The Bubble

On April 18, Naturama, the new projection system specifically designed by Bernier for both 3-D and wide screen presentation was announced in the trades. The primary advantage of this system over Pola-Lite was the horizontal placement of both images – one above the other – allowing for a full 2.55:1 aspect ratio.

On May 25, a demonstration of Naturama for industry representatives was held at the Ames Theatre in Dayton, Ohio. Motion Picture Daily wrote, “The picture proportions were reported to be the same as those of CinemaScope with the images projected from a single film strip. Regular standard projection equipment was used with no change to the projector or the booth port. The installation of the Naturama superimposing attachment, which measures 11 by 10 inches thick, was made in three minutes.”

Jane E. Bernier, President of Synthetic Vision, announced that demonstrations for exhibitors would be held shortly.

Those test screenings of Naturama never took place.

The very next day, May 26 – after the cancelled 3-D engagement of DIAL M FOR MURDER following its world premiere in Philadelphia – Variety reported a story entitled, 3-D Looks Dead in United States. The article said, “Tri-dimension pix apparently have made their last stand in domestic distribution. There appears little interest among exhibs to show 3-D pictures.”

Arch Oboler was not discouraged. On June 3, Variety reported that he would use his profits from BWANA DEVIL to make a new 3-D film in Copenhagen with Bernier’s Naturama process: SPEAR IN THE SAND. Based on Raoul Faure’s novel about a man living alone on a desert island for 65 years, it was originally considered for 3-D lensing in February 1952. The film was never made.

In July 1954, John Norling wrote a scathing editorial for International Projectionist.

Special thanks to Lance Hayes for the Crest Theatre ads from Wichita, KS.

Seeing there was still some interest and several thousand theaters equipped for dual-35mm projection, producer Edward L. Alperson began production of THE GIRL IN THE RED BIKINI on location in Mallorca, off the coast of Spain in August 1959. Using Natural Vision cameras, the film was shot open-matte with the plan to extract a 2.35:1 image for release in dual-35mm 3-D and Cinemascope. With the new title SEPTEMBER STORM, it did well enough in early test engagements to encourage 20th Century Fox to give it a full-scale 3-D release in September 1960.  Shown with "Special viewers scientifically designed by master craftsmen," it was the last 3-D feature released in a dual-35mm format.Despite what many people believe, the July 1960 release of William Castle’s 13 GHOSTS in Illusion-O was not 3-D but utilized a red/blue “Ghost Viewer” in order to allow viewers the option to see or filter out the ghostly images.

The Canadian horror film THE MASK was released in October 1961 and featured three very effective sequences filmed in Depth-Dimension, a dual-35mm process developed by Britain’s National Research Development Corporation and converted to single-strip anaglyphic 3-D. These segments are generally regarded as the finest examples of anaglyph ever put on film.

With the growing popularity of the “nudie-cuties” in the downtown adult and art theaters, it wasn’t long before some producers used 3-D to exploit their productions.

January 1962 saw the first release in this genre, THE BELLBOY AND THE PLAYGIRLS. Originally a flat black and white German production from 1958, it was enhanced with an 18 minute 3-D color finale written and directed by an up and coming talent, Francis Ford Coppola. Filmed with a dual-16mm Auricon rig and blown-up to single strip 35mm, exhibitors had the option to project the segment in either a red/blue anaglyphic version or a full-color polarized 3-D print. Most theaters showed the lesser quality anaglyphic version.

In February, PARADISIO - called “The best nudie movie to date” by Playboy - was released with several poor quality Tri-Optique anaglyphic segments. Produced for under $100,000, it brought in a respectable $260,000 in its first six months of distribution and was still playing the grindhouse circuit three years later.

The venerable Natural Vision rig, used on such 3-D classics as HOUSE OF WAX and THE CHARGE AT FEATHER RIVER, was put into service one last time on ADAM AND SIX EVES. Ironically, the film was released only flat in August 1962. 

In October 1961, Oboler completed his first draft of a screenplay about a young couple in “a most unusual adventure story.” The following summer, he recorded the popular “Drop Dead!” LP for Capitol Records, the first in a proposed series of suspense albums based on stories from his “Light’s Out” radio plays. He developed a good relationship with Alan W. Livingston, the president of the label. Within a few years, that relationship would prove very beneficial.Work was progressing on the Trioptiscope lens and on June 12, 1962 – nearly ten years to the day of the start of BWANA DEVIL – a 3-D test with the latest design was filmed and the results were very encouraging. But further work and monies were still needed to get the lens perfected.

On July 25, 1962, Variety reported, “A new 3-D process which uses a single projector and eliminates the problems previously encountered in tridee projection has been presented by Arch Oboler who asserts the system is foolproof.” He approached Paramount and Columbia but neither studio was interested.

Not easily discouraged and recognizing the value of perseverance, Oboler continued refining his script while Bernier was busy grinding the new camera lens. On September 29, 1964, Variety reported “Arch Oboler has begun preparations for filming ‘The Bubble’ his original screenplay. Oboler just returned from a location scouting trek to Japan.”

In February 1966, Oboler signed a deal to partner with Capitol Records in order to secure the financial backing necessary for final refinement of the lens and to cover the production costs on THE BUBBLE, estimated at $500,000.  

Final script revisions were done in May and casting began in June with Michael Cole and Deborah Walley, the popular star of GIDGET GOES HAWAIIAN, signed for the leads. Former big band crooner, nightclub performer and Atco recording artist Johnny Desmond took a month off from playing the lead role of Nick Arnstein with Barbara Streisand on Broadway in FUNNY GIRL to do the film.

Principal photography began in Studio City at the 70-acre CBS Studio Center on July 15, 1966 and continued until the end of August. The standing saloon set of GUNSMOKE was used for several scenes and Bernier utilized this opportunity to recreate his original off-screen tray effect from 1951. Completely leaving the screen and coming far out into the audience, it stands today as one of the top off-screen moments in stereoscopic film history. Production of the film was shrouded in secrecy. In a 1999 interview, Michael Cole remembered, “So secret were the plot and the methods of photography projecting into the fourth dimension of space that the studios top brass were persona non grata and barred from their own stages.”

Robert Bernier’s daughter Barbara Clendenin spent a lot of time on the set. In a recent interview for this article, she said, “Filming was arduous and time consuming, but thrilling. My father was the Technical Director and I spent most of my time assisting him or just watching his daily routine which was intense. I recall a scene filmed at night when a burning vehicle was pulled into the night sky. There was only one take but it took all night to set it up and rehearse the use of the crane and the actors.”

The film played for five weeks in Chicago and grossed over $100,000.  After viewing a test screening in January 1967, Kevin Thomas wrote in the L.A. Times, “Tuesday morning at the CBS Studio Center, local press got its first look at Oboler’s newest process, 4-D Space-Vision, an unqualified success in its technique… The possibilities of Space-Vision seem infinite – not just for shock effects but, for example, the dynamic presentation of plays and ballets which are notoriously hard to make cinematic… Whole scenes can float in front of the screen. Directors from Michelangelo Antonioni to Jerry Lewis should be intrigued with the device.”

In a March 1967 interview with the L.A. Times, Arch Oboler expressed his thoughts on the unusual screenplay: “The story concerns itself with human choices – absolute security conveyed by authority from above arrayed against the individual desire for freedom of choice.”

Oboler made plans to four-wall the film and openings followed in Detroit in February; Los Angeles in March; Cleveland and San Francisco in April; Denver, Milwaukee and New Orleans in May; Baton Rouge in June and Pinellas Park, Florida in July. Bernier traveled to each city in order to set-up the installation and insure the optimum presentation.

