8mm Forum: Diamonds are a girl's best friend

»	8mm Forum » 8mm Print Reviews » Diamonds are a girl's best friend

UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!

Author

Topic: Diamonds are a girl's best friend

Lee Mannering
Film God

Posts: 3216
From: The Projection Box
Registered: Nov 2006

posted January 30, 2013 06:29 AM

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend
About 150ft Mono sound/Scope
Derann

Here we have a delightful excerpt from the Fox feature film ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ in which Marilyn Monroe delivers the goods in this musical sequence ‘Diamonds are a girls best friend’. This particular clip is of even more interest as it was a Cinemascope test sequence which was also screened at a trade even at the time and reported in the Showman’s Trade Review magazine as ‘the Cinemascope is little short of great’ bit of a shame then the whole film didn’t see the same filming format then what. Anyway, this is a nice collectable reel which is very repeatable and does look great in sprawling scope. The original film used to make it does have a few light lines and slightly faded colour but still quite a view for sure. The original mono sound track is not over brilliant so you may want to seek a re-recording into stereo which is exactly what happened to mine. With the combination of Stereo and Scope Marilyn looks amazing and also sounds it as she belts out this hit song, although we should give credit to Marni Nixon who sang the high notes for her on the sound track perhaps.

Print B+ Sound C (worth re-recording to stereo) Collectability A+

[ January 30, 2013, 08:57 AM: Message edited by: Lee Mannering ]

| IP: Logged

Gary Crawford
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 979
From: Manassas, VA. USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted January 30, 2013 07:07 AM

And of course, the Derann extract from the original flat version of the feature has perfect focus, stunning color and great sound. I often use that little 200 ft reel to demonstrate to novices and others just how great Super 8 can look , given good preprint and careful printing.
It's a stunner. Would like to see the scope version, too.

| IP: Logged

Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted January 30, 2013 12:40 PM

Did you make that box for it? It looks COOL! Thanx 4 the review.

I know ou put up one screenshot in the other section, but could you perhaps put up some more, (especially of Monroe ... pant pant pant! Ehem, pardon me! [Big Grin]

)

--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

| IP: Logged

Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted January 02, 2014 01:06 PM

As requested by Doug, here is my review of this "Cinemascope" title ....

I thought that I would so a separate review of this little rarity, as it does have it's curiosity.

The digest begins with the early era classic "This is a Cinemascope" beginning, with the full FOX fanfare. We then go into the whole dance (or most if it) sequence before Marilyn sings her song.

She then begins it being tempted and doing her "No No NO's!" to then bring in the full song, from beginning to end.

The digest ends at the end of the song with a THE END title which gives away the source of this scope reel. It's from a Marilyn Monroe documentary in scope that was released to theaters and nararated by Rock Hudson.

OK, the question is, is this really a scope release?

The reason why I bring this up is that I remembered having this reel years ago, (this is the same one, with the slightly murky image, on LPP film stock)

... and I also remember reading, on this very forum, that, though this was released in the old school aspect ratio (before scope) used in Hollywood, they did do a test filming, in scope, of this sequence.

Sadly, I must announce, that this little reel, was NOT originally in scope.

The studios, once scope came out, went through they're catalog of films and if they wanted to re-release a classic, they would re-format the ratio of the film to fit into the scope world, (one example is "Gone With The Wind"), but that would mean taking that perfectly square image and cutting off an enormous amount of image info from the top or bottom of the original image.

This is what was done with 'Diamonds". There are numerous times where Marilyn is almost left out of the screen (except for her head) as, in the original filming of it, Marilyn moves up and down through the image, which worked fine with the old ratio, but not with scope, as it is apparent that they simply placed the anamorphic lense in from of the original print, and didn't move it about. I have carefully compared each shot, shot by shot, and it was taken from the original ratio square image, there is not a single difference in the shot, (angles and such)

So, folks, I must say that this specific print, while in scope, is not really in scope, it's just resized from an old academy ratio print. If I were you, I would stick with the FOX digest of this film, if you want the "Diamonds" number.

However, I would love to find this in true cinemascope, if it was ever released on super 8!
Long Live Super 8!!!

--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

| IP: Logged

All times are Central

Printer-friendly view of this topic

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2