The History of Stereoscopy in Cinema - Text 4
CinemaScope and all the widescreen systems which were then developed contributed to the establishment of 3D. The constraints for projectionists (starting up two reels on different projectors at the same time) and the difficulties in adjusting the projection gradually made the system unpopular. Over time, only a few producers making films for a niche audience continued to make films in 3D, including kung-fu movies such as Dynasty (produced in Taiwan and Hong Kong in 1977) and horror movies such as Paul Morrissey’s Flesh for Frankenstein (1974). With the end of various kinds of censorship, erotic and pornographic films proliferated, some of them in 3D. Alan Silliphant’s The Stewardesses (1970), for example, was one of the most profitable films ever made. It cost only 100 000 $, but brought in more than 25 million. For ten years it was rereleased numerous times in different cuts, but each time in 3D.
In the early 1980s, a new wave of 3D occurred, with horror films (Charles Band’s Parasite, 1982; Joe Alves’ Jaws 3-D, 1983) and science fiction (Lamont Johnson’s Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, 1983). What relaunched the 3D film was the astonishing success of a parody of the spaghetti western (Ferdinando Baldi’s Comin’ at ya!, 1981). This film was shot with a two-image system in Techniscope placed one on top of the other on a single strip of 35 mm film. This principle was economical and worked well. The film cost 2.5 million dollars and bought in more than 12 million.
