EZLiver9139 wrote:So tonight, the two main 50s titles, Crockett and Third Man are being presented in some decent form of widescreen. I wonder, though: Is there any evidence as to whether these two are either being shown in their proper theatrical OAR or cropped to tightly fit 16:9 monitors? Your thoughts are always appreciated. IMDB can't always be right, you know.
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier was released to theatres in May 1955, a fair amount of time after Disney had finished experimenting with widescreen formats (beyond 'Scope) and settled upon the 1.75:1 aspect ratio for matted widescreen films. And
Third Man on the Mountain saw release in November 1959, when Disney had truly settled comfortably in the thrifty practice of shooting in 1.33:1, but making sure the frames were 1.75:1 safe for theatrical exhibition.
Their first forays in live-action filmmaking in the 1950s were
Treasure Island (1950) and
The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), both done before CinemaScope and Fox's
The Robe popularized the widescreen format. Before then, widescreen was either experimental (see
The Big Trail or
Napoleon), or used exclusively by Cinerama and their immersive curved-screen travelogue documentaries (
This is Cinerama,
Cinerama Holiday, etc.). When Disney decided to get into the widescreen business with their live-action films, they used
The Sword and the Rose as their litmus test, but also one in which theatres could control the size of the matte. It was billed as being filmed in the "Miracle-Screen" process, which was just a fancy way of saying that the film frame was widescreen safe at any ratio between the unmatted 1.33:1 to the matted 1.66:1. To date (as per the research by AlwaysOAR and disneyfella in the Aspect Ratio thread one can find on this forum),
The Sword and the Rose is the only Disney film that's been cited as actually having a 1.66:1 ratio approved for exhibition.
Generally, any live-action Disney film between 1953 and some point in the late 1970s would have been theatrically projected at 1.75:1, a ratio that wasn't employed by any of the other major studios of the time. Exceptions to this rule were obviously the 'Scope and Panavision features like
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or
Swiss Family Robinson. Most studios who were matting films often did so in the 1.66:1 ratio or the 1.85:1 ratio, the latter which was more commonplace.
Widescreen televisions are 1.78:1, thus making Disney's 1.75:1 ratio the closest to them. Thus, the TCM broadcasts of
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier and
Third Man on the Mountain were quite faithful in that regard, which was a first given that in the past, Disney had only sent 1.33:1 masters to use for some of their live-action films. (I remember in 2008, they sent TCM a 1.33:1 master of
The Shaggy Dog even though the film was released on DVD in widescreen!)
I'm hoping that this paves the way for Blu-Ray releases of these films (well, beyond the bones they've started throwing to Disney Movie Club), given that most of the DVD transfers have often been subpar and obviously from old laserdisc masters.
We have to also remember that during the 1950s/60s, material that was made for television in the US also saw theatrical release internationally, so the idea of protecting the frame for matted exhibition was something that the director and cinematographer had to keep in mind. Thus, while
Davy Crockett began as a three-episode series on "Disneyland" television, Disney already had the foresight to shoot it in color, and with a potential theatrical run planned. Later "Disneyland" serials saw the same treatment.
Johnny Tremain started off production as a two-episode "Walt Disney Presents" serial before it instead was joined together as a theatrical feature (but would later be seen on television in its two-part form). 1963's
The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh is also a good example. It was paired with
The Sword in the Stone as a theatrical double-bill in the UK, then premiered on US television a couple months later in "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color." Live-action fare would thus be acceptable in either the 1.75:1 frame if we're being faithful to its theatrical version, or in the 1.33:1 frame if we wish to preserve the television version.
Albert