movies To paraphrase Dinah Washington, 3D is the thing this year. With a good half-dozen new movies being released in the format, the time is right for the Amazing Double Interlocking Polaroid System 3D Festival, a two-week celebration of classic films from the first golden age of 3D.
Movies: Parkway rolls old-school
By PETER SCHILLING
All the titles are from the 1950s, and some have never been released on video. They include the famous "House of Wax," with Vincent Price, and Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder," but also the thrillers "Gorilla at Large" (the title speaks for itself) and "The Mad Magician" (again with Price), a drama, "Inferno," and, perhaps strangest of all, the musical/drama "Miss Sadie Thompson," with Rita Hayworth and Jose Ferrer.
It wasn't easy bringing these movies to the Parkway Theater. Owner Joe Senkyr-Minjares has nearly wrecked his and his sons' backs hauling projectors up the narrow flight of stairs to the projection booth. Like many theaters, the Parkway had just one projector, where each movie's multiple reels were spliced together on a platter. 3D requires two machines to project separate left-eye and right-eye prints onto the silver screen simultaneously.
The projectors used to belong to Bill Carter, a local movie consultant. Carter is also in charge of projecting the movies, which is no small task. To keep the 3D in synch, the projectors are connected to a GE Selsyn Motor, which keeps the two reels moving at the same speed. Carter will be handling the Polaroid Synchronized Control, a knob that keeps the Selsyn aligned, and it is essential to watch every minute of the films to keep the image from getting blurry. "Yes, that means I'm going to watch 'Gorilla at Large' eight times," he said with a laugh.
The Parkway also had to install a new silver-surface polarized screen in front of the existing one. Of course, viewers will don 3D glasses to see the effect.
This is probably the only time you'll see these movies in their original 3D. The prints are absolutely pristine. "These have only been shown once or twice before," Carter says. The effort will be worth it, he said. "This is a really very elegant way of watching movies."