SCFZ

Recent watches like Opfergang has got me in the mood for some lurid Technicolor. What are some of SCFZ's fav ones? The more striking and/or weird the better, I'm thinking basically any color process from the 30's to the 50's would qualify, your Agfacolor's and whatnot.

Examples:

Leave Her to Heaven
Sirk (Written on the Wind, All that Heaven Allows)
Powell/Pressburger (Black Narcissus, Red Shoes)
Lang's Indian epic

Some familiar favs in Technicolor: The Wizard of Oz; The Gang's All Here; Black Narcissus; Meet Me in St. Louis; All That Heaven Allows; Funny Face; Bend of the River; The Searchers; The Band Wagon; Vertigo; Under Capricorn.

Lesser-known ones I've found: George Sherman's Relentless (1948); the Superman cartoon The Arctic Giant (1942), the Warners cartoon Page Miss Glory (1936).

Some favs in other color formats:
-- Hellfire (have other Republic Trucolor westerns soon, after the beauty of this)
-- The Blue Sky Maiden (can't find online what format it is, but i don't think it's technicolor)
-- Jour de Fete (Thomsoncolor restoration is a must-watch)
-- Making Fashion (gorgeous doc by Humphrey Jennings, in Dufaycolor)

Slightly out of the timeboundary, but KWAIDAN is pretty striking/lurid.

Two faves that no-one else is likely to endorse:

La Herida Luminosa (Tulio Demicheli, Spain, 1956) -- fabulous Sirk imitation
...Y Si Ella Volviera (Vicente Orono, Mexico, 1959) -- two red-haired women and an ocean full of fishing boats; does a film need anything more?

and there's an indie-studio two-strip color Western film from 1936-37 financed by Edgar Rice Burroughs that's fascinating in its archaic-looking-ness, but I can't remember the name of it. I wish I could track that down and finish watching it.

i'm more of a DeLuxe man myself personally. our sometimes-member hirtho has seen almost every CinemaScope/DeLuxe film there is... at one point i was trying to do the same. they're pretty special

but Technicolor is gang as well

Lencho of the Apes wrote: ↑Thu Apr 16, 2020 8:16 pm and there's an indie-studio two-strip color Western film from 1936-37 financed by Edgar Rice Burroughs that's fascinating in its archaic-looking-ness, but I can't remember the name of it.

Sounds like my kind of thing. Seems to fit the description for Phantom of Santa Fe.

Great suggestions.

I think I'm gonna start with Borzage's I've Always Loved You (1946) and Harlan's Hanna Amon (1951).

omg watch dwan's slightly scarlet. john alton shoots the flaming manes of rhonda fleming and arlene dahl and the whole thing's on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYY299c1Wbo

the cobweb (eastmancolor)



house of bamboo (cinemascope deLuxe color)



lola montes (technicolor) 1955 was a peak year




jigokumon (gate of hell) 1953 and uchida's the mad fox (1962) are among the most lurid japanese films of the period ♥♥♥



don't wanna forget kinoshita's fuefukigawa (1960) painting b/w frames with color in an extraordinary way meant to echo japanese scroll painting

In addition to most of the films mentioned already that I've seen, what immediately springs to mind is Wyler's How to Steal a Million, it's a little late at '66 but beautiful color by Deluxe.

oooo found my DeLuxe log. these are my fav Cinemascope/DeLuxe films:

4/4
The True Story of Jesse James (1957) - t5 westerns ever
The Girl Can't Help It (1956) - best Tashlin

3.5/4
The Sound of Music (1965)
Dear Brigitte (1965) - only movie starring Jimmy Stewart AND Fabian
North to Alaska (1960)
Wild River (1960)
The Long, Hot Summer (1958)
Bigger Than Life (1956)

I'm a big Agfacolor fan, now that you have me thinking in those terms. The way it reproduced shiny enamel or plastic surfaces was pretty thrilling. Mosfilms of the period,(starting with The Fall Of Berlin/1949, Mikhail Chiaureli maybe) ... and First Sppaceship To Venus (Kurt Matezig, 1969, East Germany) was a stand-out for me.

And I think Phantom Of Santa Fe is the title I'm looking for. I remembered it was San... or Santa... something.Maybe I can find a copy now. Thanks, Evelyn!

