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Roy Rogers Lost Trucolor Films (1 Viewer)

Bob Furmanek

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Just like 2 color Cinecolor, when mastered properly, Trucolor can look quite pleasing.

Paramount has an active program of preservation on the Republic films and showed clips at the TCM festival. They're finding LOTS of complete elements in Europe and they look amazing.

Pick up the SUNSET IN THE WEST Blu-ray and be prepared for a shock at how good it looks!
 

RBailey

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Plus, thanks to Kino again, we'll soon be able to see Roy in real Technicolor when the Blu-ray release of Bob Hope's SON OF PALEFACE arrives in July. This is my favorite Frank Tashlin film and the final shot of Roy and Trigger at the end of the film is a lovely moment.
 

moviepas

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Back in the the early days of Australian TV we also got the Republic package with the Hollywood Television name and globe logo. The Autry and Rogers films were show, and, as you say were condensed for shorter running time to accommodate shorter ad breaks of the day. We say other titles which included the Higgins Family with James & Lucile Gleason, their son(who croaked himself) and Harry Davenport as the grandfather. Never seen then since and none seem to be on You Tube either. There is some early 40s footage, about 60secs, in color advertising a Roy Rogers club. This has been on TV. The Republic films often had Reissued on the title card, and if I am not mistaken, an original release title name. I know Monogram(once part of the original Republic Pictures founding mergers of small producers) often renamed titles and reissued them and tried to fool the exhibitors that they were getting a new film release. We got Columbia's Three Stooges in a 30mins slot with one full length, moreorless, and a cut in half short with ads between!!!!! Not funny really.

Another Trucolor film was Bill & Coo(61mins) produced by Ken Murray Productions and he does the Prologue. I have seen this on early TV as black&white and I seem to remember that it was released by Monogram but I may be wrong. An odd film, really.

One apparently lost color film, from 1953, is Wonder Valley with former Universal musical starrer Gloria Jean. She says there is no viewable copy today and last she knew was a print where the rolls were stuck together. It was filmed in Arkansas by this oddity with Gloria listed as the star:
Liles Wonder State Motion Pictures

 

Matt Hough

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Plus, thanks to Kino again, we'll soon be able to see Roy in real Technicolor when the Blu-ray release of Bob Hope's SON OF PALEFACE arrives in July. This is my favorite Frank Tashlin film and the final shot of Roy and Trigger at the end of the film is a lovely moment.
Son of Paleface is superior to the original, in my opinion. I think Roy makes the difference.
 

Bob Gu

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I think of SON OF PALEFACE as the last Roy Rogers movie, with Bob Hope in the Gordon Jones side-kick part.

I always thought GRAND CANYON TRAIL was the sixth lost Roy Rogers Trucolor. (GAY RANCHERO is around in the PD market, in a 65 of 72 minute, unrestored Trucolor version.) Following the UCLA link in the article, I see they do list a complete theatrical version of GRAND CANYON TRAIL, if I am reading it right. Is this a new discovery? If not why were these elements not available to NTA/Republic Home Video in the VHS days?

BILL & COO can be seen on youtube. I saw it on TV in the 90s on a syndicated program called REPUBLIC THEATER.
 

Rodney

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Ah yes, Son of Paleface with Mike 'The Torch' Delroy.

la-me-bob-hope-20030729-002
 

Bob Furmanek

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I"m not sure Bob but they do have complete red/blue picture elements on GRAND CANYON TRAIL.
 

Steve...O

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Son of Paleface is a terrific film all around. Roy sings one of his best ballads: "California Rose"', Jane Russell was never prettier, and Hope is on fire. The reprise of Buttons and Bows in this film surpasses the original in my opinion.
 

