4.0 out of 5 stars
Cinerama Blu-ray, 7 Feb. 2014



By
David Welford (Essex England) - See all my reviews

(REAL NAME)





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This review is from: Cinerama Holiday [Blu-ray] [1955] [US Import] (Blu-ray)


A friend was very keen to see once again
‘Cinerama Holiday’ which was the second of the original, 3-panel
Cinerama travelogues, released in 1955. We agreed we would share the
cost of approximately £25 for the dual disc package. I would keep the
Blu-ray and he the DVD. The film is a parallel documentary that follows a
Swiss couple on their first holiday to America, landing in Kansas; and
an all American couple from Kansas who take the return flight to
Switzerland for a European holiday. Betty and John Marsh visit St
Moritz, the fabulous Swiss Ski resort; there are plenty of superb
panoramic views and perhaps the highlight of the film, a ride on St
Moritz’s bob sleigh run, which to my mind is equally spectacular to that
the roller coaster- ride in ‘This is Cinerama’. They move on to Davos
to experience the thrills of skiing and discover the joy of singing and
“fondue” in a Swiss tavern! Can you imagine what a severe culture shock
to the Americans when they discover that the Swiss don’t provide bottles
of Ketchup with meals! Meanwhile, Fred and Beatrice Troller visit Las
Vegas and then onto Arizona, famous for the westerns filmed there. In
San Francisco, Fred and Beatrice appreciate how different America is to
Switzerland, and then head east by train to New Orleans and the
experience the home of Jazz!

In the second half Betty and John
travel to Paris, where they meet real French people and visit some of
the city's most famous sights. Meanwhile Fred and Beatrice visit
Washington and from their travels take them onto New York. The finale of
the film comes when the couples meet and swap stories of their travels
and watch a spectacular air show, over and around an American Aircraft
carrier.

This parallel travelogue works really well, though
rather biased towards America. Unlike’ Windjammer’ and ‘This is
Cinerama’ there are no overlong sequences and you are not left with a
feeling that the film is too long! The picture quality is mostly fairly
good for a film that was made nearly sixty years ago, though no where
near as good as ‘How The West Was Won’. There is still an issue on the
panel joins most noticeably in bland blue-sky scenes; one somehow
imagines these could have been eliminated on the computer. On the
extras, we see the famous film critic Leonard Maltin introducing a
digital screening of this restoration in the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood
2013, at which Betty Marsh and Beatrice Troller were present (sadly
their husbands were dead). Of this restoration, he commented that he
thought still seeing the panel joins was part of the charm! Particular
good was Return to Cinerama (22 min), which included a recent video
interview with Betty Marsh York and Beatrice Troller talking about their
memories of the film, interlaced with plenty of clips from the film.
The other extras and behind the scenes stories are well worthwhile
watching, there is even some 8mm Home Movie footage. Also a
documentary, on how the restoration and reconstruction of the film from
the original negatives, which were in a poor state was achieved. This is
another one of those discs where the extras are almost better than the
film! You also get a 28-page reproduction of the original programme.
Most important of all is that it is a Region-Free release. This film
looked fine projected on my 8ft wide screen and if you sat close the
smilebox presentation gives the illusion of Cinerama in your own lounge.
Expensive, but a really good souvenir and undoubtedly the best of the
Cinerama titles I have seen from Flicker Alley.

Ich bin arm, habe nur die beiden BD Player..

Der Kopfist rud damit das Denken seine Richtung ändern kann ....