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Was this filmed in black and white or in color?

posted 10 years ago by MJ_Dangerous
6 replies | jump to latest

I was rewatching this film yesterday and the color kind of seemed off to me for some reason. I never thought much about it before. Was this originally filmed in black and white and later colorized?

"It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation."- Michael Jackson

[–] wmorrow59 10 years ago

This was filmed in color, in 1944. You'll notice in the opening credits, Natalie Kalmus is listed as "technicolor color director." Those are the original credits, and her name was there all along.

[–] MJ_Dangerous 10 years ago

Thank you, I'll have to look at that again.

"It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation."- Michael Jackson

[–] dollvalley 10 years ago

MJ, have you seen many movies from this era? The colors might seem a bit off because movies from the Golden Age always look different, especially the color ones, because of the Technicolor process, although the others as well. That's what makes old movies so special to me, they look so different, so magical, so dreamy.
If you want to see what colorized movies look like, It's A Wonderful Life...looks awful. The colors are totally off and fake. :)

[–] Trax-3 10 years ago

The colors might seem a bit off because movies from the Golden Age always look different, especially the color ones, because of the Technicolor process

It's not the process it's fashion. Technicolor negatives could be printed to look like anything the filmmakers wished. Muted, garish, naturalistic.

This film, while colourful, is not of the garish, over the top variety.

[–] shadaif 9 years ago

Minelli wanted this film to have the look of a painting. Maybe that's why the colors seem a bit off and bright.

"The end of the shoelace is called the...IT DOESN'T MATTER!"

[–] Phillip Marlowe 8 years ago

It's not the process it's fashion. Technicolor negatives could be printed to look like anything the filmmakers wished. Muted, garish, naturalistic.

I'd have to take issue with this. I'm not an expert (though an interested and somewhat knowledgeable layman) and certainly the three strip Technicolor process, which Hollywood began to use in the '30s and abandoned in the mid-'50s, can be used differently in different movies. But this process, with its distinctive highly saturated colors, just naturally looked very different from subsequent color processes.