Entering the 3rd Dimension :: Pent-Up Passion from the Devonian Age Unleashed! (April, 1954)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
As the legend goes, it was while working for Orson Wells, back in the Mercury Theater days, that producer William Alland first heard the tales of a legendary fish-man that lived somewhere way upstream in the backwaters of the Amazon river. And these tales, told by famed Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, eventually germinated into one of the most iconic cinematic monsters ever conceived and executed on film. And though it’s usually one of the first things that come to mind while thinking about 3-D pictures, but truthfully, Creature from the Black Lagoon was one of the last big features to use the already rapidly waning process.

I’ve been lucky enough to see a 3-D print of both Creature and its sequel, Revenge of the Creature, and the differences between seeing them flat and seeing them topographical is like the difference between how long Ben Chapman and Riccou Browning can hold their breath underwater. And now, with advances in home video technology, we all can see the Gill-Man unrequited quest for love in all it’s Stereo-Scopic glory!

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) Universal International / P: William Alland / D: Jack Arnold / W: Harry Essex, Arthur A. Ross / C: William E. Snyder / E: Ted J. Kent / M: Joseph Gershenson, Henry Mancini, Hans J. Salter, Herman Stein / S: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Whit Bissell, Nestor Paiva

Project M7 (1953) Two Cities Films :: Universal Pictures / EP: Earl St. John / P: Antony Darnborough / D: Antony Darnborough / W: William Fairchild, John Pudney (novel) / C: Desmond Dickinson / E: Frederick Wilson / M: Benjamin Frankel / S: Phyllis Calvert, James Donald, Robert Beatty, Herbert Lom, Muriel Pavlow

Entering the 3rd Dimension :: “KING-SIZE” 3-D for Your Home! (March, 1954)

 

 

Entering the 3rd Dimension :: Spontaneous Combustion in a Satin Gown! The Only Dame with a Kiss of Flame! (March, 1954)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
And after a glut of 3-D releases in late 1953, it wasn’t until March of 1954 before the Island saw another 3-D release hit the Grand. And with the advent of the more user friendly Cinemascope, the writing was already on the wall for Stereo-Scopic films, especially when you consider that last ad, where the theater dumped the gimmick, despite the ballyhoo’d new and improved glasses, to polish off the run after the weekend.

Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) The Beckworth Corporation :: Columbia Pictures Corporation / P: Jerry Wald / D: Curtis Bernhardt / W: Harry Kleiner, W. Somerset Maugham (novel) / C: Charles Lawton Jr. / E: Viola Lawrence / M: Morris Stoloff / S: Rita Hayworth, José Ferrer, Aldo Ray, Russell Collins, Charles Bronson

Entering the 3rd Dimension :: Hot Blooded, Silent as Gunsmoke, a Stranger to All (December, 1953)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Hondo (1953) Wayne-Fellows Productions :: Warner Bros. / P: Robert Fellows, John Wayne / D: John Farrow / W: James Edward Grant, Louis L’Amour (novel) / C: Robert Burks, Archie Stout / E: Ralph Dawson / M: Hugo Friedhofer, Emil Newman / S: John Wayne, Geraldine Page, Ward Bond, Michael Pate, James Arness

Entering the 3rd Dimension :: Hang on to Your Seat or this Film Will Knock You Right Out of it! (December, 1953)

 

 

 

 

 
Inferno (1953) Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / P: William Bloom / D: Roy Ward Baker / W: Francis M. Cockrell / C: Lucien Ballard / E: Robert L. Simpson / M: Paul Sawtell / S: Robert Ryan, Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan, Larry Keating, Henry Hull

The Glory Brigade (1953) Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / P: William Bloom / D: Robert D. Webb / W: Franklin Coen / C: Lucien Ballard / E: Mario Morra / M: Lionel Newman / S: Victor Mature, Alexander Scourby, Lee Marvin, Richard Egan, Nick Dennis

Entering the 3rd Dimension :: Now You Can Afford to Take Your Own 3-D Pictures! (December, 1953)

 

 

Entering the 3rd Dimension :: When Her Honor Cried Out for Vengeance, He Rode South to Get It! (November, 1953)

