AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
1950s tv color converter2/2/2024 ![]() One notable movie, 1974's Flesh for Frankenstein (AKA Andy Warhol's Frankenstein AKA Frankenstein 3-D), managed to combine the sexual content with graphic horror, gaining an X-rated cult following in the process.īut in America, such 3-D horror movies were few and far between, and the format's domestic marginalization proved to be something of a boon for foreign 3-D horror. One of the only major studio efforts to incorporate 3-D during this era was the 1961 Warner Brothers horror film The Mask, which shot four of its scenes in 3-D to enhance the psychedelic visions that the main character experienced when putting on a mystical mask.īut as the '70s dawned and pornographic cinema became increasingly chic, 3-D filmmaking largely abandoned even horror in favor of an array of hardcore and soft-core adult fare. Advances in technology that eliminated the labor-intensive step of projecting two prints simultaneously helped lead to a mild revival of the format in the '60s - almost exclusively relegated to low-budget exploitation fare like horror and sex films. Just as quickly as it had captured the American public's imagination during the early '50s, 3-D film was pushed into the margins during the mid-'50s and pretty much stayed there for the next three decades or so. By the early part of 1955, the "golden era" was dead. Its sequel, 1955's Revenge of the Creature, was the last 3-D feature to be released during the "golden era."īy the mid-'50s, the public's love affair with 3-D films had died down due to a decline in their novelty, the increased labor required to project two prints simultaneously (as the format operated at the time), the tendency of the delicate process to malfunction, and competition from widescreen formats like CinemaScope. Other notable 3-D horror movies of the era included Robot Monster, now infamously remembered as one of the worst movies ever made, and Creature from the Black Lagoon, which introduced the last great Universal monster of the 20th century, the Gill-man. Star Vincent Price, who later emerged as a horror icon, became known as "King of 3-D" because of his starring roles in several 3-D movies during the decade, including the horror films House of Wax and The Mad Magician. The first 3-D horror film, House of Wax, was also the first 3-D color feature of any genre from a major American studio (Warner Brothers). (Although future horror legend William Castle directed several 3-D films in the '50s, none of them were horror.) The major studios took note of its success and rushed their own 3-D films into production, many of which were horror movies and other modestly budgeted genre fare that was deemed appropriate for the 3-D gimmick. The "golden era" of 3-D began in 1952 with the release of the first color feature broadcast in 3-D, the independently produced African adventure film Bwana Devil. ![]() ![]() One way of differentiating the theater experience from "home theaters" was 3-D technology. The explosion in popularity of television during the 1940s cut movie theater admissions by nearly 50%, leaving studios scrambling to find a way to lure viewers away from their TV screens. ![]() At the forefront of the movement were horror movies, an early adopter whose success in the 3-D realm has helped to ensure that the technology would remain a viable draw to this day. Although three-dimensional motion pictures were featured in theaters as early as the 1920s, it wasn't until the '50s that the larger-than-life format became a bona fide Hollywood phenomenon.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |