This Was Cinerama

Henry Hathaway, at Right in Hat, Directs HTWWW

Smileboxed by How The West Was Won (1962)

Ad for 35mm General Release

Are there fans of How The West Was Won beyond those who got to see it in Cinerama? I missed that experience, and would duck HTWWW for years leading to Warner's restored Blu-Ray. Now came question of how to go about the belated view. Solution was to project the "Smilebox" version on a wide screen, then sit close as possible to its pin-sharp image for at least hint of what roadshows saw. A crudest simulation, though I got one advantage they never had, the erasure of seam lines that were bane of three-panel play a half-century ago. Sitting so close was no bother, the "curve" seeming real and all-engulfing. Got a wide screen or access to one? Try Cinerama this way and hand yourself a fun, if faux, immersion, an OK substitute so long as theatre revivals stay resolutely 3000 miles away. The trick works as well for fine Cinerama releases from Flicker Alley.

Duke as Sherman Takes Break from March To The Sea to Bark
at Harry Morgan as General Grant

John Ford with Henry Hathaway

How The West Was Won ran well over a year in dedicated three-panel houses, a massive hit for MGM, even as they were obliged to split with Cinerama partners, plus leave buckets for daily overhead that was house expense (imagine costs run up in booths alone, multiple union operators in each). Unlike earlier travelogues done in Cinerama, there was wide 35mm release for How The West Was Won, and eventual TV play. ABC ran it in two parts on January 21 and 22, 1973. I didn't watch, again the avoidance thing, as I knew this wasn't the real deal, and stretch over Sunday and Monday nights, plus avalanche of advertising, seemed too high a price to add on already compromised presentation. Cable runs through the 80's and 90's were cropped to but particle of what first-runs gave, and still you had seam lines. TCM at least offered letterbox, small comfort as even that fell short of intended width. It took Blu-Ray to approach '62 sensation, and finally give hint of what audiences saw in an epic whose charm had eluded those unborn or too young to get in roadshow line.

How The West Was Won is "All-Star" to almost suffocating degree, a very definition of too much of a good thing. Were tall paychecks a lure, or did they all sign on for knowing this would be an event movie that would keep participants on view over multiple months, if not years, of theatrical play? Three directors were hired, perhaps to keep shooting apace like Republic serials, which in a vast way, How The West Was Won sort of resembles. The three meggers were Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall. I put Henry first because he would later (a little ungallantly) say the other two botched their end and he had to go back and re-do much of what at least Marshall was credited for. Even Ford's stuff was "lousy," according to ramrodding Hathaway, who took time/effort to learn Cinerama and its tricky application, as he was early on the project and stayed with it from start to finish. If you take HH on faith, it would appear he directed lion's portion of HTWWW, excepting Ford share, which Hathaway admitted leaving more/less alone because of pal Jack's exalted status.

And what of Ford's "Civil War"? It's the part modern viewers gravitate most to, as this is where biggest noise John Wayne has his moment, and yes, you could argue there's Ford "poetry" even on massive canvas that is Cinerama. He said in career look-back that trick to shooting so high and wide was to apply silent-era technique. Ford's part didn't take long, sources say five weeks. Kentucky location he used looks great, whole of background farm visible as Carroll Baker and George Peppard say goodbyes prior to latter's Yankee enlistment. Camp scenes, where Wayne shows up, were done on a sound stage, that being three panels as obvious as indoor for outdoor faking Ford did in The Searchers. Duke as General Sherman plays it big and throws down his cigar when irked. Did it occur to actors to tamp down for such enormous screens they'd fill? What action there is in the Ford unit was borrowed from Raintree County. He gets in lick at futility of war with soldiers of both sides having to drink post-combat from  streams of spilled blood, a vivid recall lots would take from How The West Was Won.

Debbie Shows Robert Preston How She Can Be A Better Lash LaRue Than Lash LaRue

Henry Hathaway's agent, Charles K. Feldman, wrote  MGM brass a stinging missive to effect that his client was robbed of proper credit for HTWWW. Hathaway thought too that he should get dominant director card, most of the finished film inarguably his, and unlike Marshall and Ford, HH was on the job for over a year and in receipt of every headache that sentence imposed. He'd end up a 60's equivalent of Victor Fleming on Gone With The Wind, only Hathaway didn't get public bows as came to Fleming, insiders alone knowing his was the master hand. HTWWW would be a rock in Hathaway's shoe to the end (read the terrific oral history conducted by Rudy Behlmer and published by Scarecrow), but the director in retirement told much of practical ordeal that was Cinerama and how it rode hard on players stood but eighteen inches in front of a looming triple-lens camera (any further back and you'd lose them in the landscape). Imagine having to emote with such a behemoth caressing your face, and yet a huge cast managed, several recounting ordeal in a documentary extra, Cinerama Adventure (written, produced, directed by David Strohmaier), which is included with the HTWWW Blu-Ray (feature-length, and by itself worth the disc purchase).

Post-Battle Water Tastes Kinda Funny to George Peppard

Further modern advantage of How The West Was Won is option to break it up over a couple sits, being less fatigue that way and easier on optics (mine already fritzed for sitting so close on HTWWW buffalo stampede). The show has sweep, plus stars sprinkled liberally, none throughout, but several (Debbie Reynolds, Carroll Baker) prominent before and after the intermission. You'll need stout D. Reynolds tolerance, she unsinkable in bullwhip-wield mode that was part of this personality's boisterous 60's line. Biggest names aren't here long enough to dominate, so Greg Peck, Stewart, Fonda, Dick Widmark, rotate through like guests on Burke's Law, or Batman cameos (just occurs to me: maybe they should have called this It's A Wild, Wild, Wild, Wild West). A lot of proceeds from How The West Was Won went to L.A. hospital charity, so could have been basis for some of sign-ons, despite none commanding the whole. I enjoyed How The West Was Won this time, earlier watch from further back and standard wide as opposed to Smilebox being more or less blah. Clincher was getting close as Cinerama camera got to HTWWW cast, and letting the thing envelop me, latter a nearest route to Cinerama temple short of a theatre run (but where?), or building a curved screen on home-site, with louvers hung (to prevent cross-light), plus technology to "warp" the projected image and achieve focus all the way across. Never mind expertise, patience, to get this done --- expense alone would be a deal-breaker.