For years, chopped-up and scratchy versions of classic films have been shown on late night television, giving a smudged and distorted view of the art and craft of their original images.
But the new technology of the laser videodisc, which offers a superior picture when hooked up to a TV screen, has helped make up for some of television`s sins by faithfully presenting black and white films in crisp, clear images that make these old movies seem as fresh and beautifully photographed as their makers intended.
Thanks to the laser disc, we can now see the pin stripes in the suit Humphrey Bogart wears in his first scene in ”The Maltese Falcon” (MGM/UA, $34.98), and we can catch the full sparkle of the diamonds in the jewelry heist of ”The Asphalt Jungle” (Criterion, $39.95).
More important, we can appreciate the depth and variety of the pictures that directors, designers and cinematographers of pre-Technicolor films were able to achieve.
The dance romances of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are frequently screened on television, for example, but it has taken the laser disc release of ”Swing Time” on the Criterion Collection label ($39.95, or $74.95 with supplementary background material) to show the full opulence of the gorgeously designed settings in which their dances took place. As the camera glides over the Silver Sandal nightclub, which is designed in high art deco style, one can now see the glistening of the decor, from the shining white tablecloths to the gleaming black dance floor.
Similarly, we`ve all enjoyed the jokes and gags of ”Some Like It Hot”
in its many television outings, but the Criterion laser disc version of the film ($124.95, with supplementary material) also demonstrates how artfully composed and photographed this classic 1959 comedy is.
The scene in which Marilyn Monroe, as the vocalist Sugar Kane, sings ”I Wanna Be Loved By You” on a bandstand speckled with spotlights is amazing in its sharp detail, from the glitter of the rhinestones on Monroe`s bodice to the arc of ceiling lights that frame the crowded dance floor of the ballroom. And when Monroe shimmies to the tune of ”Running Wild,” the black dress she wears shimmers with every movement.
Criterion`s recent release of Alfred Hitchcock`s ”Notorious,” with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant ($49.95, or $99.95 with supplementary material), has been transferred from the camera negative stored in the Museum of Modern Art, which means that the picture it produces is nearly pristine in its gradations of black, white and gray.
Hitchcock, who did not turn to color until relatively late in his career, is well represented with laser editions of his black and white movies. Especially good is ”Shadow of a Doubt” (MCA Home Video, $34.98), with Joseph Cotten as a murderer at large in a small New England town and Teresa Wright as his unsuspecting niece. Thanks to the laser disc, the movie now appears with the realistic, documentary look that Hitchcock wanted when he filmed the movie in 1943.
Other laser discs that highlight the glories of black and white include:
”The Magnificent Ambersons” (Criterion, $99.95), directed by Orson Welles, and ”The Night of the Hunter” (Criterion, $39.95), directed by Charles Laughton, both photographed by Stanley Cortez, one of the geniuses of Hollywood cinematography. The ”Ambersons” disc, which was transferred from the film`s original nitrate materials, is the best single black and white laser disc on the market today.
”8 1/2” (Criterion, $59.95), Federico Fellini`s dazzling 1963 movie on the making of a movie. Letterboxed for showing in its original wide-screen format, this imaginatively designed mixture of realism and fantasy uses black and white and all the variations in between with virtuoso brilliance, making it more visually stimulating than many a lavish color film.
”Winchester `73” (MCA Home Video, $34.98), a 1950 Western starring Jimmy Stewart. William Daniels, who was the cameraman for Greta Garbo`s movies in the heyday of the MGM studio, proved himself a superb photographer of the wide open spaces.
”A Hard Day`s Night” (Criterion, $49.95, or $79.95 with supplementary material), the Beatles` first and best feature. Director Richard Lester shot this 1964 musical comedy with a high-energy combination of documentary and studio techniques that captured the Fab Four`s exuberance and genius.
