Blu-ray Review A Few Words About A few words about…™ The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm – in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Indy Guy]

One more note on the theatrics at the beginning of HTWWW at the Warner's Pacific. As the Overture choir began..."Oooohio the promised land"....the curtain lights began a slow dim. By the time Leo was ready to roar, the theater had reached full darkness. The whole sequence was so well choreographed and anticipatory that I try duplicating that dimming moment every time I watch the film at home. I guess I'm hoping to recapture the wonder of that long ago magical moment!

 

[Bill Huelbig]

Unlike Brothers Grimm and How The West Was Won, 2001 was not filmed in the Cinerama format.

I know it was filmed in Super Panavision 70mm, but I first saw it on a curved Cinerama screen in 1968 and I would love to see it that way again. Especially now that the Smilebox process has been perfected, based on what I saw on Brothers Grimm. Imagine what the Star Gate sequence would look like in Smilebox!

 

[Bill Huelbig]

Which doesn't make it correct. By those standards, why not release It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World or Grand Prix in smilebox too?

And The Greatest Story Ever Told, and Khartoum, and Ice Station Zebra, etc. I'd buy all of them!

 

[usrunnr]

Which doesn't make it correct. By those standards, why not release It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World or Grand Prix in smilebox too?

I WISH!!!!!!! ALONG WITH "2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY"

 

[RolandL]

Same with Holiday in Spain and The Golden Head and still they have only been released in Smilebox.

Those two titles were only released at Cinerama theatres.

 

[OliverK]

Which doesn't make it correct. By those standards, why not release It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World or Grand Prix in smilebox too?

I wasn't saying it was correct, just that this has not prevented those movies from only being available in the smilebox format that is not really working with a single strip film format if you ask me.

What do they have in common with the movies you mention and 2001? They were advertised as cinerama screenings so by that logic all of these movies indeed could get special smilebox releases.

 

[RolandL]

Just a slight correction - in 1962 the theater was still the Warner, not Pacific's.

It was The Warner Hollywood Theatre when This Is Cinerama premiered on 4/29/53 till the premiere of Mediterranean Holiday on 4/9/65 when it was changed to Warner Cinerama Theatre. Changed back to Warner Hollywood Theatre from 7/29/66 to 3/31/68. Changed to Warner Hollywood Cinerama Theatre on 4/4/68 for the premiere of 2001: a space odyssey. It was one of the 32 theatres purchased by Pacific Theatres from Stanley Warner Corp. on 5/1/68. On 8/8/69 it changed to Hollywood Pacific Theatre.

7/29/66

3/31/68

4/4/68

8/8/69

 

[TJPC]

2001 was shown at the Cinerama theatre in Detroit. I remember jumping out of my seat during the “Dawn of Mankind” sequence when one of the early men was attacked by a leopard. The cat was on the extreme edge of the image on the curved screen, and we did not see him until he jumped.

Again as an aside, it was years before I appreciated that film. At the time we hated it because there was no straight forward story, and basically we couldn’t figure what the fuck was going on.

 

[Bryan^H]

I'm in awe. Gorgeous. Pure perfection.

 

[trajan007]

2001 was shown at the Cinerama theatre in Detroit. I remember jumping out of my seat during the “Dawn of Mankind” sequence when one of the early men was attacked by a leopard. The cat was on the extreme edge of the image on the curved screen, and we did not see him until he jumped.

Again as an aside, it was years before I appreciated that film. At the time we hated it because there was no straight forward story, and basically we couldn’t figure what the fuck was going on.

It was the Summit Cinerama Theater in Detroit.

 

[trajan007]

It was the Summit Cinerama Theater in Detroit. The Music Hall Theater played three panel

 

[OliverK]

Those two titles were only released at Cinerama theatres.

It wasn't like that in Europe and in fact I saw Holiday in Spain / Scent of Mystery in 70mm on a ca. 90 degree screen (with some silly scents) and even then it did have massive overscan in the center of the screen as can be expected with that kind of curvature and would have been a lot worse on a cinerama screen. Smilebox is more of a simulation of how a movie would have looked on a cinerama screen and not how it really appeared to patrons back then.

So at home on a flat screen I would have wished for a "flat" version to go with the smilebox one as it will fit much better on wider home theater screens and it will work much better with the photography of these movies.

