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“Our Town With Unions”

By Raymond Benson

This is a little-known gem of a film from producer Louis de Rochemont, the man best known for introducing The March of Time documentary newsreels to cinemas that ran from the 1930s until the early 1950s. He also produced several mainstream pictures, and one of these from 1951, The Whistle at Eaton Falls, is an underdog-battles-severe-odds tale of the highest caliber.

Directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Lloyd Bridges, Whistle might be described as Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, only with unions. Yes, this is a union drama along the lines of On the Waterfront or, much later, Norma Rae.

In a tight 96 minutes, Siodmak brings us a riveting story—the kind that gets an audience riled up against the injustices thrown at a protagonist. The suspense builds to a breaking point as we wonder how it...

The big-scale Cinerama fantasy once thought unrecoverable is back — a terrific restoration brings us George Pal’s ode to fairy tales, filmed on Bavarian locations with an international cast. Laurence Harvey and Karl Boehm are the brothers that compiled the famed tales of princesses, witches, magic spells and fiery dragons. Their idealized biography is interspersed with three full fairy tale stories, about a magic cloak of invisibility, a cobbler’s helpful elves, and a pair of fearless dragon slayers. The show has dancing, beautiful locations, a sequence with Puppetoons and a terrific animated dragon. Featured stars are Claire Bloom, Walter Slezak, Barbara Eden, Oscar Homolka, Martita Hunt, Yvette Mimieux, Russ Tamblyn, Jim Backus, Terry-Thomas and Buddy Hackett; a long-form docu goes into fascinating detail explaining how Dave Strohmaier and Tom March accomplished the mind-boggling restoration.

The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1962 / Color / 2:89 widescreen [Smilebox] widescreen / 140 135 min.

“Once upon a time, there were two brothers…”

The classic film The Wonderful World Of Brothers Grimm (1962) will debut as a Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray on March 29 from the Warner Archive Collection. This release features Restored 1080p HD Masters from 6K composite scan of original Cinerama 3-panel Camera Negatives

The classic film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm will debut as a Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray on March 29 from the Warner Archive Collection. Restored in 4K (3840 x 2160) master files from 6K files of original Cinerama Camera Negatives, with the most advanced technology available used by Cinerama Restorationists David Strohmaier and Tom H. March, to eliminate the “join lines” that plagued traditional release prints, and early video format releases. The Cinerama 7-channel sound has also been restored for a new 5.1 mix that brings a spectacular sonic experience to match the amazing Cinerama imagery.

The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm...

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The Whistle At Eaton Falls

Flicker Fusion Blu-ray Disc Edition

Special Pre-order Sale Price: $19.95 (M.S.R.P. $24.95)

The Whistle at Eaton Falls / 1951 / Directed by Robert Siodmak / 96 minutes

USA / Upc: 6-17311-60629-8

(Los Angeles, CA–January 14, 2022) -- Flicker Alley and LdR Films, in association with the Library of Congress, proudly present a new restoration of Robert Siodmak’s labor drama, The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951), in a replicated media publication as part of Flicker Alley’s new “Flicker Fusion” Blu-ray disc series.

Flicker Alley invites you to discover The Whistle at Eaton Falls, a rarely seen 1951 film by renowned filmmakers Robert Siodmak and Louis de Rochemont, featuring Lloyd Bridges, Ernest Borgnine, Murray Hamilton, and Dorothy Gish (in one of her rare later screen appearances). Making its home video debut, this superb quasi-documentary labor drama has been brilliantly restored, utilizing 2K scanned...

Angelenos are still processing their grief about the closure of the ArcLight theaters. Pacific Theatres announced on Monday that it would close all of its locations, which include the ArcLight Hollywood and the historic Cinerama Dome.

Not as well known is that the theater chain also owns the Cinerama technology. The three-camera filming technique was introduced in 1952 in response to the rise of television, and was virtually obsolete by the time the Cinerama Dome opened on Sunset Boulevard in November 1963. The name lived on for a few years after that, in the form of single-camera 70 millimeter releases that were marketed as Cinerama films — including “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” the first film ever shown at the dome.

The dome itself was not outfitted with the three-camera projection technology until 2002, to coincide with the format’s 50th anniversary. The same year, David Strohmaier released the documentary “Cinerama Adventure,” detailing the history of the process.

The Cinerama wonder movies were all but extinct fifteen years ago, un-preserved, un-projectable in their original 3-panel splendor, and largely forgotten. Countless hours of labor and research have now brought them all back to life on Blu-ray in the wraparound simulation ‘Smilebox’ format. These latest (and last?) discs properly restore two early releases, the show that started it all and the competing ‘Cinemiracle’ production that eventually became part of the Cinerama fanfold of travelogue gems.

This Is Cinerama

&

Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich

Separate Blu-ray Releases

2017 Authorized Restorations

Flicker Alley

1952 & 1958

Color

Smilebox widescreen

Street Date May 15, 2018

38.60 each

Back about ten years ago, the preservation team headed by the dauntless David Strohmaier had to rush their first two Cinerama releases onto the market, before the money could be found to properly refurbish them. The other seven productions would get the benefit of a new restoration process that involved scanning...

Attention, Cinerama fans! The Museum of Modern Art in New York City will present a lecture about the history of the format on Sunday, January 21. Here is the official press release:

Cinerama was a screening system created on Long Island and introduced to audiences on Broadway in the 1940s; its unparalleled success launched the widescreen revolution of the 1950s. The Cinerama, Inc., digital restoration team of David Strohmaier and Randy Gitsch will discuss the history of the Cinerama and the Cinemiracle process, including its motion pictures, and the unique problems they faced in restoring their three-strip format legacy library.

