Customer Reviews

America's Castles: Movie Palaces [VHS]

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America is said to have contributed two idioms to world architecture: the skyscraper and that unique form of theatre, the Movie Palace, and this colorful 50-min. video in VHS, SP-speed provides a brief survey of the era of this art form. Ironically, is is the second such film/video to have this title in view of the introduction ten years before, in 1988, of the video also entitled "THE MOVIE PALACES", but that one, while only 30 minutes in length (by the Smithsonian Institution's Office of Telecommunications), was the superior work. The "Movie Palaces" video reviewed here is a commercial production by Cinetel Productions under contract to produce A&E Television Network's "America's Castles" series of which this is a part. Like most series productions, the part suffers for the whole.

To cram an entire era into just 50 minutes is difficult for anyone, but the chief writer, one Dorian Walker, takes the approach of using four refurbished theatres as the epitome of what the Movie Palace phenomenom was. The producers' choice of the FOX TH. in Atlanta to represent the 'atmospheric' (stars and clouds) type of movie palaces is probably justified, as is their selection of the WILTERN TH. in Los Angeles as a fine example of Art Deco design, and most everyone is familiar with the lavish CHINESE TH. in Hollywood with its forecort of footprints in concrete as a most famous movie palace, but these were not really the acme of such theatres as the narrator suggests; they were merely some of the few remaining of the 23,000 they claim this nation had in 1929. No mention is made of Chicago's preeminent place in its collection of early and noteable 'palaces'. The generally accepted supreme example of the ROXY TH., once in New York City, is only shown in passing, never discussed. Clearly, the subjects/views were selected to enhance color filming, not historic black and white photos of theatres no longer with us, regardless of the greater historic stature such might have (the other "THE MOVIE PALACES" shows much more in this regard). As regards the color filming, there can be no complaint; each of the four subjects is well photographed with about ten minutes devoted to each.

Some complaint can be raised, however, when they use the opening 14 minutes to assert that the beautifully restored NEW AMSTERDAM TH. of NYC was a prototype movie palace. The movie palace era began in approximately 1920 and continued for almost 15 years according to the consensus of most experts, but the NEW AMSTERDAM opened in 1903, a reflection of impressario Florenz Ziegfeld and his girls on a live-action stage, a la the traditional or 'legit' theatres. While the views of the NEW AMSTERDAM are gorgeous, as are all the many cheesecake views of girls in this video, they are not representative of movie palaces, even if the New Amsterdam did resort to showing films after 1936. The mere showing of films does not a movie palace make, else millions of structures in this country would qualify by that standard. The other "THE MOVIE PALACES" video makes this distinction clear, as the historical production is is, rather than the purely entertainment opus the present piece seems to be.

While there isn't necessarily anything wrong with a purely entertainment orientation at the outset, one who undertakes an historical perspective is bound by certain commitments to accuracy and completeness. It is not as if the writers and producers of A&E's version were unaware of the previous "THE MOVIE PALACES", for on both of them is listed as associate writer the name of noted movie palaces historian Mr. David Naylor, who has several theatres books to his credit. They both also list the Theatre Historical Society of America in Elmhurst, Ill. as a source. Apparently, Mr. Naylor's views and those of the Society were set aside in preference to interviews of an 'architectural historian from the University of Virginia' who opines therein that the Art Deco of the WILTERN's decor had a "Tarzan sinuousity", certainly a terminology not found among true theatre historians nor in any architectural dictionary, for 'sinuousity' is the opposite of Art Deco, and while Tarzan may have been on many a theatre screen, his influence on decors is scant indeed. Further, the slapdash manner of much of the writing and narration is evident when the narrator calls the ceiling grille of the CHINESE TH. a "60-foot diameter plaster doh lilly", evidently his reading of the word 'doily' in reference to the lacy design. Later he refers to the plaster design of the stylized rays of a ceiling sunburst in the WILTERN as "mechanical beams" when there are obviously no mechanisms involved in the static plaster. This shows that TV-ad writers should allow those who are expert, such as Mr. Naylor, to edit such writings for accuracy -- the viewer deserves no less, entertainment or not! And when they describe the CHINESE TH. as the "apex of movie palaces" they are stating an opinion to their benefit, and one certainly not held by all experts.

Buy this tape for is fine photography of the four theatres, but search out the Smithsonian's version for a finer production, greater accuracy, and the spirit of nostalgia it so joyfully leaves you.