Silver Age 3-D 1966-1997 including the 1980s 3D revival

[Ky-Fi]

Originally Posted by cinerama

It's listed on this page of the 3D Film Archive

I love the tag line on one of the posters for A*P*E*:

"Not to be confused with KING KONG."

[cinerama]

Originally Posted by Ky-Fi

I love the tag line on one of the posters for A*P*E*:

"Not to be confused with KING KONG."

That's because the original title was The New King Kong . They were sued and had to change the name to A*P*E. In other countries it was known as Super King Kong and King Kong Returns.

[Interdimensional]

With the recent and disappointing situation with Starchaser, it is often assumed that it was the first animated 3D feature. This is not the case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud-j...ature=youtu.be

I remember reading something about the creation of the 3D animation in Abra Cadabra, I'll have to see if I can dig that up again. As I recall, it may have been an anaglyph only release.

[Interdimensional]

Found it quicker than I thought I would :

http://Www.animatormag.com/archive/i...ssue-7-page-9/

Now in production by this studio is a feature that promises to be very special. It’s called ABRA CADABRA and is being shot in Panavision and 3D! It’s due for release in Decembe 1983 and the synopsis goes like this:

“Will Abra Cadabra thwart the plans of rotten B.L.Z’Bubb and nasty Klaw, the Rat King, to control all of the known and unknown universe? Of course he will, with the aid of beauti¬ful Buttercup, Mr. Pig and Zodiac the space dog, among others. But not until the. end!”

It is being shot on a Neilson-Hordell computer-controlled animation rostrum, onto which is fitted a multi-plane-style addition of 4 separate platens above each other. Using the Zoptic back projection system (which made Superman fly), the animation can be filmed in 3D using the 4 planes, then back-projected while filming another 4 planes in 3D giving an S-plane option to utilise. (Whew!)

It is shot with a Triangle 3D lens which was invented and developed in Australia. The audience will view it with light blue and magenta glasses. It sounds very promising.

[bavanut]

Last night, Maria and I were privileged to join Dan ("Revgen") and several hundred other screaming fans for a 3-D double feature at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, Friday the 13th Part III and Frankenstein's Bloody Terror.

The Friday freaks were out in full force, their galvanic enthusiasm sending the excitement meters all the way up into the red (and the box office all the way into the black), further elevating what was already a memorable occasion, my fourth chance to see Friday the 13th Part III on the big screen in honest-to-goodness polarized 3-D.

I caught F13 III for the first time on opening day, August 13, 1982, sometime about 3:30 p.m. Eastern time. I can be that precise because the memory is still so incredibly vivid. I walked into the old Towers Four Cinemas that day a grim, 11-year-old skeptic, warped by reams of relentless harping on 3-D by practically every film historian on the shelf at the Greenville County Library, and bitterly disappointed by an abortive anaglyphic presentation of Revenge of the Creature on our upstate South Carolina NBC affiliate some three weeks prior.

My superior disdain for 3-D evaporated in the first five minutes of F13 III. The presentation that day was nowhere near perfect, but for me it was gorgeous, absolutely captivating. I've marched in the ranks of the True Believer ever since. And in that time, I've read a book or two by people who shared my view that 3-D has its rightful place at the cinematic table. People like Raymond Spottiswoode and Lenny Lipton. People who could explain clearly and cogently what goes into making a stereoscopic image look right, and what can make one look incredibly wrong.

While I very much appreciate the cheerful enthusiasm that prevailed last night at the Egyptian, I might point to this occasion as People's Exhibit Number One in the prosecution's case against over-and-under 35 millimeter 3-D. Every regular poster here knows that running dual-strip 3-D ain't exactly easy, but I think it must be a cakewalk compared to converging two, tee-ninesy little Techniscope-format frames through various combinations of lenses and prisms and filters and mirrors, without losing either focus, alignment, illumination, or one's precious mind.

