Appreciation Thread for Three-Strip Technicolor

[David]

What are your favorite filmic examples of Technicolor? I mean the kind of lush, florid color environment you want to dive right into. Color that's as ripe as a summer plum, as tantalizing as a kaleidoscope, as kitschy & fruity as a childhood dream of Bavarian kings of old.

Let's hear it for three-strip color!

"Tales of Hoffmann" (Powell & Pressburger)


"Leave Her to Heaven" (John Stahl)


"All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)


"Moon Over Miami" (Walter Lang)

"The Wizard of Oz" (Victor Fleming)


"Singin' in the Rain" (Stanley Donen)

[HomerMcvie]

I've seen some three strip technicolor of the Three Stooges.
Classic, baby!

[ragandbone]

Thank you, technicolor, for the brilliant green of the dress Cyd Charisse wears in "Singin' in the Rain"!

The other film that immediately came to mind was How to "Succeed in Business Without Really Trying", but I wasn't sure whether or not 3 strip technicolor was used at that later date. I pulled this quote from a cinemetography forum:

David Mullen ASC
Apr 19 2006, 10:27 AM
3-strip Technicolor was obsolete by 1955. In the 1960's most productions would have been using 35mm Eastmancolor (Kodak color negative), 50 ASA and then a 100 ASA stock by 1968.

So what you're responding to is mainly art direction and lighting in terms of the level of color saturation, combined with the fact that many releases used Technicolor's dye transfer printing process until the mid 1970's. Probably Kodak's Vision Premier print stock (2393) comes closest to that look, but I'd start with art direction and lighting, using slow film stock and bigger lights.

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2...hp?t13537.html

[becca]

I remember the Shirley Temple movie The Bluebird being very colorful, or else it was my grandparents' early color tv having weird settings. Also the Many Fingers Of Dr.T (not sure I have that title right). The restored Oz and Adventures Of Robin Hood on DVD are very vibrant. I think Robin Hood was before though, what costumes!

I recently saw the old '40s Baron Von Munchausen film from Germany and thought color wise it was quite memorable, but I don't think that could have been technicolor. What about Fantasia or Bambi? Great colors in those.

[David]

Originally Posted by becca

The restored Oz and Adventures Of Robin Hood on DVD are very vibrant. I think Robin Hood was before though, what costumes!

No, "Robin Hood" was definitely a pinnacle of Technicolor (2-strip or 3-strip, I don't know offhand).