This recently rediscovered 35mm Cinemascope Short is a cinematic record of a journey from Milan to Naples, through Florence and Rome, on a streamlined passenger train. Along the way, the film stops at the cities mentioned to view some of the landmarks, both past and present, ending with the climax on the edge of Mount Vesuvius' crater. This short was produced and directed by Otto Lang, who was also involved in directing sequences in the Cinerama travelogues. This was probably one reason 20th Century-Fox chose him to produce and direct this and several other short subjects to show off their new Cinemascope widescreen process.
During the much of this travelogue, you might notice the background music score is part of a composition by the Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. You might wonder, "Why a Russian composer for a film about Italy?". And yes, it is difficult to imagine any reason for doing this. (Unless it has something to do with the fact that Tchaikovsky named the piece 'Capriccio Italien'😉 ).
WARNING:A RATHER TECHNICAL DISCLAIMER FOLLOWS
Although 'Technicolor' is cited in the film's opening title, it appears that Eastmancolor was used for this particular print. Consequently, over the intervening 69-years, the yellow and cyan dyes have all but completely faded away. Even the magenta dye (the most steadfast of the Eastman primary colours) has weakened to light pink. The result of this fading can be observed at its worst during the initial 45-seconds of this video.
The remainder was subjected to intense colour correction in my favourite editing app.
Although I managed to boost the minute amount of remaining yellow and cyan hidden beneath the monochromatic pink layer, the impossibility of creating silk purses from pigs' ears is evident. To make things worse, the optical soundtrack used was Eastmancolor instead of the usual 'silver' b&w track. With a variable area soundtrack, this would have only resulted in lower audio volume but unfortunately, it is a variable density type track. Selective colour fading has caused the ratio between light and dark areas of the track to alter in a non-linear fashion causing severe distortion. At present, there is no method of rectifying this.
Finally, ("at last", I imagine you saying) a quick search on the internet has failed to turn up another example of this short. I would presume, however, that there must be at least one copy surviving someplace. Ideally, this would be a low-fade Technicolor print with 4-track stereophonic sound and no sign of 'vinegar syndrome'😬.
I would also be interested to know of any other Cinemascope shorts directed by Otto Lang.
Негізгі бет Vesuvius Express (1954) The First Cinemascope Travelogue (off faded 35mm print - see description).
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