Even when the image itself had good vertical and horizontal alignment (as was the case throughout most of F13 III last night), the upper and lower edges of the frame were terribly out of true. Dan and I noted handcrafted black cardboard cutouts carefully taped onto the port glass to mask off the frames and block stray light, but there was absolutely no masking at the top and bottom of the screen itself, resulting in an amorphous gray "floating rectangle" that sometimes seemed to tilt and slant.

We were warned beforehand that the print of F13 III, a British copy replete with BBFC ratings certificate, had "light leakage" along the right edge during reel one. Worse by far, but unmentioned at the outset, was a roiling, colored "wisping" effect that I took to be chemical mottling, swirling and swaying back and forth across the frame, most egregiously and ruinously in dark scenes throughout the first reel.

Dan has said that he very much enjoyed seeing Friday the 13th Part III in this presentation. This makes me glad. And judging from the loud cheers and shouts and whoops and appropriate laughter I heard last night, several hundred other fans felt just as Dan did. But even so, I have seen the film looking better. If Paramount can ever be made to see reason and create a good DCP (and, better still, a proper 3-D Blu-ray), then we'll all be able to understand why no less a luminary than Chris Condon once said in my hearing that F13 III was the best-looking 3-D film of the 1980s.

As for Frankenstein's Bloody Terror... what can one say? I am very, very grateful to Harry Guerro and Sam Sherman for making the print we saw last night. Over the last 35 years, I never dreamed I'd ever get the chance to see the film in 3-D, and yet here it is.

Does it look great? Nope.

The print is dark, in some places as muddy as a painter's sink. The dim projection at the Egyptian didn't do it any favors. There are passages when I defy anyone to tell me just what the heck is happening onscreen. In the climactic werewolf-vampire showdown, the vampire's cape becomes a red blob swirling in a charcoal-gray void. The effect was not unlike watching avant garde animation.

The center-to-center spacing of the left and right images is different in FBT than in F13 III, and the projection crew had the devil's own time coping with the resulting vertical misalignment. (We saw them valiantly trying to right the problem by tweaking the lens, but apparently they could only do so much.) And, quite inexplicably, one brief shot in the film is in 2-D. Go figure.

But if I may swipe an apt phrase from my favorite biblical author, the Apostle Paul, what we saw last night was through a glass darkly, but it may point toward something very worthwhile to come someday. There were moments where one could well appreciate the inventive genius of cinemagician Jan Jacobsen, creator of Hi-Fi Stereo 70, and could see what creative fun the filmmakers were having, sending their 3-D camera prowling through a multi-layered world for their vampires, werewolves, mesmerized damsels and love-smitten idiots to inhabit. I am convinced that a proper scan of the original 65 millimeter elements, placed in the capable hands of the 3-D Film Archive, will vault this film into the top ranks of fan favorites for full-blooded 3-D that exploits every inch of available z-axis.

I'm glad I went. Maria had fun, and so did I. I'm always happy to meet up with Dan. We got to see and hear Tracie Savage and Larry Zerner and Robb Wilson King share their stories and their enduring camaraderie. I got to chat up Eric Kurland and Matt Spero, two fine gentlemen who love 3-D as much as anyone in this forum. And I walked away confirmed in my belief that Bob and Greg and the gang are titans. Thanks to them, I cannot cheerfully accept anything less than the very best in my vintage 3-D.

[Jbug]

Originally Posted by bavanut

Last night, Maria and I were privileged to join Dan ("Revgen") and several hundred other screaming fans for a 3-D double feature at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, Friday the 13th Part III and Frankenstein's Bloody Terror.

The Friday freaks were out in full force, their galvanic enthusiasm sending the excitement meters all the way up into the red (and the box office all the way into the black), further elevating what was already a memorable occasion, my fourth chance to see Friday the 13th Part III on the big screen in honest-to-goodness polarized 3-D.

