3-D Revolution: The History of Modern Stereoscopic Cinema

Chapter 9: 1980s 3-D Films

The November 29, 1982, issue of Daily Variety featured a headline that almost seemed to be déjà vu from the 1950s: “3-D Pic Prod’n Boom Underway .” Friday the 13th Part III from Paramount Pictures, as the first Hollywood studio 3-D film release of the 1980s, had racked up big box office numbers in August, and hopes were high for stereoscopic cinema. “More than 60 film projects contemplating 3-D lensing have been publicly announced since the current trend-setter, Comin At Ya, wrapped late in 1980,” wrote Lawrence Cohn, “and this initial burst of enthusiasm is currently being translated into actual results.” The 1980s 3-D Wave Is Launched It was the Filmways release of Comin’ At Ya! on August 14, 1981, that launched the wave of single-strip 3-D movies of the 1980s. Comin’ At Ya! was a kitsch-laden spoof of spaghetti westerns produced by Gene Quintano and Tony Anthony in Spain on a budget of $1.3 million. Despite the fact it had no stars, got poor reviews, and was actually just a violent bit of tongue-in-cheek misogyny, Comin’ At Ya! was a surprise hit, grossing over $13.5 million during the first few months of its release.1 The major studios took notice, and a second frenzy of 3-D production commenced. Comin’ AtYa! was shot with the Optimax III single-strip over-and-under 35mm system in wide screen with an aspect ratio of 2.35 to 1. Negative parallax with off-the-screen 3-D imagery was used excessively, along with violence and nudity and very little dialogue—only eight minutes’ worth in the entire feature film. Director Fernando Baldi had previously helmed forty movies in Spain and was a professor of film history and literature. In 1980s 3-D Films 9 112 3-D Revolution an interview, Tony Anthony, coproducer and star, remarked, “Shooting 3-D is so complicated we had to get a professor to direct it.” Regarding the film’s misogyny, he observed, “I hope that critics will be familiar with spaghetti Westerns and will realize that it’s not to be taken seriously.”2 To follow up on the success of Comin’ At Ya!, Quintano and Anthony also produced the single-strip 3-D film Treasure of the Four Crowns, described by Los Angeles Times film critic Linda Gross as a “picaresque, comicbook adventure story about a quest to recover two crowns containing gold balls that hold in them the powers of good and evil.”3 It was released in Super-Vision 3-D on January 21, 1983. In her Times review, Gross added, “This time around, in addition to the pythons, vultures, weapons and dogs Comin At Ya! (1981) was shot in single-strip 3-D and launched the 1980s boom. 1980s 3-D Films 113 that fly in your eyes, The Treasure of the Four Crowns provides us with more advanced special effects, fancy masks, shrill music by Ennio Morricone and a stone castle centerpiece that is 150 feet long, 50 feet wide and 60 feet high, supported by more than four miles of steel pipe. Don’t expect to find competent acting or an easy-to-follow story line as well. It doesn’t come with the territory.” Earl Owensby 3-D Films Independent producers also took notice of the success of Comin At Ya! Under the name Future Dimensions, Chris Condon’s StereoVision International and Lenny Lipton’s company, Deep & Solid, formed a partnership to market the StereoVision over-and-under single-strip 35mm 3-D format. A renegade independent filmmaker from Shelby, North Carolina, named Earl Owensby had also seen Comin At Ya! Owensby was a movie buff and the proud owner of his own movie production studio, EO Studios, which had produced and successfully released several low-budget feature films in the Southeast. After seeing Comin’ At Ya!, Owensby committed EO Studios to production of a slate of single-strip 3-D films and contracted with Future Dimensions and StereoVision International for 3-D photography. A 1985 profile in the Los Angeles Times by Lewis Beale described Owensby ’s success with EO Studios. “After all, back in 1973, when E.O. went into the film business, who would have thought that this twangy-voiced pneumatic-tool salesman from the sun-baked Carolina Piedmont would make it in the movie biz?” asked Beale.4 “Yet E.O...