I WISH IT WAS FILMED IN COLOR

I was just thinking the same thing about this film. If there is any candidate for a state of the art colorization process, this is the one. A pivotal part of the story is a red dress. Yes, it's amazing to see red shown in b/w with the contrast to the pure white dresses, but it would be cool to see a color version.

I also wonder why not color at the time? I realize 37/38 was right on the cutting edge of color, but everyone knew GWTW was going to be full color. It just seems a "big" movie like this would have been filmed in color.

Anyway, I am for a 2015 state of the art colorized version of Jezebel.

I don't know if this affected the Jezebe production, but I believe GWTW roped in most of the technicolor cameras in Hollywood.

At the time, color was considered more suitable for films with outdoor settings or adventure themes, such as ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, and that black-and-white was more suited to dramas (Selznick, being an investor in Technicolor, was the rare producer who used it for a variety of genres). This theory persisted into the 1960s, when it was decideed to film WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF in B&W (to the disappointment of playwright Edward Albee).

As for myself, having grown up withe B&W television, I've never, ever, had a problem with a film being in B&W, and while it maybe nice to entertain the notion that a film such as this or MR.SKEFFINGTON might have been "better" in color (mainly to show off the costumes), I personally have no wish to see them altered by colorization (which, despite technical advances, never quite looks convincing).

"Forget it, Jake. It's the internet."

I was thinking the same thing as you and others. Colorization has to have come a long, long way from the mess it was when it was first attempted on classic films.

This is one that would lend itself well to colorization, since so much of the story hinges around a red dress.

Don't get me wrong, Jezebel is beautiful in black and white and of course we can visualize the dress in red, but it would be fun to see this film in color. New Orleans, the red dress, the green of the plantation. The staidness of the antebellum south. Just for fun, and why not? It would not take away from the original, which will probably remain superior in b/w.

Filming in color was very expensive. That's why b&w films were still being made well into the 60s (Baby Jane), when it wasn't for artistic reasons, of course.

I really would have loved to have seen that red dress!