I caught F13 III for the first time on opening day, August 13, 1982, sometime about 3:30 p.m. Eastern time. I can be that precise because the memory is still so incredibly vivid. I walked into the old Towers Four Cinemas that day a grim, 11-year-old skeptic, warped by reams of relentless harping on 3-D by practically every film historian on the shelf at the Greenville County Library, and bitterly disappointed by an abortive anaglyphic presentation of Revenge of the Creature on our upstate South Carolina NBC affiliate some three weeks prior.

My superior disdain for 3-D evaporated in the first five minutes of F13 III. The presentation that day was nowhere near perfect, but for me it was gorgeous, absolutely captivating. I've marched in the ranks of the True Believer ever since. And in that time, I've read a book or two by people who shared my view that 3-D has its rightful place at the cinematic table. People like Raymond Spottiswoode and Lenny Lipton. People who could explain clearly and cogently what goes into making a stereoscopic image look right, and what can make one look incredibly wrong.

While I very much appreciate the cheerful enthusiasm that prevailed last night at the Egyptian, I might point to this occasion as People's Exhibit Number One in the prosecution's case against over-and-under 35 millimeter 3-D. Every regular poster here knows that running dual-strip 3-D ain't exactly easy, but I think it must be a cakewalk compared to converging two, tee-ninesy little Techniscope-format frames through various combinations of lenses and prisms and filters and mirrors, without losing either focus, alignment, illumination, or one's precious mind.

Even when the image itself had good vertical and horizontal alignment (as was the case throughout most of F13 III last night), the upper and lower edges of the frame were terribly out of true. Dan and I noted handcrafted black cardboard cutouts carefully taped onto the port glass to mask off the frames and block stray light, but there was absolutely no masking at the top and bottom of the screen itself, resulting in an amorphous gray "floating rectangle" that sometimes seemed to tilt and slant.

We were warned beforehand that the print of F13 III, a British copy replete with BBFC ratings certificate, had "light leakage" along the right edge during reel one. Worse by far, but unmentioned at the outset, was a roiling, colored "wisping" effect that I took to be chemical mottling, swirling and swaying back and forth across the frame, most egregiously and ruinously in dark scenes throughout the first reel.

Dan has said that he very much enjoyed seeing Friday the 13th Part III in this presentation. This makes me glad. And judging from the loud cheers and shouts and whoops and appropriate laughter I heard last night, several hundred other fans felt just as Dan did. But even so, I have seen the film looking better. If Paramount can ever be made to see reason and create a good DCP (and, better still, a proper 3-D Blu-ray), then we'll all be able to understand why no less a luminary than Chris Condon once said in my hearing that F13 III was the best-looking 3-D film of the 1980s.

As for Frankenstein's Bloody Terror... what can one say? I am very, very grateful to Harry Guerro and Sam Sherman for making the print we saw last night. Over the last 35 years, I never dreamed I'd ever get the chance to see the film in 3-D, and yet here it is.

Does it look great? Nope.

The print is dark, in some places as muddy as a painter's sink. The dim projection at the Egyptian didn't do it any favors. There are passages when I defy anyone to tell me just what the heck is happening onscreen. In the climactic werewolf-vampire showdown, the vampire's cape becomes a red blob swirling in a charcoal-gray void. The effect was not unlike watching avant garde animation.

The center-to-center spacing of the left and right images is different in FBT than in F13 III, and the projection crew had the devil's own time coping with the resulting vertical misalignment. (We saw them valiantly trying to right the problem by tweaking the lens, but apparently they could only do so much.) And, quite inexplicably, one brief shot in the film is in 2-D. Go figure.