RBailey

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Son of Paleface is a terrific film all around. Roy sings one of his best ballads: "California Rose"', Jane Russell was never prettier, and Hope is on fire. The reprise of Buttons and Bows in this film surpasses the original in my opinion.
There are so many great sight gags and lines in this film but my favorite bit is Bob's wordless reaction to Roy Rogers in the saloon as they watch Jane Russell perform a song. Bob is reacting to Jane in his usual Bob Hope way when Roy tells him he'll stick to horses. Hope's expressions and body language has always cracked me up.
 

aPhil

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Watched all of "Sunset in the West" last night (April 30).

Looked great!

I really like the incredible Blue colors (both pale Blue and a very VERY deep Blue),
and add to that the lack of any green colors haunting the middle tones.

It is an extremely clean looking image;
I'm not referring to dirt (and there is none of that either).

But, I'm confused:
Online, I find quotes that 2 Color Trucolor was Red and Green emulsions,
but there is no Green in this 1950 film.

Can someone explain?

No complaints here. I really love the look of this film. I think it would be fun to do a project with this kind of color scheme in the digital acquisition world.

The only issue with the Blu-ray at all is three strange frames at the 52:58 time
(52 minutes and 58 seconds): During the wide-shot of the old Sheriff riding towards us in his wagon, if you blink, you will miss it, but I was so into this eye-candy restoration that I caught it.

I don't think that I have ever seen a Roy Rogers Western in Trucolor.

The quality of this was an extremely happy revelation.
I like the look of this!
 

Bob Furmanek

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Please see the article from American Cinematographer on this page for details on the red/blue: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/roy-rogers-in-trucolor

You are thinking of early Technicolor which is red/green. From Christopher Jacobs informative post on Nitrateville - http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24038

The Blu-ray of Roy Rogers' SUNSET IN THE WEST shows very impressive-looking Trucolor, which appears virtually identical to Cinecolor at its best, with plenty of bright cyan-like sky-blues, oranges, various shades of brown, very good fleshtones, and acceptable dark grayish-bluish pine-greens, with nice grays and blacks. There are no true greens, purples, or magentas like a three-color process could provide, and of course no yellows (although the light orangish-brown seems to permit a reasonable facsimile of blonde hair). Crowd scenes demonstrate the colors that reproduce vividly, with everyone wearing shades of blue, orange, brown, white, and black. Cinecolor cartoons show this even more clearly with their solid colors as opposed to the natural gradation in photographing real people and places. At a quick glance it might even look like a good 3-strip Technicolor scene with an intentionally controlled color art design, but after seeing other films in the process you realize those are the only colors it can depict.

Two-color Technicolor done well looks quite lovely (FOLLOW THRU, DOCTOR X, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM) though it could not show such brilliant blues as Cinecolor, using instead a slightly bluish-green, almost turquoise, with a slightly redder orange, which again could yield great fleshtones, a nice range of browns, plus a range of greens and peachy orange-reds, and almost pinks. Yellows and purples were impossible, as with Cinecolor and Trucolor. Foliage and other greens looked much better in 2-color Tech but skies were greenish-tinged, whereas Cinecolor and Trucolor had great skies but bland grayish foliage that almost looked green. Blonde hair looked closer to blonde in Cinecolor/Trucolor but in 2-color Technicolor it typically went white or very pale orange, whereas lipstick was reasonably reddish in 2-color Tech but rather orangey in Trucolor/Cinecolor. All the two-color process could look very appealing, but their limited range, as noted, made the identical color palette in every film get boring after a while.

At least for the westerns that Republic specialized in, Trucolor was ideal for its rustic browns (perfect for horses and wooden frontier towns), bright blue outdoor skies, serviceable dark pine-greens for mountain forests, brownish-gray mud, and decent fleshtones, with splashes of orange, white, and blue in the costumes and sets. Reds are never as red as 2-color Technicolor could deliver, but then 1940s westerns tended to avoid much on-screen blood. I hope that more of the Trucolor Roy Rogers pictures can be restored with the quality visible in SUNSET IN THE WEST. The Blu-ray color overall looks somewhat more saturated than the scenes used for the screen-captures on Blu-ray.com might suggest.
 

