I would love to see The Philadelphia Story in color, if only to admire Hepburn's lustrous locks (Her character's pet name is "Red," after all).
You do realize that "colorized", no matter *how* good the process, and "in color" are very different things.
In no colorized version of anything will you ever see "Hepburn's lustrous locks".
Going a step further .....
In no colorized version of anything,
no matter how good the process, will you *ever* see "what the movie would have looked like in color".
Every *competent* film maker and technician (much less the truly good ones) makes all of their choices based on how they will look
on the film stock that they are using. If they had been using color film, all of the costume designs, set designs, make up jobs, etc.
would have been done differently.
One quick example:
The creature make up on Boris Karloff in
Frankenstein was done in that shade of green (which can be seen in some color still photos taken on the set) specifically because it would come out looking a deathly pasty white on the B & W that they were using. NOT because anyone ever intended for the Creature actually to BE green.
reply
share
Goosfrabah
15 years ago
I knew the B&W purists would jump all over me. *sigh* I just meant that I'd like to see the film in *non-B&W tones*. Sheesh...forget I asked!
reply
share
PillowRock
15 years ago
My point was simply that you would not see what you said you would like to see in a colorized version, namely what Hepburn's hair would have looked like in color.
The secondary point was to point that "what it would look like in color" and "coloized" are two very different things, in general.
reply
share
shrink54
15 years ago
Not sure if you picked up a copy yet, but there are 2 for sale on Ebay right now. BTW, I have the colorized versions of King Kong, San Francisco & Invasion of the Body Snatchers. They dont detract from the original, and are kind of cool to see in the Crayola version. While some of the colorized movies do look hideous, it makes you wonder if they would have been shot in color if they had the budget, like for instance King Kong. I have screen grabs for 2 of the films here, if you are at all interested:
http://www.jimusnr.com/sfcolorized.html
http://www.jimusnr.com/Bodysnatcherscolorized.html
Good luck and enjoy.
reply
share
PillowRock
15 years ago
it makes you wonder if they would have been shot in color if they had the budget, like for instance King Kong
In the specific case of
Kong, I doubt it.
Given the F/X and film printing technology of the early 1930s, I think that shooting everything on actual color film would have tended to create more noticeable mismatches between the "normal" shots and F/X shots, and among the various layers within many of the F/X shots. Black & white simplified all of that matching of the "look" of pieces of film that were actually shot under different conditions.
(Edit to add: They were already developing / inventing so many new techniques and technologies for F/X on that movie, I doubt that they would have wanted to add the extra difficulties that color would have created for them.)
Certainly there were a lot of other movies where directors / studios would have shot in color if money (and availability of equipment) were no issue. However, that choice would have cascaded into different choices in almost every other visual element; set design, lighting, costumes, etc.
reply
share
trinity-destler
12 years ago
Friend, there's someone you need to talk to on the It's a Wonderful Life boards (thread 'Is it time to start showing the colourised version'). I was almost in tears of frustration trying to explain this. They just can't seem to get it.
reply
share