Kino Lorber have released a new video with examples highlighting the improvements that were made during the restoration of Herbert L. Strock's film Gog 3D (1954), starring Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, and Herbert Marshall. The release will be available for purchase on March 1, 2016.
This 1954 MGM/United Artists feature was lost in 3-D for nearly five decades. We have just completed a shot by shot restoration using the only existing elements: a 35mm interpositive of the right side and a completely faded 1954 Pathe color release print of the left. This restoration clip shows before and after comparisons of the raw scans to our final restored left/right masters.
Every individual shot required six levels of painstaking correction by Archive Technical Director Greg Kintz. They include stereoscopic vertical alignment; color restoration; left/right panel matching; image stabilization; left side flicker reduction/detail restoration and dirt/damage clean-up by Thad Komorowski. http://www.thadkomorowski.com/portfol...
GOG was beautifully photographed by Lothrop B. Worth with the Natural Vision camera, the same rig used on such 3-D classics as HOUSE OF WAX, THE CHARGE AT FEATHER RIVER, BWANA DEVIL, and the now lost TOP BANANA with Phil Silvers. http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/lost-3-d
GOG was released very late in the 3-D cycle and had only five known 3-D playdates, all in southern California in June and July of 1954: Los Angeles, Hollywood, Van Nuys and two theaters in Bakersfield. The Blu-ray marks the first wide 3-D release.
It was sold by United Artists to TV syndication in September 1956 and was only seen in murky, flat, black and white full frame 16mm prints for the next several decades. The first TV broadcast in color was on WTBS cable in the early 1980's and was transferred from a worn and washed-out 16mm print.
GOG was lost in 3-D until the missing 35mm left side was found by Bob Furmanek in 2001. The full story of this important discovery is told in the commentary track which also includes production history from science-fiction/horror historian Tom Weaver and music expert David Schecter from Monstrous Movie Music: http://www.mmmrecordings.com/index.html
The disc includes trailers for other 3-D Film Archive restorations, a production short on the history of GOG and its restoration plus archival interviews with GOG director Herbert L. Strock and DP/Natural Vision co-creator Lothrop B. Worth.