CineSavant Column
Hello!
We have some interesting follow-up from correspondent Malcolm Alcala on the unproduced 1967 Dick Tracy TV show — Malcolm has found ‘a’ pilot for the series online.
It doesn’t feature ‘Pruneface’ or ‘Flattop’ in the cast line-up, just Victor Buono as a ‘Batman’- like villain. The rather tepid pilot was produced by Batman’s producer William Dozier, and its main theme is by The Ventures:
→ Meanwhile, correspondent “E.” shows us that the ‘Pruneface’ prosthetic piece for Lon Chaney Jr.’s character makeup job still exists. He found it on display at a Propstore Auction page from 2023, with nice photos:
And Christopher Rywalt sends along this amusing, educational look at Zinc Oxide and You — no, no, it’s a look at the famed ‘Sodium Vapor’ automatic matting process used by Walt Disney in the 1960s.
The UCLA film school had a demo reel of the process and others with clips from Mary Poppins and The Brass Bottle, but the 35mm print had faded, and I thought I saw all kinds of matte lines and imperfections. Or maybe I was just an obnoxious film student who liked to point out things like matte lines.
The new video by Corridor crew is a demo-recreation, an attempt to reproduce the matting system with the reputation of being able to work with any color in front of the camera. It’s very detailed, and quite entertaining:
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson