I can't understand why The Matchmaker was not filmed in color--and VistaVison? Any period comedy made by Paramount at this time would seem like a likely candidate-and this was not even a "B" picture. What were they thinking?
shareWhat is the deal with some posters and B&W movies? Is it a lack of imagination that you can't understnad what you are seeing unless it is in color? I'm sorry but I can't comprehend why this should be such an issue. Some of the greatest films of all time are B&W and not just because they are older. Consider "Schindler's List", some of Woody Allen's best, "Last Picture Show", most of Bergman and Kurasowa's best are also B&W.
shareTo add to my previous post -- what about "Raging Bull"?, which I think is Scorcese's masterwork. B&W was the correct choice for this film, color would have muted the toughness and grit of the film.
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B&W films were still the norm rather than the exception even in 1958. Most films done in Technicolor were musicals, outdoor adventures, or epics. It was still not that common for comedy films to be in color in 1958. I do agree color would have added an extra appeal to this movie, though.
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you are correct. "the matchmaker" was a comedy, yet not a musical comedy. if it had songs, it almost certainly would have been in color. it was a "period piece," yet it was lacking an "epic" quality. "matchmaker" wasn't "ben hur," and it was yet to become "hello, dolly."
Jonathan Becker
The movie is perfect as it is. Thank God it was not made in color. Black-and-white is the perfect choice for many movies. Can anyone really imagine The Last Picture Show being in color? What a travesty that would have been.
shareYoy're so right, Topkapi; the movie is fine as it is. Remember as well that other comedies of the late 50s and early 60s were also in Black and White. Look at Billy Wilder's work: "Some Like It Hot", "The Apartment", "The Fortune Cookie", ...all terrific films and all in glorious Black and White!
shareUh, Topkapi is in color !?! What's your point ?
Indeed, "Black-and-white is the perfect choice for many movies," and I don't believe anyone's arguing otherwise. But to make a case against color for The Matchmaker by comparing it to a film like The Last Picture Show is stretching a point to its tensile strength.
As the light-hearted, fourth-wall-breaking romp that The Matchmaker is, depicting the era and all its trappings - in the way of costumes, sets and overall production design - that it does, color would have well served the whimsical characters and their escapades among the swells of pre-turn-of-the-century New York, providing a visual enhancement of the colorful period, events and characters themselves.
Color also lent itself especially well to the VistaVision process in which the film was shot (more or less wasted in B&W), yielding sumptuous images of stunning clarity that still impress these many decades later when seen in well-mastered HD video formats.
I suspect that, with its cast of either "not yet" or "never would be" marquee-value players, budgetary matters were more of a consideration than aesthetics in the choice to shoot The Matchmaker in B&W (one of only a very small number of VistaVision films released by Paramount from '54 to '60 not to be graced by Technicolor).
Poe! You are...avenged!
Thanks - so well put. I definitely appreciate B&W movies. But this one seems like such a natural for color, given its tone. My guess is that Paramount simply didn't want to spring for color.
shareThanks for the kind words, and it's so funny that you should have replied just when you did. As I got the email notice, I was just finishing a reply to someone on the Classics Film Board about the relative merits of B&W vs color, in which they were arguing that some color films should have been shot in B&W, and I was defending the use of color in one film in particular. And I don't think it's an issue that's come up for me since I entered my post here on The Matchmaker more than a year ago.
Coincidences make life, well, more colorful.
Poe! You are...avenged!
The cast was definitely not "A-list."
Shirley M and Tony P were just breaking into movies.
As for Shirley Booth, I don't think she ever appeared in Technicolor ("Come Back Little Sheba" - ? - but there she owned the role on Broadway, too).
I think this fell into the realm of "domestic comedy" despite its quaint setting. Most of that genre ended up being filmed in B&W - unless you had someone hot bombshell like MM or Jayne Mansfield (even then, Billy Wilder thought MM would be better off in B&W for "Some Like It Hot" due to her poor physical condition).
I agree: if it's a costume drama, color is better. But like I said, I don't think that's what this movie was.
"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"
"Come Back Little Sheba" was in black and white. I don't think that we saw Shirley Booth in Color until 'Haze' began making color episodes.
"What do you want me to do, draw a picture? Spell it out!"
Loved it so n b&w.
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