International BFI release of Mary, Queen Of Scots (1971) (1 Viewer)

[JPCinema]

I never saw THE COBOYS theatrically but I've often wondered about that. How many theaters played it as a roadshow with intermission? Very few I imagine.

Theater managers liked intermissions because it was lucrative for concession stand sales. During the intermission for OLIVER! I was selling programs and the manager insisted I have the program opened to the photo with Fagin holding a hot dog. He said it made people want to have a hot dog at intermission.

 

[usrunnr]

Yes, the theater opened with Mad World and it played there over a year. I have a complete list of every film that played there, how long it played there, all the way through the end of the 80s.

Can you post? I would find that extremely interesting.

 

[usrunnr]

And speaking of the Dome, any news about reopening?

 

[haineshisway]

Theater managers liked intermissions because it was lucrative for concession stand sales. During the intermission for OLIVER! I was selling programs and the manager insisted I have the program opened to the photo with Fagin holding a hot dog. He said it made people want to have a hot dog at intermission.

The intermission in Oliver was designed to be there. That's the difference. As I said, if studios had known, they would have told those managers to not do it, which is why nothing like that could have EVER happened in LA.

 

[JPCinema]

I know that. I worked as an usher and cashier from 1968-1973 for "Fox West Coast" which became "National General" and also Pacific ...and the awful Syufy chain. I know a lot more than you apparently think I do.

 

[haineshisway]

I know that. I worked as an usher and cashier from 1968-1973 for "Fox West Coast" which became "National General" and also Pacific ...and the awful Syufy chain. I know a lot more than you apparently think I do.

I have no opinion on how much you know or don't know nor have I ever said you don't know anything. You must be thinking of someone else. My points have been clear since post one. The films in question here were not designed to have intermissions - it's that simple. That a couple of theaters did that and weren't stopped is what it is. I've been in this business for over fifty years, and back in the early 70s one of my good friends was a high-up VP for Mann Theaters, formerly Fox West Coast. And I can only tell you that no theater in Los Angeles would have been allowed to cavalierly insert an intermission in a film that wasn't supposed to have them, and any filmmaker here had they known what was going on in San Diego (and San Francisco in one theater) they would have gone directly to the head of the studio and had it stopped, especially volatile people like Mazursky and Altman.

In fact, the main reason I responded to you in the first place was because you seemed to think it was fine that they put the intermissions in, that that was okay because the manager got more popcorn sales. And my simple point was/is - it wasn't okay. I was not going after you personally, which is what you seem to think.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

There was a theater chain here in the East that got sanctioned/penalized by Universal because they were adding an intermission into The Deer Hunter in many of their locations. Years later, one of their former managers was still doing that bit with Godfather III and GoodFellas, among others. I think his internal rule was anything over 135 minutes.

 

[JPCinema]

I have no opinion on how much you know or don't know nor have I ever said you don't know anything. You must be thinking of someone else. My points have been clear since post one. The films in question here were not designed to have intermissions - it's that simple. That a couple of theaters did that and weren't stopped is what it is. I've been in this business for over fifty years, and back in the early 70s one of my good friends was a high-up VP for Mann Theaters, formerly Fox West Coast. And I can only tell you that no theater in Los Angeles would have been allowed to cavalierly insert an intermission in a film that wasn't supposed to have them, and any filmmaker here had they known what was going on in San Diego (and San Francisco in one theater) they would have gone directly to the head of the studio and had it stopped, especially volatile people like Mazursky and Altman.

In fact, the main reason I responded to you in the first place was because you seemed to think it was fine that they put the intermissions in, that that was okay because the manager got more popcorn sales. And my simple point was/is - it wasn't okay. I was not going after you personally, which is what you seem to think.

I never condoned the theater made intermissions. In the end "Mary Queen of Scots" had an actual intermission. You can't erase that from my memory.

 

[JPCinema]

Mann did not take over from Fox West Coast but from National General.
National General Corporation (NGC) was a theater chain holding company, film distribution and production company and was considered one of the "instant majors".
...
National General Pictures.

Industry	Motion pictures
Defunct	February 1974
Fate	Liquidated
Successor	Mann Theatres
Number of locations	240 (1973; theaters) 6 (1969; distribution offices)

 

[haineshisway]

Mann did not take over from Fox West Coast but from National General.
National General Corporation (NGC) was a theater chain holding company, film distribution and production company and was considered one of the "instant majors".
...
National General Pictures.

Industry	Motion pictures
Defunct	February 1974
Fate	Liquidated
Successor	Mann Theatres
Number of locations	240 (1973; theaters) 6 (1969; distribution offices)

I knew if I took the Fox West Coast Theaters shortcut rather than be pedantic and include National General, which was obvious. that I'd get this. You never ever want to assume that I don't know LA movie history, especially movie theater history. You knew exactly what I meant. Yes, some idiot theater owner stuck an intermission in Mary, Queen of Scots that was NOT supposed to be there, and no one can erase that from your memory. Got it Let's move on, shall we?

