I saw the film in New York City in 1958 and could swear it was presented in 4-track magnetic stereo. I remember hearing the trigger tone used to switch on the surround speakers.
From everything I've read the first run NYC showing was indeed shown in stereo.
It's a debate that's gone on for years. If I could ever find an old newspaper entertainment section clipping showing the theater ad for it that might finally prove it.
The IMDb lists the sound as being in mono.
The IMDb has been known to have errors. The liner notes of the SAE release of the soundtrack mentions the film being shown in stereo in NYC...I'll dig up the album for the direct quotes. Supposedly there is /was a collector that had the 'only' known stereo print and wouldn't part with it...
Most important is your own recollections. Yes, memory can play tricks but just as a number of 'in the know' people on this board have stated...Nicholas & Alexandra was in stereo and shown in far off places in stereo I recall vividly that the showing I saw at the Criterion Theatre in NY as a Roadshow was in Mono!!!
There are two reasons why I have such a vivid memory of that film. First, I was already cognizant of stereophonic sound in movies. The very first film in magnetic stereo that I saw was "House of Wax" followed by "The Robe" and the following year "The High and the Mighty." I remember wondering why the sound was so lousy when I saw "The Ten Commandments" which ran roadshowed in 1956 using Perspecta Sound, a pseudo stereo process channeling the single optical soundtrack to various speakers. So I knew stereo from mono. The second reason is when I traveled to NYC with my folks in 1958 and my dad me took us to see "The Big Country," the first thing I noticed was how music score stood out with remarkable clarity. I loved the score so much that I instantly wanted the soundtrack. Later when I got it I was disappointed to hear it in mono spread job using a dreadful reverb chamber. In the theater the music sounded like a real orchestra was playing behind the screen. It was that good.
Look what I found! It's a shot of a box of the 1/4" tape copy made by the Goldwyn sound dept. for Composer Jerome Moross. It clearly states that its a mono copy off a stereo master.
I'll bet the original 3-track 35mm masters were either thrown out after the film was completed, erased with the stock used to record some other film score (a common practice back then) or lost or turned to vinegar. What a shame they no longer exist.
Here is how I gage stereo films. I was raised in both New York City, and a small town, Elmira, New York.
My feeling is that if my small town, Elmira, got stereo, it must have been widespread. Here in Elmira, Big country was stereo on both original release and in later reissue. So was United artists TheVikings. So was Giant and Damn Yankees ( but not ajama Game). Sadly, there are a few film collectors who have stereo prints.
The original run at radio City of How to succeed in Business was stereo. It also had the missing Coffee Break number.
Too bad about the stereo recordings of THE BIG COUNTRY. Wish the collector(s) who have such a print would 'lend' them to the owning organizations.
A few years ago the AFI restored THE BIG COUNTRY and I believe that TCM utilized this print for their recent(a few days ago) showing. It looked stunning. Sounded good too but was not in stereo!
Just received this CD of a soundtrack I really love (SILCD1234 MCPS). I have the original LP of the film soundtrack which uses the music elements as used in the film. The recording quality of the LP is so-so because of the technical limitations of a 1958 recording.
The original recording was done on the Goldwyn scoring stage using what was back then state-of-the-art equipment. Sadly, the original scoring masters bit the dust. But a splendid mono copy remained and off it a nice mono CD came out, not once, but twice.
The original UA LP was simply awful. They added far too much artificial reverb.
I saw the film in New York City in 1958 and could swear it was presented in 4-track magnetic stereo. I remember hearing the trigger tone used to switch on the surround speakers.
It's simply the finest score ever written for a western. It's hard to believe that Tiomkin's syrupy mess for "The Old Man and the Sea" won the Oscar that year for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture," beating out Moross's score along with Friedhofer's "The Young Lions" and Raksin's "Separate Tables." Just another example of the members of the Motion Picture Academy being tone deaf.
And just think, Moross once orchestrated for Friedhofer (think of another Oscar winning score, "The Best Years Of Our Lives"!)
Too bad about the stereo recordings of THE BIG COUNTRY. Wish the collector(s) who have such a print would 'lend' them to the owning organizations.
