Bwana Devil

Last updated
Bwana Devil
Bwanadevil3.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Arch Oboler
Written byArch Oboler
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
Edited by John Hoffman
Music by Gordon Jenkins
Production
companies
  • Gulu Productions
  • Arch Oboler Productions
Distributed by
Release date
  • November 26, 1952 (1952-11-26)
[1]
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$323,000 [2]
Box office$5 million [2]

Bwana Devil is a 1952 American adventure B movie written, directed, and produced by Arch Oboler, and starring Robert Stack, Barbara Britton, and Nigel Bruce. [3] [4] [5] Bwana Devil is based on the true story of the Tsavo maneaters and filmed with the Natural Vision 3D system. [5] The film is notable for sparking the first 3D film craze in the motion picture industry, as well as for being the first feature-length 3D film in color and the first 3D sound feature in English.

Contents

The advertising tagline was: "The Miracle of the Age!!! A LION in your lap! A LOVER in your arms!"

Plot

The film is set in British East Africa in the early 20th century. Thousands of workers are building the Uganda Railway, Africa's first railroad, and intense heat and sickness make it a formidable task. Two men in charge of the mission are Bob Hayward and Dr. Angus McLean. A pair of man-eating lions are on the loose and completely disrupt the undertaking. Hayward desperately attempts to overcome the situation, but the slaughter continues.

Britain sends three big-game hunters to kill the lions. With them comes Bob's wife. After the game hunters are killed by the lions, Bob sets out once and for all to kill them. A grim battle between Bob and the lions endangers both Bob and his wife. Bob kills the lions and proves that he is not a weakling.

Cast

Historic background

The plot was based on a well-known historical event, that of the Tsavo maneaters, in which many workers building the Uganda Railway were killed by lions. These incidents were also the basis for the book The Man-eaters of Tsavo (1907), the story of the events as written by Lt. Col. J. H. Patterson, the British engineer who killed the animals. The story was also the basis for the film The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) with Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer.

Natural Vision 3D Film Process

By 1951 film attendance had fallen dramatically from 90 million in 1948 to 46 million. Television was seen as the culprit and Hollywood was looking for a way to lure audiences back. Cinerama had premiered on September 30, 1952, at the Broadway Theater in New York and was a success there, but its bulky and expensive three-projector system and huge curved screen were impractical, if not impossible, to duplicate in any but the largest theaters.

Former screenwriter Milton Gunzburg and his brother Julian thought they had a solution with their Natural Vision 3D film process. They shopped it around Hollywood. 20th Century Fox was focusing on the introduction of CinemaScope and had no interest in another new process. Both Columbia and Paramount passed it up.

Only John Arnold, who headed the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer camera department, was impressed enough to convince MGM to take an option on it, but they quickly let the option lapse. Milton Gunzburg turned his focus to independent producers and demonstrated Natural Vision to Arch Oboler, producer and writer of the popular Lights Out radio show. Oboler was impressed enough to option it for his next film project.

Oboler said he had overheard Joseph Biroc and the camera crew talking about 3D while filming The Twonky and Oboler became interested. [6]

Production

Oboler announced the project in March 1952. He said it would be called The Lions of Gulu and would include footage shot in Africa several years beforehand. Filming was to start in May. It was always going to be in Natural Vision. [7]

Howard Duff and Hope Miller were the first stars signed. [8]

Eventually Duff and Miller dropped out and were replaced by Robert Stack and Barbara Britton. The title of Oboler's film was changed to Bwana Devil in June 1952. [9] (Oboler already announced he would make a second film in the format, Spear in the Sand with Lisa Howard. [10] )

The film was shot in the San Fernando Valley. [11]

The Paramount Ranch, now located in The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, sat in for an African savanna. There is now a hiking trail in the area named "The Bwana Trail" to denote the locations used in Bwana Devil. Authentic African footage shot by Arch Oboler in 1948 (in 2D) was incorporated into the film. Ansco Color film was used, instead of the more expensive and cumbersome Technicolor process.

Lloyd Nolan appeared in a prologue for the film. [12]

The film was given Code approval in two dimension but not in three dimension due to a kissing scene. [13] Eventually approval was given. [14]

Release

The film premiered under the banner of "Arch Oboler Productions" on Wednesday, November 26, 1952, with a twin engagement at the Hollywood Paramount Theatre and the Paramount Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. [15] [1] It opened to the public the following day. [16]

At all U.S. screenings of feature-length 3D films in the 1950s, the polarized light method was used and the audience wore 3D glasses with gray Polaroid filters. The anaglyph color filter method was only used for a few short films during these years. The two-strip Natural Vision projection system required making substantial alterations to a theater's projectors and providing its screen with a special non-depolarizing surface.