 

[roxy1927]

If Mary Queen of Scots had an actual intermission it didn't have one in NY and it sure didn't have an overture but it was shown in blow-up 70MM as it was not filmed in the process. A 7 or 8 minute time for turnover happened all the time in the old days so why couldn't you have an intermission and a turnover lasting a short time? In the golden age of movie going you had turnovers of many thousands of people in a matter of minutes. Which is why I guess ushers wore military uniforms.

 

[Les Mangram]

Curiously, Mary, Queen of Scots seems to have had only one 70mm showing in the UK at the Odeon Leicester Square for the Royal Film Premiere. I don't know whether that had an intermission but after that one showing subsequent showings were 35mm. I didn't see it at the Odeon but saw it on general release without intermission.

The reason for Mary, Queen of Scots being shown to the public in 35mm was British quota. By the rules of the Board of Trade, the film was British and therefore counted for quota. This sort of thing happened occasionally, as with Zulu, which was shown to the UK press in 70mm, but was shown to the public in 35mm.

 

[JPCinema]

If Mary Queen of Scots had an actual intermission it didn't have one in NY and it sure didn't have an overture but it was shown in blow-up 70MM as it was not filmed in the process. A 7 or 8 minute time for turnover happened all the time in the old days so why couldn't you have an intermission and a turnover lasting a short time? In the golden age of movie going you had turnovers of many thousands of people in a matter of minutes. Which is why I guess ushers wore military uniforms.

As an usher, as the show times would would Abe delayed to accommodate the crowds and turnover. It was not unusual for a 10pm showing to actually start at 10:30
I remember when I was young going to movies, there were continuous performances. There were not 'breaks' between films. I remember seeing PEPE and we walked in 20 minutes late and stayed until we saw the we saw what we missed.
I think the release of PSYCHO was the game changer

 

[Douglas R]

The reason for Mary, Queen of Scots being shown to the public in 35mm was British quota. By the rules of the Board of Trade, the film was British and therefore counted for quota. This sort of thing happened occasionally, as with Zulu, which was shown to the UK press in 70mm, but was shown to the public in 35mm.

Thank you but I don't pretend to understand that, especially in view of this piece from In70mm which seems to say the 70mm exemption from the quota encouraged the use of 70mm blow-ups:

British Quota: There was situation peculiar to Britain which favored the use of 70mm prints. The "British Quota" continued to apply until the late 1970s and the fact that 70mm prints were exempt from the regulations was often the deciding factor to "blow-up" a film to 70mm. One of the last examples was "A Bridge Too Far", when a 70mm print was specially made and substituted for the original 35mm copy to allow the extended-run to continue at the Odeon, Marble Arch.

 

[Les Mangram]

Thank you but I don't pretend to understand that, especially in view of this piece from In70mm which seems to say the 70mm exemption from the quota encouraged the use of 70mm blow-ups:

British Quota: There was situation peculiar to Britain which favored the use of 70mm prints. The "British Quota" continued to apply until the late 1970s and the fact that 70mm prints were exempt from the regulations was often the deciding factor to "blow-up" a film to 70mm. One of the last examples was "A Bridge Too Far", when a 70mm print was specially made and substituted for the original 35mm copy to allow the extended-run to continue at the Odeon, Marble Arch.

70mm was only really useful regarding quota if you played mostly 70mm. Quota rules specifically referred to 35mm, anything else didn't count for quota (this is the reason for Around the World in 80 Days playing at the Astoria, Charing Cross Road in 34mm). If you played nothing but 70mm you had no quota problems. As regards A Bridge Too Far, this opened at the Leicester Square Theatre and the Odeon Marble Arch on June 24th 1977. Both cinemas needed British quota so the film played for 15 weeks at both cinemas in 35mm, which took care of their quota obligations. The run continued at Marble Arch in 70mm until January 1978.

 

[PaulRossen]

For those who were disappointed that KL's blu ray eliminated the overture and intermission to Mary, Queen Of Scots that was on the Universal DVD, BFI is including it in their upcoming R2 release of the 1971 film.

Surprise, the Overture etc is not on the BFI disc.

 

[RMajidi]

Surprise, the Overture etc is not on the BFI disc.

Paul?

DouglasR said as much in the third post of this thread.

In fact, you replied to him in post 5 thanking him for saving you the trouble of buying it.

Perhaps you bought it anyway to lend credence to the other major theme of this thread: memory loss?

Lest any get up in arms…

 

[PaulRossen]

Senior moment. At least the video is good.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

I recently co-produced a new CD release of John Barry's score to this movie. Part of the work involved getting the cue sheet. This is a legal document breaking down every piece of music in the movie, detailing it's usage and running time. It's dated "November 1971." Nowhere does it indicate an overture, intermission or entr'acte. The very first cue is the main title.