A few years ago the AFI restored THE BIG COUNTRY and I believe that TCM utilized this print for their recent(a few days ago) showing. It looked stunning. Sounded good too but was not in stereo!
There is a dispute as to whether anyone has a surviving original mag striped print. I know a lot of film collectors and not a single one has ever seen it. One fellow I used to know had a 35mm set of Century projectors in his home equipped with the mag 'penthouse' device mounted right under the upper film reel assembly. It was in that box where the magnetic heads were located. He could play 4-track prints. He had several in his collection including a rare Technicolor IB stereo print of "Gypsy." Absolutely breathtaking color!
UA had Technicolor make release prints of "The Big Country" since it was filmed using Technicolor's widescreen system, Technirama. The process couldn't be contact printed in Eastman color except to a horizontal Eastman print and to my knowledge none were ever made. So Technicolor made the prints using an optical printer creating the YCM matrices that were used in printing the dye-transfer imbibition release prints. So any print that survived would still have color that was as good as the day it came out of the lab. Tech IB prints never faded. On the other hand, Eastman Color prints end up with nothing but a pinkish hue to them.
Now there are some 35mm Tech IB prints of the film in the hands of collectors, but not a single one is striped for 4-track. At least none anyone has any knowledge of. Oh, I've heard the usual "I know someone who has one" crap, but when I've pressed them for more info I got absolutely nowhere which told me they were simply making it up.
That said I still believe the film was mixed in stereo and a handful of prints came out magnetically striped.
One thing is for certain. All the music was recorded onto 3 channel magnetic full-coat 35mm film. The copies made onto open reel 1/4" tape for Moross clearly state they were taken from a stereo source.
So where are those masters? Were they tossed? Were they lost? Or could they be rotting away in some vault where no paperwork lists them? Your guess is as good as mine.
In 1958 few people owned stereo equipment which is why most likely Moross got a monaural copy. Too bad he didn't own a stereo tape deck 'cause we'd have been able to hear it in full stereo. The source for the CD release of the soundtrack was off those mono 1/4" tapes owned by the composer.
Why hasn't the restored version of 'The Big Country ' been released on home video ?
Well, it wasn't a full blown film restoration nor was it merely a video enhancement job where negative dirt and scratches are digitally removed along with pumping in color where the negative has faded.
From what I've gathered, the original horizontal 8 perf Technirama negative was in relatively good shape. Just the usual fading that occurs with Eastam color neg along with some minor emulsion and cell scratches. I do know it hadn't faded nearly as badly as with the original negative of "Spartacus" which was unusable when that film restoration was done. To my knowledge all that was done was the original negative was used to create a new dupe negative and from that a new anamorphic Eastman color print. Where the color had faded it was corrected using timing lights an optical printer. Scratches were removed using the 'wet gate' process. All the work was done by YCM Labs in Burbank, California. The new print was screened at the Motion Picture Academy Theater sometime in 2007.
Why hasn't the restored version of 'The Big Country ' been released on home video ?
Anyone's guess. My guess is that with MGM in such financial straits very few films are being released...especially on a relatively new format..Bluray. Again, the print TCM showed was stunning.
Why hasn't the restored version of 'The Big Country ' been released on home video ?
Anyone's guess. My guess is that with MGM in such financial straits very few films are being released...especially on a relatively new format..Bluray. Again, the print TCM showed was stunning.
That said it is on DVD..pre 'restoration'..
The transfer TCM ran has a printed in negative hair (white) at the center top of the letterboxed frame that runs for several minutes. Very annoying. Then there's some very bad bluish blotches during the scene where Chuck Conners and Burl Ives tangle over Conners trying to rape Jean Simmons. They look like chemical stains. I assume for this telecine transfer an IP was used which had the hair printed in.
What would be incredible is if a low con print could be made right off the 8 perf horizontal negative and then scanned using a program to cover that sized frame. FotoKem owned a Rank Cintel telecine set up to handle 70mm. But today Ranks are old technology. Most facilities use a Spirit.
The giant blimped Technirama camera on a crame filming a scene for "The Big Country":
