Alfred Hitchcock, who never used the format, likened it to a perfect means of photographing a boa constrictor.
Best to watch this film for yourselves, as everything becomes very obvious. You'll see the wide aspect ratio being used for its width without reason. Actors placed at each side of the screen, in areas where they are fully distorted by the optics. Literally every negative aspect of CinemaScope is here.
And that, at least to me, as an instructive device, is a major reason to watch this film, and learn what every cinematographer using the format had to learn.
Image - 4
Audio - 4 (2-track stereo)
4k Up-rez - 4.25
Pass / Fail - Pass
Recommended for the reason above
RAH
His career began as a writer, associate producer, and then producer, making his home at Fox, beginning in 1934. His credits include, Prisoner of Shark Island, Dimples, Jesse James, The Grapes of Wrath, Tobacco Road, The Woman in the Window, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, The Gunfighter, Phone Call from a Stranger, and How to Marry a Millionaire.
It's understandable that Fox would want to give him a shot a directing, which he received, via the support of Gregory Peck, in 1953, on Night People, an early CinemaScope film, released just months after The Robe.
It's a good film, not a great one, about a very, wealthy and connected business man, who feels that he's capable of teaching government and military how they should be run. Broderick Crawford plays the blustering businessman, a purveyor for axel grease, and Mr. Peck the military officer from whom he learns his shortcomings.
The major interest for me in this film, however, is none of the above, but rather the work of cinematographer Charles G. Clarke, also a Fox contract technician, and the perils of early CinemaScope.
From my perspective, one can see, and easily recognize every problematic facet of working with the anamorphic adapter lenses in this film.
One had to learn the exigencies of CinemaScope. I recall discussing the problems with Freddie Young, who in the early '50s was working at M-G-M London, and shot the first UK CinemaScope film, Knights of the Round Table, released in December of 1953.
He has spent an enormous amount of time testing the format, and after breaking the screen down into five or so sectors, came up with a formula of what not to do, and where not to place his actors, unless there was no other means of getting a shot.
Every one of those early rules in broken in Night People. Alfred Hitchcock, who never used the format, likened it to a perfect means of photographing a boa constrictor.
Best to watch this film for yourselves, as everything becomes very obvious. You'll see the wide aspect ratio being used for its width without reason. Actors placed at each side of the screen, in areas where they are fully distorted by the optics. Literally every negative aspect of CinemaScope is here.
And that, at least to me, as an instructive device, is a major reason to watch this film, and learn what every cinematographer using the format had to learn.
Image - 4
Audio - 4 (2-track stereo)
4k Up-rez - 4.25
Pass / Fail - Pass
Recommended for the reason above
RAH
