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Posted: |
Sep 26, 2013 - 10:01 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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.....I always thought that since the film was shot in Technirama 70, that the original soundtrack was in stereo - I seem to recall hearing those tracks were lost . Ill be grateful for those tracks in mono.....
Technirama is a 35mm horizontal shooting medium, not 65/70mm---utilizing 2x35mm frames wide, and similar to VistaVision, but with an anamorphic squeeze to make it wider. Technirama-shot movies are usually printed to vertical-strip 35mm and yield a CinemaScope-wide projected image. Technirama CAN be printed to vertical-strip 70mm film (Technirama 70 or Super Technirama 70) for special engagements (SPARTACUS, EL CID, etc) but it is strictly a printed medium, not a photographic one in 65/70mm. The original point of Technirama, like VistaVision, was to give the final printed image a higher quality.
I don't recall that any engagements of THE MIRACLE were ever printed in 70mm.
The score was most likely recorded in stereo because, of course, a full stereo mix could accompany either 70 or 35mm releases. I doubt that a stereo mix was ever done in this case, however.
It might also be recalled that THE MIRACLE was originally scheduled to be shot in 3-strip Cinerama in the late 1950s during the latter end of the Cinerama travelogue period, but that never happened, and HOW THE WEST WAS WON and THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM were the first and last dramas to use this cumbersome process.
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THE MIRACLE was originally released on the ABC cinema circuit in the UK on Boxing Day, 1960. It had a lot of good publicity at the time, including trailers shown on ABC Television, one of the earliest films to be so advertised on prime time commercial television at the time in the UK and large, spectacular posters in the broadsheet newspapers. I particularly remember a large poster in the News of the World that I saved at the time and pinned up on my bedroom wall. I went to see the film at my local ABC, the now long gone Empire in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, on Saturday, February 4th, 1961, when I was 13, going on 14 years old and I was mightily impressed, especially with Elmer Bernstein's spectacular and wonderful score, which was pure cinema as it was in those days. The Empire was packed out and I was lucky to get a seat. I even remember the scene that was on the screen when I went in. It was the scene where Teresa is running away from the convent in a night dress and shawl in a terrific thunderstorm and Bernstein's score was going full pelt. It was one of the greatest scores I'd ever heard.
I have the 1975 FMC LP, but, perhaps because Bernstein used a smaller orchestra for the recording and omitted the chorus, the music doesn't sound as spectacular as it did in the film, although the quieter cues sounded very good.
THE MIRACLE was first shown on television in the UK on ATV Midlands in April, 1969 and April, 1971, and on Granada in the north in July, 1971. It wasn't shown again until Channel 5 ran it twice, both times in the early hours of the morning, in March, 2000, and, if I remember correctly, again around 2003. All television showings were in pan and scan.
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Posted: |
Sep 27, 2013 - 12:57 PM
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By: |
philiperic
(Member)
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.....I always thought that since the film was shot in Technirama 70, that the original soundtrack was in stereo - I seem to recall hearing those tracks were lost . Ill be grateful for those tracks in mono.....
Technirama is a 35mm horizontal shooting medium, not 65/70mm---utilizing 2x35mm frames wide, and similar to VistaVision, but with an anamorphic squeeze to make it wider. Technirama-shot movies are usually printed to vertical-strip 35mm and yield a CinemaScope-wide projected image. Technirama CAN be printed to vertical-strip 70mm film (Technirama 70 or Super Technirama 70) for special engagements (SPARTACUS, EL CID, etc) but it is strictly a printed medium, not a photographic one in 65/70mm. The original point of Technirama, like VistaVision, was to give the final printed image a higher quality.
I don't recall that any engagements of THE MIRACLE were ever printed in 70mm.
The score was most likely recorded in stereo because, of course, a full stereo mix could accompany either 70 or 35mm releases. I doubt that a stereo mix was ever done in this case, however.
It might also be recalled that THE MIRACLE was originally scheduled to be shot in 3-strip Cinerama in the late 1950s during the latter end of the Cinerama travelogue period, but that never happened, and HOW THE WEST WAS WON and THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM were the first and last dramas to use this cumbersome process.
Thanks for the clarification , Manderley - I wasn't sure about the 70mm . Maybe I was thinking of the roadshow version of SOLOMON AND SHEBA also in 1959 - I know that it was in Technirama and it certainly looked better than a regular 35mm print .
