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Speaking as an archivist, colorizing films is an archival no no unless you have a movie (in print form) which is losing its color - which happens often - and there are no masters for it. The only way to restore the color is with such a process. Personally speaking, colorizing is  :tongueout: :tongueout: :twirl: although I have seen the 1951 Julius Caesar colorized and it looked quite good while the Casablanca colored version looks terrible.

What do you think: here's the trailer for House on Haunted Hill in color.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G8fQMOBj9Y (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G8fQMOBj9Y)

No. Unless your restoring a color film....no.
the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) colorized was blasphemy .

Oh. By the way. WTF does the last choice mean?  :question:

I am generally against it. THe only good thing I can see about it is that it might bring an otherwise forgotten film a bit more notice.

Quote from: RCMerchant on November 09, 2021, 11:37:17 AM
No. Unless your restoring a color film....no.
the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) colorized was blasphemy .

Oh. By the way. WTF does the last choice mean?  :question:

Sorry, I was looking at the leftover pizza I had on my plate when I wrote that :wink:

Unless you're restoring a color film, I always thought it looked corny....

That said, there is a scene in If (1968) that was unintentionally shot in B&W because the production ran out of money....
So maybe if the director of a film is still alive and is in control of it, MAYBE....

Then again, Alphabet City (1984) was supposed to be shot in B&W (kinda like Rumble Fish (1983)), but the producers & studio chiefs wouldn't have it.....

Much like Director's Cut, Producer's Cuts or Special Editions.....I don't mind if people release/make them as long as the original is still available.

Legends Films (House of Haunted Hill, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Reefer Madness, Riffrax releases and so on) has the best colorization I have ever seen....even if still not needed. XD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NyJQxayr8A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NyJQxayr8A)

However most turn out like The Simpsons Colorization Theater.

(https://external-preview.redd.it/XyweqcO4KAde68c9ZVDhTEYYkvCHNt-B3K9SIMu_1KM.jpg?auto=webp&s=a72fc30dd76e89daf40486feb0f14416ec6e2f88)

Sure. It's nothing new: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa12IGfPRps (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa12IGfPRps) They just started using computers instead of stencils.

Disney did a good job "colorifing" their Zoro TV show in the early 90's; Legend films did usually does a good job too. Hal roach Studios usually did a bad job Colorizing^TM things.

Obviously, it's not for film archiving; it's to make a film more marketable. Might be useful for stock footage; I don't want anyone to go out & film two animals fighting each other, so colorized footage shot by Frank Buck in the 30's is fine.

Happened to catch a rerun of Munster, Go Home! (1966) on Svenghoulie over the weekend.....
It was filmed in color, unlike the television series......
It's always reminded me of how ghoul makeup, no matter how careful & serious or how sloppy & cheesy, only seems to to work in black & white, but never in color........

Lots of times, like if I'm watching a washed out print of TNT JACKSON- that's they way it should look.

So goofy and still cool and fun! I love this movie.


http://youtu.be/xbqc1_fu7uU (http://youtu.be/xbqc1_fu7uU)

Cary Grant loved the colorization of B&W movies, Jimmy Stewart criticized it.

I do own the blu-ray of 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) which includes a colorized version of the film. Apparently Ray Harryhausen wanted the film to be shot in color, but couldn't because of the budget.
In 2007 Harryhausen worked with a restoration and colorization company to create a colorized version of the film. It looks pretty good colorized.

Quote from: claws on November 09, 2021, 11:10:18 PM
Cary Grant loved the colorization of B&W movies, Jimmy Stewart criticized it.

I do own the blu-ray of 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) which includes a colorized version of the film. Apparently Ray Harryhausen wanted the film to be shot in color, but couldn't because of the budget.
In 2007 Harryhausen worked with a restoration and colorization company to create a colorized version of the film. It looks pretty good colorized.

Always wanted to pick up that box set especially with the automatic switch between the color and black/white on a whim.

I'm pretty much against it.  It never really adds anything to the films they do it to.  It usually looks fake and crappy, and the films also seem to lose some of their original atmosphere and charm. 

I've seen a few attempts to colorize Night of the Living Dead.  They were all pretty sorry looking.  The zombies were actually green in one of them. :lookingup:  I had the Hal Roach VHS.  It looked awful.  The colors were bleached out, smeary, and things like fire looked liked they were filled in by a kid with a crayon.  I dumped it off with a load of junk that went to Goodwill.

Quote from: beat_truck on November 10, 2021, 04:46:08 AM
I've seen a few attempts to colorize Night of the Living Dead.  They were all pretty sorry looking.  The zombies were actually green in one of them. :lookingup:  I had the Hal Roach VHS.  It looked awful.  The colors were bleached out, smeary, and things like fire looked liked they were filled in by a kid with a crayon.  I dumped it off with a load of junk that went to Goodwill.

NOTLD's colorization is one of the worst examples.  :thumbup:

Thanks everyone for your votes and opinions  :cheers:

I've never seen any black and whites that were re-released in color...

but that would look really weird I think

Quote from: Trevor on November 09, 2021, 11:12:14 AM
...What do you think: here's the trailer for House on Haunted Hill in color.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G8fQMOBj9Y (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G8fQMOBj9Y)

That movie is rot.  Colorized I would like to see it just for the novelty.  It has lots of bits that are fun, and I love CAROL OHMART.  ELISHA COOK JR. gives a great speech or two. 
The movie is crap. 

I won't watch or buy colorized movies, but if other people want to watch them that's their business.

13 Ghosts (1960) was shot in black & white with the ghosts being red as part of some cheesy gimmick.....

Not that it was that good of a movie, but it might be interesting if somebody got an original print & restored the red ghosties in it.....

^I think there may be a copy of that floating around!

I love that movie!

http://youtu.be/jAch6dyaCrQ (http://youtu.be/jAch6dyaCrQ)

How I Won the War (1967)
Form IMDB trivia

"The intended concept of the movie was that archival black-and-white footage of each battle was to be tinted specific colors. The soldiers who died in that battle continue to accompany the unit silently with their uniforms now the color of the battle in which they died. However, when the final answer print was sent from the principal lab in England to the labs in Los Angeles subcontracted out to make the release prints, the Los Angeles labs assumed that the tinted footage was a mistake, and graded it back to black-and-white without notifying anyone until the whole batch was struck. The version of the movie shown on "Retroplex" from Starz has the battle scenes tinted different colors and the soldiers who die in a battle become that color."

In short, every time a character dies, in the original print, it was done in b&w, but years later, color tinting was restored to these scenes, thus explaining the "ghost soldiers" done up in pink & blue, etc.