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Thanks, orbital. I must have missed that.
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Posted: |
Oct 1, 2013 - 8:05 AM
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By: |
CH-CD
(Member)
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THE MIRACLE was originally released on the ABC cinema circuit in the UK on Boxing Day, 1960. It had a lot of good publicity at the time, including trailers shown on ABC Television, one of the earliest films to be so advertised on prime time commercial television at the time in the UK and large, spectacular posters in the broadsheet newspapers. I particularly remember a large poster in the News of the World that I saved at the time and pinned up on my bedroom wall. I went to see the film at my local ABC, the now long gone Empire in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, on Saturday, February 4th, 1961, when I was 13, going on 14 years old and I was mightily impressed, especially with Elmer Bernstein's spectacular and wonderful score, which was pure cinema as it was in those days. The Empire was packed out and I was lucky to get a seat. I even remember the scene that was on the screen when I went in. It was the scene where Teresa is running away from the convent in a night dress and shawl in a terrific thunderstorm and Bernstein's score was going full pelt. It was one of the greatest scores I'd ever heard.
I have the 1975 FMC LP, but, perhaps because Bernstein used a smaller orchestra for the recording and omitted the chorus, the music doesn't sound as spectacular as it did in the film, although the quieter cues sounded very good.
THE MIRACLE was first shown on television in the UK on ATV Midlands in April, 1969 and April, 1971, and on Granada in the north in July, 1971. It wasn't shown again until Channel 5 ran it twice, both times in the early hours of the morning, in March, 2000, and, if I remember correctly, again around 2003. All television showings were in pan and scan.
Yup ! .....I remember going to see it on it's UK General Release, sometime in 1960. It was at one of our local cinemas - The Chantrey, in Sheffield. (The only time I ever went there).
Those were the days when we had 54 individual cinemas in our city...but, that's another story !
I enjoyed it back then, but don't remember too much about it now. I did tape it from one of those "middle of the night" TV airings but still haven't watched it. The Pan & Scan puts me off and i'd rather wait for the super-duper, de-luxe Blu-Ray release 
The UK poster was rather nice, with artwork by Tom Chantrell...
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I'm sure that action packed poster must have made me keen to see the film!
Interesting that Bernstein is credited. It was rare in those days for composers to have their name prominently displayed on the poster.
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Yes, that's the original spectacular British 30 x 40 quad poster, which ran rings around the poorly designed American poster, which features on the cover of the latest CD. I have this British quad, which was also published in black and white in the then broad sheet News of the World and other newspapers at the time, with a list of all the areas of the country you could see it in and when. As it wasn't released in the UK until December 26th, 1960, most people like me, living in the midlands, would not have seen it until early 1961.
TRIVIA: The same Chantrell poster was issued for the film's release in the Irish Republic, with the slight difference that Carroll Baker's black knickers on the bottom left were covered by making her dress come down further over her legs.
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Maybe the negatives haven't been stored properly, Bob, or the film was so popular that too many prints were run off the negative and it needs an awful lot of restoration. Fox had the same trouble with the negatives of THE ROBE, a victim of its own success. But it has been restored so well that the BluRay release makes it look as perfect as it will ever look.
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Posted: |
Oct 1, 2013 - 3:27 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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Maybe the negatives haven't been stored properly, Bob, or the film was so popular that too many prints were run off the negative and it needs an awful lot of restoration. Fox had the same trouble with the negatives of THE ROBE, a victim of its own success. But it has been restored so well that the BluRay release makes it look as perfect as it will ever look.
Of course, with THE MIRACLE, since it was printed by Technicolor as part of its Technirama process, would have more than one negative.
There is the horizontal original camera negative, in Eastman Color. This is probably badly faded or on its way. Additionally, some of the splices are probably broken, and it may have suffered some other storage problems in less-than-ideal storage places, ie. water damage, shrinkage, stretching.
Then, you would have the black-and-white separations (YCMs)---positive and/or negative---necessary to manufacture the matrices for the Technicolor printing process, as well as simple back-up protection for the color film negative. These would not be faded, but they might be shrunken or brittle. The use of these would also mean an expensive reconstituting of the separation negatives (probably by digital scanning and clean-up) in order to manufacture a new color master negative and interpositives of the film.
Whatever way you look at it---problems with the negatives, or problems with the financing for an obscure film---this would be an expensive "fixing" project and probably nowhere uppermost in anyone's mind at the studio.
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Posted: |
Oct 1, 2013 - 7:45 PM
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By: |
CH-CD
(Member)
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Yes, that's the original spectacular British 30 x 40 quad poster, which ran rings around the poorly designed American poster, which features on the cover of the latest CD. I have this British quad, which was also published in black and white in the then broad sheet News of the World and other newspapers at the time, with a list of all the areas of the country you could see it in and when. As it wasn't released in the UK until December 26th, 1960, most people like me, living in the midlands, would not have seen it until early 1961.
You're quite right, David. It was 1961 when we saw it. I just looked it up in my files and it played our (then) downtown ABC theatre - The Hippodrome - Jan 22nd to 28th, 1961. It would have reached the locals a few weeks later, which would be when I saw it.
So...Warners had it on the shelf for a whole year before opening it in London ? It played at the Warner, Leicester Square over Christmas, 1960.
Hmmmm..... They obviously thought that they needed a Miracle !
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CH-CD: I guess that the December 26th, 1960, release date would have applied to initial screenings in central London. Yes, it's odd that there was a whole year between the US and UK releases. THE MIRACLE was actually filmed in the summer of 1958 and, as far as I can recall, I once read that Elmer Bernstein recorded his score for the film in February and March, 1959.
manderley: There were definitely dupe negatives sent abroad to the UK; Australia; New Zealand, ect, so that those countries could make exhibition prints. So maybe Warners should look into the possibility that there may still be source material abroad that they could use...even a 35mm Technicolor - 'Scope print in pristine condition lying in a vault somewhere that has been forgotten about.
I've just received an email from Intrada to say that my order for THE MIRACLE 2-CD set has been fulfilled, so I suppose that means they've posted it to me.
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CH-CD: I guess that the December 26th, 1960, release date would have applied to initial screenings in central London. Yes, it's odd that there was a whole year between the US and UK releases.
The film opened in North London suburban cinemas on 26 December 1960 (as confirmed by Picture House magazine). Films only ran for 7 days, so I must have seen the film during that week. I don't know when (or if?) the film opened in central London but there was usually a gap of several weeks or months before films were then released in the London suburbs. Warner Bros probably realised they had a box-office flop on their hands after the 1959 US openings so sat on it until Christmas 1960.
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I don't know about it being a box office flop, Doug, as it was widely booked on its general release and was extensively advertised on ABC Television. Warners in the UK also had a really colourful and spectacular poster for the film, too, and went to town on newspaper and magazine advertising using that poster design. Consequently, when I went to see the film at my local ABC, the cinema was packed out and I was lucky to get a seat. The film was probably far more successful in the UK than the US and Elmer Bernstein's score really enhanced it.
Warners in the UK had done the same kind of advertising campaign four or five months earlier with HERCULES UNCHAINED, which became the biggest hit of 1960 at the UK box office. The slogan on the poster, referring to the fact that the film opened at the same time at a large number of cinemas throughout the country, stated: "Wherever You Are, You Won't Be Far From Hercules Unchained!"
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Great poster, CH-CD and something from 53 years ago, which was a vastly differant world to today.
By the way, how do you post these images here, as I can't find a way to do it, either bringing an image file in from my computer or from Photobucket.
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Thanks for the info, but I can't seem to get the hang of it at the moment.
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Thanks for the info, but I tried it six times and can't get it to work.
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)