Program approx. 60 min.

For Tickets, Click Here. ...

Australian writer-producer Tammy Burnstock has been fascinated by the world.s first and only .Smell-o-Vision. feature ever since she interviewed its director/cinematographer Jack Cardiff in 1986.

Now Burnstock is part of the team that aims to screen a restored version of Scent of Mystery, retitled Holiday in Spain, to cinema audiences around the world including Australia.

Released in 1960, the film starred Denholm Elliott as a mystery novelist who discovers a plan to murder an American heiress (Beverly Bentley) while on vacation in Spain. He enlists the help of a local taxi driver (Peter Lorre) to try to thwart the crime. The cast included Leo McKern, Diana Dors and Paul Lukas.

Cardiff and producer Mike Todd Jr. updated a system invented by a Swiss man, Dr. Hans Laube, which piped artificial scents through a network of tubes to the back of each seat in a theatre.

Laube first demonstrated his .Scentovision...

(Photo: Thomas Hauerslev)

By Bruce Campbell

Over four days the 2013 Bradford Widescreen Festival located at The Pictureville Cinema played host to a mixture of classics in 70mm, CinemaScope and Cinerama formats. There was a special tribute to the 60th anniversary of CinemaScope, the famous widescreen process developed for Twentieth Century Fox back in the 1950s.

Friday kicked off with a rare 70mm screening of The Longest Day preceded by an informative introduction by Sir Christopher Frayling. This was followed by the much- loved The Great Escape presented for the first time in 4K Digital and the picture and sound were simply stunning. Cinema Retro contributor Dr. Sheldon Hall provided an illuminating introduction to this war classic. Following the delegates’ reception in the Kodak Gallery, The Sound of Music was presented in 70mm. The print was generally good although three quarters of the way through, a reel snapped resulting in a...

Claudette Colbert, Alla Nazimova, Marion Davies, Charles Boyer: Cinecon 2011 Thursday September 1 (photo: Alla Nazimova) 7:00 Hollywood Rhythm (1934) 7:10 Welcoming Remarks 7:15 Hollywood Story (1951) 77 min. Richard Conte, Julie Adams, Richard Egan. Dir: William Castle. 8:35 Q & A with Julie Adams 9:10 Blazing Days (1927) 60 min. Fred Humes. Dir: William Wyler. 10:20 In The Sweet Pie And Pie (1941) 18 min 10:40 She Had To Eat (1937) 75 min. Jack Haley, Rochelle Hudson, Eugene Pallette. Friday September 2 9:00 Signing Off (1936) 9:20 Moon Over Her Shoulder (1941) 68 min. Dan Dailey, Lynn Bari, John Sutton, Alan Mowbray. 10:40 The Active Life Of Dolly Of The Dailies (1914) 15 min. Mary Fuller. 10:55 Stronger Than Death (1920) 80 min. Alla Nazimova, Charles Bryant. Dir: Herbert Blaché, Charles Bryant, Robert Z. Leonard. 12:15 Lunch Break 1:45 Open Track (1916) 2:00 On The Night Stage (1915) 60 min. William S. Hart, Rhea Mitchell. Dir: Reginald Barker. 3:15 50 Miles From Broadway (1929) 23 min 3:45 Cinerama Adventure (2002). Dir: David Strohmaier. 5:18 Discussion...

Brian Trenchard-Smith presents the cinemiracle Windjammer.

This spectacular documentary follows a Norwegian sailing ship on its voyage from Oslo to the east coast of the Us and back. It was produced in Cinemiracle, a curved-screen process similar to Cinerama which was retired after this initial outing and bought out by Cinerama. Brian Trenchard-Smith explains the differences between the presentations and why many thought Cinemiracle an improvement over Cinerama.

Click here to watch the trailer.

Looks like this film recently undwerent some exacting restorations.

Since summer 2009, David Strohmaier, of “Cinerama Adventure” fame and John Sittig of Pacific Theatre in Los Angeles have spent considerable time to find the best elements of the classic CineMiracle semi-documentary and feature film “Windjammer” to be able to re-release it on DVD, Blu-ray and perhaps even in special showings at theaters, museums and other venues.

“Windjammer”, a travelogue about the voyage of the Norwegian school ship...

Cinema Retro publishers Lee Pfeiffer and Dave Worrall attended the Bradford International Film Festival in Bradford, England last week. Here is Lee Pfeiffer's first report:

For many years, we had heard about the exciting events that take place at the annual Bradford International Film Festival. The festival is held at the National Media Museum, which is a state-of-the-art showcase for the history of British film, TV, photography and new media. Over the last fifteen years, the festival has hosted world premieres, classic film screenings and internationally acclaimed interview sessions with actors and filmmakers. Although the festival has proven to be a popular attraction, Bradford's distance from London (several hours north) has kept many movie fans from attending. As most of our dealings are generally in London, we fall into that category ourselves.However, we learned that passing up on this festival is a major faux pas on behalf of any serious movie lover.

It's nice to see an "Ultimate" edition DVD with a focus on the movie rather than the features. With How the West Was Won Warner Home Video has kept it simple, offering up the film in its original Cinerama, 3-Panel, 2.89:1 aspect ratio along with a feature length documentary on the history of Cinerama. The presentation and quality of the film and its restoration were priority one here and only the best extras were chosen to accompany it. I had never seen How the West Was Won, which is a winner of three Oscars, nominated for four more including Best Picture and was the first feature film to be made and shown in the three-camera Cinerama process, which involves three separate film panels that must be merged and shown simultaneously and can only be shown in a proper perspective on a massive Cinerama screen... At least, until now. Made up...