Blu-ray Robe
I wanted to see The Robe on Blu-ray because I wanted to really see what the very first CinemaScope film looked like in the finest technical sense. I'd seen it once before and knew, of course, that it's not much of a drama. So getting the Blu-ray was strictly a visual looksee deal, and that's what I got. Or all I got, for the most part.
Martyrobe from Hollywood Elsewhere on Vimeo
I've never read a positive critical re-assessment piece of The Robe. It's not an awful film, but it's certainly stiff and treacly and grandiose, and at times is bizarrely over-acted by Richard Burton. There's never been a mainstream genre more tedious or lumbering than that of 1950s religious big-screen epics. They tend to be watchable only for the occasional supporting performance, the stately widescreen photography and the score (since the finest composers were always hired).
The only rich element in The Robe is Jay Robinson's flamboyant performance as Caligula. I've always preferred Demetrius and the Gladiators, the sequel to The Robe in which the squealing Robinson gets a spear through his chest at the climax. It also has Mature, several good gladiator fights, the stabbing deaths of four or five tigers, Susan Hayward, Richard Egan, Ernest Borgnine, and a stirring Franz Waxman score.
So how good looking is the Blu-ray Robe? Much of it is pretty damn beautiful. Or as beautiful as it can be given that the visual elements were never top-of-the-line.
The Robe was shot in 35mm with three or four smallish anamorphic lenses provided by Henri Chretien, a Frenchman who sold his "anamorphoscope" process to 20th Century Fox. In the early days CinemaScope seemed quite the marvel, but in hindsight it was the least of the widescreen processes. It wasn't as rich as the 55mm process used for The King and I and Carousel, or the 65mm and 70mm processes that came along in the mid to late '50s.
The CinemaScope image in The Robe appears muddy and over-saturated from time to time, and the original process gave a squeezed effect to people and elements on the sides of the screen.
But The Robe looks better on Blu-ray than I've seen it look before. It looks better than I ever imagined it might look. Handsome and needle-sharp for the most part, and even painterly at times. So to hell with the movie. Rent or buy this thing just to savor the shots. And to watch the extras, which are all nicely done.
It's odd, however, that the doc about CinemaScope doesn't mention the technical basics. One, the CinemaScope image was made to project an image at 2.66 to 1. Two, pasting a four-track magnetic sound track alongside the image took the aspect ratio down to 2.55 to 1. Three, the addition of an optical soundtrack (demanded by exhibitors) reduced it further to 2.39 or 2.35 to 1. None of this info is considered share-worthy. Weird.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 10, 2009 at 1:48 PM
comment #1
raygo
says ...
Bizarrely over-acted by Richard Burton? No surprise there. I've always liked The Robe. though. Childhood memories I guess.
Now, Demetrius and the Gladiators ... that's a fun epic. Too few Susan Hayward movies have made it to DVD. Personal favorite is The President's Lady, with Charlton Heston playing Andrew Jackson and Hayward as a scandalous Mrs. Jackson. Great melodrama there.
Posted by raygo
at March 10, 2009 3:10 PM
comment #2
AH
says ...
I have tried and tried to ignore it, but I just cannot get how weird Smooth Ford looks on the banner ads. Its distracting as hell.
Posted by AH
at March 10, 2009 3:29 PM
comment #3
BurmaShave
says ...
I was only about 2 years old when Richard Burton choked to death on scenery, but I imagine it had a chilling effect in the acting world.
Posted by BurmaShave
at March 10, 2009 3:35 PM
comment #4
Edward
says ...
When Burton was on; Virginia Woolfe, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, he was wonderful, one of the best.
Posted by Edward
at March 10, 2009 4:46 PM
comment #5
BurmaShave
says ...
Oh no question.
Posted by BurmaShave
at March 10, 2009 5:33 PM
comment #6
Rich S.
says ...
When are they releasing the Blu Ray of The Man Who Would Be King of the Popes? Now there's a Burton performance for the ages (even if it really is John Candy).
Posted by Rich S.
at March 10, 2009 7:05 PM
comment #7
JT
says ...
2.55 is still a VERY wide, incredible image. I remember the first time I saw BEN HUR on a small 32 inch Sony Trinitron for the first time IBX and it was almost dumb to watch it in that. But I liked the look and feel of the image, nonetheless. Always been a widescreen nut.
Posted by JT
at March 10, 2009 7:19 PM
comment #8
prairie_oysters
says ...
The Robe's reputation as the 'first' Cinemascope film is a bit of a cheat. How to Marry a Millionaire, which was released a couple of months later was in fact the first Fox film shot using the process but it was deemed that a Religious/Historical epic was the more portentous genre with which to fanfare the new widescreen process.
How to Marry a Millionaire is the far superior of the two on every level - and oddly, though less concerned with sweeping vistas and crowds of thousands, is the more interesting use of the newly elongated format; serving as it did to allow the four principle leading ladies to straddle the screen in a group mid shot. In the Academy ratio the same four shot would have shown them full length.
Posted by prairie_oysters
at March 11, 2009 6:00 AM
comment #9
Floyd Thursby
says ...
The Robe was the first movie I saw with a sold-out audience, most there to see 'Scope. Still remember where I sat in the balcony with my parents. Also saw How to Marry a Millionaire in a full theater. Folks back home in Redneck, Alabama, loved the wide screen.
Rawhide is a Susan Heyward movie worth seeing on DVD. Almost anything by Henry Hathaway is worthwhile. Saw Heyward in person sans makeup near the end of her life, and she was almost unrecognizable.
Posted by Floyd Thursby
at March 11, 2009 8:47 AM
comment #10
Floyd Thursby
says ...
Hayward.
Posted by Floyd Thursby
at March 11, 2009 9:42 AM
comment #11
moviemaniac2002
says ...
Jay Robinson rules forever! What a hilarious
balls-to-the-wall set of performances in "Robe" and "Demetrius"....he went so far over the top, he's in another galaxy altogether....this guy could seem to work three extra syllables into the
word "Christian!" as he sneered it at Victor Mature......and sadly, the only other role of his
I seem to remember was that of Warren Beatty's middle-aged hairdresser boss in "Shampoo"
Posted by moviemaniac2002
at March 12, 2009 11:01 AM