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Topic: 60th Anniversary
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Robert Furmanek
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 113
From: Clifton, NJ, USA
Registered: Jun 2012
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posted 11-26-2012 02:29 PM
Sixty years ago, on November 26, 1952, Arch Oboler's African adventure had its world premiere in Hollywood and Los Angeles at the Paramount theatres. Produced on a modest budget and photographed in dual-strip Natural Vision, this 3-D attraction was a tremendous success.
Within two months, nearly every studio in Hollywood had a 3-D feature in production. Warner Bros. began filming House of Wax; Paramount started re-shooting Sangaree (it had begun as a flat production); Universal-International started on It Came from Outer Space; RKO sent a crew to Mexico for Second Chance; Columbia began to rush Man in the Dark and Fort Ti through production and MGM started on Arena. Even budget conscious Allied Artists got on the dimensional bandwagon with The Maze.
The 3-D craze hit a fever pitch throughout the summer of 1953. At any one time, moviegoers had their choice of several first run 3-D films in all the major cities. By the fall, poor projection and falling grosses led to its first decline, and the introduction of CinemaScope in September ("The Modern Miracle You See Without the Use of Special Glasses") was another nail in the stereoscopic coffin. Full details can found in this article, What Killed 3-D? http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/what-killed-3D
3-D had a brief resurgence in the winter with a number of high profile entries, including Hondo, Kiss Me Kate, Cease Fire, Money from Home, Miss Sadie Thompson and Creature from the Black Lagoon. However, by the spring of 1954, 3-D was boxoffice poison. The few remaining titles were released with little fanfare, or went out in standard 2-D only.
The 3-D craze was a quick one, but fondly remembered by those old enough to have experienced it first-hand. During the brief period from the premiere of Bwana Devil to November 1953, there were forty-eight features photographed in 3-Dimensions, and one final title, Revenge of the Creature, went before the cameras in July of 1954 bringing the Golden Age total to fifty features.
One technical point - all of these films were originally presented in the superior polarized dual-strip process. The single-strip red/cyan anaglyphic conversions were not created until the 1970's for various re-issues.
Fans of stereoscopic cinema can thank Arch Oboler and Sid Pink for taking a chance with a format that no major studio would touch. Happy 60th anniversary to Bwana Devil!
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