NFR Project: 'This Is Cinerama' (1952)

 

NFR Project: “This is Cinerama”

Dir: Mike Todd, Michael Todd, Jr., Walter A. Thompson, Fred Rickey

Pho: Harry Squire

Ed: William Henry, Milton Shifman

Premiere: Sept. 30, 1952

115 min.

It’s a gimmick. It’s a gag.

I thoroughly agree with and endorse Kyle Westphal’s essay on this film at the National Film Registry. Read it! He captures the sheer daffiness of it.

After World War II, television made major inroads on America’s movie-going public. The big studios were worried. Hollywood was looking to provide something television could not. It started casting about for various new ways to attract viewers. First was an increase in “road show” screenings. These were prestigious showings of big-budget, epic, full-color films that featured reserved seats, an overture, and an intermission. Then there were first-generation 3-D films, for which viewers donned special red/green glasses – offerings such as Bwana Devil, House of Wax, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Then there was Cinerama. This was a special wide-screen mode of movie projection invented by Fred Waller, consisting of three projectors strapped together side by side, providing an exceptionally wide field of vision as it is projected on a wide, special curved screen. The result was supposed to engage the viewer’s peripheral vision and provide an overwhelming visual experience.

This Is Cinerama purported to sell this dynamic concept. The journalist and broadcaster Lowell Thomas was an investor in this new process, and he served as producer on this film as well as its on-screen narrator. This Is Cinerama is a sales pitch, really – a demonstration of the possibilities of the medium.

The film opens with a brief sequence summarizing the history of film, from prehistoric times to the present. This is shown in the 4:3 ratio, in black and white. Suddenly the screen expands, bursts into color, and we are in the front car of a roller coaster in New York. This leads to a series of sequences filmed at various places. We see the Temple Dance from Verdi’s Aida, shots of Niagara Falls from the air, a church choir, and the Vienna Boys’ Choir (Cinerama also pushed the advent of the new “stereophonic sound”).

The rest of the film is pretty much a glorified travelogue. We go to Venice, Edinburgh,  a bullfight in Spain, the performers at the now-defunct Cypress Gardens in Florida. We end with an aerial flyover of many national monuments, all while the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang hymns and patriotic songs.

The travelogue aspect of the full-length feature film is remindful of the travel films created during the early Silent Era. Back then, it was remarkable to see something you’d only read about; with Cinerama, you see familiar landmarks in a brand new way.

But was it worth it? What do you gain when you have wide-screen? What do you lose?

On the positive side, it is impressive. I was lucky enough to see the Cinerama project How the West Was Won (1962) on a Cinerama screen in Denver – at the late, lamented Cooper Theater. You feel like you are inside the movie – it’s uncanny and affecting, an overwhelming sensual experience.

But there were problems. First, to make three screens’ worth of images, you needed to yoke three cameras together when filming. Thus, the cameras couldn’t really move. They were usually bolted down to something, so that their three screens’ worth of images would later align accurately. Scenes were static.

Then there’s the problem of composition. Instead of a screen aspect ratio of 4:3, as most classic-period American films had, Cinerama had a ratio of 2.65:1! This elongated kind of view demanded an entirely different aesthetic, in the attempt to fill the screen, as well as to balance compositions.

Thirdly, you needed a special screen on which to view it. Thus the creation of the Cinerama theater, which needed the special Cinerama film to display. This required more projectionists and  special equipment. It was not cost-effective.

Despite initial enthusiasm for the new technology, Cinerama never took off. A number of epic films were made in Cinerama – It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), The Battle of the Bulge (1965), Ice Station Zebra (1968). But it wasn’t enough. Additionally, other film studios developed rival widescreen processes that did not require special theaters or retooling. These included VistaVision, CinemaScope, and Ultra Panavision. By the early 1970s, Cinerama was dead.

Today only three Cinerama theaters remain in the United States – in Seattle, Providence RI, and San Diego. Widescreen projection has now become the norm, and is even being supplanted for epic films by the immersive IMAX projection system.

Cinerama was a noble, failed experiment.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Invaders from Mars.