Color movies and related posters (When Worlds Collide)
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I read the thread in The Insider News tracking off to the novel 'When Worlds Collide', and looked up the 1951 movie adaptation at IMDb, curious to see if they had made the movie in color or B/W. The movie is in color - but the 1954 ad poster reproduced in Wikipedia, as well as all the photos from the movie shown at IMDb is is in black and white. Why is that? Was is really that much more expensive in 1951 / 1954 to make color photo prints and color ad posters that you couldn't afford it on a USD 1M budget (note that this is 1 mill 1951 USD!)? Or is there some other plausible explanation? According to IMDb, the movie won an Oscar for Best Special Effects. The trailer (available at IMDb) suggests that the Oscar was well deserved, especially for a movie released 73 years ago!
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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I read the thread in The Insider News tracking off to the novel 'When Worlds Collide', and looked up the 1951 movie adaptation at IMDb, curious to see if they had made the movie in color or B/W. The movie is in color - but the 1954 ad poster reproduced in Wikipedia, as well as all the photos from the movie shown at IMDb is is in black and white. Why is that? Was is really that much more expensive in 1951 / 1954 to make color photo prints and color ad posters that you couldn't afford it on a USD 1M budget (note that this is 1 mill 1951 USD!)? Or is there some other plausible explanation? According to IMDb, the movie won an Oscar for Best Special Effects. The trailer (available at IMDb) suggests that the Oscar was well deserved, especially for a movie released 73 years ago!
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
trønderen wrote:
the 1954 ad poster reproduced in Wikipedia, as well as all the photos from the movie shown at IMDb is is in black and white.
That's odd - the Wiki Page I found has a colour poster: When Worlds Collide (1951 film) - Wikipedia[^]
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I read the thread in The Insider News tracking off to the novel 'When Worlds Collide', and looked up the 1951 movie adaptation at IMDb, curious to see if they had made the movie in color or B/W. The movie is in color - but the 1954 ad poster reproduced in Wikipedia, as well as all the photos from the movie shown at IMDb is is in black and white. Why is that? Was is really that much more expensive in 1951 / 1954 to make color photo prints and color ad posters that you couldn't afford it on a USD 1M budget (note that this is 1 mill 1951 USD!)? Or is there some other plausible explanation? According to IMDb, the movie won an Oscar for Best Special Effects. The trailer (available at IMDb) suggests that the Oscar was well deserved, especially for a movie released 73 years ago!
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
I remember it well! Great movie! And yes, the cost of color printing was quite high compared to black and white. Since most people didn't have color TVs until the early 1970s, we were quite used to seeing things in black and white.
Will Rogers never met me.
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trønderen wrote:
the 1954 ad poster reproduced in Wikipedia, as well as all the photos from the movie shown at IMDb is is in black and white.
That's odd - the Wiki Page I found has a colour poster: When Worlds Collide (1951 film) - Wikipedia[^]
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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trønderen wrote:
the 1954 ad poster reproduced in Wikipedia, as well as all the photos from the movie shown at IMDb is is in black and white.
That's odd - the Wiki Page I found has a colour poster: When Worlds Collide (1951 film) - Wikipedia[^]
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
Perhaps the OP has a black and white monitor... His profile pic is black and white, too. :-D
Will Rogers never met me.
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I read the thread in The Insider News tracking off to the novel 'When Worlds Collide', and looked up the 1951 movie adaptation at IMDb, curious to see if they had made the movie in color or B/W. The movie is in color - but the 1954 ad poster reproduced in Wikipedia, as well as all the photos from the movie shown at IMDb is is in black and white. Why is that? Was is really that much more expensive in 1951 / 1954 to make color photo prints and color ad posters that you couldn't afford it on a USD 1M budget (note that this is 1 mill 1951 USD!)? Or is there some other plausible explanation? According to IMDb, the movie won an Oscar for Best Special Effects. The trailer (available at IMDb) suggests that the Oscar was well deserved, especially for a movie released 73 years ago!
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
Well, George Pal was involved so the Special Effects award shouldn't have been too much of a surprise.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated. I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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I read the thread in The Insider News tracking off to the novel 'When Worlds Collide', and looked up the 1951 movie adaptation at IMDb, curious to see if they had made the movie in color or B/W. The movie is in color - but the 1954 ad poster reproduced in Wikipedia, as well as all the photos from the movie shown at IMDb is is in black and white. Why is that? Was is really that much more expensive in 1951 / 1954 to make color photo prints and color ad posters that you couldn't afford it on a USD 1M budget (note that this is 1 mill 1951 USD!)? Or is there some other plausible explanation? According to IMDb, the movie won an Oscar for Best Special Effects. The trailer (available at IMDb) suggests that the Oscar was well deserved, especially for a movie released 73 years ago!
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
trønderen wrote:
that you couldn't afford it on a USD 1M budget
That is an interesting question. I found it difficult to even find costs. Following might explain that. The American Film Industry in the Early 1950s | Encyclopedia.com[^] Look for the section that say the following "In a period of marginal profits, the control of spending could be crucial to determining success or failure in a particular year." That probably explains it. They wanted to get by as cheaply as possible. Interesting that movie theaters by the numbers were going down in the 50s. Following chart at the end is interesting. You will need to zoom. Notice that attendance is down significantly even from WWII. https://ecommons.udayton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=pol_fac_pub[^]
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trønderen wrote:
that you couldn't afford it on a USD 1M budget
That is an interesting question. I found it difficult to even find costs. Following might explain that. The American Film Industry in the Early 1950s | Encyclopedia.com[^] Look for the section that say the following "In a period of marginal profits, the control of spending could be crucial to determining success or failure in a particular year." That probably explains it. They wanted to get by as cheaply as possible. Interesting that movie theaters by the numbers were going down in the 50s. Following chart at the end is interesting. You will need to zoom. Notice that attendance is down significantly even from WWII. https://ecommons.udayton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=pol_fac_pub[^]