"Colourized" black and white films!

[ferrarilover63]

I've heard about these films but today I flicked over to Channel 5 and they are showing Scrooge. Checked it out in Radio Times and on IMDB to be sure, because it just looked really odd and I'm right. The film is from 1951 and is a black and white film, BUT the Ch 5 version has been colourized. The "weird" look of the film completely distracts from the quality of the original. Surely in 1951 if they had wanted they could have made a colour film if they had wanted too. Have any other "colourized" films been shown on TV.

[nos]

ITV has a habit of showing a ghastly colourized version of the b/w film Red River with John Wayne and Montgomery Clift.

Usually I either try avoid them or turn the colour off because it irritates me so much. I agree it does distract from the original.

[Beezy]

I noticed this as well and it put me right off
also I was saying on another thread that I had seen its a wonderful life in colour and its just not the same

Leave old films alone they have stood the test of time for years without help

[Gracee]

I bought a second-hand copy of laurel and hardy's way out west dvd today which features not only the original black and white version but also a colourised version.

[mater1975]

And what's your verdict............?

[afwueil]

Believe it or not there are people who can't watch B&W films, and will complain that they are paying for a colour licence, (same people who complain about widescreen) They are losing out on a rich heritage of films, but if this is the only way for these to reach our screens then I will accept this and turn down the colour.

[Sic]

The version shown by CH5 was an American colourised version. The film was originally released in the US as "A Christmas Carol".

In the early 1950s' it was very rare for a British film to be made in colour. It was too expensive.


It's interesting to note that in the early days of silent film in was not uncommon to produce colour versions by hand-painting each frame.

[The Question Asker O.o]

An overview of colourization can be found here. It is of from an American perspective

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/...lorization.htm

[lealovebiteâ„¢]

Two notable examples of 'colourised' for me were "Suddenly" the Frank Sinatra under-rated thriller and a Judy Garland TV show with guests Frank, and Dean Martin.

[fauxfiala]

Recently seen a colourized version of 'Night Of The Living Dead', and as you can probably imagine it was fairly nasty although that said, the colourized print was made way back in 1987...