Like 'Swift', I like the look and feel of the two-strip Technicolor used in Michael Curtiz' "Doctor X" and "Mystery of the Wax Museum". The silent 1925 "Phantom of the Opera" also used this process for the Masquerade sequence. But is that it? Are there ANY OTHER two-strip Technicolor horror films (before the advent of 'real' color films like "Dr. Cyclops")? Thanx, HJ
shareI always wanted to know the same thing
shareAlthough not horror films, THE TOLL OF THE SEA , THE BLACK PIRATE and LEGONG: DANCE OF THE VIRGINS are available on DVD. Also, the silent versions of THE KING OF KINGS and BEN-HUR have color scenes in them.
shareYou might also want to check out DIXIANA, with Wheeler & Woolsey. Not a great film, not enough of W&W, but an interesting curio. I was glad I saw it, but not glad enough to buy it...
shareStrictly speaking, "two strip Technicolor" is a misnomer, as the colors were registered on two adjacent frames of a single strip (running at double speed, 48 fps).
You might also Google for films that used the "Cinecolor" process, which competed with two-color Technicolor and survived late into the three strip Technicolor era. It looked pretty good, although not nearly as good as three strip Technicolor.
Check out "Monarch of the Moon", where they tried to re-create the two strip look. Also the colorized version of the original King Kong (which is essentially unavailable, as it was released on VHS and Laserdisc) intentionally re-created the two-color look.
I have a video-cassette copy of The Black Pirate. It includes some background and 'making of' video that shows two hand cranked, B&W cameras' with different filters, shooting the flick. With narration explaining the process.
shareBe aware that the "look and feel" that you describe varied somewhat due to the year of production. That's because Technicolor developed (no pun intended) 3 diferent 2-color processes, named System 1, 2 & 3. Depending on the System type, almost complete control of the color palette was possible, within the limits of the 2 colors chosen. System 2, far superior to System 1, was introduced in 1922, followed by System 3 in '27.
A complete list of all early films (1917 - 1935) utilizing color for either sequences or the full production can be found at:
http://vitaphone.org/color.html
How many are horror films, I do not know.
db
Sadly, it seems the vitaphone.org site has gone down.
shareI know the silent version of "The great train robbery" (which is fairly short)has some color in one scene, but that scene was hand tinted if I recall.
shareTinting is not the same as two strip technicolor. Warners played around with a lot of two color shorts and individual scenes in musicals and some other films but much of it hasn't survived. Dixiana (1930) had some color sequences.
Howard Roller
This was posted many years ago, but if anyone else is looking for an early colour film check out The Viking (1928), it also featured early use of sound in film.
shareThis is the book you ought to buy to answer all your two-strip Technicolor questions. Its a fantastic book!
http://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Technicolor-1915-1935-James-Layton/dp/0935398287/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429322426&sr=8-1&keywords=technicolor+1915+to+1935