We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
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We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
HI STEVE When we hit the mid 1950s Hollywood was under threat from television and to help save itself went in for new big/wide screens and improved processes such as Cinemascope which the likes of 20th Century Fox used.
Paramount plumped for Vista Vision and the 1st Vista Vision film was Bing’s 1954 White Christmas. Conquest of Space and Payne’s Hell’s Island were a Paramount double bill and although the Payne movie was just the 2nd feature on the double bill it was in Vista Vision whereas the space movie wasn’t.
In parts two and three to follow later today I (1) list the first 21 Paramount movies shot in Vista Vision and you will see Hell’s Island on the list and that Bogie’s Desperate Hours was the first black and white Vista Vision film (2) list also films made in the Vista Vision process by other studios including Britain’s Rank Organisation (2) show the connection between Vista Vision and Star Wars.
In short John Payne’s Hell’s Island though just a 2nd feature was part of a pivotal point in Hollywood’s movie production history.
“VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954. White Christmas was the first Paramount film to utilize the VistaVision method, but perhaps the most well-known film to be shot completely on VistaVision is Alfred Hitchcock’s, Vertigo. WIKIPEDIA”
PARAMOUNT VISTA VISION FILMS: FIRST 20 PLUS VERTIGO
White Christmas (1954)
3 Ring Circus (1954)
Artists and Models (1955)
The Desperate Hours (1955) (first b&w film shot in VistaVision)
The Far Horizons (1955)
The Girl Rush (1955)
Hell’s Island (1955)
Lucy Gallant (1955)
The Rose Tattoo (1955)
Run for Cover (1955)
The Seven Little Foys (1955)
Strategic Air Command (1955)
To Catch a Thief (1955)
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
We’re No Angels (1955)
You’re Never Too Young (1955)
Anything Goes (1956)
The Birds and the Bees (1956)
The Court Jester (1956)
Hollywood or Bust (1956)
Vertigo (1958)
The Last 4 Paramount films on which it was fully used were
The Trap (1959)-Richard Widmark
Heller in Pink Tights (1960) – Sophia Loren
It Started in Naples (1960) Gable/Loren
One-Eyed Jacks (1961) – Brando
OTHER STUDIOS USING VISTA VISION COMPLETELY ON CERTAIN FILMS: THE 1st 13
An Alligator Named Daisy (Rank Organisation, 1955)
Doctor at Sea (Rank Organisation, 1955)
Richard III (London Films, 1955)
Simon and Laura (Rank Organisation, 1955)
Away All Boats (Universal Pictures, 1956)
The Battle of the River Plate (Rank Organisation, 1956)
The Black Tent (Rank Organisation, 1956)
High Society (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1956)
House of Secrets (Rank Organisation, 1956)
The Searchers (Warner Bros., 1956)
The Spanish Gardener (Rank Organisation, 1956)
Doctor at Large (Rank Organisation, 1957)
Hell Drivers (Rank Organisation, 1957)
Vista Vision fell out of fashion as a total process on any movie and the last American film completely using it was 1961’s One Eyed Jacks. Hoorah! Brando may not have got many ‘firsts’ out of Cogerson but here he at least gets 2 ‘lasts’ as star and director of the last US film to fully use Vista Vision.
The last non-American companies to use it as a total process were (1) The Soviet Union for 1964’s The Day the Earth Froze and (2) a Korea company in 2003 and (3) 7 Japan companies between 1968 and 1989. However it continued to be used for special effects in some movies. See Part 4
LATER FILMS USING VISTA VISION FOR SPECIAL EFFECTS PROCESS WORK ONLY: THE 1st 14 FILMS
Star Wars (1977)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Caveman (1981)
The Fox and the Hound (1981, CG-like animation, uncredited)
Tron (1982)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
Back to the Future (1985)
Aliens (1986)
RoboCop (1987)
Coming to America (1988)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
The last 5 films to date on which it has been used to assist with special effects are:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2 (2010/2011)
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Captain Phillips (2013)
Interstellar (2014)
Good stuff Bob, very informative. I was reading about Vistavision and Cinemascope recently in old issues of Time magazine I’d been perusing.
