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Author
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Topic: September Storm (1960) 3-D Restoration
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David M. Ballew
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 113
From: Burbank, CA USA
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted December 13, 2016 03:10 PM
I thought some of you might appreciate this write-up I did about the restoration of SEPTEMBER STORM, which had its big screen premiere in Santa Monica last Thursday. Many thanks to anyone who felt moved to make a pledge. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
*****
Almost exactly one year ago, I sat at a big, round table in a side room of a popular Burbank restaurant with six of the biggest 3-D nuts in the whole world. I was in high cotton, let me tell you. Greg Kintz sat at my right hand, Bob Furmanek at my left, and all of us were passing Greg’s Google Cardboard rig from one man to the next, gaping with amazement at a few tantalizing video snippets The Guys had brought to show us.
Bob and Greg told us they had a new restoration in mind, a flick we all had heard of but most had never seen. The film was very much in danger of falling through the cracks, neglected and all but forgotten by a succession of rights holders, and something had to be done to save it. Bob and Greg were thinking maybe it was time to consider a Kickstarter campaign.
Eight months later, with the inestimable help of Eric Kurland of 3-D SPACE, that Kickstarter campaign came to be. In a remarkably short time, the team had raised more funds than anyone had dared hope. And now, some four months later, that film, SEPTEMBER STORM, has been restored by the 3-D Film Archive, and re-premiered earlier tonight at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica.
I was there, and I cannot hope to convey to you how very, very happy I was, and am.
The casual reader—heck, even the devoted film buff—is to be forgiven if she does not know SEPTEMBER STORM. It’s an adventure yarn involving two treasure hunters, one shady and one sunny, who smooth-talk their way onto a yacht and enlist the aid of a poor Spanish playboy pretending at wealth and a peripatetic fashion model with her own low-key lust for gold.
SEPTEMBER STORM is not exactly an “A” picture, but it’s a cut above the average “B.” The gorgeous Joanne Dru all but owns the film for this reviewer, but she is joined by Mark Stevens and Robert Strauss, familiar from a succession of memorable character roles throughout the 1950s, and by appealing newcomer Asher Dann, in his first and only featured role. Old hand Byron Haskin directed much of SEPTEMBER STORM on location in Majorca in the Mediterranean, which gives it a visual splendor and a credibility it could not have had if filmed on a backlot.
(My friend Ed, who has considerable diving experience off our Southern California shores, was my guest at the screening tonight. He tells me the presence of bright red Garibaldi fish and a few remarkably recognizable undersea locations indicate to him that the underwater scenes were filmed in the Pacific Ocean only miles from the Aero Theater, and not in Europe.)
The restoration is everything we’ve come to expect from the 3-D Film Archive. Working from the only surviving elements—left and right anamorphic negatives several generations removed from the OCNs—Greg has done his typical outstanding work, matching the left and right panels, fixing various alignment issues, breathing new life into the faded color, and in general making the film look at least as good, and probably better, than it did upon first release. Thad Komorowski has also brought his expertise to bear, erasing fine lines, scratches, dust and debris. Jack Theakston, who has done so much behind the scenes to further the Archive’s efforts, recreated two key graphics for the film’s credits, including the STEREO-VISION logo. The final results feel close to miraculous.
Much of the stereo on view is beautiful. The film was shot using the same Natural Vision camera rigs employed for HOUSE OF WAX, THE CHARGE AT FEATHER RIVER, and other key titles of the 1950s, and like those films it has strong 3-D with remarkable solidity, depth, and discrete layers of visual interest. But there are baked-in problems that no one can fix, not even the Archive. Occasional extreme close-ups have what I call splayed backgrounds: Left and right image points in the far distance are so far separated that no human spectator can ever hope to fuse them. The result is a kind of shimmering, “abstract” background that bears no resemblance to anything in the real world and can only exist in a 3-D movie. A few close-ups of Ms. Dru are in 2-D, presumably for technical reasons, presumably since day one. But all these are few and fleeting, and do not ultimately spoil the experience.
But now I must tell you, I am by now personally very displeased with the projection standards at the Aero Theater, which employs those widely reviled Dolby 3-D glasses. Several years ago, a screening of THE BUBBLE was spoiled when the projectionist stubbornly refused to tweak the color settings. The result was a dull reflection of the Archive’s fine work on that title. Last year, during a weekend retrospective of vintage 3-D films, two advertised and much-anticipated Three Stooges shorts were quietly dropped when the DCPs were not delivered and no one felt like following up on the matter with Sony. (I know this because I asked, and was given that explanation.) And tonight—tonight, the night of this red letter re-premiere!—the picture onscreen was too soft and much too dim. I’m willing to say right now, this wasn’t a fault in the DCP. While the American Cinematheque (which runs the Aero) has shown a commendable willingness to take stereoscopic cinema seriously, the staff at the venue itself seem painfully indifferent to the medium and its technical requirements. Somebody ought to do something.
