3-D movies get a bum rap. We’ve all heard the arguments against this most outrageous of cinematic gimmicks: “The glasses are uncomfortable!” “The process makes my head ache!” “Ray Milland’s acting is too wooden – Grace Kelly would never go for such a schmo!”
3-D’s most vexing problem – besides that annoying eyestrain – has always been with its use within a given film’s storyline. Sure, it looks cool to have that jaunty pingponging paddleball whiffing out of the screen and over your head in André de Toth’s House of Wax, but beyond that admittedly minor neat-o factor, what’s the point? Far from being the full-immersion cinematic marvel that movie taglines would have us believe, 3-D filmmaking has always best worked as a surefire way to pull the audience out of the picture, instead of drawing them into the movie, where they belong.
To that, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema says quit your whining already and order another beer. No blue-green eyesores here: Their glasses are of the polarized variety, meaning less wear and tear on audience peepers and more chances for you to say gosh-golly-jeepers. Okay, so we’re suckers for 3-D, but really, who can resist Princess Grace’s Hitchcocked, ice-queen bosom in three-dimensions? You can see our point, yes?
Last week’s 3-D screening of Kiss Me Kate was, according to Alamo owner Tim League, a resounding success, with “Technicolor images exploding off the screen. The polarized lenses we’re using work on essentially the same premise as what’s called the anaglyphic, red-and-blue-lens style of 3-D, but ours is much more intense.”
With their recent acquisition of 3-D projection gear, the Alamo is now one of only six theatres in the U.S. capable of screening the classics of Fifties-era 3-D filmmaking as they were meant to be shown. Dual projectors screen two synchronized prints simultaneously, giving the illusion of depth to Vincent Price’s gleefully melodramatic turns in both House of Wax and The Mad Magician, making the Three Stooges that much more perilous to the retina in “Pardon My Backfire,” and even drawing heavyweight auteur Hitchcock into the faddish ring with his stagey 1952 adaptation of Dial M for Murder (which will be preceded by the 3-D short “Motor Rhythm,” the very first 3-D film, originally shot for the 1938 World’s Fair).
“Earlier this year was a big time for 3-D,” explains League. “The Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles, with the help of an avid film collector who happens to be a friend, put on the world’s largest 3-D expo ever, and some of the studios ended up striking brand-new prints to screen, which is how we got the idea to do our own little expo. With the dual synchronous projectors we’re running, the effect of the 3-D is essentially the very best you can get.”
House of Wax screens on June 17, 7 & 9:45pm; June 19, 5pm; June 20, 5pm
The Mad Magician and the Three Stooges’ “Pardon My Backfire” screen on June 24, 9:45pm; June 26, 5pm; June 27, 5pm
Dial M for Murder and “Motor Rhythm” screen on July 1, 7 & 9:45pm; July 2, 7 & 9:45pm; July 3, 5pm.
All screenings take place at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown; admission is $8. See www.drafthouse.com for more information.
This article appears in June 18 • 2004.