Colorized Versions of Old Movies (1 Viewer)

[John Hodson]

From Movies Unlimited:

"A pair of classics from moviedom's most-loved moppet is soon to arrive on DVD in the Shirley Temple: Little Darling Pack. This double bill of early Shirley faves opens with the first film version of Damon Runyon's Little Miss Marker (1934) (color version), with Temple as the adorable tyke left to bookie Adolphe Menjou as a gambling marker. Her influence leads Menjou to try to mend his ways and marry his nightclub singer sweetheart. Dorothy Dell, Charles Bickford also star. Next, con man Gary Cooper is reunited with daughter Temple, who lived with relatives after her mother's death, and takes her on the road with him for further scams before attempting to reform in Now And Forever (1934) (color version). Carole Lombard co-stars as Cooper's girlfriend. 161 min. total. Extras include the bonus short The Runt Page (1932)."

Something screwy...and I'll be delighted to be wrong again.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

I'll see if I can grab a shot of the package, but they show menu screens on the Universal business site and the scene selections menu shows chapters from the Temple films in black & white - and no color 'option' on the main menu.

EDIT - THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY is a public domain film, so this probably one of those Fox "Legend Films" releases with the colorized version.

 

[John Hodson]

That's encouraging...

 

[andrew markworthy]

[Dons flame-proof suit]. I don't mind colorization provided the B&W version is made available as well. I'd sooner people watched a colorized version of a good Bogart film than never watched a Bogart film at all. The same goes for 5.1 remixes of mono tracks (I suspect that on the quiet there's a fair number of HTF members who won't touch a mono track if there's a multitrack monstrosity available). But I personally wouldn't watch anything colorized (except out of morbid curiosity).

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Some Bogart films couldn't be Bogart films without being seen in black and white.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Colorization, pan n'scam and open matted fool-screen can all burn in the hottest parts of hell.

And their's nothing at all wrong with choice, Andrew. I mean if my local Arby's wants to serve dog shit, let them, as long as my chedder roast beef sandwich is still available to me.

 

[Frank*C]

I can't imagine a single director that would want his film presented other than intended. It's the "bean counters" at the studios that want to colorize, dub, cut runtimes, mess with aspect ratios, because the consumer doesn't want to be "annoyed" with the black bars, subtitles, and can't comprehend that filming in B&W is as intregal to many of these classics as the plots. Top everything off with the assumption that most of us don't have the attention span to watch a film for much more than 90 minutes. As far as I'm concerned the main priority the studios have is to see a proper restoration is done to a DVD release and not mess with the previously mentioned items. Thank goodness for Criterion and more recently Warners for setting a higher standard that consumers should demand of the other studios and distributors. Sorry for the long rant, but hate to see films not given the treatment they deserve.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Frank,
you can't see me, but i'm standing and applauding right now at your post. Which is really a challenge because i'm forced to type this with my toes.

 

[Joel Stein]

(I'm probably gonna catch some hell, but here goes...)

First of all, I agree with the general consensus that colorization is a crime. HOWEVER...I must admit that I saw a movie where colorization actually helped!!!

I saw a colorized condensation of the 1950's serial "Zombies of the Stratosphere". This is an amazingly action-packed, astonishingly stooopid movie. Rocket Man is battling martians who want to blow up the Earth so they can move Mars into our orbit and enjoy our nice climate. At one point the martians build a robot to rob a bank to steal money to buy uranium to build the bomb. (There seems to be a few unnecessary intermediate steps there.) This ridiculous movie, even in its abbreviated form, is completely crazy and has absolutely everything in it (including Leonard Nimoy and a submarine).

Obviously this thing works on the level of a no-brainer comic book, and the colorization only adds to the fun. The martians have bright green faces and purple outfits, the cars are bright yellows and blues, just like in the old Dick Tracy Sunday comics. In fact, the colorizers show more stylish creativity than the original filmmakers did.

This case of colorization really tested me as a film lover. But I've made peace with myself about it.

Say, anyone remember a comedy sketch regarding removing color from bad movies to give them more prestige and respect? (May have been Weekend Update on SNL.) The first film to undergo this black-and-white-ization was to be "Porky's".