Lorella De Luca and Yvonne Furneaux in CHARGE OF THE BLACK LANCERS (1962)
This is a pretty solid film with one big liability : very few close-ups. Like so many other films released during the PEPLUM explosion, the focus on the use of widescreen often meant few close-ups, and this production is a great example. It's very frustrating, for many reasons, but certainly because Yvonne is such a beautiful woman who should be seen up close. Lorella De Luca appeared in other PEPLUM films. She played Bathsheba in SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR (1958).
I agree entirely regarding the problem of wide screen (2.35:1) movies. One Hollywood director observed in the early 1950s that wide screen is "great for photographing snakes but not people."
ReplyDeleteHollywood thought that both wide screen and color were the keys to fighting against further loss of movie theater attendance to television.
Color got a big boost when Eastmancolor largely replaced the expensive and cumbersome Technicolor process. Admittedly color TV did not become common until the early 1960s. Early color sets were expensive and troublesome (40+ vacuum tubes!!).
TV had the last laugh on aspect ratio. Many films are now shot at 1.85:1 so that they will not be severely cropped when shown on HDTV (1.77:1).