While WB ditched their Warnerscope process and went with Fox’s Cinemascope, Paramount decided to stick with Vistavision. What surprised me was that it wasn’t the letterbox 2.35 ratio but just a larger more sharper version of the 1.85 academy ratio that most films were using from the early 50s onwards.
You didn’t mention The Ten Commandments which has to be the most famous and most successful Vistavision film from Paramount.
The last time I ever saw John Payne was in a 1975 episode of Columbo called Forgotten Lady. In the plot he was one of a screen duo who had fallen out of fashion. Janet Leigh the Forgotten Lady of the title was the other half of the partnership and in the Forgotten Lady script they had been the William Powell and Myrna Loy of their day except that Powell was always the senior partner whereas Payne and Leigh in their fictitious partnership had been equals.
Janet is the guest murderess in the Columbo episode and for old time’s sake John’s character tries to cover up her crime. A great nostalgic episode for a 50s buff like me. 84 year-old Sam Jaffe who had played Gunga Din in the some say farcical 1939 Al Leach flick was also in the episode.
CLASSY STILLS/LOBBY CARDS [all or nearly all I think]
1/Caribbean Gold – luscious
2/Captain China
3/Shores of Tripoli
4/Wings of the Navy
5/Slightly Scarlet – one of RKO’s final movies before that studio became extinct.
6/Weekend in Havana
7/Kansas City Confidential/The Secret Four
8/Dodsworth
9/Miracle on 34th Street.
10/Raiders of the 7th Seas.
That last one was on a double bill over here back in 1953 with The Thief starring Ray Milland which had the gimmick of having no spoken dialogue throughout; the only dialogue present in the film is represented through closeup shots of two telegrams. Tag line for The Thief “The only motion picture of its kind.” Oh if only Brando could have landed THAT part – even Steve and Joel couldn’t have complained about his diction!
Another word about Tennessee’s Partner with this quote in Wikipedia about the film’s legacy. “This film inspired one of the greatest hits of The Four Seasons. As the character based on Bob Gaudio explains in the musical Jersey Boys, ‘I’m watching the million dollar movie. Some cheesy John Payne western. He hauls off and smacks Rhonda Fleming across the mouth and says, ‘What do you think of that?’ She looks up at him defiant, proud, eyes glistening – and she says, ‘Big girls don’t cry.’”
BEST 20 POSTER SETS
1/two for Rails into Laramie
2/1st one for El Paso
3/1st one for Caribbean Gold [AKA Caribbean]
4/two for Captain China
5/1st one Shores of Tripoli – Note Payne billed before Randy.
6/first one Hell’s Island
7/FL for Tennessee’s Partner – Rhonda very saucy!
8/Eagle and the Hawk – one of my young pals raved about that one for years.
9/Slightly Scarlet – very raunchy
10/the set for Footlight- Serenade – Payne billed before Grable and Mature!
11/The Great Profile – Barrymore’s real life nickname
12/first one for Saxon Charm
13/first one Springtime in the Rockies
14/Silver Lode – I saw that one the afternoon I left primary school for good.
15/Sun Valley Serenade
16/two for Kansas City Confidential – AKA The Secret Four
17/the set for 99 River Street – shown just in minor cinemas over here.
18/first one for The Boss
19/first one for Dodsworth
20/FL for Miracle on 34th Street
By the 1950s John Payne who had done a lot of soppy stuff in the 1940s had morphed into one of the leading action and adventure heroes in programmers and/or B movies and in my first teen years before I became familiar with who’s who among the various screen performers I would naturally enough confuse John Payne with John Wayne.
Payne never achieved the dizzy heights in either the movie pecking order or my own affections that The Duke did of course but nevertheless I loved going to my two local cinemas to watch the latest Payne movie and he was definitely in those formative years one of my very favourite screen stars.
These are my favourite Payne movies from those days most of which are covered in your video-
Kansas City Confidential/Caribbean Gold/Raiders of the Seven Seas/The Eagle and The Hawk/Hell’s Island/The Vanquished/Rails into Laramie/Tennessee’s Partner/Silver Lode/Road to Denver/Captain China/The Blazing Forest and especially Slightly Scarlet. [In Tennessee’s Partner Payne was Tennessee and Reagan was the partner of the title and he was called Cowpoke.]
