70 Mm Festival: "Around The World In 80 Days" 30 frame version comments and questions

I'll be there for a few of these.

Note: If you are a fan of the movie SOUTH PACIFIC, note that Jeff found the original roadshow print that is 20 MINUTES longer than any other version including DVD, etc. 20 minutes that the general public has not seen. 20 minutes that (when they were trimmed) were ASH-CANNED so no negative exists, 70mm or otherwise. This is IT. The print is faded but fans of the movie should not miss it!! It came from England or somewhere like that..

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SEEING THE BIG PICTURE: 70 MM

May 5 – May 10 at The Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood, CA

70mm, like many other motion picture formats such as Cinemascope and Cinerama in the 1950s, was a way of prying folks away from those insidious small screen "idiot boxes" (i.e., televisions) that were starting to deplete the industry’s box office thunder. From Super Technirama 70 to Ultra Panavision to Dimension 150 and more, the 70mm large-screen format promised – and delivered – a Barnum-esque world of spectacular sights and 6-track sounds. If the movies were always larger-than-life, then 70mm movies were MUCH much larger! From 1955 to 1970 – the Golden Age of 70mm Filmmaking – there were nearly 60 Hollywood features shot in large format, with many more released in special engagements as 35mm-to-70mm blow-ups (which still offered superior sound and image quality to their 35mm counterparts). This time around we’re pleased to offer an ultra-rare 70mm screening of AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS (at 30 fps), SOUTH PACIFIC (beautifully restored), Franklin Schaffner’s Oscar-winning PATTON and Douglas Trumbull’s cerebral sci-fi epic BRAINSTORM (which was also Natalie Eood’s final film before her tragic death). Please join us and take a look at the big pictures in 70mm.

Series compiled by Jeff Joseph and Chris D.

Special Thanks: Marilee Womack/WARNER BROTHERS; Schawn Belston & Caitlin Robertson/20th CENTURY FOX; Cary Haber/CRITERION PICTURES; Ray Regis/NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS; Douglas Crapo & Phil Fornabio/SAMUEL GOLDWYN COMPANY; Sabucat Productions.

Friday, May 5 – 7:30 PM

Rare Todd-AO 30 fps 70mm Print!

AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, 1956, Warner Bros., 183 min. This is an original Todd-AO, 30 frames-per-second print; one of the only ones that survives! Very slightly faded color, but in excellent condition otherwise, and a once in a lifetime chance to see the version of the film that won five 1957 Academy Awards (one for Best Picture)! This version is not available on DVD (the DVD is the 24 fps version). Director Michael Anderson adapts Jules Verne’s world-famous classic following turn-of-the-20th-Century gentleman adventurer, Phileas Fogg (David Niven) and his manservant, Passpartout (Cantinflas) as they circle the globe in a hot air balloon. Complete with an astounding cast (some in blink-and-you-miss-‘em cameos) that includes Noel Coward, Charles Boyer, John Gielgud, Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Colman, Buster Keaton, Marlene Dietrich, Robert Newton, Peter Lorre, George Raft, Gilbert Roland and more!

Saturday, May 6 – 6:00 PM

Double Feature:

Brand New Restored 70mm Print!

SOUTH PACIFIC, 1958, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, 151 min. Dir. Joshua Logan. Come see this ultra-rare screening of the restored 70mm musical that has it all, including one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most popular show tunes, "Some Enchanted Evening". Mitzi Gaynor and Rossano Brazzi are star-crossed lovers on the Solomon Islands – she’s from Little Rock, Arkansas and he’s an expatriate Frenchman – threatened by the growing conflict with the Japanese during WWII. Co-starring a great cast, including John Kerr, Juanita Hall, Ray Walston and France Nuyen.

Original 70mm Roadshow Version!

SOUTH PACIFIC, 1958, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, 171 min. (For all those of you who’d like to stick around and see what was cut out of the film before it went into general release – Note: Print is faded) (See above description).

Sunday, May 7 – 6:30 PM

Brand New 70mm Print!

PATTON, 1970, 20th Century Fox, 169 min. Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner. "No dumb bastard ever won a war by dying for his country," growls George C. Scott in the jawdropping opening monologue to PATTON, a war epic that manages to capture the tragic human sacrifice, the bullying megalomania and the patriotic glory of battle, all encapsulated in the incredibly complex and contradictory character of General George S. Patton. Winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Actor, Director and Screenplay (by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North.)

Wednesday, May 10 – 7:30 PM

Ultra-Rare 70mm Screening!

BRAINSTORM, 1983, Warner Bros., 106 min. In virtual reality mode, scientists Louise Fletcher and Christopher Walken invent a way of recording internalized life experiences for later playback, something that transforms the tragic complications that follow into a transcendent, life-changing adventure for Walken and spouse, Natalie Wood (luminously beautiful in her final film appearance). Director Douglas Trumbull (award-winning effects expert for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, et. al.) had to wage an uphill battle to complete the film after Wood’s untimely death, but he still manages to pull out the stops in a series of jawdropping sequences that must be seen on the big screen to be fully appreciated. With Cliff Robertson.

http://americancinematheque.com/mastercalendar.htm

 

Around The World In 80 Days. The 30 frame version is practically a lost film; different acting performances from the more common theatrical version and the DVD, Laser, VHS, etc.

Victor Young music score is mixed differently as well. The late Fred Hynes' (inventor of Todd-AO sound) original mix. 6 channel mag sound.

 

The mix still exists in the form of the "Print Safety" 6 track 35mm mag. However, it has been edited to match the 1968 "short version". Please note that this mix was not done at Todd-AO but at MGM per instructions from Mike Todd. Thanks to Jeff and I it was reunited with the picture elements after 30 years away from the camera negative.

As to picture neg: They have the 1968 30 ips recut but it's missing about 20 minutes of negative trims. Typical UA bullsheet. Jeff and I have been through all of the vaults regarding this movie: UA, Warner Bros. Pictures, Todd-AO. I'd say that we are the top experts on this film anywhere. Not trying to brag but we went on a 10 year odyssey to restore this movie and failed miserably. Not to say we couldn't do it with a little trickery, but it would cost a million bucks. We would need to combine the safety seps, etc. Mike Todd wanted ALL copies of this movie to be printed from the original camera negs in 1956. They did the SAME in 1968 for the cut down reissue. The 1983 even more cut down version was made from an interneg. It was only AFTER that time that someone said "We better make some safety seps". Trims were left in a box and chucked that same year. Problem is that over the years the 24 and 30 frame elements were mixed up with each other, etc. Yikes! So, it's a puzzle. All it would take is money and no one wants to spend it. Such is life!

This is one "Best Picture Oscar Winner" that is truly a lost film in the original roadshow version..

 

Not to pointlessly brag again but it was Jeff Joseph and I (nosing around the Todd-AO vaults) who stumbled upon the "Director's Cut" of BLADE RUNNER; unprojected since the day the print was struck. We got the word out and the next thing we knew, bingo, the print was being used to make a new home video version.... Where is my finders fee!

 

Sorry to disagree with you but that was a single camera shoot and it was projected in 70mm with only one projector. I agree it might have seemed like three, but really it wasn't....Three projector Cinerama was over way before then.

 

I agree, a very exciting film. I saw it at the lowly Reseda Theater in 35mm scope back in 1968 and it was great.