FANTASTIC INVASION did well for Monarch and continued to receive bookings throughout the late 1970s. In some cities, it played on a double-bill with an edited R-rated version of ANDY WARHOL’S FRANKENSTEIN. Monarch eventually added the X-rated LOVE IN 3-D and THE STEWARDESSES to the program for a month-long “30 Days of 3-D” film festival.The Space-Vision system was used for a few other films during this period, including APE (not to be confused with KING KONG) shot in Korea in 1976 with Daniel L. Symmes handling the Trioptiscope lens and Murray Lerner’s SEA DREAM – an excellent example of stereoscopic cinematography – photographed for Marineland of Florida in 1978.

There was a brief resurgence of 3-D movies in 1981. Films like COMIN’ AT YA, JAWS 3-D, PARASITE, FRIDAY THE 13th PART III, TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS and SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE had a wide release but were plagued by uneven stereoscopic photography and sloppy projection. Within a few years, the revival died.

In the 1980s, Stereovision International offered various home video versions of THE BUBBLE and the quality was very poor. Taken from a faded print, no attempt was made to fix the minor alignment issues and the zoomed-in, low resolution transfer was done on a sub-par film chain.

Arch Oboler passed away on March 19, 1987. To the end, he never lost his passion and enthusiasm for stereoscopic motion pictures. In 1983, he said, “In terms of 3-D, until there is some artistic level of choice of stories in the studios, we may have the same reaction to the present 3-D excitement that we had back in the BWANA DEVIL days. The audience will become surfeited with gore with bad stories. The only hope for 3-D is that someone will come along with taste and understanding and do a good story without regard for the extremes of 3-D, using it in terms of the story itself. It’s so easy to get seduced by the wonders of going into space that you forget about the story.”

Three years later, DOMO ARIGATO finally received a limited theatrical release in some festival screenings and repertory theaters, including a November 1991 tribute to Oboler at the London Film Festival.

In 1999, Rhino Video issued a poor quality anaglyphic conversion of THE BUBBLE that did little to enhance its reputation. Arch Oboler’s modest but ambitious production certainly deserved better treatment.

RESTORING THE BUBBLE

We acquired the rights and were shocked to discover the original camera negative was the only existing 35mm archival element on the film. None of the people who had owned the rights had spent the money to create a back-up, preservation 35mm master.

For nearly thirty years, the negative had been handled very poorly. The last time it was stored in a dedicated film vault had been the late 1970s when Monarch Releasing held the rights. Since then, the cans had been in warehouses and public storage lockers. When we finally rescued the elements in 2009, they had been baking for the past five years in an outdoor storage unit in the Southern California heat. The filthy cans were banged up and rusty with loose masking tape labels. Before doing an HD transfer, the negative had multiple ultra-sonic cleanings. When we finally had it scanned, we found that much of it was faded from the years of bad storage. Thankfully, there was no shrinkage or vinegar syndrome deterioration.

Available funds for the restoration were not sufficient to do a wet-gate scan (which is four times the cost) so we had to do manual dirt clean-up and repair. In addition, the original printed-in opticals for fades and dissolves were filthy and those dupe sections had been cut directly into the negative. They have been a part of the film since day one.

Greg Kintz – Technical Director for the 3-D Film Archive – painstakingly went through every optical one frame at a time in order to minimize the dirt and damage.

You’re also seeing more of the image. In theaters, the Space-Vision prints were badly cropped to overlap the above/below 3-D image onto the screen. In addition, when the film was edited by Igo Kantor in 1966, he used a standard splicer instead of one designed for anamorphic elements which would have given a narrow overlap of .03 inches resulting in much thinner splice lines. As a result, at every cut, there are white lines across the top and bottom of the image. In the 1999 Rhino DVD release, they simply zoomed-in on all four sides to hide the splices and still retain a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The massive amount of cropping wreaked havoc with the original compositions. This solution was not acceptable to the Archive so Greg went to work retaining the full 2.50:1 negative image and removing every single splice line at each cut. 

The final results are outstanding and the picture is cleaner, sharper and brighter than anyone has ever seen before.

Splice Line - Before and After