Glorious Technicolor (1998) (TV)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Peter Jones

Writers:

Fred Basten (book)
Peter Jones (writer)

Release Date:

7 December 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

The history of color photography in motion pictures, in particular the Technicolor company's work. |

Plot Keywords:

Color | Photography | Filmmaking | Image Processing | Historical

Cast

Angela Lansbury	...	Narrator
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Alton	...	Himself - Cinematographer (archive footage)
Fred Basten	...	Himself - Author, 'Glorious Technicolor'
Ingrid Bergman	...	Herself (archive footage)
Jack Cardiff	...	Himself - Cinematographer
Arlene Dahl	...	Herself
Tony Duquette	...	Himself - Collaborator / Friend (archive footage)
Robert Gitt	...	Himself - Preservationist, UCLA Film and Television Archive (voice)
Richard J. Goldberg	...	Himself - Technicolor Research Scientist 1953-65 (as Dr. Richard J. Goldberg)
Leslie Howard	...	Himself (archive footage)
Kim Hunter	...	Herself
Ron Jarvis	...	Himself - President, Technicolor Worldwide Filmgroup
Evelyn Keyes	...	Herself - 'Suellen O'Hara', 'Gone With the Wind'
Cammie King	...	Herself - Step-daughter of Dr. Herbert Kalmus / 'Bonnie Blue Butler' (as Cammie King Conlon)
Vivien Leigh	...	Herself (archive footage)
Jerry Maren	...	Himself - Munchkin, 'The Wizard of Oz'
Oswald Morris	...	Himself - Cinematographer
Thelma Schoonmaker	...	Herself - Film Editor / Widow of Michael Powell (as Thelma Schoonmaker-Powell)
Daniel Selznick	...	Himself - Son of David O. Selznick
Vittorio Storaro	...	Himself - Cinematographer
William Tuttle	...	Himself - MGM Make-up Department 1936-69
Esther Williams	...	Herself

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

Peter Jones Productions

Trivia:

Released on the 2003 DVD of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).

Goofs:

Factual errors: The documentation completely ignores the earlier German system "Agfacolor" which is the mother of all modern multi-layer color systems.

Movie Connections:

Features The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Glorious Technicolor -- films, but not all the clips they show here are so glorious

This is an interesting but pretty worshipful account of the company and some of the films made in the process. It mostly ignores the competition, especially that of the 1920s when Technicolor wasn't really all that good. It also slights the hand-painted features of the Silent era, which were often far more beautiful (and far more expensive) than the early color films. It's also hard on Natalie Kalmus, the meddling company "consultant". But for better or worse, Kalmus had something to do with what people like about some of these films.

The best parts are the backstage bits some of which I've never seen anywhere else. There's a stunning wardrobe test of Vivien Leigh and some color snippets of the Marx Brothers. They give time to "La Cucaracha", an early feature, which many accounts of color skip right past to "Becky Sharp". Also good are the excerpts of interviews with cinematographers. It would be nice if we got to hear more from these under-appreciated guys, especially since so many of the clips and trailers that get shown instead are in lousy shape. Many of these faded clips frankly seem like a bad way to celebrate Technicolor films, especially since the films themselves have often been restored to mint condition ("The Adventures of Robin Hood" is a fine example of this).

There's a brief section on the use of Technicolor in England. They ignore the 1940 "Thief of Bagdad" (maybe the best-looking English color production) and spend a lot of time on the somewhat overrated "The Red Shoes", which has only one good sequence. I think they also fail to mention that Huston's "Moulin Rouge", which for my money is still the most beautiful use of color in a film to date, was made in England. (The "Moulin Rouge" DVD looks a lot better than the trailer they include here.) The show covers a lot of ground, especially Vincent Minnelli for some reason, so some innovative uses of Technicolor are ignored, like "Nothing Sacred" and "Leave Her to Heaven" and Lubitsch's "Heaven Can Wait". The show also more or less stops with the films of the 1950s. Technicolor continued to be used into the 1960s and 1970s, usually with a less saturated look, as in "The Godfather".