posted 10-22-2011 01:12 PM                    

I ran "The Right Stuff" 4 times on 35mm on Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Az. The coolest thing was the opening sequence, which is 1:33, then when the plane crashes the image jumps to full 'scope. We had curtains at that theatre for side masks, and I rehearsed this a couple of times so when I went to open the curtains for the feature, I stopped at the 1:33, then opened them up as the explosion hit to full open. The audiences cheered every time.

I could never understand why this movie didn't take off (pun intended) as it was full of great human drama, humor and it was a bit of a history lesson. I think too many people were put off by the running time, thinking it would be boring. But it is far from it...

One of the worst 70mm presentations of this was at the Chinese in Hollywood. It was marred by missing channels, the cut of the intermission (necessary in 70mm because of the length) in the totally wrong place, and incompetent projection where the leaders (head and tail) were run onscreen, along with an upside-down piece of filler film....now THAT showing felt like it lasted forever. I gave a full account of this in another thread.

From that other thread: LINKY

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......but when I went to see it near the end of the run (dragging my sister and some friends thru the hideous LA traffic) they managed to totally screw up the presentation from beginning to end! No n/sync, threading with the penthouse hot, putting the leader on the screen, out-of-frame, soft focus, bad sound, etc.

And they took intermission at the end of the scene where the astronauts march up toward the camera! The film then tailed out to white screen!

Coming out of the intermission was even worse! Same threadup and this time, instead of the SMPTE leader, we were treated to an upside-down image of a "pagoda" style building until we got into the film, with the last few notes of the previous scene's music heard before the picture opened on the rocket Al Shepard was to ride.

Needless to say I was more than a little pissed, as was most of the 300+ in the house. My post-show tirade had the manager in fear of his life and got most all the house refunds! I also sent a scathing letter to the Ladd Company.

Several years later I met Alan Ladd, Jr. and he remembered me from that letter and asked if it was really that bad. I told him it was. He offered me a job as a secret screener for his future productions.

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posted 10-22-2011 10:44 PM                    

quote: Claude S Ayakawa

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Tony had stated THE RIGHT STUFF played at the Chinese Theatre in 70mm with a intermission and I found that to be strange. The Waikiki twin Theatres had an opportunity to play the film in 70mm if they had a changeover system and can run it without interruption. Because they had a platter system that cannot play a three hour movie without a break, Consolidated had to play it it 35mm because Warner Broothers insisted the flim play without a intermission . That was a bummer!

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quote: me

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THE RIGHT STUFF - most houses running in 70mm put their intermission at the end of reel 6, the scene where astronaut Deke Slayton is in the mermaid tank behind the bar. Perfect for leadout as you had the "deedle-deedle" lounge music in the background. The opening of the next reel was a bunch of reporters climbing over Louise Shepard's fence.

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