Technicolor's second feature movie with its three-strip realistic color film stock, March 1936 "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine," sent motion picture fans speculating. After all, it was only seven years earlier silent movies had been made obsolete by placing a sound track alongside film strips. Now the release of the Paramount Picture, the first to be shot outdoors using a Technicolor's camera, had people thinking color would soon dominate cinema. Frank Nugent, in his review in the New York Times, predicted "The significance of this achievement is not to be minimized. It means that color need not shackle the cinema, but may give it fuller expression. It means that we can doubt no longer the inevitability of the color film or scoff at those who believe that black-and-white photography is tottering on the brink of that limbo of forgotten things which already has swallowed the silent picture."
Technicolor's first use of its three-strip camera in a full-length feature film was 1935's "Becky Sharp." The Miriam Hopkins-starred film was staged-bound with its colorful sets and costumes specially designed to show the vibrancy of the new technology, replacing its older two-strip muted color film the company had unveiled in 1928. In "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine," producer Walter Wanger wanted to show that color could be used in a more subtle way than displayed in "Becky Sharp," yet carry the movie's message without the vivid reds and brilliant purples dominating the screen. Using soft browns and deep greens, the producer had director Henry Hathaway showcase the shadowy natural colors found in the rugged mountain country of Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains in California, with interiors shot in the studio. Variety noted at the time of the movie's release that, "What Becky Sharp's significance was supposed to portray is actually promulgated by 'Lonesome Pine.' It is evidence that color can be utilized as a forceful complement to cinematic entertainment providing the basic story ingredients are sturdy. 'Lonesome Pine' doesn't permit the color appeal to subjugate the primary phase of any film entertainment."
"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" was cinema's fourth version of John Fox Jr.'s 1908 novel, with the 1914, 1916 and 1923 silents pre-dating the first color edition. On the lines of a Hatfield and McCoy family feud, the movie is set in the Eastern Kentucky Appalachian mountain region. The two families, the Tollivers and the Falins, have been battling one another in the middle of coal country for generations. Jack Hale (Fred MacMurray) is an engineer who finds a rich coal field and decides to build a railroad spur to extract the commodity. He falls for June Toliver (Sylvia Sidney) even though her cousin Dave (Henry Fonda) wants to marry her (it's slim pickings in this region.). June has a younger brother Buddie (George 'Spanky' McFarland, in one of his rare non-'Little Rascals' role), who serves as a pivotal character in the denouement of the film.
"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Song in "A Melody from the Sky." Another tune, 'Twilight on the Trail,' was a huge hit and became the basis of the 1941 cowboy movie of the same name. Because of an aggressive marketing campaign by Paramount, Hollywood's second color feature film ended up in the year's top five box office hits. As would always be the company's practice, Technicolor supplied a crew to set up the complex camera to insure the highest color quality. The wife of the co-founder of the business, Natalie Kalmus, was an omnipresent technician who exerted constant opinions on the set, much to the consternation of the director and set designers. Calling herself "the ringmaster of the rainbow," she advised what colors should be worn by the actors and what to paint on the sets. Once an art student, Kalmus had her own ideas on the psychological effects colors had on the story and on the viewers. One telltale sign of Kalmus's work in "The Trail of the Lone Pine" was she leaned towards muted colors, similar to producer Walter Wanger. "A super-abundance of color is unnatural," she said on the record, "and has a most unpleasant effect not only upon the eye itself, but upon the mind as well." Natalie and her husband Herbert, married in 1902, had secretly divorced in June 1922, but lived separately in adjourning apartments. They worked together for over two decades without anyone knowing the two were divorced.
Technicolor's first use of its three-strip camera in a full-length feature film was 1935's "Becky Sharp." The Miriam Hopkins-starred film was staged-bound with its colorful sets and costumes specially designed to show the vibrancy of the new technology, replacing its older two-strip muted color film the company had unveiled in 1928. In "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine," producer Walter Wanger wanted to show that color could be used in a more subtle way than displayed in "Becky Sharp," yet carry the movie's message without the vivid reds and brilliant purples dominating the screen. Using soft browns and deep greens, the producer had director Henry Hathaway showcase the shadowy natural colors found in the rugged mountain country of Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains in California, with interiors shot in the studio. Variety noted at the time of the movie's release that, "What Becky Sharp's significance was supposed to portray is actually promulgated by 'Lonesome Pine.' It is evidence that color can be utilized as a forceful complement to cinematic entertainment providing the basic story ingredients are sturdy. 'Lonesome Pine' doesn't permit the color appeal to subjugate the primary phase of any film entertainment."
"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" was cinema's fourth version of John Fox Jr.'s 1908 novel, with the 1914, 1916 and 1923 silents pre-dating the first color edition. On the lines of a Hatfield and McCoy family feud, the movie is set in the Eastern Kentucky Appalachian mountain region. The two families, the Tollivers and the Falins, have been battling one another in the middle of coal country for generations. Jack Hale (Fred MacMurray) is an engineer who finds a rich coal field and decides to build a railroad spur to extract the commodity. He falls for June Toliver (Sylvia Sidney) even though her cousin Dave (Henry Fonda) wants to marry her (it's slim pickings in this region.). June has a younger brother Buddie (George 'Spanky' McFarland, in one of his rare non-'Little Rascals' role), who serves as a pivotal character in the denouement of the film.
"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Song in "A Melody from the Sky." Another tune, 'Twilight on the Trail,' was a huge hit and became the basis of the 1941 cowboy movie of the same name. Because of an aggressive marketing campaign by Paramount, Hollywood's second color feature film ended up in the year's top five box office hits. As would always be the company's practice, Technicolor supplied a crew to set up the complex camera to insure the highest color quality. The wife of the co-founder of the business, Natalie Kalmus, was an omnipresent technician who exerted constant opinions on the set, much to the consternation of the director and set designers. Calling herself "the ringmaster of the rainbow," she advised what colors should be worn by the actors and what to paint on the sets. Once an art student, Kalmus had her own ideas on the psychological effects colors had on the story and on the viewers. One telltale sign of Kalmus's work in "The Trail of the Lone Pine" was she leaned towards muted colors, similar to producer Walter Wanger. "A super-abundance of color is unnatural," she said on the record, "and has a most unpleasant effect not only upon the eye itself, but upon the mind as well." Natalie and her husband Herbert, married in 1902, had secretly divorced in June 1922, but lived separately in adjourning apartments. They worked together for over two decades without anyone knowing the two were divorced.