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Millie Goes to the Golden Head
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Written
by: Rick Mitchell, Hollywood, USA. Images by
Tom March, Canada. |
Date:
23.09.2009 |
For those who don't get it, this is a tongue-in-cheek
combination (and a dual setup for The Hideous Pun Demon) of the original
and final release titles of a mid-Sixties European would be roadshow
that finally had its first public screening in the United States on
Sept. 9, 2009! Using the only known existing 70mm print, even if it was
Kenemacolor.
The history of how this was made about is a bit murky. It was intended
to be the third of four films MGM had contracted to make with Cinerama
in its three panel process. And yet, although some dubious projects were
being announced as potential roadshows, AIP's proposed "ALI BABA AND
THE SEVEN MIRACLES OF THE WORLD" for example, this project was the
least likely for success, especially for a roadshow in three panel
Cinerama. Hayley Mills had originally been signed to star and assuming
the film was written for the older college undergrad teenage Hayley of
"IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS" and "THE MOONSPINNERS", the
plot about a British police detective's kids tracking down the thieves
who had stolen a national Hungarian treasure was still too thin to
justify such a film, at least if its location were limited to Hungary
with a cast whose name value was limited to Hayley and Lionel Jeffries.
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More
in 70mm reading:
"The Golden Head" Revisited
6. Todd-AO 70mm-Festival 2010
3-Strip at the Dome - and 70mm too!
Who is Rick Mitchell?
Internet link:
Jess Conrad official web site
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Image
by Tom March. Filmed owned by Cinerama & Pacific Theatres.
Apparently the film was a ploy by the then owner of Cinerama, Inc.,
Nicholas Resini, to make a big looking movie cheaply in Eastern Europe,
something a number of independent producers of big international films, like
Samuel Bronston and Dino, were doing at the time, what with production costs
rising in the by then overfilmed Italy and Spain. In addition to the cast,
the strange original choice of director was James Hill, who, according to
Ezra Goodman in The Fifty Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood, was
responsible for the breakup of the pioneering Hecht-Lancaster company and
aside from briefly marrying Rita Hayworth, had directed one not well
received caper film, "THE HAPPY THIEVES".
Contrary to what has appeared most notoriously in a certain red book,
production in three panel had been abandoned before the original version
started shooting, which was after "MAD, MAD WORLD" had inaugurated
"single lens Cinerama", and possibly even after the Technirama shot
"CIRCUS WORLD" had been shown that way using a 70mm print, which would
explain why that format was chosen for what was then known as "MILLIE
GOES TO BUDAPEST". Once it had successfully made 70mm prints from a live
action Technirama film with "SOLOMON AND SHEBA" in 1959, Technicolor
had been pushing that as a cheaper alternative to 65mm origination with the
format being used for a number of European period films that were given the
roadshow treatment there but were shown in 35mm in the US, and not always
from IB prints, "THE LEOPARD" being the most notorious example; it
was even advertised as being in CinemaScope!
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Anyway, MGM didn't like the dailies and cancelled their contract, though it
would later do "GRAND PRIX", "2001", and "ICE STATION
ZEBRA" in Super Panavision and shown as "Cinerama" roadshows. Production
was stopped and Mills and Jeffries also left. The film was apparently
rewritten to make Milly what's known today as a "tween" and George Sanders
and Buddy Hackett brought in as the thieves. (Sanders actually seems to be
enjoying himself in a couple of scenes with Hackett rather than displaying
the usual bored hautre of his later roles.) Hill was replaced by an even
stranger choice, Richard Thorpe. In his seminal B Movies, Don Miller has
high praise for the cheap Bs Thorpe directed before he was signed by MGM,
but after that he became one of the faceless journeymen of the Thalberg-Mayer
period, who mainly just got the coverage on schedule and on or under budget
knowing their work would likely be reshot by another journeyman. Though his
name is on two of MGMs biggest hits of the Fifties, "IVANHOE" and
"KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE", in my opinion neither is as good as George
Sidney's "THE THREE MUSKETEERS" or "SCARAMOUCHE", made either
when Mayer wasn't holding the reins as tightly or after Schary had brought
the studio into the second half of the 20th Century. And I don't see a real
comedy in Thorpe's filmography; he was apparently Robert Taylor's favorite
director and Taylor and comedy doesn't compute.
And that is the retitled "GOLDEN HEAD"'s biggest selling point, a
surprisingly witty script, all the more surprising since the credited
writers, Stanley Goulder and Ivan Boldizsar, have never been heard of before
or sense, suggesting either one or both are pseudonyms or some ghost writing
had been done (and not by Rex McGee, George Simpson, or Aubrey Solomon who
would have been too young). If an elder statesman journeyman director was
desired, a better choice would have George Marshall or Norman Taurog, who
had better comedy experience. Of course best of all would have been Frank
Tashlin. Or from an even less traditional standpoint, such up-and-coming
British based iconoclasts as Richard Lester, Ken Hughes, or Joseph McGrath.
Any of them would have definitely done something with the climactic chase,
portions of which were shot in 65mm with the German MCS Superpanorama camera
and are the only scenes in the film shot with wide angle lenses that have a
"Cinerama" effect. (That Technirama's widest lens could be used effectively
can be seen in "PARIS HOLIDAY" (1958).)
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Image
by Tom March. Filmed owned by Cinerama & Pacific Theatres.
"THE GOLDEN HEAD" is actually not that bad a film. It's in the tradition
of films made by various European countries going back to the Twenties aimed
at the "tween" audience, usually lighthearted mysteries with kids solving
crimes. Disney started making some of these in the Sixties to free up frozen
funds, most playing in the US as multiparters on the "The Wonderful World of
Color" tv series. Perhaps with a wider European canvas and 80 DAYS like
cameos from an international cast, it might have gotten by in the
increasingly overstocked roadshow market, especially in Europe. Somewhere in
all this, William R. Forman of Pacific Theaters had bought Cinerama, Inc.
and he decided not to release the film in the US, though, when Pacific
started its own distribution organization, Cinerama Releasing, they actually
could have released it to small markets and kiddie matinees. Depending on
the transfer costs, it's probably worth a video release, though I wouldn't
know about that.
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"Holiday in Spain" 2010 lobby card by Schauburg Archive
As noted in the introduction, the 70mm print of "THE GOLDEN HEAD"
shown at the Cinerama Dome was faded, but like most prints from the early
Sixties, not as badly as those who psychotically abhor any even slightly
faded prints, such as the party for whom my synonym for such prints is
named, like to claim. Knowing about the prints in advance, the audience
seemed to have no problem with it or the companion feature "HOLIDAY IN
SPAIN", which I discussed in a previous spamming, and heartily applauded
both films at the end. This suggests that the increased hesitance of
American distributors and some programmers to show less than perfect prints
is misplaced, if they're all that's available on a title and this is made
clear to the audience. For years now, less than perfect prints, particularly
of 70mm or Cinerama films, have been regularly shown at European venues such
as the Pictureville Cinema in Bradford, England, whose audiences appreciate
the opportunity the opportunity to see works which can't be reprinted due
either to cost or problems with the underlying elements---like they may no
longer exist. Hopefully the success of these screenings will allow us to see
rare 70mm and Cinerama films also.
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