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Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1956)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2016 7:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

_______________________________________

I took a shot at putting elbows and hands on this guy. I'll probably redo it later.


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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MetroPolly
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2016 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah, the Bender school of mechanical hand construction. Laughing
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2016 5:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just watched E vs FS colorized version after downloading it from YEOH, and was pleasently surprized by what a difference it made. I really felt like I was watching a remake of the film with all the original actors and SFX in place.

I realize that not all B&W would make this conversion desirable....like Casablanca or Citizen Kane would be a disaster. After all, most of Ray Harryhausens other films were in color and Ray said in an interview that it would have been in color if they had the budget.

What are your thoughts on colorization and restoration of classic films?
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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2016 5:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord Green wrote:
What are your thoughts on colorization and restoration of classic films?

For several months after my prostate surgery, I walked around in diapers and peed through a catheter into a bag strapped to my leg.

I would rather repeat that experience than watch a colorized movie.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2016 8:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord Green wrote:
What are your thoughts on colorization and restoration of classic films?

I've never seen a colorized movie that didn't look like a faded print of a film that wasn't very colorful to start with.

The three black-and-white Harryhausen films which were colorized are no different — although I'll admit the saucers against the blue sky actually look good.






But that hideous green Ymir makes 20 Million Miles to Earth impossible for me to watch in color. This shot, for example, looks absolutely dreadful.





But the black-and-white original of this scene is terrific.





Ditto for this great shot.





And yet Harryhausen said on the commentaries that he loved the colorized versions! In fact the statement he makes repeatedly is, "It looks like they were filmed in color!"

No, Ray . . . sorry, but they really don't.
Sad
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
And yet Harryhausen said on the commentaries that he loved the colorized versions! In fact the statement he makes repeatedly is, "It looks like they were filmed in color!"

No, Ray . . . sorry, but they really don't.
Sad

As much as we revere Ray Harryhausen, the fact of the matter is that he had a vested interest in colorization. When Legend Films issued a colorized version of "She", they listed Ray Harryhausen's name on the Blu-ray...which most fans thought was odd since he obviously has no connection to the 1935 film. They say it is, "...now in color for the first time under the creative direction of legendary effects master Ray Harryhausen." For their colorized Shirley Temple films, they say that they are "presented by Shirley in color for the first time".

Ray Harryhausen and Shirley Temple basically sold their names to Legend Films to promote colorization.

That's fine with me. I'm a capitalist. I don't mind a couple of old folks making a few bucks.

But I can't take Ray's comments at face value. Legend colorized his films. Legend lists him as a "partner". His praise may be genuine but his business relationship with Legend was too cozy to guarantee an impartial opinion.
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 6:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

For me it's like anything else. Some colorizations are done well, some aren't; some b/w movies lend themselves to colorization, some don't. It's a mixed bag. I always have the original b/w version close by in case the colorization starts freakin' me out.

My first taste of colorization was by mine own hand. In 1963 when Disney re-released 20,000 Leagues, the local newspaper would print frame stills from the studio press kit in their ads on the movie page. I discovered I could apply colored pencils to the b/w stills and make them look more like the film. I still have a couple in my 20k binder.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 6:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brent Gair wrote:
But I can't take Ray's comments at face value. Legend colorized his films. Legend lists him as a "partner". His praise may be genuine but his business relationship with Legend was too cozy to guarantee an impartial opinion.

Play the three black and white movies with the commentary on and you'll hear Ray rave repeatedly about how much he loves the colorization. I was stunned when i heard it. He seems very sincere.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 6:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's definitely a matter of taste; as well as the quality of the colorization job.

I'm not that much of a purist that I would rule out the enjoyment I can sometimes get from the new version.

Another one I enjoyed was the colorized RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON . I've got copies of the B&W originals, as well as the serials they came from so to me it was just a diversion. I have a couple of copies of the B&W EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS and I saw the film when it came out in the 50's, so the color version was not my only impression of the film.

Bottom line for me is that the colorized versions are just a extension of the diversity of enjoyment available.

As an aside, how much would you like to see a version of FORBIDDEN PLANET with the deleted scenes restored and cleaned up digitaly? Edited the way it should have been originally with all the directors original scenes included? I've read the original script from which the film was shot and it makes a much smoother and clear story, especially in the opening sequence. It shows the friction between Adams and Farman and just why in heck the ship has to make its own eclipses!

