{"id":10246,"date":"2014-12-15T14:13:58","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T19:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=10246"},"modified":"2014-12-15T14:17:35","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T19:17:35","slug":"a-scent-of-mystery-and-a-holiday-in-spain-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=10246","title":{"rendered":"A Scent of Mystery and a Holiday in Spain – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DianaDors_HolidayInSpain_blogteaser\"<\/a>

Diana Dors smiles through SmileBox… and you’re smiling too, aren’t you?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I had three movie Bibles when I was in junior high school and high school, each of which were bought at local Coles and Classics bookshops.<\/p>\n

Leonard Maltin\u2019s TV Movies<\/a> provided a catalogue of various movies that one might see on TV, and he always noted longer versions few knew existed (few being those around 14 years old in a pre-internet era).<\/p>\n

Leslie Halliwell<\/a> (yeah, I\u2019m that old) was reliable for both his own fat tome on British-centric movies, and an exhaustive and highly important cast & crew book with exhaustive filmographies \u2013 essentially a book version of what you get on the IMDB before the IMDB existed.<\/p>\n

Halliwell was a snob, and had no shame in raising his nose at certain actors or filmmakers he felt responsible for commercial dreck, and Maltin, while more embracing of good-bad movies, nevertheless applied the rating \u201cBOMB\u201d to stinkers which, in some circles and those of certain persuasions, were regarded as classics of film fromage. (To be honest, a BOMB rating was more intriguing than ****.)<\/span><\/p>\n

There were other movie guides \u2013 Steven H. Scheuer\u2019s Movies on TV<\/a> was reliable and contained flicks and TV movies and mini-series not in Maltin\u2019s book, but he started to delete entries to make room for new ones while keeping the page count close to the last. Another focused exclusively on movies released on video (no, not the Videohound<\/a>. That came later) but they were a little too generous with their praise, and I never liked the five star rating. Why add another star that blurred the line between Excellent, Super-Excellent, Super-SUPER Excellent, and Anointed by God?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure each of these books had an entry for Scent of Mystery<\/strong> (1960), but my third movie Bible, after Maltin and Halliwell, was the Medved brothers\u2019 Golden Turkey Awards<\/a>, which catalogued things you just never thought existed, let alone were made, and Scent<\/strong> got more than a write-up in that tome.<\/p>\n

A nominee for worst technical gimmick, Scent<\/strong> was the first & last feature film released in Smell-O-Vision, and that infamy (and the Medveds\u2019 colourful adjectives) ensured Mike Todd Jr.\u2019s production would be forever branded a turd. The movie was out of circulation, never available on tape, so it was an easy target to keep piling on the ridicule for something that couldn\u2019t be seen, assessed, nor a film that could defend itself. Unlike most of the films within the Turkey book, Scent<\/strong> may be the most maligned because it had vanished from sight.<\/p>\n

Cut to Cinerama historian, preservationist, and editor Dave Strohmaier, who decided to tackle the film because it was released in a 3-panel, unscented version by the company that put the real wow-factor into widescreen movies.<\/p>\n

Scent<\/strong> was sold to Cinerama who shortened the film and produced 3-panel versions, and reissued the film as Holiday in Spain<\/strong> (1962). After what sounds like a successful run, it then vanished, languished, and like other Cinerama films, was \u00a0in danger of fading away due to a multitude of technical and storage issues often associated with orphaned films.<\/p>\n

\"HolidayInSpain_BR\"<\/a>Strohmaier\u2019s reconstruction & restoration is amazing, especially when one sees the samples from which he had to extract colour, image stability, and detail, so alongside a review of the new Blu-ray edition of Holiday in Spain<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 a movie I never thought I\u2019d ever see \u2013 there\u2019s a pair of Q&As with Dave Strohemaier and producer Brian Jamieson<\/a>, whose Redwind Productions released the Blu edition that\u2019s available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jamieson, alongside partner Nick Redman, are the minds behind Twilight Time, whose meaty monthly release schedules have proven the market for classic and contemporary films on physical media in special editions isn\u2019t gone. It\u2019s a smaller, more demanding market that’s hungry for more goodies, which is why studios such as MGM \/ UA, Fox, Sony, Universal, and Paramount have licensed their HD transfers of catalogue films to labels like Twilight Time<\/a>, Olive Films<\/a>, Grindhouse Releasing<\/a>, Kino Lorber Studio Classics<\/a>, and Shout! Factory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If the home video market was dead, these lucrative relationships wouldn\u2019t exist. The studios have realized that the era of mega-sales is over, but (modest) monetary gains can happen by opening the libraries to indie labels. It\u2019s smaller scale, but alongside their own on-demand DVD-R divisions, it fulfills the needs of collectors rather than locking up movies in so-called \u2018vaults\u2019 and relying on digital delivery venues.<\/p>\n

If collectors were a puny, unprofitable minority, Shout! and its Scream Factory<\/a> shingle wouldn\u2019t be putting out mega-sets of series and special editions of cult films.<\/p>\n

\"ScentOfMysteryCD_s\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also added an updated review of the Scent of Mystery<\/a> <\/strong>soundtrack album which was produced & released by Bruce Kimmel via his Kritzerland Records<\/a> label, and comes as a bonus disc in the Holiday<\/strong> release. Mario Nascimbene\u2019s score is quite charming, and really resonates in the rich surround sound mix on the Blu-ray.<\/p>\n

Pity there are no surviving Cinerama cinemas in Canada. In the Blu\u2019s detailed and lively commentary track, Kimmel pulls out some promotional ephemera and reads some ad copy on Holiday<\/strong>\u2019s Canadian premiere, which occurred at the old Eglington Theatre in the \u2018alternative\u2019 Cinerama process, the 3-panel Cinemiracle system which Cinerama eventually bought.<\/p>\n

The Eglington was one of the best neighbourhood cinemas in Toronto, and featured fine THX sound and beautiful thirties Art Deco design. When it folded, the city and the neighbourhood lost a wonderful venue for A-level movies, and although it wasn\u2019t knocked down for a parking lot, super-sized drugstore, or condo, it\u2019s not the same thing as an events house (the Eglington Grand). Care was taken to preserve the cinema\u2019s architecture and d\u00e9cor, but it should\u2019ve been able to survive as first-run movie house.<\/p>\n

For some background info & pictures, visit Historic Toronto<\/a> and Silent Toronto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coming next week will be a lengthy podcast interview with Dave Strohmaier, who goes into greater detail on bringing\u00a0Scent\u00a0<\/strong>\/\u00a0Holiday<\/strong> back from oblivion.<\/p>\n

Cheers,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scent of Mystery aka Holiday in Spain makes its premiere debut on home video, and alongside a review of the new Blu-ray, there a review of the Kritzerland soundtrack CD + interviews with Cinerama preservationist Dave Strohmaier and Redwind Productions producer Brian Jamieson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[1333,79,3182,3223,2562,2563,2100,3180,3219,3220,3164,3222,3179,757,3221],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/DianaDors_HolidayInSpain_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-2Fg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10246"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10334,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10246\/revisions\/10334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}