John Alton: Painting with Light

[feaito]

Thanks ChiO for your detailed account. It would be superb if that print could be used for a DVD or Blu-Ray release!!!

[Gary J.]

I was always under the impression that John Alton was a valued member of the Freed Unit during their creative heyday of the early 50's and now I realize that his only work with them was An American In Paris. Now I need to go re-visit Hugh Fordin's book on Freed because it seemed Alton came up a lot in it.

Gary J.

[ChiO]

Dory Schary, before going to MGM, visited the set of REIGN OF TERROR and was impressed. When he took over the production reins at MGM, among his first hires were Anthony Mann and John Alton. They made two fine films together at MGM, BORDER INCIDENT and DEVIL'S DOORWAY. Of the nearly 20 movies Alton worked on at MGM, five were with Vincente Minnelli (including the ballet sequence in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, for which he won an Oscar), and four with Richard Brooks, both of whom specifically wanted him. He did another non-MGM movie with Brooks -- Alton's last film, in fact -- ELMER GANTRY (1960).

Alton was fired from his first post-Oscar assignment, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, after two weeks and assigned to lower budget Schary productions at a time when apparently there was a battle between the pro-Mayer and pro-Schary forces. About a year later, in 1954, Alton started working on non-MGM movies, mostly with RKO, though he did return to MGM to photograph five movies in 1956-58.

Source: Through a Lens Darkly: The Life and Films of John Alton (T. McCarthy -- Introduction to Painting With Light (J. Alton))

[movieman1957]

On the basis of the regard for "Reign of Terror" here I have it from Netflix. So far, and it is early on, the transfer looks dreadful. Even the sound seems unbalanced. I'm going to try and finish it tonight. I thought I had the wrong movie when the label showed "The Black Book" but it's the right one.

Meanwhile, later that day. The print was still awful. The sound nearly as bad. (There's a restored version and it didn't make it to the Netflix library yet?) Pretty exciting story with great costumes and set design. I'm not sure I'm sold on Robert Cummings but Richard Basehart was really good.

I'll give it another go when I can get a better copy.