Today's producers seem not to be making the same mistake as those in the early fifties. It has taken another fifty years for 3-D to return. Lions leaping off the screen into our laps was something few of us would forget. But for those of us who saw it with pristine prints, and quality projection, it was something to behold. I imagine seeing 'Bwana Devil' in flat projection would be painful. Into the void Fox introduced CinemaScope, a flat wide-screen process, and helped stem the sinking theater system. After about a year, audiences tired of the shoddy productions, and Naturalvision eventually disappeared. 'House of Wax' was one of the rare exceptions. Most producers opted to exploit the stereoscopic effects rather than make good movies. It was quickly followed by 'House of Wax' and others. While the story and production values took a back seat to the illusion of depth, the picture was a hit. They called their process Naturalvision, raised some money to demonstrate the process, and produced 'Bwana Devil'. That opened the door for Gunzberg and his brother-in-law. Cinerama, a cumbersome early widescreen process had come on the scene. Hollywood was searching for any gimmick it could use to bring people back to the theaters. In 1952, television was stomping out movies and movie theaters the way rogue elephants could destroy villages. Gunzburg was, I believe, the optician who connected the use of Polaroid lenses to the making of stereoscopic films. Oboler's brother-in-law was Milton Gunzburg. best known for the radio (and early live TV series) 'Lights Out'. 'Bwana Devil' was the brainchild of radio director, Arch Oboler. I saw it the first day of its first run release at the Chicago Theater in Chicago in 1952.
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