CinemaScope One: Stupendous in 'Scope

This book details some very interesting – indeed essential – anamorphic films, plus some equally important wide-screen attractions of the 1950s and 1960s. Leading anamorphic movies covered in exhaustive detail include "And God Created Woman", "Auntie Mame", "Ballad of Josie", "The Black Shield of Falworth", "Comanche Station", "Hombre", "How To Steal a Million", "Imitation General", "John and Mary", "Kissin' Cousins", "The Last Hunt", "The Lion", "Lola Montes", "Love Is a Ball", "Manhattan", "Man of the West", "Marooned", "McCabe and Mrs Miller", "Never So Few", "Never Too Late", "No Love for Johnnie", "No Sun in Venice", "Plunder Road", "Merry Andrew", "Raggedy Ann and Andy", "The Son of Cleopatra", "Star Wars", "Summer Holiday", "The Swan", "10 North Frederick", "Tess of the Storm Country", "They Came to Cordura", "The Three Faces of Eve", "Tickle Me", "Tony Rome", "20,000 Leagues under the Sea", "23 Paces to Baker Street", "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?", "The Wreck of the Mary Deare", "The Year of Living Dangerously", "The Yellow Rolls Royce", "You Can't Run Away from It". "You Lucky People", and "Zulu Dawn". Wide-screen movies lovingly recalled and described include "Gorilla at Large" (in 3-D), "Inferno" (also 3-D), "Johnny Nobody", "Morituri", "Pal Joey", "Robin and the Seven Hoods", and "Strategic Air Command" (in VistaVision). In addition to CinemaScope, other anamorphic processes are described. Also summarized is the historic press conference given by Professor Ernst Abbe in which Abbe pointed out that Fox had wasted well over $6 million dollars developing CinemaScope when they could have used a similar but far, far superior process (namely Franscope or Naturama) entirely free of charge, except for the comparatively piffling cost of the lens. On the other hand, I'd point out that if Professor Chretien had not brought his anamorphic process to the attention of Fox executives, CinemaScope may not have happened at all, and we might still be looking at postage stamp cinema screens. Finally, I'm happy to say that a great many of these movies described in my book, are available right now in 2011 on DVD in their original 'Scope formats. The following review by editor, Ross Adams, appeared in the August 2010 issue of "DRESS CIRCLE", the Movie Enthusiasts and Collectors Magazine: Like John Howard Reid's other books in this series ("Cinemascope Two: 20th Century Fox" and "CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge"), "CinemaScope One: Stupendous in 'Scope" is a worthy addition to your library and no doubt will become a collector's item in years to come. As usual, JHR gives a thorough insight to almost every piece of information sought by the collector and historian. In this edition, he reviews 95 movies. He not only covers well-known and loved movies such as "Auntie Mame, "Pal Joey", "Star Wars", "23 Paces to Baker Street", "Comanche Station", "Hombre", "Manhattan", "Man of the West", "McCabe and Mrs Miller", "Pal Joey", "The Swan", "Three Faces of Eve", "23 Paces to Baker Street", "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" and "Wreck of the Mary Deare", but a large number of less familiar titles. Many of the films reviewed in this book are now available to hire or buy on DVD. John also lists Fox's first 20 CinemaScope shorts. There is also (under an amusing review of "You Lucky People") an outline of the various 'Scope processes. Finally, it's surprising to find how many of these movies have alternative titles. This is yet another feature that makes this excellent JHR guide such a valuable edition to a film enthusiast's library.