If you supported the Kickstarter campaign for SEPTEMBER STORM at or above the prescribed level, Bob tells us you can expect to see your Special Edition Blu-Ray soon. The master is being QC’d and the pressing of the discs will proceed in due time. On your 3-D TV, your home projector, or your head mounted display system, the film is going to be a visual treat, take it from me.
If you did not support the Kickstarter campaign, Bob tells us that Kino Lorber (which has done so much to support vintage 3-D on Blu-Ray) is looking at a commercial release in the spring of 2017. It will make a fine addition to your collection, a small but worthy gem pulled not from the ocean floor, but from a dark and dusty vault by two real-life treasure hunters, both quite sunny—our friends Bob and Greg. God bless those guys.
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David M. Ballew
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 113
From: Burbank, CA USA
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted December 15, 2016 06:16 PM
I thought some of you might appreciate this write-up about a second 3-D restoration that will be on the SEPTEMBER STORM Blu-Ray disc, a super-rare British short from 1953 called HARMONY LANE:
*****
My friend Eric Kurland of 3-D SPACE asked if I’d be willing to deliver special guest Trustin Howard (aka “Slick Slaven”) to the venue for last Friday night’s screening of 3-D RARITIES and HARMONY LANE. I jumped at the chance. There was just one interesting complication: I don’t have a car.
See, I live and work in Burbank. I haven’t had a long commute in years. A bike ride (good for the blood pressure and to loosen the old joints), a long walk (good for the same), or a bus trip (good for honing the virtues of patience and humility) get me back and forth just fine. So, about nine months ago I up and quit driving, and about four months ago I got rid of my car, its expenses and all its hassles. Free at last, as the expression goes.
Now, to be clear, I’m an American: I love cars. And in fact, I was thinking of renting a car to get down to the screening anyway, as I did not trust public transit to deliver me without considerable trouble. So when Eric asked if I could taxi Mr. Howard down, I went straightaway and booked a nice Toyota Prius.
Between the car’s sophisticated instrument panel and my own leftover GPS unit sweetly barking directions at us in a clipped, region-neutral American accent, I felt like I had borrowed Captain Kirk’s car. The only thing missing was a photon cannon, which would have come in handy on the L.A. freeways, let me tell you, along with an energy shield, which would have saved me eleven dollars in add-on insurance.
Trustin and I left his house at the westernmost end of the San Fernando Valley about six o’clock, thinking that with any luck we’d arrive within an hour. It’s a great thing he and I like each other. We spent better than 90 minutes together, most of it at speeds not greater than 12 miles an hour.
Talk about contrasts. Outside the car was a barrage of missiles—heaps of steel, rubber and glass veering here and there without regard to our safety, and precious little regard to their own. But inside, I was treated to charming reminiscence and meaningful words of encouragement from a man I greatly respect.
Trustin paid me two great, very humbling compliments. Early on in the trip, he told me he had read my earlier piece on the SEPTEMBER STORM re-premiere. He liked it a lot, and encouraged me in my writing. Then, when we arrived alive and uninjured at the end of our freeway ordeal, he said, “I don’t think anybody could have done it better, Mike." I was glad I lived to hear those words, what with half the drivers in L.A. out to kill us.
Now, the Velaslavasay Panorama, for those who may not know, is a small cinema in a fairly ordinary L.A. neighborhood not too far from historic Union Square. They tell me it was built more than 90 years ago as one of the first purpose-built cinemas in the city. For some years it was repurposed as headquarters for a tile-layers union, which accounts for the ornate tile work that adorns the front of the building. Somewhere along the way it acquired both a painted diorama of Arctic wastelands (at the top of a suitably creaky and atmospheric spiral staircase) and a full-scale mockup of a Yukon cabin, replete with cot, stove and a supply of paperback novels. Someone told me they held a contest some time ago, and top prize was spending the night inside that cabin. I thought, Wow, that’d be a great prize… for about an hour, until the ghost of Robert W. Service shows up.
But I have come to praise the Velaslavasay Panorama, not bury it. It is small but full of character, and seeing the capacity crowd—a mix of 20- and 30-something artistic types and all the Usual Suspects in L.A.’s 3-D hobby community—made me appreciate that it serves an important purpose even in its second century of existence, hosting events that might not always find a good fit elsewhere.
