Heat

In the early to mid 80s, Turner was colorizing a ton of old black and white films, to the dismay of movie fans. Of course, this led the fans to buy up the black and white versions, and joe six-pack to pick up the colorized versions, so overall sales increased.

I haven't heard (or seen) anything about the movies since that time. Any idea of what finally happened?

If you have never seen one, it's weird. It just wasn't natural and certainly didn't "improve" the movie.

Panda Phil

Obviously it finally occured to the folks at Turner that the muddy, crappy looking end result just wasn't worth the time and money, or the flak they were getting from the film community.

renaldow

They went away, basically. I don't know if TCM shows them at all, but I know TBS and TNT don't. Staying away from the morality of it, technically the colorization was very poor and all they ended up doing was spending a lot of time and money on something that nobody really wanted. At best it was taken as a gimmick when it was released, not unlike a 3D version of the film. Not even your 'Joe 6 packs' were fans of it. Most were viewed out of curiosity but didn't go beyond that with anyone.

The process made the film fairly unwatchable to the average eye as the process involved didn't naturally color the film, it relied on taking scenes and painting them with a common color. In other words, a scene taking place in an office might be entirely brown aside from the clothing, at a shop everything might be yellow, again accept for clothing, etc. I remember the downfall being when they did a Frank Sinatra movie (I forget the title) and gave him brown eyes. There was great outcry about that and I believe it was the last movie they colorized. Sinatra of course was known as 'Old blue eyes'

rennervision

Colorized films would mark the first moment I lost respect for Ted Turner, and as the years went on I became more convinced he was a moron. I remember seeing him as a guest on Arsenio Hall, and he was vehemently defending his belief that no one wanted to watch black and white movies anymore. (And Arsenio had the entire interview presented in black and white.) I seem to remember Turner's new-found convictions went to the most absurd extremes which included even colorizing B&W episodes of Gilligan's Island shown on TBS.

Anyways, not too long ago I noticed the Disney channel showing a colorized version of the Absent-Minded Professor. I don't even think you can find a B&W version on video or DVD. Its as if they want to pretend the original B&W never existed.

I admit, however, that perhaps the colorizing technique had improved over the years. When I first watched "Professor," I didn't realize it was originally B&W, and also didn't spot right away it was colorized like so many other movies I had seen in the past that appeared so obviously fake. This one looked more to me like it was merely a very old print of the film with faded color. (Disclaimer: Please note this is not an endorsement for colorization and I still hold true to the belief that if a movie was to be in color - they would have made it in color in the first place!)

DRG

The worst use of colorization I've seen is Night of the Living Dead. I recorded this one Halloween back in the 80s, thinking it was the normal b&w version. When I finally got around to watching it, it was in color... really awful color... I don't know who thought a candy colored NotLD was a good idea, but it makes a horror classic look like just another laughable b-movie released in the era.

Pants

The Criterion Laserdisc of Casablanca contains a couple minutes of the colorized version as a suplement. I hope the new DVD has it. It was a mistake bordering on blasphemy, but it's interesting to see none the less.

Does anyone know all the titles that were colorized? Casablanca obviously. I've also seen They Were Expendable (they couldn't make the water look natural) and The Longest Day.

flixtime

I guess I'm alone on this, but I'm not nearly as opposed to colorization as others seem to be. I'd even go so far as to say - given the films I prefer (War/Westerns) - I am very much pro-colorization.

I'm a big fan of John Wayne and Errol Flynn. Turner colorized quite a few of their black and white films. In addition those just mentioned by DVDTalker Pants (They Were Expendable and The Longest Day), I recall that these Wayne films were also colorized (not a complete list, just those I seem to recall as being colorized):

Fort Apache
Rio Grande
The Fighting Seabees
The Fighting Kentuckian
Sands of Iwo Jima
Back to Bataan
Flying Tigers
Allegheny Uprising

Among Flynn films:
They Died With Their Boots On
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Objective Burma!
Captain Blood

I just think most, if not all, of the above play better in color (even if not the most natural looking) vs. black & white.

