About Popcorn Guy Expertise I`m pretty good in most every genre of movie, but horror and sci-fi are my best categories. I`m also pretty good on the old studio films of the 30`s - `50`s.
Experience Three walls of videos in my den, and a shelf of reference books. Also have a degree in film criticism, which helps...
Expert: Popcorn Guy Date: 7/10/2005 Subject: war of the worlds 1953
Question I went to the theater in 1953 to see War of the worlds. It was in Technicolor. My friend has found someone who says that it was filmed in black and white and then "colorized." I realize that Technicolor might be a process which added the color after initial filming was done. However, I am maintaining that the movie was released in "Technicolor" only and, to the best of my recollection was not released to theaters in black and white. Can you settle this?
Answer Denny, my friend...
Tell your friend to tell his "someone" that he couldn't be more wrong if he tried... the film was always in color. Remember the Martian "eye" tentacle thing? it had the same color pattern as the old test pattern of "color TV," the blue-red-green triangle pattern.
While it is true that the early Technicolor process touched up existing color sometimes to make it more vibrant, it was more of a film processing technique than "colorization" as we know it now. None of the awful Ted-Turner-ized colorization where all the colors radiated like nuclear waste.
Consider it settled, buddy.... the Martians were always in color...