The film was a critical failure, but a runaway success with audiences. It opened in San Francisco on December 13, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio on December 25, and New York on February 18, 1953. [17] [18]

M.L. Gunzburg presents 3D, a short film produced by Bob Clampett and featuring Beany and Cecil, was screened preceding the film. Long thought lost, the short rejoined Bwana Devil for screenings at the Egyptian Theater in 2003 and 2006.

Natural Vision announced they would make 12 follow up films. [19]

United Artists

United Artists bought the rights to Bwana Devil from Arch Oboler Productions for $500,000 and a share of the profits and began a wide release of the film in March as a United Artists film. [20] A lawsuit followed, in which producer Edward L. Alperson Jr. claimed that he was part owner of the film after purchasing a share of it for $1,000,000 USD. The courts decided in Oboler's favor, as Alperson's claim was unsubstantiated and "under the table".

The other major studios reacted by releasing their own 3D films. Warner Brothers optioned the Natural Vision process for House of Wax . It premiered on April 10, 1953, and was advertised as "the first 3D release by a major studio". In truth, Columbia had trumped them by two days with their release of Man in the Dark on April 8, 1953.

Commercial reception

The film grossed $20,000 in its opening day from two theaters and went on to earn $75,000 in its first four days setting house records. [16] It earned $2.7 million in theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada in 1953. [21] United Artists ultimately ended up recording a loss of $200,000 on the film. [20]

Public reception

In 1989, Pink spoke fondly of the opening week of Bwana Devil at the Hollywood Paramount Theater. "They were lined up around the block". "People would come out of the movie and yell, 'Don't go in, it stinks!' But nobody listened and they went in anyway." [22]

Reviews

The audience at the premiere of Bwana Devil, photographed by J. R. Eyerman for Life magazine Bwana Devil audience 1952.jpg
The audience at the premiere of Bwana Devil, photographed by J. R. Eyerman for Life magazine

Life magazine photographer J. R. Eyerman took a series of photos of the audience wearing 3D glasses at the premiere. One of the photos was published as a full page in the magazine and has become iconic. It was also used as the cover of Life, The Second Decade, 1946–1955, a book published in conjunction with an exhibition of photographs from Life held at the International Center of Photography, New York. [26] Another of the photos was used as a symbol of alienation under capitalism, for the American cover of Guy Debord's book The Society of the Spectacle (1973). The photo used for Debord's book shows the audience in "a virtually trance-like state of absorption, their faces grim, their lips pursed". However, in the one chosen by Life, "the spectators are laughing, their expressions of hilarity conveying the pleasure of an uproarious, active spectatorship." [27] The Debord version is also flipped left to right and cropped. [28]

Availability

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornel Wilde</span> Hungarian-American actor and film director (1912–1989)

Cornel Wilde was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker.

3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of special glasses worn by viewers. They have existed in some form since 1915, but had been largely relegated to a niche in the motion picture industry because of the costly hardware and processes required to produce and display a 3D film, and the lack of a standardized format for all segments of the entertainment business. Nonetheless, 3D films were prominently featured in the 1950s in American cinema, and later experienced a worldwide resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s driven by IMAX high-end theaters and Disney-themed venues. 3D films became increasingly successful throughout the 2000s, peaking with the success of 3D presentations of Avatar in December 2009, after which 3D films again decreased in popularity. Certain directors have also taken more experimental approaches to 3D filmmaking, most notably celebrated auteur Jean-Luc Godard in his film Goodbye to Language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Mature</span> American actor (1913–1999)

Victor John Mature was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include One Million B.C. (1940), My Darling Clementine (1946), Kiss of Death (1947), Samson and Delilah (1949), and The Robe (1953). He also appeared in many musicals opposite such stars as Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable.

Sidney W. Pink (1916-2002) was an American film producer and occasional director. He has been called the father of feature-length 3-D movies. He is also noted for producing early Spaghetti Westerns and low-budget science-fiction films, and for his role in actor Dustin Hoffman's transition from stage to screen.

<i>The Ghost and the Darkness</i> Historical adventure film

The Ghost and the Darkness is a 1996 American historical adventure film directed by Stephen Hopkins and starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. The screenplay, written by William Goldman, is a fictionalized account of the Tsavo man-eaters, a pair of male lions that terrorized workers in and around Tsavo, Kenya during the building of the Uganda-Mombasa Railway in East Africa in 1898.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Ladd</span> American actor (1913–1964)

Alan Walbridge Ladd was an American actor and film producer. Ladd found success in film in the 1940s and early 1950s, particularly in films noir and Westerns. He was often paired with Veronica Lake in films noir, such as This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942), and The Blue Dahlia (1946). Whispering Smith (1948) was his first Western and color film, and Shane (1953) was noted for its contributions to the genre. Ladd also appeared in ten films with William Bendix.

