On IMDB the aspect ratio is indicated as 1.85:1, but when I watched this film on TCM recently it appeared to be full-screen.
I'm presuming IMDB's info is faulty since I've always known TCM to show films in their original format, but it still makes me wonder.
Does anyone have a definitive answer for this?
Thanks.
Don't have a definitive answer, but I'm pretty sure that COMBO was shot in four perf academy ratio and would therefore be broadcast full frame on TCM. I last saw it projected at MoMA in New York, maybe ten years ago and I think it was 1.33 (1.37 or whatever the hell academy ratio is exactly). IMDB has tons of technical errors like that. Why not correct it?
shareThanks for your answer.
I researched this a bit more and the consensus seems to be that the original aspect ratio was 1.33:1.
IMDB's technical specs info lead me to believe that perhaps the versions that are available for sale are all "pan and scan," but that doesn't appear to be the case.
UCLA Film and Television Archive recently did a extraordinary restoration of The Big Combo. It's official aspect ratio is 1.66:1 and after watching UCLA's gorgeous 35mm print in that ratio, I can safely say, it IS the right ratio. Kiss Me Deadly and Night of the Hunter, are examples of other films from the mid-fifties that also should be screened 1:66.1
share[deleted]
Was it shot at 1.33 and matted to 1.66, or actually shot at 1.66?
sharethe majority of non-anamorphic films are shot full aperture and matted for their theatrical showings, matted the way the director and cameraman framed the film. Showing these things open matte completely subverts the compositions. The Big Combo was shot in 1954, and would have been shown in 1:85 in every theater in the US.
There are very few films that are hard-matted to their screen ratio on the negative.