When we got into the auditorium, Trustin took one look around and realized they were lacking a microphone. Eric Kurland confirmed the fact. This was a potential deal-breaker. If Trustin was to speak, he’d have to do so under his own steam. “I just hope they can all hear me,” Trustin said to me.
Bob Furmanek was there, of course, and he very warmly greeted me and Trustin before the show. We were then all treated to a few key segments from 3-D RARITIES: footage from the 1920s and '30s, THRILLS FOR YOU and NEW DIMENSIONS, and later, after a pause for further remarks from Bob, M.L. GUNZBURG PRESENTS NATURAL VISION 3-DIMENSION and our own Slick Slaven in STARDUST IN YOUR EYES.
The 3-D buffs have by now seen Trustin’s vintage material half a dozen times or more. The younger crowd did not seem to know what to make of it. How are they to recognize spot-on, hilarious impersonations of Ronald Coleman, Cary Grant and Charles Laughton? But the laughs were there, and afterward came a storm of applause. Bob and I assisted Trustin up onto the stage.
Microphone or no microphone, Trustin Howard (“Slick Slaven”) still knows how to wow a crowd, let me tell you. He treated us to a slightly abridged edition of his nightclub stand-up act, and this time the laughs were louder and more plentiful. A pile of people sought Trustin in the lobby at the end of the night to tell him how much they’d loved it. And every one of them seemed to have memorized a favorite line they planned to spring on their friends later on.
But there was one additional highlight that night, the North American premiere of HARMONY LANE. Bob has been very careful to qualify his praise for the film, characterizing it as “charming,” a product of its time and place. Friday night, he made clear that the film might most please those who grew up in England and remembered performers like Max Bygraves and the Beverley Sisters.
I can’t speak for all the young hipsters behind me, nor can I speak for all the 3-D movie enthusiasts in the crowd. But I can tell you emphatically, Trustin and I, we loved it. Loved it.
Yes, HARMONY LANE is a 27-minute, black-and-white short filmed in England in 1953. And yes, it is a product of its time and place. But watching it is about as close as this reviewer expects to come to seeing a night of British vaudeville in all its vigor and variety. Energetic dancers, a stunt roller skating act, a trick juggler, two legitimate ballet dancers, an incredible trio of tap dancers, the lovely and charming singing Beverley Sisters, and at the top of the heap, the aforementioned Mr. Bygraves, who on the evidence of this one film seems to have had a gift for singing popular tunes and for light comedy.
Trustin leaned over and expressed his appreciation for the tap dancers during the screening itself. Their skills were indeed impressive, and it really meant something for an experienced entertainer like Trustin to say, simply, “They are good. Talk about professionals.” And after the show, as we were driving home, he expressed his view (which I share) that the short comedy bit with Mr. Bygraves was clever and funny.
(Just because I’ve singled out a few key acts for praise, don’t assume the rest are dogs. There is one—literal—trained dog act, very amusing, but every entertainer featured is at the top of his or her game, and lends great entertainment value to the picture.)
A disclaimer card at the head of the film warns us that the juggler’s segment survives in one eye only, and therefore had to be presented in 2-D in this restoration. This is a pity, as the stereo on view in the rest of the short has all the virtues I personally have come to expect from British stereography of the 1950s. It is disciplined work, with just enough parallax to make for a pleasant viewing experience. The few instances of negative parallax (“off-the-screen” 3-D) that I perceived are handled with technical aplomb, and are so subtle that the casual observer might be forgiven for thinking they’re not there at all. I happen to think one happy consequence of Bob’s rediscovery of this hitherto forgotten 3-D gem is that it provides one more blueprint for present-day Hollywood: See. This is how you make a 3-D film that is easy and comfortable to view, but which provides pleasant roundness, discrete layers of visual interest, and enough parallax to make it worth the spectator’s while.
Bob Furmanek really had to fight entrenched misimpressions to get this film restored. The BFI had left and right elements on it, but insisted it had not actually been filmed in 3-D until he personally begged them to check the leaders. Now, thanks to Bob and Greg, along with virtuoso guitarist and 3-D enthusiast Brian May and a host of other patrons, HARMONY LANE has been restored for future generations to enjoy.
If you supported the Kickstarter campaign for SEPTEMBER STORM at or above the prescribed level, you will soon receive your Special Edition Blu-Ray, which will include HARMONY LANE as a bonus. Otherwise, the short will be included in the commercial release of SEPTEMBER STORM, coming from Kino Lorber in spring 2017. Either way, you're in for a treat.
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