Godfrey Colorized Loses Something

 

by Pa Rock

Film Fan

I am an aficionado of classic American movies from the 1930's and 1940's, a period of time generally regarded as "the golden age of Hollywood," and in particular I am a fan of what have become commonly known as "screwball comedies" of that period.  There are four from that era which I regard as exceptional:  "It Happened One Night" (1934),  "My Man Godfrey" (1936),  "Topper" (1937), and "His Girl Friday" (1940), and whenever I encounter one of those four playing on either of my streaming services - Netflix or Prime - I generally find time to relax and enjoy it.

This week I happened across "My Man Godfrey" playing on a sub-channel of Prime, one that is "free" because it is loaded down with commercials.  But, "My Man Godfrey" is such a great motion picture that I decided it would probably be worth the distraction and indignity of commercial breaks just to enjoy the whip-smart dialogue and fast pace of the film masterpiece.  That was my assumption, and it was wrong.  The commercials were so frequent and so tedious that they did insurmountable harm to the overall effect of the film - and they slowed the movie down to the point that it took me two evenings to watch the entire thing.

Adding even greater insult was the fact that some company had seen the need to "improve" it by colorizing the film, a process done with computers by which a classic black-and-white movie is updated into a color mess.  One of the introductory new titles to this version promised that it was presented in "radiant" color.  The computer colors were flat, dull, and distracting - anything but "radiant."

Digital colorization of movies began in 1985 when Hal Roach Studios transformed "Topper" into color.   At about that same time billionaire Ted Turner gained control of MGM's extensive film library, and in 1986 he announced plans to begin colorizing many early black-and-white classics.  Turner rationalized to the press that it was a necessary business move because sponsors would pay more to host color films on television than they would those which were black-and-white.   He further opined that it was his money and he could do with it as he pleased, and, at times he made it clear that part of his motivation was just to wind people up.  Turner ultimately colorized many lesser Hollywood films as well as a few better known ones like "Adam's Rib," "Boys Town," "Yankee Doodle Dandy," and even "Casablanca."

It is a matter of personal preference, and I prefer to see the movies that way my grandparents saw them in theaters, in black-and-white, as they were created, and not with a digital coating of mechanical pigment code carefully assigned and affixed by a machine - and ultimately rooted in educated guesswork.

The coloring is a distraction.

The viewing experience is just not the same.