Plaza Ballroom

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It’s A Mad Mad World – 70mm Cinerama – 1965

Plaza Theatre 191 Collins Street, Melbourne, VIC – It’s A Mad Mad World – 70mm Cinerama – 1965

Notes by Eric White – “The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm” finished its run on 2 June 1965. The next day, “ It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” opened in ‘single lens’ Cinerama, with a grand premiere at 7.30 pm. There was a parade of glamorous models with Mad, Mad World hairstyles while the Red Onions Jazz Band played. Then on Friday 4 June it was back to three sessions a day.

Widescreen process

Notes by Eric White – The film was promoted as the first film made in “one-projector” Cinerama. (The original Cinerama process filmed scenes with three separate cameras. The three processed reels were projected by three electronically synchronized projectors onto a huge curved screen.) It originally was planned for three-camera Cinerama, and some reports state that initial filming was done using three cameras but was abandoned. One-camera Cinerama could be Super Panavision 70 or Ultra Panavision 70, which was essentially the Super Panavision 70 process with anamorphic compression at the edges of the image to give a much wider aspect ratio. When projected by one projector, the expanded 70mm image filled the wide Cinerama screen. Ultra Panavision 70 was used to film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Other films shot in Ultra Panavision 70 and released in Cinerama include The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Hallelujah Trail, Battle of the Bulge, and Khartoum.

Notes by Eric White – Super Panavision 70 films released in Cinerama include Grand Prix, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Ice Station Zebra.– Though single lens Cinerama was not as visually effective as the three-strip system, audiences took to it. “ It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” ran for over a year and started the wave of big-screen slap-stick comedies of the sixties. None of the later 70mm Cinerama films did quite as well. The average run was three to four months. “Battle Of The Bulge”, “Grand Prix” and “Khartoum” were some of the shows. “2001: A Space Odyssey” ended the continuous, ten year, Cinerama run. Many people found “ 2001: A Space Odyssey” incomprehensible, and it ran for less than three months. It probably made the best use of the process of any of the Cinerama films, however, and is now considered a classic – Contributed by Greg Lynch –