El was in process of being torn down. Christmas at the Hall so movie most likely was Balalaika. Maybe there was another movie for New Years and decorations were kept up.
Would love to know what year this is. Notice the center of the reserved seat mezz is somewhat empty waiting for its patrons for the next show. Mezz looks sold out as the extreme side seats are filled.
This is one of those(good)melodramas that the Music Hall would strangely choose as a holiday film. Despite its happy ending these films were incredibly sad. MGM doesn’t get enough credit for its dramas filled with failure and tragedy. Not everything was Nancy Goes to Rio. In an interview on youtube Dean Stockwell says he never saw it. But then he doesn’t seem to have liked working for MGM very much.
The quad? I would seriously doubt it. Even when I was going to see 70MM revivals in the ‘70s and the theater was still a single screen the screen was flat. Great theater before it was split up. I envy those who saw Sound of Music there.
On youtube in a fairly good print. Well worth seeing. The very beautiful Crain who also had the good fortune to be a very good actress is very wonderful and perfectly syncs It Might as Well Be Spring one of my favorite R and H songs.
Was that because of the box office or were they contractually required to hold it that long by the distributor no matter how empty the reduced Cinemiracle seating?
After the Capitol was turned into a Cinerama house when they played a film in the 1.85:1 ratio like In the Heat of the Night did the borders make the screen fairly small but it still had a curve to it? What about a wide screen Panavision film was the screen made smaller?
Was that the largest screen you saw it on outside the Capitol. Is it a regular movie theater or revival house? I could get there by car. Is it a safe area?
Did you ever get to meet Lockwood or Dullea? They seem to make a lot of appearances.
I haven’t seen the movie since I saw it on the dimension 150 screen at the Rivoli. It seems pointless. However for some reason I have the 4K. it was one of my great Cinema experiences. Unhappily the Capital was torn down before I even knew it existed. Maybe it was just as well. I bet that in back of all the walling for the smaller Cinerama auditorium there was still all the original decoration of the auditorium and the stage and all the stage rigging and equipment and dressing rooms. A time capsule of when the theater was built in the teens. This is when all the great buildings were being torn down in midtown leading to its miserable days in the 70s and 80s and even worse days today.
The actual Easter film was Mr. Billion(I think that was the name.) It’s receipts were so abysmal the Hall quickly replaced it with this. I saw this and I don’t remember a thing about it.
I believe FF still shows film classics however the once ubiquitous double features are a thing of the long ago past. Between the cost of traveling there and the cost of a ticket for one movie I gave up when I was once an avid member.
That Cinerama(though as I said actually 70MM) screen would have been so great for their presentations of films like Spartacus, My Fair Lady, Lawrence and other 70MM films. I guess I’m the last person alive who saw This is Cinerama there. Nobody else has remarked on it for quite a while. It is exactly 50 years ago and I was pretty young but old enough to have been knocked out by it. The film itself not so much as it wasn’t true Cinerama and the print was poor.
It was hardly wall to wall. 50ft was small for a theater that size. I always found it a disappointment. I was used to the Rivoli(when they used the D150 screen) and Warner Cinerama which had truly large immersive screens. But the screen installed for the Cinerama presentation was spectacular. Though no curtain. I guess size is subjective.
As per CC’s recently posted ad it was just a 70 MM film. Not Cinerama. But the Ziegfeld finally got a screen that fit the theater rather than their usual shoebox sized screen for such a large place. Unfortunately they got rid of it. But to see their other 70 MM films presented on it would have been amazing. Like the Times Square road show houses of old.
The US release is better. The Italian release is much too long and the US release ends with the stunning segment with Silvana Mangano. The Italian ends with a painfully unfunny segment about the Bronx cheer totally killing the great final image of the US version.
El was in process of being torn down. Christmas at the Hall so movie most likely was Balalaika. Maybe there was another movie for New Years and decorations were kept up.
Would love to know what year this is. Notice the center of the reserved seat mezz is somewhat empty waiting for its patrons for the next show. Mezz looks sold out as the extreme side seats are filled.
What a beautiful theater and massive wide screen! A tragedy that towns don’t take pride in such buildings.