<i>The Twonky</i> 1953 film by Arch Oboler

The Twonky is a 1953 independently made American black-and-white science fiction/comedy film, produced by A.D. Nast, Jr., Arch Oboler, and Sidney Pink, written and directed by Arch Oboler, and starring Hans Conried, Gloria Blondell, Billy Lynn, and Edwin Max. The film was distributed by United Artists.

<i>House of Wax</i> (1953 film) 1953 film by André de Toth

House of Wax is a 1953 American period mystery-horror film directed by Andre de Toth and released by Warner Bros. A remake of the studio's own 1933 film, Mystery of the Wax Museum, it stars Vincent Price as a disfigured sculptor who repopulates his destroyed wax museum by murdering people and using their wax-coated corpses as displays. The film premiered in New York on April 10, 1953 and had a general release on April 25, making it the first 3D film with stereophonic sound to be presented in a regular theater and the first color 3D feature film from a major American studio. Man in the Dark, released by Columbia Pictures, was the first major-studio black-and-white 3D feature and premiered two days before House of Wax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Chandler</span> American actor (1918–1961)

Jeff Chandler was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Cochise in Broken Arrow (1950), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was one of Universal Pictures' more popular male stars of the 1950s. His other credits include Sword in the Desert (1948), Deported (1950), Female on the Beach (1955), and Away All Boats (1956). He also performed as a radio actor and as a singer.

<i>The Society of the Spectacle</i> 1967 book by Guy Debord

The Society of the Spectacle is a 1967 work of philosophy and Marxist critical theory by Guy Debord where he develops and presents the concept of the Spectacle. The book is considered a seminal text for the Situationist movement. Debord published a follow-up book Comments on the Society of the Spectacle in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Cummings</span> American actor (1910–1990)

Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings was an American film and television actor who appeared in roles in comedy films such as The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) and Princess O'Rourke (1943), and in dramatic films, especially two of Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, Saboteur (1942) and Dial M for Murder (1954). He received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Single Performance in 1955. On February 8, 1960, he received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture and television industries, at 6816 Hollywood Boulevard and 1718 Vine Street. He used the stage name Robert Cummings from mid-1935 until the end of 1954 and was credited as Bob Cummings from 1955 until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arch Oboler</span> American dramatist (1909–1987)

Arch Oboler was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, and director who was active in radio, films, theater, and television. He generated much attention with his radio scripts, particularly the horror series Lights Out, and his work in radio remains the outstanding period of his career. Praised as one of broadcasting's top talents, he is regarded today as a key innovator of radio drama. Oboler's personality and ego were larger than life. Radio historian John Dunning wrote, "Few people were ambivalent when it came to Arch Oboler. He was one of those intense personalities who are liked and disliked with equal fire."

Norman Krasna was an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and film director who penned screwball comedies centered on a case of mistaken identity. Krasna directed three films during a forty-year career in Hollywood. He garnered four Academy Award screenwriting nominations, winning once for 1943's Princess O'Rourke, which he also directed.

<i>The Egyptian</i> (film) 1954 film by Michael Curtiz

The Egyptian is a 1954 American epic historical drama film made by 20th Century-Fox. Filmed in CinemaScope with color by DeLuxe, it was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. It is based on Mika Waltari's 1945 novel of the same name and the screenplay was adapted by Philip Dunne and Casey Robinson. Leading roles were played by Edmund Purdom, Bella Darvi, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Gene Tierney, Peter Ustinov, and Michael Wilding. Cinematographer Leon Shamroy was nominated for an Oscar in 1955.

<i>Miss Sadie Thompson</i> 1953 film by Curtis Bernhardt

Miss Sadie Thompson is a 1953 3-D American musical romantic drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Rita Hayworth, José Ferrer, and Aldo Ray. The film was released by Columbia Pictures. The film is based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1921 short story "Miss Thompson". Other film versions include Sadie Thompson (1928) starring Gloria Swanson, Rain (1932) starring Joan Crawford, and Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Errol Flynn filmography</span>

The film appearances of movie actor Errol Flynn (1909–1959) are listed here, including his short films and one unfinished feature.

Aeneas MacKenzie, or Æneas MacKenzie, was a Scottish-American screenwriter. MacKenzie wrote many notable Hollywood films, including: The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), Ivanhoe (1952), and The Ten Commandments (1956).

<i>The Red Beret</i> 1954 film by Terence Young

The Red Beret is a 1953 British-American war film directed by Terence Young and starring Alan Ladd, Leo Genn and Susan Stephen.

Milton Lowell Gunzburg was an American journalist and screenwriter. Gunzburg developed the Natural Vision stereoscopic 3-D system.

Sangaree is a 1953 American 3-D color period costume drama film by director Edward Ludwig. It was adapted from the 1948 novel of the same name by Frank G. Slaughter.

