Could Depth Make A 1960 Comeback?
John Wayne as Davy Crockett in 1960 referred to something or other being "dead as a beaver hat." Well, that's about where 3-D laid by that year. The process was chased off screens at least five years earlier. There had been attempts at revival, spotty and local-launched, but a wider public wanted none of it. 3-D had been branded a gimmick from beginning, carny appeal if that. Too many had trouble with the glasses, which even where projectors synched, met resistance of myopia patronage brought with them to seats. This got blamed on the process, management failing to warn that if you had any sort of vision limit, 3-D would exacerbate it. And why, they'd ask, was the picture so dark? We wonder the same with home projection where battery-powered goggles are necessary to watch. Flat screens work better, but manufacturers are dropping the 3-D option from newer models. Sometimes it seems stereo adherents can't win for losing.
September Storm came out recently on Blu-Ray. It is a remarkable job of preservation by the 3-D Archive team of Bob Furmanek, Jack Theakston, Greg Kintz, and Thad Komorowski. September Storm had not been seen in depth from 1960 theatrical dates till these wizards got hold of it, elements being in expected rough shape. Now September Storm look lustrous, par for course of whatever 3-D Archive turns hands to. I always wanted to see September Storm because it was the only 3-D feature I knew of that was also in Cinemascope. Further draw was fact it seemed utterly lost. These first-run ads for
