Cagney colorized classics

[jimred99]

There are 5 Cagney movies which were colorized years back. ROARING TWENTIES, WHITE HEAT, BLOOD ON THE SUN, SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT AND YANKEE DOODLE. I was able to put 2 of the movies on disc but the others have a block on them.

[FlyBackTransformer]

So?

[EugeniaH]

I looked on YouTube and found this clip with a colorized Cagney:

 

 

[classiccinemafan]

I don't wish to see any 'colorized' classics.

 

watch them in the original black and white.

[twinkeee]

After seeing Cagney in colour in CAPTAINS OF THE CLOUDS and how gorgeously Handsome he looked, as opposed to in B&W, I can see Why you would want the colourized versions !

 

Twink

[FredCDobbs]

CAPTAINS OF THE CLOUDS has beautiful colour.

[twinkeee]

babes'.....you're cute !

[jimred99]

I mentioned it because some fans didn't know and would like to have color as well as B&W.

[FlyBackTransformer]

Colorization worked but a minority of purists killed it.....let TCM advertise a single showing of Bogart in a colorized print of Chain Lightning and then lets decide again. People will be moved by the ja3 with red and yellow markings soaring into the blue. Give it a chance.

[slaytonf]

I don't like my milk blue,

I don't like my cheese green,

And I like my movies the way they were shot.

[jimred99]

I like both B&W and the colorized versions, especially with the new and advanced method of colorizing. I like seeing a movie 2 different ways. Some movies they colorize with the original colors that were used in the movie.

[twinkeee]

That choice should certainly be left up to the individual !

 

I have always prefered MIRACLE ON 34 ST colourized. If any of Cagney's movies turn out like Miracle, I am sure I will prefer them too! Just to see his Red Hair and piercing blue/green eyes alone would be well worth it !

 

Twink

[jamesjazzguitar]

I'm not a fan of colorized movies but I have a question;

 

Say a director that shot a black and white movie during the Studio Era was alive today (yea not likely but play along), and decided to have the movie colorized. This director would supervise the project and have total control.

 

Would that version be something you would be interested in? I only ask since you say 'the way they were shot'.

 

Well to me there is an open question if a director's cut is more true to 'the way they were shot' if the initial released version is more ture. one.

 

I have seen some say that directors cuts are the true version. I understand the reasoning here but a director's cut is still an altered version created after the initial release.

 

My POV here; any talk about a 'true' or 'pure' version is folly. There are just mulitple versions and each stand (or fall), on their own merit.

 

(of course you say the way they were shot, how about the way they were edited!).

[josephherndz]

Being a fan of Robert Montgomery and to some extent to James Cagney, whilst VHS was the dominant format, I bought a colourised version of "They Were Expendable"

 

I watched it a few times, love the film, not a fan of colourised movies, but I do not get on my soap box if anyone prefers them that way.

 

Now upgraded to dvd, I enjoy it more in its original black & white format, as originally intended.

 

So, this one is out there somewhere colourised as well.

[slaytonf]

I've commented elsewhere (don't ask me where) that if the director, or perhaps the cinematographer, now that I think of it, were involved in the process, it would be alright with me, as they were involved in the original production. I also noted the only instance of that I was aware of is Ray Harryhousen's amenability to the colorization of his b/w movies.

 

What I object to is some hack coming along, looking at these old movies, saying to her/him-self, "Gosh, these are all so out of date. Just drab black and white. Let's improve them, brighten them up with color so they can look like regular movies." This ignores and destroys the look the directors and cinematographers put into these movies. This is especially true for the work of the great ones. These were made as b/w movies, not color movies that had the unfortunate handicap of being forced to be shot without it. All, repeat, all the efforts at colorization I have seen (including the colorized Three Stooges shorts) look cheap, gaudy and artificial.

 

Don't take this as antagonistic, but I find that when people pull out the words 'pure' and 'true' in their debates with others, their intent is usually to characterize others as rigid, narrow-minded and elitist, the easier to defeat their arguments. I don't kneel down and make obeisance before some sacred and immutable Ur version of a movie. I know that especially for movies of the studio era, once they got past the shooting, movies were largely out of the control of the director. And that over the years, different versions of the same movie can crop up. And that even the best director's work can benefit from a judicious independent viewpoint.

 

But the differences in the versions of movies, or even between original releases and the relatively recent phenomenon of 'director's cuts', is minor in comparison to the obliteration of the look of a movie with an entirely foreign aspect. Think of the movies that thrill you with their cinematography. Think of Out of the Past, The Lady From Shanghai, The Third Man. These movies were shot with the understanding they were in black and white, and their effect was calculated on it.

[kevshrop]

I remember how during the colorized version of Yankee Doodle Dandy, there was a black maid character. But the colorization people didn't bother to colorize her. They left her in black and white. We just laughed and laughed at that. Perhaps they've fixed that since the 1980's.

[jimred99]

kev, I noticed that too. Certain scenes she was brown and then other scenes she was black. And how come they didn't color peoples eyes back then? Cagney had Blue eyes. They should colorize the movie again with the new and better technique. In the past few years the colorizing of movies has got so much better.

[jamesjazzguitar]

Great feedback. We have a very similar POV here.

[twinkeee]

< Cagney had blue eyes. They should colourise the movie again with new and better technique. >

 

Cagney had piercing blue eyes and yet , I have often heard him referred to as having had red hair and 'Green' eyes. Lets hope when they colourise his movies, his eyes won't be green !

 

Twink

[jimred99]

Twink, In Cagney's autobiography he mentions his eyes being blue. In another book they are described as Delft Blue and hair Titan Red. In some color movies they look blue. Yet, some people still say he had green eyes. I know my eyes are blue but when I wear certain colors they look green, maybe it was the same with Cagney.

[jimred99]

The Shirley Temple movies were releasde with B&W and color versions. I think I would love to have Cagney's movies released like that. Especially with the newer and better technology.

[twinkeee]

I agree ! It would certainly be nice to see Cagney's movies in colour, given his red hair and gorgeous, piercing blue eyes. As you mentioned, given today's newest and latest technology , anything is possible !

 

After watching CAPTAINS IN THE CLOUDS and seeing him in colour for the first time ever (in a movie), it would be absolutely awesome to see more of his movies in colour !

 

 

Twinks

[jimred99]

Yes, The young Cagney was Handsome and the ladies would enjoy seeing him in color.