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Posted: |
Sep 27, 2013 - 1:16 PM
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By: |
philiperic
(Member)
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THE MIRACLE was originally released on the ABC cinema circuit in the UK on Boxing Day, 1960. It had a lot of good publicity at the time, including trailers shown on ABC Television, one of the earliest films to be so advertised on prime time commercial television at the time in the UK and large, spectacular posters in the broadsheet newspapers. I particularly remember a large poster in the News of the World that I saved at the time and pinned up on my bedroom wall. I went to see the film at my local ABC, the now long gone Empire in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, on Saturday, February 4th, 1961, when I was 13, going on 14 years old and I was mightily impressed, especially with Elmer Bernstein's spectacular and wonderful score, which was pure cinema as it was in those days. The Empire was packed out and I was lucky to get a seat. I even remember the scene that was on the screen when I went in. It was the scene where Teresa is running away from the convent in a night dress and shawl in a terrific thunderstorm and Bernstein's score was going full pelt. It was one of the greatest scores I'd ever heard.
I have the 1975 FMC LP, but, perhaps because Bernstein used a smaller orchestra for the recording and omitted the chorus, the music doesn't sound as spectacular as it did in the film, although the quieter cues sounded very good.
THE MIRACLE was first shown on television in the UK on ATV Midlands in April, 1969 and April, 1971, and on Granada in the north in July, 1971. It wasn't shown again until Channel 5 ran it twice, both times in the early hours of the morning, in March, 2000, and, if I remember correctly, again around 2003. All television showings were in pan and scan.
what a great post, David-- obviously THE MIRACLE was an important film for you, too.
I do remember the theater and approximate date when I first saw it too- at the Times Theater in Waukegan , Illinois the weekend of Easter - April 16-17, 1960 - it was on a double bill with the 1949 THE LAWTON STORY rereleased as THE PRINCE OF PEACE - a odd Kroeger Babb exploitation film with a real life Passion Play in Oklahoma presented within a contemporary story.
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Thanks, philiperic. Yes, one of the great movie-going experiences of my early teenage years. I've always had a high regard for it. Warner Archive have been promising a wide screen DVD release of it, restored from the original Technirama / Technicolor negatives for a few years now. Last I heard from them earlier this year was that the film had been restored but no release date for it has yet been set. I look on the Warner Archive site every week to see if it's there yet, but no luck so far.
It's not that I have a fabulous memory for the dates of when I went to see films in those days, but I did keep a film diary back then of all the films I went to see, with names of cinemas, dates, ect, which I still have.
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Posted: |
Sep 27, 2013 - 1:57 PM
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By: |
philiperic
(Member)
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Thanks, philiperic. Yes, one of the great movie-going experiences of my early teenage years. I've always had a high regard for it. Warner Archive have been promising a wide screen DVD release of it, restored from the original Technirama / Technicolor negatives for a few years now. Last I heard from them earlier this year was that the film had been restored but no release date for it has yet been set. I look on the Warner Archive site every week to see if it's there yet, but no luck so far.
It's not that I have a fabulous memory for the dates of when I went to see films in those days, but I did keep a film diary back then of all the films I went to see, with names of cinemas, dates, ect, which I still have.
David, I think Ive seen your posts on imdb about THE MIRACLE - where I first posted that WB Archives were planning a release on dvd back in 2011. It is good to know that the restoration is completed - so what is the delay for I wonder.
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Sometimes, I think it will be a miracle if they manage to release it before I die of old age.
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Latest news from Warner Archive about THE MIRACLE DVD release:
"Restoration has been stalled due to technical issues that have yet to be resolved. Very frustrating, but we're not giving up...."
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Well, when I asked them about it on the Warner Archive Facebook page, that's what they told me. However, about six months ago, I was also told by them that the film had been restored, but they had no release date for it as yet. So I really do think that it depends on who answers your question on there and how much they know. At any rate, it looks like my off air pan and scan recording from 2000 with have to do me for the time being.
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Yes, in this day and age of wide screen LCD televisions, there is no room for a many decades old pan and scan version of a wide screen film. It's totally obsolete as a presentation and looks odd, apart from the fact that you can only see 50% of the image at any one time. The strange thing about them saying that they're having problems with the Technirama negative is that they've already released another of their 1959 Technirama - Technicolor features, JOHN PAUL JONES and that looks fine.
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Well, I've just ordered the 2-CD set of THE MIRACLE from Intrada and I hope to have it before the threatened national Royal Mail strike in the UK starts on October 23rd. Hopefully the item should reach me long before that happens. By the cue list on the Intrada site, this looks to be a fantastic 2-CD set...just what fans of the film and the score have been waiting for. It isn't mentioned on Intrada, but I suppose there will be a booklet with the set. There usually is with all soundtrack CDs.
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