The history of color photography in motion pictures, in particular the Technicolor company's work.The history of color photography in motion pictures, in particular the Technicolor company's work.The history of color photography in motion pictures, in particular the Technicolor company's work.
Photos
Angela Lansbury
- Narrator
- (voice)
John Alton
- Self - Cinematographer
- (archive footage)
Eugen Sandow
- Self
- (archive footage)
Annabelle Moore
- Self - Dancer
- (archive footage)
- (as Annabelle)
Douglas Fairbanks
- Self
- (archive footage)
David O. Selznick
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaReleased on the 2003 DVD of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).
- GoofsThe documentation completely ignores the earlier German system "Agfacolor" which is the mother of all modern multi-layer color systems.
- Quotes
Arlene Dahl: I don't think there was anything more beautiful on the screen than a close-up of a beautiful actress - in Technicolor.
- ConnectionsFeatures How to Live 100 Years (1913)
Featured review
Great Look at the Wonderful Colors
Glorious Technicolor (1998)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Extremely entertaining documentary from Turner Classic Movies tells the story of Technicolor. We start off getting some early examples of color including films that were hand tinting frame-by-frame and then we get to pictures like THE TOLL OF THE SEA, which made good money at the box office but not enough for the added expense. From here we see how 2-strip Technicolor was produced before finally getting to the three strip. The documentary does an extremely good job at giving you all the details that you could hope for. We learn about its creator, Herbert Kalmus, who wanted to credit for what he did and in fact he hired a publicist to keep his name out of the media. We learn how many of the studios felt that color had no place in movies and it's funny because many of the comments sounded just like the ones we heard when sound was coming into play. Many actresses didn't want to be filmed in color and we even hear how MGM kept it away from their features and only OK'd it for short films. Ester Williams, Arlene Dahl, Evelyn Keyes and John Alton are just a few of the people who are interviewed. Some of the best moments in the film are of course the scenes that really show off the color and everything it was capable of doing. We get clips from the major titles like THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and THE WIZARD OF OZ all the way up to some of the very last films to use the process including the Michael Powell pictures. If you're unfamiliar with the process then this is the perfect place to learn about it and get some good ideas for rentals.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Extremely entertaining documentary from Turner Classic Movies tells the story of Technicolor. We start off getting some early examples of color including films that were hand tinting frame-by-frame and then we get to pictures like THE TOLL OF THE SEA, which made good money at the box office but not enough for the added expense. From here we see how 2-strip Technicolor was produced before finally getting to the three strip. The documentary does an extremely good job at giving you all the details that you could hope for. We learn about its creator, Herbert Kalmus, who wanted to credit for what he did and in fact he hired a publicist to keep his name out of the media. We learn how many of the studios felt that color had no place in movies and it's funny because many of the comments sounded just like the ones we heard when sound was coming into play. Many actresses didn't want to be filmed in color and we even hear how MGM kept it away from their features and only OK'd it for short films. Ester Williams, Arlene Dahl, Evelyn Keyes and John Alton are just a few of the people who are interviewed. Some of the best moments in the film are of course the scenes that really show off the color and everything it was capable of doing. We get clips from the major titles like THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and THE WIZARD OF OZ all the way up to some of the very last films to use the process including the Michael Powell pictures. If you're unfamiliar with the process then this is the perfect place to learn about it and get some good ideas for rentals.
helpful•10
- Michael_Elliott
- Dec 28, 2011
Details
- Runtime1 hour
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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