While I'd agree that a number of classic films (I'm thinking of Cagney gangster films in particular) are better presented in the original black & white, I'd have to go pro-colorization for a lot of the old War/Western films (with some exceptions (not that these were ever colorized but just as an example) such as The Ox-Bow Incident, maybe too High Noon, among others).

One more point before I forget, I would definitely be in favor of DVD releases of these films having the black & white version on one side of the disc and the colorized version on the other (like they already do with many current releases having widescreen on one side and full-screen the other).

If someone has it available, I too would be interested in reading a complete list of the films colorized by Turner.

Off to find some body armor..........

Scot1458

king kong was a travesty.

Pants

You better find it fast

While being a curiosity to see, I don't see how anyone can endorse a colorized version. High Noon better in color???!!! Are you joking? You say you prefer color, but the colorized versions looked awful! They looked worse than any color process.

The Antipodean

I just can't see the merit in colorization... even the "tinted" version of "Metropolis" looked horrible to me. Can you imagine "Citizen Kane" in color, say? It would destroy half of what makes the film so special. I'm glad the colorization "fad" is one that seemed to die off quickly.

AnonymousMan

I have a colorized version of "It's A Wonderful Life". It's pretty bad....

majorjoe23

In one of his last interviews, Orson Wells said "Tell Ted Turner to keep his crayons away from my movies." A great quote.

Dimension X

According to the IMDb:

Pants

Thanks, although that list doesn't name two colorized movies I've seen: Casablanca and They Were Expendable

Looks like they did a lot of cartoons. I've never seen a colorized cartoon. what is this "coloring over every other frame" thing all about?

Dimension X

I don't recall ever seeing any colorized cartoons either.

As for the 'coloring over every other frame' thing":

http://cztoondb.tripod.com/cztoondb/...unes/index.htm
http://cztoondb.tripod.com/cztoondb/laddqaart.htm

Dimension X

http://cztoondb.tripod.com/cztoondb/popeye/index.htm

MartyMcSuperfly

The Doctor Who listed here was indeed colorized, but it's not an abomination. The orignal work was indeed in color, but the broadcast masters were destroyed in the late 60's. The only surviving copies of those episodes were black and white transfers (and some NTSC tapes that were badly in need of some color correction).

It was attempted as an experment to see if the old episodes could be restored - but was abandonded as too expensive (at the time).

renaldow

Those aren't all Turner colorized though, Turner didn't do anywhere near that many films.

caligulathegod

I always wondered why the Porky Pig cartoons looked so crappy when I was a kid. They used to stutter and the color was always off. Now I know. I was in my 30s before I realized they made Black & White Looney Tunes.

Dimension X

I was too lazy to edit the list.

Crocker Jarmen

Scott1458:
king kong was a travesty.


That's the one movie I always think of in regards to colorization. The one thing I share in common with my father is that KING KONG is our favorite movie. However, he PREFERS the colorized version. It is the version he has on VHS in his library. At least once a year we get into a big argument about how terrible I believe it is, and how much better the colorized version is to him. When I told him about the KING KONG DVD finially coming out he said, "It better have the real version" ie, the colorized abortion.

flixtime

Is it safe to come in yet? Hey, that wasn't so bad (though perhaps some of the familiar faces here might be giving me a free pass on my somewhat pro-colorization stance). I half-expected to see a post in the Feedback & Support forum to have a pro-colorization post become cause for banishment from the forum (j/k).

I'm certainly more inclined to stand with you guys on films like Citizen Kane, It's a Wonderful Life, etc. It's just that I truly feel most War and Western films benefit more than not from colorization. My earlier comments might have been a little unclear but I was saying that of course there might be some exceptions - Ox-Box Incident and High Noon - to my pro-colorization stance on Western/War films (note: the 2 aforementioned example were not colorized, I am just using them as an example of films I like which, in all likelihood, are better in their original black & white). As an aside, for some reason I seem to recall that High Noon was colorized at some point but I guess I'm mistaken.

And..... thanks Dimension X for posting all those lists. Also, I think you and I touched very briefly upon this topic of colorization in a thread from some months ago. If I remember correctly I was commenting on how I much preferred the colorized version of Flynn's They Died With Their Boots On because I felt color helped the film (highlighted even more Custer's non-traditional light-brown coat vs. the standard dark blue uniform, etc.). You were both gracious and diplomatic in your response.

