Dear Fox Retro:
I thought we had straightened out this whole question of colorizing movies long, long ago and decided it was a very bad idea. So imagine how terribly cross it made us to find that you aired “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” is ersatz color. Please stop or the ghost of Franklin Pangborn will start haunting you – in hideous pseudo flesh tones.
Email Fox Retro here and let them know what you think.
This not done by anyone who cares about film. Ever. It is an abomination.
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I like both options, like having both versions on the same blu ray disc. Agreed, colorizing a classic like Citizen Kane is a bad idea. But many movies were filmed in black and white strictly due to cost, and color livens up otherwise dull movies. Dont forget that many people refuse to watch ANY silent, b/w or subtitled films.
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I want to see Citizen Kane not only colorized, but with Orson Welles’ voice redubbed with Jimmy Durante’s. I’d pay five dollars to see that.
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The hidden, but highly lucrative reason for colorization does not apply here. That being that a colorized version was given its own copyright. If the original producing entity had somehow not renewed the original twenty-six year copyright and let the work fall into public domain (such as ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’), then whoever colorized it held the new copyright. But Fox bought Fox and there was no compelling reason to dip it into the color kit. Seeing the estimable Mr. Pangborn painted up like a cheap drag queen might have pleased him, but he would be one of the few. What they’ve done to Mr. Robinson is unconscionable.
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Thank you! Never, ever, ever, ever, colorize, EVER! Black & white is the best.
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I prefer to watch old movies in b/w, I do not get the same feeling when I see it in colorized version. However I do like a colorized version on occasion for views of backgrounds of Los Angeles in particular.
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