The Official: 3-Strip Technicolor on Blu-ray

[Areyakiddin]

To my eyes, 3-Strip Technicolor is the most beautiful color format. Great films like The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, Singin' in the Rain, Gone With the Wind, The River and The Wizard of Oz are unforgettable not only for their fine performances, superior direction and wonderfully-crafted stories, but for their look.

There's something about those bright, saturated colors that's so pleasing to the eye.

The Digital Intermediate defines it best:

Technicolor 3 Strip

Technicolor is a colour film printing process invented in 1916. It was the most widely used colour process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952 and celebrated for its saturated levels of colour. It was used most commonly for filming musicals such as The Wizard of Oz and Singin' in the Rain and used for Disney’s animated classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia.

"Technicolor" is the trademark for a series of colour motion picture processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation (a subsidiary of Technicolor, Inc.), now a division of Technicolor SA. The process involved capturing the individual colour components red, green and blue on three individual black and white negatives.

Technicolor Camera:


3 Negative Images from Technicolor Camera:


http://www.digital-intermediate.co.u...echnicolor.htm


[I've included blu-rays from different regions. Also, there are a few films included which were filmed in black & white but have 3-strip technicolor sequences or inserts. The Women (1939) is one such example]]

3-Strip Technicolor on Blu-ray:

Full Length Movies:

1935-1939


1940-1944


1945-1949


1950-1957


Collections that Include Movies in Technicolor Not Available Separately (in USA):


B&W Movies with Sequences in Three Strip Technicolor:


4K UHD:

[MifuneFan]

Very nice thread! I agree, the way these are filmed are quite beautiful. Will definitely have to check out some more of these.

[Hypnosifl]

Great thread, but is "Quatermain" a mistake? It seems to be a German blu ray of the 2004 movie "King Solomon's Mines" with Patrick Swayze, not the 1950 Quatermain movie which had "extensive technicolor footage" according to this article (unless the older version is included as a bonus feature or something).

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by Hypnosifl

Great thread, but is "Quatermain" a mistake? It seems to be a German blu ray of the 2004 movie "King Solomon's Mines" with Patrick Swayze, not the 1950 Quatermain movie which had "extensive technicolor footage" according to this article (unless the older version is included as a bonus feature or something).

Good catch! I removed it. The 1950 version has an entry in this site's database but no release date.

[cakefactory]

Suspiria is famously in three-strip technicolor, too, which was obviously incredibly out of the ordinary by the late 70s. (Well, it was printed on it, not filmed, I guess there is a distinction there!)

[Hypnosifl]

This page has some that have blu rays not on your list:

http://www.criterion.com/explore/9-technicolor

[joie]

"Leave Her to Heaven" was filmed with Technicolor, but the video release was derived from non-technicolor materials.

[The Great Owl]

Niagara is a good example of a three-strip Technicolor film, and it looks beautiful on Blu-ray.

Great thread!

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by Hypnosifl

This page has some that have blu rays not on your list:

http://www.criterion.com/explore/9-technicolor

Are you certain all of those are 3-Strip technicolor films? I've checked multiple sites and they don't list films like Bigger than Life.

[CinemaScope]

Some lovely stuff on that list, but I think you'll be editing it for a while. I don't think Bend Of The River has been released on Blu-ray (yet).

And yep, Bigger Than Life shouldn't be there, they didn't do any cinemascope films in three strip, but you could add Anchors Aweigh 1945, Warner have announced that.

To get the real glory of Technicolor, the studio should really have the original three b/w camera negatives, & I don't think that many have survived.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by CinemaScope

Some lovely stuff on that list, but I think you'll be editing it for a while. I don't think Bend Of The River has been released on Blu-ray (yet).

And yep, Bigger Than Life shouldn't be there, they didn't do any cinemascope films in three strip, but you could add Anchors Aweigh 1945, Warner have announced that.

To get the real glory of Technicolor, the studio should really have the original three b/w camera negatives, & I don't think that many have survived.

Thanks for the clarification.

Also, Anchor's Aweigh is listed already.

[Hypnosifl]

Originally Posted by CinemaScope

And yep, Bigger Than Life shouldn't be there, they didn't do any cinemascope films in three strip, but you could add Anchors Aweigh 1945, Warner have announced that.