Has anyone here watched a film called Lonely are the Brave? It's sort of a modern-Western from 1962 (yet filmed in black & white) and starred Kirk Douglas (terrific performance from Douglas by the way). on the film. But while watching it I kept thinking that I wish someone would colorize it. There were some magnificent shots of the landscape that I truly wish were in color. Plus there were some scenes with characters looking through binoculars where what they were looking at was very difficult for the viewer to pick up. I think colorization would have made it a little easier. And "yes", I do realize that in the real world sometimes things are difficult to pick up while looking through binoculars. Anyway, I'm not trying to stir things up, but I'm just being candid since it came to my mind so recently. I feel that, if the technology were available and/or cost-efficient at the time Directors like Michael Curtiz and Raoul Walsh would have filmed titles like Captain Blood, Charge of the Light Brigage, and They Died With Their Boots On in color. Naturally if someone like Orson Welles says to leave his work in black & white and/or if the film was shot in black & white for artistic reasons then by all means leave it as is. I most certainly could be wrong, but I don't think every Director of classic film would be so adverse to having their work colorized since they might have chosen to shoot in color themselves if it were either available at the time or cost-efficient. Shooting in color was expensive and subject to budgetary restrictions in the early days, right?

While we're at it, would someone know the answer as to why John Ford filmed 1 part (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon) of the his cavalry trilogy in color and the other 2 (Rio Grande, Fort Apache) in black & white. Any reason in particular? Was it for artistic reasons? The films were released over 3 consecutive years with the middle one being in color.

And to dig myself in even deeper, I'll pick The Longest Day since it is a film many might be familiar with. I like the colorized version because seeing the various uniform colors as opposed to shades of gray, I feel adds more to the characters. Uniforms and being able to tell who's who is a key component (I suppose) in battle, I think the colorized version better represents that. Plus the fiery explosions, etc. Also, I can't think of a film in particular (Gunga Din or Charge of the Light Brigade maybe), but seeing troops of the British Empire in colorized red uniforms is more appealing to me than just plain black & white. Though, in this case, I'm not sure if the soldiers in Gunga Din and Charge of the Light Brigade had red uniforms or khaki desert-color ones.

I would agree though that most genres in classic film (gangster, monster, etc.) might better be left in their original forms.

I don't think we ever addressed Heat's (the original thread starter) question as to what ever happened to these colorized films. I'm guessing they are simply tucked away - along with their black & white counterparts - for now (and forever?). The TBS and TNT channels used to show a lot of these classic films on a regular basis some years ago but times have changed and their programming has shifted to fare for the new generation (which makes sense from a ratings point of view) so we are getting more showings of modern classics like The Shawshank Redemption, The Mummy, The Patriot, etc., with most of the classic films now relegated to TCM (except for the occasional Eastwood/Wayne marathon on TBS/TNT). I can't remember the last time I saw a Flynn film on TBS/TNT. I do recall seeing a colorized version of The Longest Day on Cinemax not too many months ago.

Anyway, that's about all for now. I simply wanted to expand/clarify a little on my earlier stance.

Dimension X

Pants already pointed out that the IMDb list is incomplete, so it's likely you did see a colorized version of High Noon.
In an effort to be "gracious and diplomatic" , I'll quote this article from 1986:

Pants

The examples you pick are funny. You pick two films from 1962, Lonely are the Brave and The Longest Day. These films were made well into the hayday of color. When these films were made more than half of H'wood's output was in color. Unlike in the old days when black and white was (pretty much) your only choice, these films had a choice, and they were chosen to be shot in black and white. The Longest Day is supposed to resemble the documentary look of war photographer footage.

Steve Phillips

The colorization thing didn't really work because even if you make them holographic, most people will not want to watch films that are older.

Most of the colored stuff was done in the late 80s and early 90s, and is rarely shown anymore. The only recent stuff I've seen done were the colored versions of the first season of "I Dream of Jeannie" and the first and second seasons of "Bewitched", which were completed in 2000 and have aired a lot internationally and in the US on The Hallmark Channel. Interestingly, both series were recently picked up by TV Land again and they have chosen to run the black and white originals.