Seven Brides for Seven Brothers: An Academic Comparison

With the advent of TV, the movies fought back with ever increasing screen size, multi channel sound and even higher frame rates (sound familiar)... Well, back in the 1950s only a handful of movie theatres were equipped to sceen movies shot in 30fps TODD AA, or multi-camera/multi-projector Cinerama. One way round this was to shoot the movie TWICE!!!! By the mid 1950s, many cinemas could project CinemaScope, so films like The Robe, Svene Brides and Okalhoma were shot with two camera setups to ensure the wides distribution and better box office takings. Sometimes, both cameras would roll at the same time with slightly different angles, but often, entrire scenes were re-staged with differing performances. This Special Project compares one of two such examples that are avaialble for a FULL comparison. The other movie is Oklahoma (tha will also be coming). The entire movie is visible TWICE simulaneously, with a fully annotated captions and side bars detailing how the shots differ. One version was shot in CinemaScope (2:55) and one in a "flat" widescreen (1.77). The CinemaScope version is the one generally screened these days. Another movies that was subjected to this production nighmare was The Black Shield of Falsworth (a fave of mine) but alas is only available in one version.