Herr Future Director
Here’s Andre De Toth, in De Toth on De Toth, on the famous paddle-ball scene from HOUSE OF WAX ~
Andre De Toth: That shot gave me the only problem with the herd of second-guessers. They all wanted more of it; I didn’t.
Bernie Foy knew to get off the stage before the applause dies. Jack Warner saw BWANA DEVIL and the lion jumped out of the screen and unloaded in his lap and he left the show with a blinding headache. JL and Brynie understood what I was trying to avoid. Those overstated effects killed 3D. How many times can a lion crap in the poor suckers’ laps before they rebel?
Anthony Slide: But you were very good at integrating these gimmicks into the film. I’m thinking of, for example, the can-can dancers.
ADT: The properly used power of a third-dimensional film can make the audience believe they are not viewers, but are part of the scene. It was natural that they saw and felt the same derrieres of the can-can girls on their noses as the night-club customers. But not for too long. There is a big difference in concept between a ’3D movie’ and a ‘third-dimensional film.’
It’s too bad none of the other one-eyed directors — which is not a ‘handicap’ — made third-dimensional movies. John Ford, Fritz Lang, Raoul Walsh. They understood film, the power of lenses; they were perfectionists, demanding the best. For them, too, it would’ve been a challenge to overcome a ‘disability’ which is actually a blessing in disguise, shooting flat or 3D.
There is only one image in the camera — it’s on the negative behind the lens at the moment of exposure, and that’s the image of one eye. The director, and not a sketch artist, has to see that image before the camera is set. Remember, Herr Future Director, there is only one right angle. And be big and don’t care who comes up with it, as long as you, the director, feel it’s right. Say thanks, loud, and do it.
Help Shadowplay by buying from Amazon via our links. UK:
De Toth on De Toth: Putting the Drama in Front of the Camera (Directors on Directors)
US:
De Toth on De Toth: Putting the Drama in Front of the Camera (Directors on Directors)
September 22, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Not that I wish to antagonize the still formidable Andre De Toth, but Raoul Walsh *did* make a 3-D film— GUN FURY with Rock Hudson fighting Lee Marvin to rescue the kidnapped Donna Reed—though I believe it was not originally released in its full multi-dimensional splendor. I’ve had a 2-D copy of it sitting on my desk all summer without finding the right time to view it yet, but maybe I should as Time Out enigmatically comments on the “flamboyant” performance of the relliably stolid Rock!
September 22, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Saw House of Wax in 3D in the Theatre too back when I saw It CAme from Outer Space…I still kinda like the older Mystery of the Wax Museum with Lionel and Fay!..Glenda Farrell..a little better..
September 22, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Funny that they don’t talk about Walsh with his one eye making a 3D movie. It almost seems like they handed out 3D movies to cyclopean filmmakers as a matter of preference.
Fritz Lang: “Ach, 3D is only good for erections and conga lines.”
I love Mystery of the Wax Museum and agree it has the edge over its remake. I’m crazy about Dr X too. But oddly I never get around to watching Curtiz’s The Walking Dead. This Halloween for sure…
September 22, 2009 at 10:33 pm
I rather like these 3 D stills !
Oh just back from Newington – my evening class – there is a shop which I keep on passing on the main road which proports to be a specialist in cult and deleted titles on DVD and video. Which might be worth checking out AND caught a rather interesting programme on the portrail of black people in British film on Radio 4 which had all sorts of fascinating films mentioned. it might bw worth checking out the listen again function at Radio 4
September 23, 2009 at 3:12 am
yep..Walking Dead supposed to be out by halloween..with Frankenstein 1970..bucket head monster..
September 23, 2009 at 6:39 am
I always show a clip from DOCTOR X–the climactic scene where Preston Foster transforms himself into a cue ball monster (but adding a tiny toupee)–to illustrate the power of makeup!
September 23, 2009 at 8:16 am
Makeup maketh the man!
The ending of Les Diaboliques would illustrate that idea nicely too, but would involve an even heavier spoiler.