I was always under the impression that this film was originally released in 4:3 ratio. I just received the recently released version from the Warner Film Noir collection, and "Illegal" appears in a 16:9 format. From all appearances the film doesn't appear "cropped" top and bottom. Perhaps this film was released in widescreen format. Anybody know for sure?
shareI noticed that last night when I saw ILLEGAL for the first time. 4/3 looked too distorted so I changed it to wide-screen. Perhaps the info on the DVD box was in error.
share by - m60green on Fri Nov 23 2007 03:20:55
I noticed that last night when I saw ILLEGAL for the first time. 4/3 looked too distorted so I changed it to wide-screen. Perhaps the info on the DVD box was in error.
If you check the technical specs listed here, it's 4:3 ... roughly. It's 1.37:1 which is a tad wider.
shareAlmost every theatrical film after Cinemascope came out in 1953 was matted to fit 1.85 x 1 in theaters (the ones that weren't in the anamporphic process), in order to compromise the ratio. At that point 3 x 4 was too square looking. As a result ILLEGAL (1955), shot non-anamorphic scope, was framed for the 1.85 x 1 standard "flat" format. If films were shown on TV or released as 16mm prints for schools, etc. they were still rematted for 3 x 4. The recent DVD release of ILLEGAL is transferred in the original ratio that happens to fit the 16 x 9 format we have today. It's more than coincidental that the latest "Wide TV Screen" concept matches what theaters were doing over 50 years ago. Also, as a bonus, 35mm film meets all the requirements of HD, or terrific standard definition DVD's. It's great that we now have the opportunity to see these magnificent film transfers in their original ratio, with all the fine 35mm quality to match. ILLEGAL is no exception. Just a brief history, but I couldn't help jumping in on this subject.
shareThank you, gplacher. I watched this last night and my tv found the correct format, but I changed it to 4:3 because that's the usual size of these movies. However, everyone looked like the characters in that Far Side "light" cartoon: too tall and too skinny, and especially the cars looked wrong. It's strange, though, because we've all seen it a thousand times before, but sometimes we try to adjust it in our heads in stead of pushing the buttons on the remote.
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