Amazing how many films the Music Hall played that I never heard of. Never even heard of Lilian Harvey. Nice supporting cast.
Emilia Sherman was to become the choreographer for the Rockettes.
This is one of those(good)melodramas that the Music Hall would strangely choose as a holiday film. Despite its happy ending these films were incredibly sad. MGM doesn’t get enough credit for its dramas filled with failure and tragedy. Not everything was Nancy Goes to Rio. In an interview on youtube Dean Stockwell says he never saw it. But then he doesn’t seem to have liked working for MGM very much.
The quad? I would seriously doubt it. Even when I was going to see 70MM revivals in the ‘70s and the theater was still a single screen the screen was flat. Great theater before it was split up. I envy those who saw Sound of Music there.
I’s like to know what stars like Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald made for these engagements.
On youtube in a fairly good print. Well worth seeing. The very beautiful Crain who also had the good fortune to be a very good actress is very wonderful and perfectly syncs It Might as Well Be Spring one of my favorite R and H songs.
Was that because of the box office or were they contractually required to hold it that long by the distributor no matter how empty the reduced Cinemiracle seating?
This opened in NY at Radio City. One of the very few watchable films to play at the Hall at that time.
What’s happened to this movie? Has anybody seen it except in 1952? A very odd situation.
I understand it could have stayed at the Music Hall to sensational business but Disney needed the money the general release would give him.
After the Capitol was turned into a Cinerama house when they played a film in the 1.85:1 ratio like In the Heat of the Night did the borders make the screen fairly small but it still had a curve to it? What about a wide screen Panavision film was the screen made smaller?
There’s an explanation?
Was that the largest screen you saw it on outside the Capitol. Is it a regular movie theater or revival house? I could get there by car. Is it a safe area? Did you ever get to meet Lockwood or Dullea? They seem to make a lot of appearances.
I haven’t seen the movie since I saw it on the dimension 150 screen at the Rivoli. It seems pointless. However for some reason I have the 4K. it was one of my great Cinema experiences. Unhappily the Capital was torn down before I even knew it existed. Maybe it was just as well. I bet that in back of all the walling for the smaller Cinerama auditorium there was still all the original decoration of the auditorium and the stage and all the stage rigging and equipment and dressing rooms. A time capsule of when the theater was built in the teens. This is when all the great buildings were being torn down in midtown leading to its miserable days in the 70s and 80s and even worse days today.
The actual Easter film was Mr. Billion(I think that was the name.) It’s receipts were so abysmal the Hall quickly replaced it with this. I saw this and I don’t remember a thing about it.
Just watched this on you tube. As good a movie as I remember it being when I saw it as a boy.
From the timings it looks like it’s fairly cut. I’ve got to check my recordings.
A very very different NY.
I believe FF still shows film classics however the once ubiquitous double features are a thing of the long ago past. Between the cost of traveling there and the cost of a ticket for one movie I gave up when I was once an avid member.
That Cinerama(though as I said actually 70MM) screen would have been so great for their presentations of films like Spartacus, My Fair Lady, Lawrence and other 70MM films. I guess I’m the last person alive who saw This is Cinerama there. Nobody else has remarked on it for quite a while. It is exactly 50 years ago and I was pretty young but old enough to have been knocked out by it. The film itself not so much as it wasn’t true Cinerama and the print was poor.
It was hardly wall to wall. 50ft was small for a theater that size. I always found it a disappointment. I was used to the Rivoli(when they used the D150 screen) and Warner Cinerama which had truly large immersive screens. But the screen installed for the Cinerama presentation was spectacular. Though no curtain. I guess size is subjective.
As per CC’s recently posted ad it was just a 70 MM film. Not Cinerama. But the Ziegfeld finally got a screen that fit the theater rather than their usual shoebox sized screen for such a large place. Unfortunately they got rid of it. But to see their other 70 MM films presented on it would have been amazing. Like the Times Square road show houses of old.
The US release is better. The Italian release is much too long and the US release ends with the stunning segment with Silvana Mangano. The Italian ends with a painfully unfunny segment about the Bronx cheer totally killing the great final image of the US version.