 

[RolandL]

It wasn't like that in Europe and in fact I saw Holiday in Spain / Scent of Mystery in 70mm on a ca. 90 degree screen (with some silly scents) and even then it did have massive overscan in the center of the screen as can be expected with that kind of curvature and would have been a lot worse on a cinerama screen. Smilebox is more of a simulation of how a movie would have looked on a cinerama screen and not how it really appeared to patrons back then.

So at home on a flat screen I would have wished for a "flat" version to go with the smilebox one as it will fit much better on wider home theater screens and it will work much better with the photography of these movies.

Scent of Mystery in Smell-O-Vision had it's world premiere at the Chicago Cinestage theatre on 1/6/60. It was converted from 70mm film to three-panel CineMiracle, about 20 minutes was removed, the title was changed to Holiday in Spain and had its world premiere at the Toronto Eglinton Theatre on December 22, 1961. Theatres promoted the film as being in three-panel CineMiracle, three-panel Cinerama or Cinerama. AFAIK Holiday in Spain only played in Cinerama theatres on a deeply curved screen.

 

[Bill Huelbig]

Scent of Mystery in Smell-O-Vision had it's world premiere at the Chicago Cinestage theatre on 1/6/60. It was converted from 70mm film to three-panel CineMiracle, about 20 minutes was removed, the title was changed to Holiday in Spain and had its world premiere at the Toronto Eglinton Theatre on December 22, 1961. Theatres promoted the film as being in three-panel CineMiracle, three-panel Cinerama or Cinerama. AFAIK Holiday in Spain only played in Cinerama theatres on a deeply curved screen.


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"First they moved. Then they talked. Now they smell." I'm surprised nobody realized what a bad tagline that is.

 

[Dick]

And The Greatest Story Ever Told, and Khartoum, and Ice Station Zebra, etc. I'd buy all of them!

My guess -- pretty small demand, aside from a few thousand movie geeks. I think WAC and WB put out these Smilebox discs just to please the fans. I can't see how it would be cost-effective, and certainly wouldn't make back its costs if a standard letterbox edition wasn't also included. I wonder about the documentaries released by Flicker Alley -- are they profitable? Mr. Strohmeir?

 

[Jimbo.B]

Smell-O-Vision was a disastrous idea from Elizabeth Taylor’s stepson from her marriage to Mike Todd. She made a cameo in Scent of Mystery to support the project and appeared at the premiere but the film’s expensive failure forced a re-edit without scent and a new name Holiday in Spain. It would be interesting if it could be reissued on disc with scratch-off scent cards but considering how bad it is that seems unlikely. It is shown occasionally on TCM.

 

[Dee Zee]

My biggest wish for next 70mm restoration would be The Greatest Story Ever Told. That was magnificent on the curved screen in 1969. Beautifully shot movie.

Loved the Grimm restoration. My partner watched it with me for the first ever time and loved it. She wanted to watch it again immediately.

 

[RolandL]

My biggest wish for next 70mm restoration would be The Greatest Story Ever Told. That was magnificent on the curved screen in 1969. Beautifully shot movie.

Must have been a re-release in 1969. The Greatest Story Ever Told premiere was in 1965. It's also with MGM and Amazon now owns that title.

Preview ticket for United Artists employees.

World Premiere

 

[RolandL]

Smell-O-Vision was a disastrous idea from Elizabeth Taylor’s stepson from her marriage to Mike Todd. She made a cameo in Scent of Mystery to support the project and appeared at the premiere but the film’s expensive failure forced a re-edit without scent and a new name Holiday in Spain. It would be interesting if it could be reissued on disc with scratch-off scent cards but considering how bad it is that seems unlikely. It is shown occasionally on TCM.

The Scent of Mystery Company (Michael Todd Jr., and Elizabeth Taylor) signed a contract with Cinemiracle Pictures on 7/20/60 to distribute the film. Cinemiracle Pictures had scenes removed, added narration, converted it to 3-panel Cinemiracle, changed the title to Holiday in Spain, and it premiered 12/22/61 at the Toronto Eglinton theatre.

Dave Strohmaier looked into the cost of including the scratch-off scent cards with the Blu-ray but it would have been too expensive.

 

[nara]

Smell-O-Vision was a disastrous idea from Elizabeth Taylor’s stepson from her marriage to Mike Todd. She made a cameo in Scent of Mystery to support the project and appeared at the premiere but the film’s expensive failure forced a re-edit without scent and a new name Holiday in Spain. It would be interesting if it could be reissued on disc with scratch-off scent cards but considering how bad it is that seems unlikely. It is shown occasionally on TCM.