Directed by Lew Landers
With Edmond O’Brien, Audrey Totter, Ted de Corsia, Horace MacMahon, Nick Dennis, Dayton Lummis, Dan Riso, Shepard Menken, John Harmon, Ruth Warren
Edmond O’Brien stars as a former gangster who undergoes experimental brain surgery in hopes of curing his criminal tendencies and wiping out all memory of his past misdeeds. Unfortunately, his old gang is interested in recovering one particular forgotten memory – the location of their stashed loot – and they’ll stop at nothing to get it. A high stakes game of cat-and-mouse ensues, eventually ending up in an amusement park and climaxing with the film’s famous roller coaster scene.” (from the filmfest-guide)
One must-see highlight of the film festival we wouldn’t want to miss is the 3-D movie each year. When do you ever get to see a movie in 3-D? In the past few years we watched films like The Mad Magician, Gorilla At Large and House of Wax. This year’s 3-D movie pick was 1953’s Man In the Dark by Lew Landers and presented by the festival’s resident expert on 3-D movies Chris Kaltenbach, who also brought the previous years’ 3-D choices to the festival.
Man In The Dark is described as the first 3-D feature to use a production method in which the film was shot flat first, then projected behind foreground scenery props and re-filmed in 3-D so that only the props would jump off the screen. I thought this really decreased the quality of the 3-D effects and environment if I recall the experience I had with House of Wax or the Mad Magician before. Some effects like the scalpels used in the operation appeared way too busy or strong to be watched from the first rows, and other moments like the roof-top race deserved a much better use of the 3-D effect.
No doubt, it definitely was a pleasure to watch, in a 50s trashy classic sort of way.
