Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Harry couldn’t stop ranting when I saw him last night after he got out of three films in a row at the World 3-D Expo here in Hollywood at the Egyptian Theater. He was particularly impressed by Rita Hayworth and Jane Russell in 3-D. Gee... I can’t imagine why.
Our guy who’s been there since day one, though, is AB, and he’s back today with the next two days’ worth of coverage for you...
Next up were two short days. I padded out the first one by going to see CINERAMA ADVENTURE and HOW THE WEST WAS WON at the Cinerama dome, so I didn't go through withdrawal. :-)
Day Four: Rodeo and Redo
ARENA
This is an odd one, but it looks great. It's basically a rodeo shot in 3D with some scenes here and there to make a story out of it. I'm not sure that qualifies it as a Western, but I'm no expert.
The director was on hand and explained that because you have to keep 3D action in the frame, and the animals are large and don't take direction well, that the shots had to be pretty wide. That pretty much rules out getting anything up in your face. He was a lot happier with his other 3D movie: AMITYVILLE 3-D. Is he the only director to do a 3D movie in both the '50s and the '80s. Hmmm. I'll check on that.
He was also asked how he, Richard Fleischer, the son of Disney rival Max Fleischer came to direct 20000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA for Disney. Apparently it was because Disney liked his work on THE HAPPY TIME. When he asked his dad what he thought about his doing a movie for Disney, he said Walt had great taste in directors.
Subsequently, Max Fleischer and Walt Disney met and apparently got on well.
REVENGE OF THE CREATURE
The first sequel to CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON was also in 3D. It was pretty much the last of the big '50s 3D movies, and they got sloppy with it. They must've had trouble shooting some of the underwater scenes because they just made them flat. Other parts were messed up in other ways. Overall, not great in 3D, but it was hardly released that way, so I can see why they might not have tried too hard.
Lori Nelson and Tom Hennessy (who played the Gill Man in some scenes) were on hand, and Dan Symmes stood in for John Lamb (who did in other parts).
WORKING FOR PEANUTS
A short from Disney with Chip and Dale and Donald Duck. This was a fun one, though I'm no big fan of Disney cartoons. The copy shown looked marvelous.
Day Five: The First and the Best
M.L. GUNZBERG PRESENTS 3-D
Here, as in the '50s, a short came before BWANA DEVIL to explain 3D and show it off. I liked this one a lot. It started out flat with an announcer telling us that we needed to wear our magic glasses to see the wonder of 3D. He then gave a signal and became 3D. Oooh.
Then we see Beany & Cecil (the puppets) are in his "TV" (well, a box at least) in 3D, of course. They complain they don't see anything special, so he tells them to put their glasses on too. They do and are as impressed as puppets can be.
While the MC is talking, Shirley Tegge ("Miss 3-D" and also in THE FRENCH LINE) comes on in the background, spinning and dancing around to show us how 3D she is. Cecil runs offscreen and comes back wearing a whole bunch of pairs of glasses in hopes of seeing her better. :-)
Shirley doesn't know how 3D works, so she and the MC go to an opthamologist to get an explanation. He gives the lowdown and explains that since Natural Vision works like our eyes, it's good and healthy. All around, a nice piece of work.
Stan Freberg was on hand. He did the voice of Cecil and operated the puppets. Shirley Tegge was there too and talked about the making of the short. They talked about BWANA DEVIL too- pretty much everyone in that is dead now. :-(
BWANA DEVIL
This was the first major feature released in 3D. It's shot in Natural Vision, which for my money was the most consistent camera system. The 3D is fantastic, and it's not bad as a movie either. Does seem like it should've been easier to kill a couple of lions, though.
After the movie, they showed a brief interview with the late Lothrop Worth, the main Natural Vision cameraman and expert. He talked about the development of the system and how they got BWANA DEVIL off the ground. He was pretty old by the time this interview was done, and it's the only known footage of an interview with him (it's in 2D).
DANGEROUS MISSION
The night ended with DANGEROUS MISSION, one of my very favorite of the Expo. It's got a great story, great 3D, and Vincent Price- what's not to like? One of the bit players was on hand to talk about being in the movie and how he got paid for an extra day since they quit early for Vincent Price's birthday. :-)
This probably had the most successful rear-projection of any of the movies, and it mostly great footage of a forest fire. They built sets in front of it and set them on fire too, so it worked pretty well.
In fact, the one element more 3D movies seem to have in common than anything- including arrows or guns pointed at the audience- is burning buildings. A tremendous number of these movies involve fires. Probably because fire and smoke look great in 3D, and you can always have the roof collapse on someone.
Still lots more show to go. Stay tuned.
ab
Thanks, man. Keep ‘em coming.
"Moriarty" out.
