2.35:1?

[Winslow Leach]

Huh. No wonder I can barely watch the R&H VHS tapes of Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music! I never knew they were in that super-hi-def widescreen format!
BJ

Exactly! Those 70mm films are horrible when you watch them scrunched down on a normal-sized TV.

The Kenneth Branagh Hamlet is an absolute mess! If you ever want to convince someone to switch over to widescreen, compare the pan & scan version to the widescreen edition. Hamlet is panned and scanned all over the place! I don't think there's a single scene that isn't p&s. Fortunately the film is making its long-awaited DVD debut on August 14, in a 2-disc SE.

 

[Winslow Leach]

This guy really knows his stuff! I remember seeing a program years back about "Cinerama" movies like How The West Was Won. They used more than one camera to create a panoramic-like picture.

Thanks!

Cinerama actually produced only two feature films (not counting "demonstration" films on the process), due to the cost and complexities of the format: The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and How the West Was Won, both released in 1962.

The less-expensive Ultra Panavision 70 used anamorphic lenses at 2.76:1. The films made under this process didn't require three cameras, but could be projected on the three Cinerama panels, simulating the original Cinerama. Some of the films made in Ultra Panavision 70 include It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World and The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Super Panavision was another less-expensive option than Cinerama, but delivered more or less the same results. Super Panavision used spherical lenses at 2.20:1. Some films made in Super Panavision include Grand Prix, Lawrence of Arabia, West Side Story and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

[Winslow Leach]

It may be interesting to note that Oklahoma! (1955) was shot with two sets of cameras. It was shot in 70mm Todd-AO and the more standard 35mm Cinemascope.

 

[anytimepally]

Fortunately the film is making its long-awaited DVD debut on August 14, in a 2-disc SE.

I'm very excited about this!.. already ordered it

 

[Winslow Leach]

I'm very excited about this!.. already ordered it

I'm going for The Shakespeare Collection box set.

In addition to the Branagh Hamlet, it contains the classic 1935 Warner Bros. version of A Midsummer Night's Dream with James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Olivia de Havilland, Dick Powell and comedian Joe E. Brown; the lavish 1936 Romeo & Juliet, starring Leslie Howard, Norma Shearer, Basil Rathbone, Andy Devine, and, in his only full-length Shakespearean film, John Barrymore; and the 1965 Othello (the only film in the set I haven't seen) starring Laurence Olivier.