But if I may swipe an apt phrase from my favorite biblical author, the Apostle Paul, what we saw last night was through a glass darkly, but it may point toward something very worthwhile to come someday. There were moments where one could well appreciate the inventive genius of cinemagician Jan Jacobsen, creator of Hi-Fi Stereo 70, and could see what creative fun the filmmakers were having, sending their 3-D camera prowling through a multi-layered world for their vampires, werewolves, mesmerized damsels and love-smitten idiots to inhabit. I am convinced that a proper scan of the original 65-millimeter elements, placed in the capable hands of the 3-D Film Archive, will vault this film into the top ranks of fan favorites for full-blooded 3-D that exploits every inch of the available z-axis.

I'm glad I went. Maria had fun, and so did I. I'm always happy to meet up with Dan. We got to see and hear Tracie Savage and Larry Zerner and Robb Wilson King share their stories and their enduring camaraderie. I got to chat up Eric Kurland and Matt Spero, two fine gentlemen who love 3-D as much as anyone in this forum. And I walked away confirmed in my belief that Bob and Greg and the gang are titans. Thanks to them, I cannot cheerfully accept anything less than the very best in my vintage 3-D.

Thanks, very nice and enthusiastic read.

[moviebear1]

Thanks for the mention Mike. The hosts of the showings gave out some good information but over looked that "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" had it's Los Angeles showing in 70mm 6 Track Stereo at the very theatre we were in. The Egyptian.

[notops]

Originally Posted by bavanut

Last night, Maria and I were privileged to join Dan ("Revgen") and several hundred other screaming fans for a 3-D double feature at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, Friday the 13th Part III and Frankenstein's Bloody Terror.

The Friday freaks were out in full force, their galvanic enthusiasm sending the excitement meters all the way up into the red (and the box office all the way into the black), further elevating what was already a memorable occasion, my fourth chance to see Friday the 13th Part III on the big screen in honest-to-goodness polarized 3-D.

I caught F13 III for the first time on opening day, August 13, 1982, sometime about 3:30 p.m. Eastern time. I can be that precise because the memory is still so incredibly vivid. I walked into the old Towers Four Cinemas that day a grim, 11-year-old skeptic, warped by reams of relentless harping on 3-D by practically every film historian on the shelf at the Greenville County Library, and bitterly disappointed by an abortive anaglyphic presentation of Revenge of the Creature on our upstate South Carolina NBC affiliate some three weeks prior.

My superior disdain for 3-D evaporated in the first five minutes of F13 III. The presentation that day was nowhere near perfect, but for me it was gorgeous, absolutely captivating. I've marched in the ranks of the True Believer ever since. And in that time, I've read a book or two by people who shared my view that 3-D has its rightful place at the cinematic table. People like Raymond Spottiswoode and Lenny Lipton. People who could explain clearly and cogently what goes into making a stereoscopic image look right, and what can make one look incredibly wrong.

While I very much appreciate the cheerful enthusiasm that prevailed last night at the Egyptian, I might point to this occasion as People's Exhibit Number One in the prosecution's case against over-and-under 35 millimeter 3-D. Every regular poster here knows that running dual-strip 3-D ain't exactly easy, but I think it must be a cakewalk compared to converging two, tee-ninesy little Techniscope-format frames through various combinations of lenses and prisms and filters and mirrors, without losing either focus, alignment, illumination, or one's precious mind.

Even when the image itself had good vertical and horizontal alignment (as was the case throughout most of F13 III last night), the upper and lower edges of the frame were terribly out of true. Dan and I noted handcrafted black cardboard cutouts carefully taped onto the port glass to mask off the frames and block stray light, but there was absolutely no masking at the top and bottom of the screen itself, resulting in an amorphous gray "floating rectangle" that sometimes seemed to tilt and slant.

We were warned beforehand that the print of F13 III, a British copy replete with BBFC ratings certificate, had "light leakage" along the right edge during reel one. Worse by far, but unmentioned at the outset, was a roiling, colored "wisping" effect that I took to be chemical mottling, swirling and swaying back and forth across the frame, most egregiously and ruinously in dark scenes throughout the first reel.

