b/w versus color
... so why is a black & white movie from the late 50s titled "Fuzzy Pink Nightgown" ? did they run out of color film? They certainly COULD have used color film if they had wanted to...
shareQuite simple really in some cases they wanted the film filmed in B&W over Color. But it was mainly because color was much much more expensive than B&W and not until the late 60s were there a lot of color cameras around and did it become more common. Sometimes the movies did not have a large enough budget to be filmed on Color film stock.
shareWell Chris, you are partially correct. At this time, filmmakers were making a choice to shoot their film in B&W or color. Regarding "The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown," which Jane Russell produced herself, the choice was made to film the movie in B&W. As Jane wrote in her autobiography, "Norman [Taurog, the director] envisioned the picture as strictly techicolor camp, while I had the mystery and romance of it in mind, in black and white. It should have been one way or the other, but as it turned out it was neither. That was one time the star should have had nothing to say. "The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown" was made with Ralph Meeker and Keenan Wynn in black and white. Norman still got his slapstick ending, but it just seemed old-fashioned without color."
Norman Taurog also wanted Dean Martin for the part Ralph Meeker played. Jane should have listened to Norman!!
She didn't give it as one of her reasons, but some degree of her decision to film it in black-and-white had to due with budget reasons, a B&W film being considerably less expensive to make than a color one. I, too, wish Jane had let the director have the upper hand, the end result is certainly one of her least memorable movies.
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