How so????
@Thomas T,
You must be living someplace where the light of day is very cold indeed. I really love "80 Days" and have often defended its many awards (not just Oscars BTW).
That's very interesting. In your last sentence, I am assuming that you are hearing the theatrical surround pre any possible update for home video where it has occurred that information has been added, which should be easy for you to find out.According to Fox sound technician Doug Williams, when Murray Spivack finiehed the mix on The Robe it was a three channel stereo mix. When played for Darryl Zanuck, Zanuck said, "Where's the surround track?"
Spivack then said, "What's a surround track"?
Separate surrounds were not recorded, but lifted from the front.
Doug then mentioned that no Fox film had separate recorded surrounds until South Pacific in 1958.
I remember goint to the Egyptian theater for a special showing of The Egyptian.
Indeed, the first scene when the chorus sings How beautiful Art Thou, the surrounds kicked on until there was some dialogue Over the chorus and the surrounds quickly shot off, the turned on once the dialogue had stopped,
However, I've found that no separate surrounds was not completely true as I founda few Fox films with music separate on the surrounds, starting in 1955 with Love is a Many splendored thing, and found thas also true in 1956 with Anastasia, and 1957 with Peyton Place.
To be more precise, I'm sure that the surround track information was taken from the efx pre-mixes.Separate surrounds were not recorded, but lifted from the front.
Well, while I wouldn't go that far, even in 1967, it played like a big screen sitcom (all that was missing was the laugh track) and while well intentioned, about as subtle as a sledge hammer (typical of Kramer). And coming after such grittier fare on race as Dutchman and In The Heat Of The Night it does come across as I said as quaint.
This ground-breaking film opened the door and it should be recognize for that, instead of branded for being too tame or timid with the subject matter.Quaint? Only if you overlook the fact that interracial marriage was still illegal in 16 states when Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? was made.
This ground-breaking film opened the door and it should be recognize for that, instead of branded for being too tame or timid with the subject matter.
Well, I'm sorry you think Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a bad movie. You and I have a major disagreement there. Furthermore, you have finally met an African-American who thinks very much of this film. Also, my family and friends did too.Sorry, Mr. Crawford but I'm not of the school that gives bad movies a pass because their heart is in the right place. GWCTD? is the kind of movie that made white liberal audiences feel good about themselves (I don't think I've ever met an African American who thought very much of the movie). It's a fairy tale! Who wouldn't want Sidney Poitier as a son in law, he's a doctor, he's educated, he's handsome, he has a prestigious reputation. Would the liberal white family have been so accepting of him if he were a plumber? I think not.
Ground breaking? 3 years earlier there was a film called One Potato Two Potato which won Barbara Barrie the best actress award at the Cannes Film festival. It too dealt with an interracial marriage but it wasn't sugar coated like GWCTD? It wasn't a big hit which is not surprising because it was too gritty for white audiences who preferred the sugar coated pill of GWCTD? I enjoy GWCTD? for the triple star power of Tracy/Poitier/Hepburn. But its important subject matter can't hide its essential triteness as cinema.
I hope you've seen the superb Get Out currently in theatres. It upends the pablum of GWCTD? hilariously and frighteningly and done from the perspective of an African American rather than a white man.
Sometimes a sugar coated pill allows the medicine to go down.
Sorry, Mr. Crawford but I'm not of the school that gives bad movies a pass because their heart is in the right place. GWCTD? is the kind of movie that made white liberal audiences feel good about themselves (I don't think I've ever met an African American who thought very much of the movie). It's a fairy tale! Who wouldn't want Sidney Poitier as a son in law, he's a doctor, he's educated, he's handsome, he has a prestigious reputation. Would the liberal white family have been so accepting of him if he were a plumber? I think not.
Ground breaking? 3 years earlier there was a film called One Potato Two Potato which won Barbara Barrie the best actress award at the Cannes Film festival. It too dealt with an interracial marriage but it wasn't sugar coated like GWCTD? It wasn't a big hit which is not surprising because it was too gritty for white audiences who preferred the sugar coated pill of GWCTD? I enjoy GWCTD? for the triple star power of Tracy/Poitier/Hepburn. But its important subject matter can't hide its essential triteness as cinema.
I hope you've seen the superb Get Out currently in theatres. It upends the pablum of GWCTD? hilariously and frighteningly and done from the perspective of an African American rather than a white man.
I don't dislike Around The World In 80 Days but I stand by my statement that it is far from the best film of 1956. The cameos are fun and Victor Young's score is a treat but it's rather bloated and a little Cantinflas goes a long way and I won't even go into the casting of red haired freckle faced Shirley MacLaine as a Hindu widow (she needs more than dark Egyptian make up to make her convincing). And if you can make a case for 80 Days as superior cinema to other 1956 films as Ford's The Searchers, Siegel's Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Sirk's Written On The Wind, Kazan's Baby Doll, Hitchcock's Man Who Knew Too Much or even Forbidden Planet, The King And I, The Girl Can't Help It, and The Court Jester. I'm willing to hear it.
That being said, if 80 Days ever makes an appearance on blu ray, I'd definitely pick it up.
there is one shot from Carousel used in Peyton Place - the boats going into the hearbor are shown when Allyson is talking about summer in Peyton Place.
True, some of the best films or acting performances weren't even nominated. You look at Robert Mitchum's performance in The Night of the Hunter for example.
To be more precise, I'm sure that the surround track information was taken from the efx pre-mixes.
Incidentally, the 70 of El Cid panned church bells from the front to the surrounds so its use of the surround was not limited to fanfares. Plus of course the siege tower rumbling over the audience.