Both of these gorgeous Technicolor confections from 1954 are loose remakes of I Walked with a Zombie (same basic plot, different parts of the world, zombies replaced by forces of nature):

1. Elephant Walk (Wilhelm Dieterle)








2. The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin)

yeah, i'm with lencho on this, agfacolor/mosfilm is more my thing. but i'm going to check out those two recs from umbugbene, they look and sound fantastic.

I seem to be alone in my respect for them, but I hope you enjoy them. Make sure you don't read anything about The Naked Jungle beforehand; it contains a surprise that's worth shielding yourself from until it hits.

Hanna Amon (Veit Harlan, 1951) - A wonderfully bizarre melodrama. I'm hoping it'll get the Opfergang treatment as well eventually.





Ilse Steppat was amazingly over the top as the fiery haired temptress.



Oh, just an elaborate incestual Isis and Osiris fantasy sequence.



For some reason the actor playing the brother isn't Horst Buchholz though he looks just like him.

I think he also looks a little like Anton Walbrook.

Yeah, he def does in the aristocratic getup. He's got a more boyish look to him in the majority of the film.

The Mad Fox (Tomu Uchida, 1962) - Definitely had the feel of an eccentric late career entry in an old pro's ouevre. Meticulous, sprawling kabuki feast.

Taken from a letterboxd review:

this was a holy grail of mine that finally appeared online last year. and it was amazing

Princess of the Nile (Harmon Jones, 1954) - Wooden acting, hokey supporting characters, unconvincing sets and sword fights, but it had a certain B charm to it...and most importantly Debra Paget. She was transfixing and did a similar dance routine to the one she later performed in Lang's Indian Epic.



Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952) - I probably would have enjoyed this a lot more with a more charming lead actor, you know, anyone but Stewart Granger. No matter how lusciously flowing, Eleanor Parker's hair can't hold up a film on it's own.



Slightly Scarlet (Allan Dwan, 1956) - Very neat but I felt like the rip I watched didn't do full justice to those redheads and shadows. Also, there was an off-putting Kevin Spaceyness to John Payne that I couldn't quite shake.

The Cobweb (Vincente Minnelli, 1955) - I remember getting angry looks at work once for suggesting changing the drapes. It's serious business I tells ya. Anyway, this was an enjoyable melodrama, set in a mental asylum but mostly about it's sexually frustrated employees. Breakdown:

Richard Widmark: Felt weird seeing him playing such a responsible, non-sinister character.
Lauren Bacall: Kinda thought her character could have warranted her own film. Traumatized artist living on her own, they only really brushed the surface.
Gloria Grahame: Hot mess.
Charles Boyer: I wonder if anyone's ever done a Boyer marathon, imagine you'd get sick of that voice 2-3 films in. It's nice, but in doses.
Lillian Gish: I don't think she was acting, she really hated those drapes.

Niagara (Henry Hathaway, 1953) - Not the greatest noir but the colours had me shook. This kinda three-strip Technicolor might just be peak Technicolor for me. It's the first Monroe film I've seen in years, had almost forgotten her screen presence and how strong it was.

Another colorbomb from Spain

Adios, Mimi Pompon (Luis Marquina, 1961)

Nutsy Minellian glam with the chimneys of Dachau visible in the distance. Weird black comedy, not perfectly successful but still pretty jawdropping. I've put a thing in the Place Of Things, but there aren't any subs available. Sorry.

lol that's quite a riot of patterns there

Can't believe I forgot to mention Cobra Woman, the greatest Maria Montez movie, directed by Robert Siodmak. Just rewatched. Essential sumptuous Technicolor splendor, in my book.

CHeck out also Lang's pair of Indian epics -- THE INDIAN TOMB and TIGER OF ESCHNAPUR. Some lovely location cinematography, and some tasty Crazy Sets.

And that new Blu-Ray of the restored MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM should be moved to first place in your Must Watch queue. It's GORGEOUS.

There's some stunning colors in this short, a homoerotic travelogue from 1954. NSFW:

https://www.cinematheque.fr/henri/film/ ... bach-1954/

Cinémathèque française has got a few restored films available online to watch, including this color experimentation from 1923:

https://www.cinematheque.fr/henri/film/ ... bert-1923/

bava's I coltelli del vendicatore/knives of the avenger. hey it's in widescreen @fritzlang

Definitely out of the time period, but I watched Scacco alla regina yesterday, and it's so 60s it's insane. Otherwise it's weirdly under- and over-rated at the same time, I saw that it had a 4.75 average on DtC when in reality it's just a so-so BDSM flick with amazing costumes. Definitely worth seeing, though.