Just saw this very movie posted over at Full Movies on YouTube, but—gasp!—colorized!
So these new AI Ted Turners wanna play with their new tech toys, well, that’s all fine and dandy…but leave the noir in Film Noir, thank you. For your viewing pleasure, in the original and glorious black and white, just like the newspaper they’re printin’, the great Humphrey Bogart in Deadline – U.S.A.!
EXTRA! EXTRA! Link: the original trailer in 1080HD!
The clueless philistine Ted Turner from a 1986 Los Angeles Times article.
“The last time I checked, I owned the films that we’re in the process of colorizing,” said Ted Turner. “I can do whatever I want with them, and if they’re going to be shown on television, they’re going to be in color.”
“All I’m trying to do is protect my investment in MGM,” said Turner, who earlier this year paid more than $1.2 billion for the studio’s 3,650-title library of movies. He has announced plans to color such seminal black-and-white films as “Casablanca,” “The Maltese Falcon” and the John Garfield-Lana Turner “The Postman Always Rings Twice.”
“I’m really shocked at the fuss,” he said. “I personally don’t think it makes that much difference in the end. I think editing these movies makes a hell of a lot more difference in how they look, especially when they’re chopped up by 20 or more minutes in order to fit into the time slots. Why aren’t people making a fuss about that?”
“Besides,” he said, “I like things in color. We see in color. Why didn’t they (the protesting film makers) make ‘The Sting’ in black- and-white if they’re so concerned about historical authenticity? I don’t see their point.”
In 1988, Jimmy Stewart made a plea in Congressional hearings, along with Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, film director Martin Scorsese, and many others, against Ted Turner’s decision to ‘colorize’ classic black-and-white films, including It’s a Wonderful Life. Stewart stated, “the coloring of black-and-white films is wrong. It’s morally and artistically wrong and these profiteers should leave our film industry alone.”
Everyone hated the idea so much that Congressional Hearings were held in 1987-88 which led to the National Film Preservation Act of 1988 which gave the principal Director or Screenwriter the right to prevent any “material alteration” of their films.
This was all before he married Jane Fonda. I’d like to think she ultimately had an influence on his taste.
Much as we’re on the same page, it’s interesting to note a couple of things…
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Turner was absolutely right about (at least) one thing, which has become much less a problem in modern times: why didn’t anyone “make a fuss” about chopping up films on American network television to make them fit a time slot or for (worse yet) content? Yes, it’s a rhetorical question but still a legitimate question.
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The major movie studios’ line of thinking then as now hasn’t changed one bit and is exactly in line with Turner’s reasoning: it’s their product and will do as they please with it. It was and still are the artists, not the studios, that, as you stated, worked towards the making of the National Film Preservation Act of 1988. Now the artists are working for, among other things, not having their identities digitized and robbed from them.
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Insightful observation on your part about Jane’s influence. Bravo!
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“Clueless philistine”! I can’t find the quote at the moment but if memory serves, a mentor to E. Graydon Carter once told him more or less to never waste a good epithet. My compliments!
Edit: minor typos
'Short-fingered vulgarian" still makes me giddy. Thanks for the memories. I remember reading that 7 years ago.
“Puddin’ fingers” is another one that recently gave me a chuckle.
“Puddin’ fingers!” Oh, this stuff just writes itself! These knuckleheads are an embarassment of riches!
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Yet another reason to hate so called artificial “intelligence”.
Oooh…hold on there, tiger! 🐯 AFAIC that vote isn’t in yet but I will say this: the AI colorization is far better than (stealing @moonbairn 's epithet) clueless Philistine Ted Turner’s versions, wouldn’t you agree?
I can’t say, as I haven’t seen an AI colorized movie that I know of. Maybe I have and I don’t know, but either way, I definitely agree with you on the Turner versions. They sure screwed the pooch there. They were godawful. I mean they still are. Guess I need to go give the one in the link . Wish me luck.
Well that took all of 2 mins… That is horrible. The credits are atrocious, and the first scene, well his face is colorized, but it didn’t recognize his ears. So his face is in color and his ears are b/w. Also they put in a watermark at the top right. FFS.
Example: https://imgur.com/a/t8606sT
Color(ize) me embarassed!
I’d seen something AI colorized (sorry, can’t remember the example) and I thought it looked pretty good. I need temper the term “pretty good” because it still is obviously colorized. But I hadn’t watched the colorized Deadline – U.S.A. Your screenshot is dreadful! My apologies! In this case you were right the first time: another reason to hate so-called AI! 😄
No need to apologize. Even if it wasn’t this obvious, I would think something like colorization is going to be an individual preference. Something might look fine to you, and just feel off to someone else. I think my overall feeling is that they should just leave things alone regardless. There’s a reason I love these old movies.
🤝