Dan has said that he very much enjoyed seeing Friday the 13th Part III in this presentation. This makes me glad. And judging from the loud cheers and shouts and whoops and appropriate laughter I heard last night, several hundred other fans felt just as Dan did. But even so, I have seen the film looking better. If Paramount can ever be made to see reason and create a good DCP (and, better still, a proper 3-D Blu-ray), then we'll all be able to understand why no less a luminary than Chris Condon once said in my hearing that F13 III was the best-looking 3-D film of the 1980s.

As for Frankenstein's Bloody Terror... what can one say? I am very, very grateful to Harry Guerro and Sam Sherman for making the print we saw last night. Over the last 35 years, I never dreamed I'd ever get the chance to see the film in 3-D, and yet here it is.

Does it look great? Nope.

The print is dark, in some places as muddy as a painter's sink. The dim projection at the Egyptian didn't do it any favors. There are passages when I defy anyone to tell me just what the heck is happening onscreen. In the climactic werewolf-vampire showdown, the vampire's cape becomes a red blob swirling in a charcoal-gray void. The effect was not unlike watching avant garde animation.

The center-to-center spacing of the left and right images is different in FBT than in F13 III, and the projection crew had the devil's own time coping with the resulting vertical misalignment. (We saw them valiantly trying to right the problem by tweaking the lens, but apparently they could only do so much.) And, quite inexplicably, one brief shot in the film is in 2-D. Go figure.

But if I may swipe an apt phrase from my favorite biblical author, the Apostle Paul, what we saw last night was through a glass darkly, but it may point toward something very worthwhile to come someday. There were moments where one could well appreciate the inventive genius of cinemagician Jan Jacobsen, creator of Hi-Fi Stereo 70, and could see what creative fun the filmmakers were having, sending their 3-D camera prowling through a multi-layered world for their vampires, werewolves, mesmerized damsels and love-smitten idiots to inhabit. I am convinced that a proper scan of the original 65 millimeter elements, placed in the capable hands of the 3-D Film Archive, will vault this film into the top ranks of fan favorites for full-blooded 3-D that exploits every inch of available z-axis.

I'm glad I went. Maria had fun, and so did I. I'm always happy to meet up with Dan. We got to see and hear Tracie Savage and Larry Zerner and Robb Wilson King share their stories and their enduring camaraderie. I got to chat up Eric Kurland and Matt Spero, two fine gentlemen who love 3-D as much as anyone in this forum. And I walked away confirmed in my belief that Bob and Greg and the gang are titans. Thanks to them, I cannot cheerfully accept anything less than the very best in my vintage 3-D.

Thanks for the info on Frankenstein's Bloody Terror. It looks like I made the right choice to leave after Friday the 13th Part 3, but stayed curious the whole drive home as to whether I should have left or not. I appreciate the update.

Believe it or not, the framing on the unmasked silver screen looked much better than it did the night before with Amityville 3-D. Still, with what could possibly be the final opportunity to see these projected on 35 mm, I'm not going to complain too much (but, damnit, if only they would have masked the screen. It would have been a much more satisfying presentation).

I still can't believe that on Monday night I'm going to get to see Metalstorm and Rottweiler there. It's like a childhood dream come true. This Festival has been amazing.

[revgen]

@notops In the introduction before F13 III, they said that were using a different polarizer than the one they used for Amityville, courtesy of LACMA. I believe they mentioned that the new polarizer cuts out less light, so the images would be brighter. Ben Tucker, the projectionist at the Egyptian Theater, certainly has his hands full.

[notops]

Originally Posted by revgen

@notops In the introduction before F13 III, they said that were using a different polarizer than the one they used for Amityville, courtesy of LACMA. I believe they mentioned that the new polarizer cuts out less light, so the images would be brighter. Ben Tucker, the projectionist at the Egyptian Theater, certainly has his hands full.

