Rivoli Theatre

I based my purchase of Commandments 4k on the bluray.com review which was absolutely ecstatic.

Wow. CCI What do you think of the recent 4k of Commandments? I got it but I haven’t seen it yet. Was it a mistake?

And do you think that test reel shown in ‘67 is in anyone’s archive? The only classic films blown up for 70mm release that I’ve known of was the very successful roadshow release of GWTW in '67 and then the very odd choice of The Jolson Story released at the Ziegfeld where I assume a third of the visual information went missing.

GWTW doesn’t bother me so much because that is how I got to know the film when it came to the suburbs in ‘68 where I assume it was show in Panavision. And then in 70mm at the Rivoli in '74 and the Bellevue in Monclair. As wrong as it is it’s stuck in my head as a wide screen movie. I wonder what my reaction would be to it now if a print still existed which I doubt.

Hello-

to vindanpar- I am 99% certain that in the extras for the blu-ray digibook of Dr. Zhivago someone mentions the reason it wasn’t shot in Super Panavision 70 was the cost. I’m guessing Ponti was the deciding vote. of course Lean’s next film the Oscar winning Ryan’s Daughter was. so in that case the producer made the right choice.

Well I saw a few 70mm films on the Rivoli’s large curved screen and there were no focus problems. On the Warner Cinerama’s curved screen as well when they had their 70mm festival. I understand when Lean’s Lawrence was restored he wanted it on a flat screen in London. When Zhivago had its world premiere at the Capitol in NY did he not like the curved screen? Did anybody see it there.

I’m not taking sides here, but why did almost every theater change from a curved screen to a flat screen if there wasn’t a problem. I relocated to LA in 1961. Every 70mm presentation including the Egyptian, Pantages, Fox Wilshire & Cathay Circle had changed to a flat screen. WHY! Why didn’t the Egyptian & Cathay Circle stay with the curved Todd AO screens if they had no focus problems? Again, I’m not taking sides This is what I was told by management & the projectionist.

Saw both Oklahoma & Around the World in the Todd AO 70mm curved screen process in Houston, TX in 1956. After which the theater went to a flat screen for all future 70mm presentations. I worked for the theater company that owned the theater. We were told a flat screen replaced the curved screen as the projectionist couldn’t keep the picture in focus on the curved screen. Either the center of the picture was out of focus or the sides. It was impossible to keep both areas in focus at the same time since the center of the screen was further away from the projector than the sides. They had many complaints from customers. From your previous comments, Houston was not alone with this problem. If you ever have a chance to see a single projection CINERAMA presentation on a deep curved screen, they had the same problem.

The Todd AO screen at the St James in Asbury Park where I saw Hello Dolly had a flat screen and so did Radio City when it showed the Todd AO Airport. It was just another 70mm format it seems.

When the Criterion showed South Pacific I believe I read in the initial reviews it was shown on a large curved screen. The Variety reviewer said the faces looked like Mt Rushmore.

That makes sense that they replaced Angela’s name with Celeste’s and then had to change it back after she returned. So Page had just started when 2001 opened at the Capitol.

This is in response to bigjoe’s comment on the Hollywood Egyptian page concerning D 150 but the response belongs here.

There were only two films produced in D 150-The Bible and Patton at respectively Loew’s State and the Criterion. I did see 2001 here in 1977 presented on the D 150 screen and it was one of the greatest film experiences of my life which I have written about before. I haven’t seen it since because I can’t imagine it on a smaller screen though because it was a very good price I bought the 4k version but I haven’t watched it. The size of the image is such an integral part of the film. I had seen the film as a boy but I had no recollection of it. So when the large curtains started slowly closing in that vast theater at the moment you realized HAL was reading their lips it was a hair raising moment that can never be duplicated again. Especially if you know the film. I had no idea it was coming and it was awesome-a word I rarely use.

I posted a picture of Kubrick with his family at the Capitol 2001 premiere and you see the Winter Garden across the street with Janis Paige in Mame. It was like the world premiere though the film actually had it at the DC Uptown a few days before.

Hello-

in the photo section is an article about the closing of The Sound of Music’s roadshow engagement to make way for The Sand Pebbles. Sallah Hassenein the Vice President of UA theaters at the time is quoted. it also mentions that although the Rivoli had a good relationship with Fox Hassenein and two others exhibitors had filed a $6 million lawsuit against Fox for giving them an “inferior product” in Cleopatra. Cleopatra ran here on a healthy roadshow engagement of 63 weeks. Cleopatra is one of my all time favorite historical epics. plus it was nominated for 8 Oscars and won 4. plus Bosley Crowther the John Simon of film critics named it one of the 10 Best Films of 1963. so I don’t understand by what angle Hassenein deemed the film an “inferior product”?

On the day the box office opened for Fiddler I went that morning. School was closed that day due to a severe storm that made my school inaccessible. Went to a Sat matinee in Nov and it was a sold out performance so it was the only time I saw every seat in the theater filled. Maybe it was filled for action and exploitation films but I don’t know as I had no interest in seeing them which sadly kept me out of the major Times Square houses for long periods at a time. Had it been the 60s I would have been spending a lot of time in them exulting in the showmanship of their roadshow presentations. Just missed them.

Hal Prince had produced the original stage production of Fiddler so we had him to thank for the film at the Rivoli. A block north was his original production of Follies at the Winter Garden(one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in my life and I have refused to see any production of it since) and then a couple of blocks north of that the original production of Fiddler was still playing at the Broadway Theater. It was as if Prince owned Broadway as a thoroughfare from 49th St to 53rd St. Though I never knew him and saw him only once I miss him enormously and his contributions to the theater. He was a giant on the cultural scene of which there are none today and despite dying in his early 90s I thought he would go on like his mentor George Abbott living to the age of 107. I couldn’t imagine NY without him. Taken from us far too soon.

And by the way he also produced the original production of West Side Story providing the Rivoli with another one of its longest running hits. Dear god the talent that existed.

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to Al A. and Mike(saps)on your witty comments on my taste in films. last Fall two films were released that garnered critical praise and both won Oscars. I saw them after all the critical praise had been around for a while and as I was leaving the theater I thought to myself- what were the critics smoking when they were watching the films? either that or REALLY strong brownies. in other words beauty as they say is in the eye of the beholder.