Thoughts?
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 9:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
My first taste of colorization was by mine own hand.

Actually, that's not quite true. I had seen a few old hand-tinted b/w prints from the days before color film. That's probably where I got the idea to try it myself.

Gord Green wrote:
As an aside, how much would you like to see a version of FORBIDDEN PLANET with the deleted scenes restored and cleaned up digitaly? Edited the way it should have been originally with all the directors original scenes included?

I would certainly shell out my $ for a director's cut.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord Green wrote:
As an aside, how much would you like to see a version of FORBIDDEN PLANET with the deleted scenes restored and cleaned up digitaly? Edited the way it should have been originally with all the directors original scenes included? I've read the original script from which the film was shot and it makes a much smoother and clear story, especially in the opening sequence. It shows the friction between Adams and Farman and just why in heck the ship has to make its own eclipses!

I agree that the story would work much better if the scenes in the script had been filmed and included in the theatrical print (with the exception of the scenes in which the three men shout at Robby while he races across the desert).

Fewer people would be confused about where Altaira's pets came from. Very Happy

Unfortunately it would not be possible to have "the deleted scenes restored and cleaned up digitally", because the only existing copies of them are part of a beat-up, faded, 60-year-old 16mm work print that Louis and Bebe Barron thankfully kept when MGM sent it to them so they could score the movie.

Even the original negative of Forbidden Planet no longer exists. According the Cinefantastique article from 1979, it was destroyed in a fire at MGM, many years ago. I suspect that any surviving elements that weren't included in the theatrical version where in the vault with the negative. Sad



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Beat up, faded work prints" are the PERFECT thing to undergo digital restoration! If they can create scenes out of whole cloth they can re-create from the faded basis knowing the details of every character.

Some of the deleted scenes are on the videodisk and Bluray versions as well as on youtube and they don't look like a great challange compared to other work Ive seen.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 2:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

The recent newspaper ads I've found for double features in the 1950s inspired me to go looking for more!

The idea of going to a drive-in or an indoor theater when I was a kid and seeing some of these co-billed movies is fun to contemplate.

These two are a fine example — and I actually did see these two together in 1956! Very Happy




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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 11:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has 15 trivia items for this movie. Here's a few of the ones I found the most interesting. Very Happy
________________________________

This science-fiction movie was "suggested" by the 1953 non-fiction book "Flying Saucers From Outer Space" by retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe, who believed that certain aerial phenomena were interplanetary in origin.

Note from me: The other movie which was inspired by this book — Unidentified Flying Saucers: The True Story of Flying Saucers — is the perfect double feature for Earth vs the Flying Saucers, which shows the UFOs which the documentary convinces us really exist! Very Happy

Ray Harryhausen stated in his biography that this is his least favorite of his films.

Note from me: The fact that Ray loved to embellish his creatures with graceful movements is probably why he didn't enjoy animating inflexible objects like the saucers. But part of what makes the saucers so impressive in this film are the flourishes Ray provided, in the form of helicopter-like tilts and gyroscope-like rolls.


_____________________ Tedco Toy Gyroscope


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Columbia's publicity department created publicity stills using the cut-and-paste technique. The resulting stills of the flying saucers were vastly inferior to the special effects in the film itself. In fact, one of the more infamous stills shows Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor standing on top of the water in the middle of the Potomac River.

Note from me: I've had those publicity stills since the 1960s, so when I read this item I knew it was true concerning the bad cut-and-paste jobs Columbia did — but NOT about the couple standing on the Potomac River! The second photo does seem to show the couple standing on the Thames River . . . in London. Laughing





Fans of Disneyland might recognize the voice of the narrator (and of the alien) as actor Paul Frees, who provides the voice of the ghostly host for The Haunted Mansion ride. Frees also was voice for many cartoon characters for Disney, as well as for Rocky and His Friends (1959).

Note from me: The voice of Paul Frees coming over the radios and televisions saying, "People of Earth, attention!" is one of my favorite moments in science fiction. Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bottom line is that this is a great movie! It's a perfect example of the best of the 50's presentation of its' genre. The pacing, the direction, and the casting of this film was iconic, and an example of what made the concepts of UFOs, extraterrestrials and the unknown shadows of our existence made manifest in celluloid.

This was a film that effected me as a 10 year old and still maintains its power after 60 years.

Thanks Ray....You did good!
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