 

 

 

 

 
Gun Fury (1953) Columbia Pictures / P: Lewis J. Rachmil / D: Raoul Walsh / W: Irving Wallace, Roy Huggins, Kathleen B. Granger (novel), George Granger(novel), Robert A. Granger (novel) / C: Lester White / E: James Sweeney, Jerome Thoms / M: Mischa Bakaleinikoff, Arthur Morton / S: Rock Hudson, Donna Reed, Philip Carey, Roberta Haynes, Leo Gordon, Lee Marvin, Neville Brand

Combat Squad (1953) Jack Broder Productions Inc. :: Columbia Pictures / P: Jerry Thomas / D: Cy Roth / W: Wyott Ordung / C: Charles Van Enger / E: Harry W. Gerstad / M: Paul Dunlap / S: John Ireland, Lon McCallister, Hal March, George E. Stone, Norman Leavitt

Entering the 3rd Dimension :: The Story of a Great Betrayal that Bathed the West in Blood! (November, 1953)

 

 

 

 

 
The Nebraskan (1953) Columbia Pictures / P: Wallace MacDonald / D: Fred F. Sears / W: David Lang, Martin Berkeley / C: Henry Freulich / E: Al Clark, James Sweeney / M: Ross DiMaggio / S: Philip Carey, Roberta Haynes, Wallace Ford, Richard Webb, Lee Van Cleef, Jay Silverheels

Serpent of the Nile (1953) Columbia Pictures / P: Sam Katzman / D: William Castle / W: Robert E. Kent / C: Henry Freulich / E: Gene Havlick / M: Mischa Bakaleinikoff / S: Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan, Raymond Burr, Jean Byron, Michael Ansara

Entering the 3rd Dimension :: 500 Men Caged Up with One Woman! Real as Flesh! (November, 1953)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Devil’s Canyon (1953) RKO Radio Pictures / EP: Howard Hughes / P: Edmund Grainger / D: Alfred L. Werker / W: Frederick Hazlitt Brennan, Harry Essex, Bennett Cohen, Norton S. Parker / C: Nicholas Musuraca / E: Gene Palmer / M: Daniele Amfitheatrof / S: Virginia Mayo, Dale Robertson and Stephen McNally, Arthur Hunnicutt, Whit Bissell, Morris Ankrum

Lumber Jack-Rabbit (1953) Warner Bros. Pictures / P: Edward Selzer / D: Chuck Jones / W: Michael Maltese / E: Treg Brown / M: Carl W. Stalling / S: Mel Blanc, Norman Nesbitt

Entering the 3rd Dimension :: A White Hot Movie that Throws Every Savage Thrill in the Book Right at You! (November, 1953)

 

 

 

 

 

Best effort to extract above ad from the gutter:

 

 

 

 
After an old war-time buddy meets a violent end, a brutish, tough as nails detective is soon neck-deep in a violent vendetta to repay an old debt to said friend, who saved his life during the war, by tracking down his killer and making them pay! Okay, when I think on the adapted adventures of that hard-boiled dick Mike Hammer, probably the last person I think of is Biff Elliot. But, he was the first to portray Mickey Spillane’s iconic private-eye in a movie that, alas, has never been released to home video in any format. I know I’m curious to see it, as it’s one of the few onscreen appearances of Margaret Sheridan as Hammer’s trusted secretary, Velda; and another B-Movie fave in Peggie Castle, who portrays the conniving psycho-analyst, Charlotte Manning. And, for the record, as much as I love Ralph Meeker in Kiss Me Deadly, my all time favorite version of Mike Hammer was Darren McGavin’s take in the old Mike Hammer TV show, something else that desperately needs a release for home-viewing as soon as possible.

I the Jury (1953) Parklane Pictures Inc. :: United Artists / P: Victor Saville / D: Harry Essex / W: Harry Essex, Mickey Spillane (novel) / C: John Alton / E: Fredrick Y. Smith / M: Franz Waxman / S: Biff Elliot, Preston Foster, Peggie Castle, Alan Reed, Margaret Sheridan