The same polarizer from LACMA was also utilized the night before at Amityville. They said that earlier that day (Thursday) they were running several tests for an optimal 3-D experience. During that testing period, the polarizer on projector #2 had broken. The gentleman from LACMA was able to secure the different polarizer later that day in just the nick of time to start the festival with Amityville. I remember the story because they told it again verbatim (along with pretty much everything else during the pre-show presentation) the next night before Friday The 13th.

My guess as to why F13 looked so much better would probably have something to do with what they had mentioned on Thursday night about the studios all using slightly different over/under projection methods, never adopting a universal standard.

[cinerama]

Originally Posted by moviebear1

Thanks for the mention Mike. The hosts of the showings gave out some good information but over looked that "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" had it's Los Angeles showing in 70mm 6 Track Stereo at the very theatre we were in. The Egyptian.

Ad from 1/19/72:

[BleedOrange11]

I think only the original Spanish version was 70mm 6-track. Doubt that played in the US. Frankenstein's Bloody Terror was always a recut and dubbed 35mm over/under.

[Robert Furmanek]

Correct. Sam Sherman did not distribute 70mm prints, they were 35mm over/under with mono audio.

[revgen]

Bob, do you know what the situation is with the 2 other Hi-Fi Stereo 70mm films? Electra One/Operation Taifun/Con la muerte a la espalda (1967) and Love in 3-D (1973)?

[Robert Furmanek]

No, I wish I did!

[robtadrian]

Special guests at the Egyptian's double feature of Metalstorm/Rottweiler (Dogs of Hell) were Lenny Lipton and John Rupkalvis. Mr. Lipton had a cameo in Rottweiler!

[revgen]

I just came back from the Metalstorm/Rottweiler double feature at the Egyptian.

Rottweiler was a hoot. An odd, over-the-top, B-horror film whose "monsters" are a pack of Rottweiler's who have supposedly been trained to be "weapons" by the military. The audience members who left the theater after Metalstorm missed out on IMO the best 3-D film on the double-header. Even though the Rottweiler audience was smaller, they were enjoying this film far more than Metalstorm. Laughing, shouting, and genuinely enjoying Rottweiler's unique combination of horror, absurdity, and tongue-in-cheek humor. The oddly placed replacement title "Dogs of Hell", the "one done" moment, shots of dogs that were supposed to be scary, but weren't, but that didn't stop the sound editor from inserting obvious fake growls to make them look scary. The popouts were fantastic. Darts, Fists, Gun Barrels, Gun Shots, Batons, etc. A very entertaining film that was obviously made on a cheaper budget than Metalstorm, but ended up entertaining the audience far more.

I hope to see more Earl Owensby 3-D productions. Hopefully on 3-D blu-ray.

PS

Lenny Lipton and John Rupkalvis gave an introduction before Rottweiler, but I could hardly hear what they said, so I can't really give any insights.

[Interdimensional]

Originally Posted by revgen

Lenny Lipton and John Rupkalvis gave an introduction before Rottweiler, but I could hardly hear what they said, so I can't really give any insights.

Possibly some of his anecdotes as related here:
https://lennylipton.wordpress.com/20...ilm-from-hell/

(which is an entertaining read, but should be taken with a grain of salt as much of this account is disputed by the film's director)

[Interdimensional]

Originally Posted by bavanut

Last night, Maria and I were privileged to join Dan ("Revgen") and several hundred other screaming fans for a 3-D double feature at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, Friday the 13th Part III and Frankenstein's Bloody Terror.

While I very much appreciate the cheerful enthusiasm that prevailed last night at the Egyptian, I might point to this occasion as People's Exhibit Number One in the prosecution's case against over-and-under 35 millimeter 3-D. Every regular poster here knows that running dual-strip 3-D ain't exactly easy, but I think it must be a cakewalk compared to converging two, tee-ninesy little Techniscope-format frames through various combinations of lenses and prisms and filters and mirrors, without losing either focus, alignment, illumination, or one's precious mind.

