Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Colourized Old Movies

I watched an old movie this morning that had been colourized I assume by Ted Tunner. I am not really a fan of the black and whites being tinted but this movie I had never seen before called "Desk Set" 1957 and the colour saturation was much better then others it made it a great film. Well, I guess it always was a great film, now in colour and new to me.

Does this now mean Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn are considered "Persons of colour"

No thanks . Can not do colorized.
After many years I have discovered something. I dont like very many movies at all. Not old ones or new ones. There are a few and they run the gamut. Some old and some new, but no formula guarantee.

As Chad said there's no winning formula I guess.
I saw some WW11 footage that'd been colourized and it was pretty good but I watched a colourized version of "Casablanca" with Mr.Bogart and is was IMO

I think it's sorta cheap and condescending (maybe) to colorize the old B&W movies. It's sorta like taking Michaelangelo's "David" sculpture and paintin' him up with a nice Greek olive tan. Just that 'ole plain alabaster stone's sorta boring, huh? Black and white is an art form. Nice. I'd take B&W photography over color any day.

I agree, but I'm not sure the 1957 "Desk Set" was colorized. Remember old movies that were shot in color even in the same years don't look the same due to the different color processes used.

It was definitely shot in b and w but having never seen it before and the colour was spot on it didn't bug me.

About David being painted, if they just did the fig leaf.... oh, right

Actually Paul, Mac is correct here. The 1957 20th Century-Fox production of "Desk Set" starring Tracy and Hepburn was filmed in and released to the theaters(or "theatres" in YOUR neck of the woods) in "Color by De Luxe"...which was a less costly color film process than the more vivid "Technicolor" of the time. And, because of this "less-vividness" of the "Color by De Luxe" process and film stock, THIS is probably what has given you the impression that this film had been colorized.

Note the fine-print at the bottom of this film's movie poster here...



(...and btw, ALSO notice if you will the COMPLETE lack of ANY "superfluous 'u's" in my reply to you OR within said fine-print text of the above shown movie poster here!!!)

And btw, I agree with the general sentiment here. In my opinion and with most all the regulars at the Turner Classic Movies website(my other favorite place to spend time and discuss another passion of mine), Colorization of classic B&W movies verges on an abomination, as not only hasn't the process been perfected enough at this time to not call attention to itself, but also as some have mentioned in this thread, it isn't how the movies' directors filmed them originally, as it's always a guess as to which color filters on the cameras these directors would've had their cinematographers use while filming them.

This does NOT however have me sometimes wishing John Ford would have used color stock while filming some of his earlier classic John Wayne-starring westerns filmed in the strikingly beautiful Monument Valley area of Utah, OR wishing I could watch Jimmy Cagney dancing and waving Ol' Glory around in vivid Technicolor in director Michael Curtiz's "YANKEE DOODLE DANDY".

Yep Dwight,sometimes it'd be good some of John Wayne as you said for example and sometimes no good.

I remember movies with the big attraction being that it was filmed in Technicolor and it was splashed across the screen and the billboards. One of my favorite movies from the 50s (53 I think but could be off a few years) is The Forbidden Planet and that was in color.

(...and btw, ALSO notice if you will the COMPLETE lack of ANY "superfluous 'u's" in my reply to you OR within said fine-print text of the above shown movie poster here!!!)

---

In deference to yoU Dwight I only U-tilized it in one word I just U-sed it a number of times.

No wonder it looked so much better then anything else I had seen. Who is Turners target audience if not the ones that grew up watching them in b and w ?

TMC is for anyone that is serious about film. Watching old movies is how the great film makers of today learned, it's not the same as filming home movies (videos).

Yea old movies at least have some what of , a realistic dialogue, and the stunts where limited by physics, you can get into the movie much easier.
Now days with impossible stunts generated by computers and rediculous dialogue modern movies suck.

As I get older I find less of what Hollywierd does as intertaining and more insulting to my modest intelligence.

i am a fan of many new movies but over the holidays i sat and watched a long run over several or more John wayne movies (all westerns) and i enjoyed them all a great deal! even the dialouge seems to make more sense LOL

Our daughters were both in high school musicals based on an old movie Guys and Dolls so if we want to watch an old one they are ok with it especially if Donald Oconnor is in it. Fred Astaire rates pretty high too.

Oh, c'mon now, Paul. Do ya really think those two guys can dance and be entertaining at all?!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SND3v0i9uhE

...and...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxPgplMujzQ

(...and that lady here who did as they say "Everything Fred did, but backward and in high heels"...do ya REALLY think they had any talent back then at all???)

Yah you are right those two putzes had not talent at all. If it weren't for the headless dummy in that scene Don would have looked like an amature.

That's my all time favorite clip of Fred & Ginger, it's one of the very few one can actually see her legs, usually she's wearing floor length evening gowns. THOSE LEGS!

If it weren't for colorization my kids would never watch an old movie. Anything in B&W automatically gets turned off.

Yeah Michael, well maybe once they get a little older they'll begin to appreciate great movies such as "Casablanca" for the great dialogue delivered by great actors in them, and will move beyond the point where nothing but action sequences presented in color will be viewed by them as "entertaining".

(...I mean, there's always hope here, as I have to admit it's only been until very recently now that I've begun to appreciate some of the films of the silent era, and of which for many years felt about them just as your kids today feel about B&W movies)

"the silent era" Dwight I can't imagine you part of the silent era unless the background music is the beat of a two cyclinder.

And we can't forget the contribution to musicals the Nicolas brothers gave. This is a sample http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS3BLyhfVdc when they were still kids. They were never the stars of film but part of the majic