aPhil

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Please see the article from American Cinematographer on this page for details on the red/blue: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/roy-rogers-in-trucolor

You are thinking of early Technicolor which is red/green. From Christopher Jacobs informative post on Nitrateville - http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24038

The Blu-ray of Roy Rogers' SUNSET IN THE WEST shows very impressive-looking Trucolor, which appears virtually identical to Cinecolor at its best, with plenty of bright cyan-like sky-blues, oranges, various shades of brown, very good fleshtones, and acceptable dark grayish-bluish pine-greens, with nice grays and blacks. There are no true greens, purples, or magentas like a three-color process could provide, and of course no yellows (although the light orangish-brown seems to permit a reasonable facsimile of blonde hair). Crowd scenes demonstrate the colors that reproduce vividly, with everyone wearing shades of blue, orange, brown, white, and black. Cinecolor cartoons show this even more clearly with their solid colors as opposed to the natural gradation in photographing real people and places. At a quick glance it might even look like a good 3-strip Technicolor scene with an intentionally controlled color art design, but after seeing other films in the process you realize those are the only colors it can depict.

Two-color Technicolor done well looks quite lovely (FOLLOW THRU, DOCTOR X, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM) though it could not show such brilliant blues as Cinecolor, using instead a slightly bluish-green, almost turquoise, with a slightly redder orange, which again could yield great fleshtones, a nice range of browns, plus a range of greens and peachy orange-reds, and almost pinks. Yellows and purples were impossible, as with Cinecolor and Trucolor. Foliage and other greens looked much better in 2-color Tech but skies were greenish-tinged, whereas Cinecolor and Trucolor had great skies but bland grayish foliage that almost looked green. Blonde hair looked closer to blonde in Cinecolor/Trucolor but in 2-color Technicolor it typically went white or very pale orange, whereas lipstick was reasonably reddish in 2-color Tech but rather orangey in Trucolor/Cinecolor. All the two-color process could look very appealing, but their limited range, as noted, made the identical color palette in every film get boring after a while.

At least for the westerns that Republic specialized in, Trucolor was ideal for its rustic browns (perfect for horses and wooden frontier towns), bright blue outdoor skies, serviceable dark pine-greens for mountain forests, brownish-gray mud, and decent fleshtones, with splashes of orange, white, and blue in the costumes and sets. Reds are never as red as 2-color Technicolor could deliver, but then 1940s westerns tended to avoid much on-screen blood. I hope that more of the Trucolor Roy Rogers pictures can be restored with the quality visible in SUNSET IN THE WEST. The Blu-ray color overall looks somewhat more saturated than the scenes used for the screen-captures on Blu-ray.com might suggest.


Thank you very much for this information and the links.

I have never really cared for 2 Color Technicolor, but maybe that is because I have never seen it at its best:
I think "Mystery of the Wax Museum" looks interesting, but I am so tired of the 2 Color "Doctor X" that I long for Warner to restore and release the Black & White version
(that I understand was shot simultaneously).

I don't think that I have seen a Cinecolor presentation that compares to this Trucolor Film starring Roy Rogers.

I never thought I would collect any Roy Rogers Westerns, but after watching "Sunset in the West", I agree with you and hope that more Trucolor Roy Rogers of this caliber will be restored and released to Blu-ray. It had a beauty that I could experience many times over.
 

Bob Furmanek

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When scanned properly, two color Cinecolor can look quite good. Some that come to mind on DVD are ALBUQUERQUE and THE GALLANT BLADE.

I worked from a mint 35mm nitrate print of SCARED TO DEATH when I did the laser disc in the mid-90's. It looked amazing!

You need to see 2-color Technicolor from original elements. FOLLOW THRU and KING OF JAZZ are beautiful. I saw the 35mm nitrate DR. X and it blew away the 1970's safety dupe that was mastered for home video.
 

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