As for Frankenstein's Bloody Terror... what can one say? I am very, very grateful to Harry Guerro and Sam Sherman for making the print we saw last night. Over the last 35 years, I never dreamed I'd ever get the chance to see the film in 3-D, and yet here it is.

Does it look great? Nope.

The print is dark, in some places as muddy as a painter's sink. The dim projection at the Egyptian didn't do it any favors. There are passages when I defy anyone to tell me just what the heck is happening onscreen. In the climactic werewolf-vampire showdown, the vampire's cape becomes a red blob swirling in a charcoal-gray void. The effect was not unlike watching avant garde animation.

The center-to-center spacing of the left and right images is different in FBT than in F13 III, and the projection crew had the devil's own time coping with the resulting vertical misalignment. (We saw them valiantly trying to right the problem by tweaking the lens, but apparently they could only do so much.) And, quite inexplicably, one brief shot in the film is in 2-D. Go figure.

But if I may swipe an apt phrase from my favorite biblical author, the Apostle Paul, what we saw last night was through a glass darkly, but it may point toward something very worthwhile to come someday. There were moments where one could well appreciate the inventive genius of cinemagician Jan Jacobsen, creator of Hi-Fi Stereo 70, and could see what creative fun the filmmakers were having, sending their 3-D camera prowling through a multi-layered world for their vampires, werewolves, mesmerized damsels and love-smitten idiots to inhabit. I am convinced that a proper scan of the original 65 millimeter elements, placed in the capable hands of the 3-D Film Archive, will vault this film into the top ranks of fan favorites for full-blooded 3-D that exploits every inch of available z-axis.

When it was screened in New York, they used Harry Guerro's lenses rather than polarizing filters. I believe they were dichroic filters, which reduce light loss. I don't know if this significantly improved the quality of the screening, but I didn't have as many issues with Frankenstein's Bloody Terror as you noticed.

I found the main body of the film to be very watchable and exciting. The castle interiors were multi-layered and richly detailed. It was all artistically lit and wonderfully atmospheric. Naschy really explodes in a very energetic performance, and the vampire characters made a strong impression with great screen presence. The 3-D seemed to go right in, there were interesting setups with multiple areas of interest receding into the distance. Consistently strong use of framing elements reinforced the deepness of the 3D, and in a number of scenes foreground props seemed tangibly real.

The most problematic footage was in the first and last reels, and it had the look of a bad photocopy of a photocopy. These issues were hard to dismiss or overlook. No gradation, just dark blobs of shadow. It wasn't easy to follow, but you got the gist of it. It makes for a bad first and last impression, but fortunately other parts of the film were much better.

For what it's worth, last October's NY screenings also showed an older print of Love in 3D, and while it may have been a little faded, it certainly didn't seem to have had the same issues in converting from Hi-Fi Stereo 70 to 35mm. It was clear enough for the most part, and had none of the crushed blacks and reds of the Frankenstein's Bloody Terror print. It also demonstrated that the system was just as adept at producing strong popouts as other camera rigs, but it's episodic, and nowhere near as good a film as FBT.

I share your hope that the original negative can be accessed for digital restoration. No getting around it, the Sam Sherman elements have significant detail loss in those problem scenes, and there is only so much that could be done with that. Of course it'd still be better than nothing, and on that note, I'd still recommend anyone seeing FBT in 35mm 3-D where available. It may be the only chance you get.

[robtadrian]

Originally Posted by Interdimensional

Possibly some of his anecdotes as related here:
https://lennylipton.wordpress.com/20...ilm-from-hell/

(which is an entertaining read, but should be taken with a grain of salt as much of this account is disputed by the film's director)

Yeah he told the kudzo and guns story. An audience member asked he and Mr. Rupkalvis what their favorite 3D Movies were (they didn't name one or mention any). It was also asked if they prefer active or passive and Mr. L said that the system he established utilizes both.