I'll defer to your knowledge on this, the blurb on the Criterion list is either written very misleadingly or suggests that whoever put the list together didn't do their research, since it talks a lot about how Technicolor is distinguished from later methods like Eastmancolor by its three-strip process, and how at Criterion they have to work extra hard to reproduce the "original vibrancy" of its "eye-popping colors", without any qualifications about later Technicolor movies using a single-strip process.

This thread got me interested, though, so I went ahead and ordered a used copy of this book which both talks a lot about the technical history of Technicolor, and it also "lists every film that was printed in Technicolor and lists them in each category or process". Don't know how long that list will be, but maybe once I get the book I can spend a little time each day going through it in order and seeing which films have blu rays available.

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by joie

"Leave Her to Heaven" was filmed with Technicolor, but the video release was derived from non-technicolor materials.

At one point in time (circa the late 1970's), 20th Century-Fox transferred all their 3-strip Technicolor films to safety film and then trashed the original negatives. So now, unfortunately, almost all of their prints are mastered from secondary, inferior sources.

It's a long story, but when I was in high school, I successfully petitioned a revival theatre in Mansfield, Texas, to show Leave Her to Heaven for a week. They showed a gorgeous silver nitrate print, and I showed up every single night to see it. (The owners finally stopped charging me admission.) Every house, every night was packed. When the theatre finally closed down years later, the film critic for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted that their biggest success had been a revival of Gone With the Wind, but he added that "Leave Her to Heaven, a 1945 Gene Tierney film, attracted customers in droves." I've never forgotten how gorgeous that print was ... cinematographer Leon Shamroy deserved the Oscar he won for that film.

[solaris72]

"Raise the Red Lantern" (1991) was 3 strip technicolor, and is on BD in Germany and France.

[CinemaScope]

Originally Posted by Hypnosifl

I'll defer to your knowledge on this, the blurb on the Criterion list is either written very misleadingly or suggests that whoever put the list together didn't do their research, since it talks a lot about how Technicolor is distinguished from later methods like Eastmancolor by its three-strip process, and how at Criterion they have to work extra hard to reproduce the "original vibrancy" of its "eye-popping colors", without any qualifications about later Technicolor movies using a single-strip process.

Yeah, I think there was some problem with three strip & cinemascope, there's something about it in a book called Widescreen Movies, I'll dig it out & have a look.

A list of films shot in three-strip:

https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/3...2-1955/yecrua/

[Brian81]

Thanks for creating this thread. I like the 'look' of these films.

[Hypnosifl]

Originally Posted by jmclick

At one point in time (circa the late 1970's), 20th Century-Fox transferred all their 3-strip Technicolor films to safety film and then trashed the original negatives. So now, unfortunately, almost all of their prints are mastered from secondary, inferior sources.

Do you know if this is an issue specific to 20th Century Fox, or would there also be a lot of films from other studios that were originally shot in three-strip technicolor but would today only exist as single-strip films?

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by Hypnosifl

Do you know if this is an issue specific to 20th Century Fox, or would there also be a lot of films from other studios that were originally shot in three-strip technicolor but would today only exist as single-strip films?

As far as I know ... and I mean that literally, as far as I know ... Fox was the only studio short-sighted enough to take such an action with their entire library. It's particularly upsetting to me because I have a special affinity for 20th Century-Fox and its classic film library.

[ChuckT]

Working with the original 3 color must have been a real batch! Getting the three in sync, the thought give me nightmares. But if memory serves that (3 color) was replaced by a simpler setup early on. Whatever, it was gorgeous stuff and in some films the process made up for short comings in the story or the acting.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by jmclick

It's a long story, but when I was in high school, I successfully petitioned a revival theatre in Mansfield, Texas, to show Leave Her to Heaven for a week. They showed a gorgeous silver nitrate print, and I showed up every single night to see it. (The owners finally stopped charging me admission.) Every house, every night was packed. When the theatre finally closed down years later, the film critic for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted that their biggest success had been a revival of Gone With the Wind, but he added that "Leave Her to Heaven, a 1945 Gene Tierney film, attracted customers in droves." I've never forgotten how gorgeous that print was ... cinematographer Leon Shamroy deserved the Oscar he won for that film.

Does the bluray reflect it accurately? The images I've seen of it look pretty drab, but screenshots can be misleading. I've been seriously contemplating buying it.