You will appreciate from all this that I am naturally delighted to see this John Payne video which attracts a personal 99% satisfaction rating from me. One of your very best for my tastes.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating (ooh), info and trivia, always appreciated. Glad you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
I particularly liked the trivia on Tennessee’s Partner.
I wasn’t very familiar with John Payne before starting work on that video, but I did notice his name popping up on poster art for previous videos.
I’m guessing his best known film to the general public has to be Miracle on 34th Street which also happens to have the best overall rating on the video.
From what I’ve read ‘The Boss’ probably features his best performance though some reviewers thought he played it too nasty and growly, almost a caricature.
Two films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Dodsworth and Miracle on 34th Street. One film scored 9 – The Razor’s Edge.
Top rated at IMDB is Dodsworth, no.1 at Rotten Tomatoes is Miracle on 34th Street.
From IMDB – Payne was very good friends with his co-star Maureen O’Hara, with whom he starred in four films, To the Shores of Tripoli (1942), Sentimental Journey (1946), Tripoli (1950), and their most famous one, the classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947).
He had also appeared with Alice Faye in four films: Tin Pan Alley (1940), The Great American Broadcast (1941), Week-End in Havana (1941) and Hello Frisco, Hello (1943).
With Betty Grable in five films: College Swing (1938), Tin Pan Alley (1940), Footlight Serenade (1942), Springtime in the Rockies (1942) and The Dolly Sisters (1945).
And Rhonda Fleming also in five films: The Eagle and the Hawk (1950), Crosswinds (1951), Caribbean (1952), Tennessee’s Partner (1955) and Slightly Scarlet (1956).
Another video on wednesday.
Steve:
I just answered your John Payne video for the second time. The first time it did not go through. As there is another comment and your reply, I am surprised that happened. I will check Youtube several times to double check my comment is still there. Maybe the first time I pressed the wrong button? If it happens again, I will post here.
Hi Flora, not sure what happened but I did get an email notification and your comment did make it to the video. Thanks for posting!
HI STEVE: Thanks for the feedback and additional information.
Yes The Boss did earn Payne some good reviews back in its day as it brought John probably the furthest he had ever been away from the swashbuckling and cowboy hero roles. As your posters amply show he HAD DONE other gangster flicks such as Slightly Scarlet but in those he played more sympathetic and glamorous characters. The Payne of The Boss who mistreats his wife and ends up behind bars for a killing spree is not the one we were accustomed to seeing on our 1950s screens.
I meant to say that when I watched Payne’s Hell’s Island in 1955 it was on a double bill with Conquest of Space which would probably have pleased you. It was produced by George Pal regarded as primarily a sci-fi/fantasy icon of those days who produced as well Destination Moon/ When Worlds Collide/ the original War of the Worlds/and The Time Machine which Pal also directed. Chuck’s The Naked Jungle was another Pal production.
“CONQUEST OF SPACE: The film’s storyline concerns the first interplanetary flight to the planet Mars, manned by a crew of five, and launched from Earth orbit near “The Wheel”, mankind’s first space station. On their long journey to the Red Planet, they encounter various dangers, both from within and without, that nearly destroy the mission.”
Hi Bob, it might come as no surprise that Conquest of Space is a favorite of mine, I’m a bit envious you watched it on the big screen while it was still new. I’m a big fan of 50’s sci-fi. The only thing spoiling some of them, like Conquest of Space, was an underlying religious subtext.
Added Steve’s Lon Chaney Jr. You Tube Video To This Page. Our thoughts on Chaney’s movies and Steve video found below.
Nice selection…though I have not really seen many of his movies. My tally is 7….but I have always liked his performances. 4 are in the Top 5. Wolfman and Abbott & Costello Meet The Defiant Ones at High Noon. I like how that sentence matches up with your rankings. I have heard of many of these movies…so kudos for increasing my movie knowledge. Voted up and shared
Hi Bruce, I always found Lon Chaney Jr sympathetic in his roles even when he was playing a baddie or a werewolf. He always seemed sad even when he was smiling.
Your tally 7, Flora 10 and I’m leading with 19 thanks to my interest in horror. Thanks again for the vote, share and comment, much appreciated.