References

  1. 1 2 Bwana Devil at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  2. 1 2 Thompson, Howard (November 4, 1961). "NEW OBOLER FILM TO OPEN TUESDAY; '1 Plus 1' Is the Writer's First Movie in Nine Years". The New York Times . p. 14.
  3. ↑ "Variety Film Reviews". Variety . December 3, 1952. p. 6.
  4. ↑ "Harrison's Reports and Film Reviews". Harrison's Reports . December 6, 1952. p. 195.
  5. 1 2 Sala, Ángel (October 2005). "Apéndices". Tiburón ¡Vas a necesitar un barco más grande! El filme que cambió Hollywood (1st ed.). Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya. p. 114. ISBN   84-96129-72-1.
  6. ↑ Richard Dyer MacCann (Aug 5, 1952). "Polaroid Spectacles Required For Feature Picture in Color: Hollywood Letter". The Christian Science Monitor. p. 5.
  7. ↑ A. H. WELLER (Mar 23, 1952). "NOTED ON THE LOCAL SCREEN SCENE". The New York Times. p. X5.
  8. ↑ HEDDA HOPPER (Apr 16, 1952). "Phyllis Thaxter Will Play Wife of Cooper". Los Angeles Times. p. B8.
  9. ↑ "MOVIELAND BRIEFS". Los Angeles Times. 24 June 1952. p. A7.
  10. ↑ Schallert, Edwin (July 4, 1952). "Drama: Coogan Changing Type in Mad Scientist Role; Debbie Star Part Looms". Los Angeles Times. p. A7.
  11. ↑ THOMAS M. PRYOR (6 July 1952). "HOLLYWOOD SURVEY: Arch Oboler's Africa and Natural Vision -- 'Ivanhoe' Source -- Politics". The New York Times. p. X3.
  12. ↑ Hopper, Hedda (Sep 9, 1952). "Eleanor Parker to Be Star for Her Husband". Los Angeles Times. p. A6.
  13. ↑ Schallert, Edwin (Nov 25, 1952). "Natural Vision Plan Aimed at Hayworth; Film Refused Code Approval". Los Angeles Times. p. 21.
  14. ↑ THOMAS M. PRYOR (Dec 13, 1952). "HUGHES IS NAMED TO BOARD AT R. K. O.: Former Major Stockholder and Two Other Ex-Officials to Serve as Directors". The New York Times. p. 19.
  15. ↑ "'Bwana Devil' to Premiere". Los Angeles Times . 6 November 1952. p. A9.
  16. 1 2 "'Bwana' Boffo". Daily Variety . p. 1.
  17. ↑ "'BWANA DEVIL' SETS RECORD". Los Angeles Times. Dec 4, 1952. p. B10.
  18. ↑ THOMAS M. PRYOR (Dec 7, 1952). "HOLLYWOOD SURVEY: R.K.O. Victory in Screen Credits Case Poser for Creative Artists -- Addenda". The New York Times. p. X9.
  19. ↑ THOMAS M. PRYOR (Nov 25, 1952). "12 FILMS TO BE SHOT IN NATURAL VISION: Feature-Length Pictures Slated for Stereoscopic Process -- 'Bwana Devil' Debut Set". The New York Times. p. 35.
  20. 1 2 Balio, Tino (1987). United Artists: The Company That Changed the Film Industry . University of Wisconsin Press. p.  51. ISBN   9780299114404.
  21. ↑ "Top Grossers of 1953". Variety . January 13, 1954. p. 10.
  22. ↑ Johnson, Lawrence A. (October 17, 2002). "S. Pink, Made Low-Budget Films". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. p. 24.
  23. ↑ Dunlap, David W. (November 12, 2015). "Immersive Technology Debuts, in the Movie Ads". The New York Times . Archived from the original on April 15, 2018. Retrieved March 15, 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  24. ↑ "Review: Bwana Devil". Variety . Penske Business Media, LLC. December 31, 1951. Archived from the original on November 5, 2015. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  25. ↑ Alpert, Hollis (March 14, 1953). "The Movies: The Big Switch". Saturday Review . p. 37.
  26. ↑ Getty Images # 2905087 Archived 2011-08-07 at the Wayback Machine J. R. Eyerman's iconic photo of a bespectacled 3D audience at the Hollywood premiere of Bwana Devil.
  27. ↑ Thomas Y. Levin Dismantling the Spectacle: The cinema of Guy Debord
  28. ↑ Eyerman original version [ permanent dead link ] later used by Debord
  29. ↑ , https://www.amazon.com/Bwana-Devil-Robert-Stack/dp/B009B36B00/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=bwana+devil&qid=1602203844&s=instant-video&sr=1-1.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.