Bwana Devil

Despite advertising posters showing a lion leaping from a screen, and Barbara Britton extending entreating arms to passers-by, the action in Bwana Devil, the first full length three dimensional motion picture, stays safely within the screen. Not that the picture is a fraud, it has the same three dimensional effect as does a steriopticon viewer.

But this celluloid third dimension is not the one we normally see. Sacrificing reality for illusory depth, this process, known whimsically as "Natural Vision," seems too real. Anyone who has looked into a stereopticon viewer knows that the effect of viewing a flat film from a different angle with each eye produces a false sense of overly pronounced depth. The individual figures seem to have depth as does the seem, but all figures are isolated in stages. So it is with Bwana Devil.

In some instances, however, this technique is quite effective. A train slowly putting its way from the back ground toward the camera, a group of men climbing an embankment on top of which sits the camera, a lion moving toward the camera through a field of tall grass these scenes utilize three dimension in a way to make it more than another fad, but until the industry can control this new technique, Bwana Devil will be mercy the first in a cervices of audience sensations.

"Normal Vision" should not be confused with the process of Cinema. For "Normal Vision," the viewer must observe the picture through Polaroid glasses, and the screen is about stand and size. Since this is a new press, flaws are obvious and excusable. For instance, important syncronation of the dual mages makes moving figures Shimmer, as though viewed through a layer of slightly agitated water. Also, figures in a scene with depth, appear smaller than those in normal pictures. This means that the audience, in many cases, feels further away from the action than usual, thus defeating the purpose of three dimensions. Experimentation should correct these defects just as it made sound natural.

One of the big third dimensional traps into which author, producer, and director Arch Oboler blundered is the temptation to "throw" things at the audience. Lions leap, spears hurtle, feet kick, and Miss Britton pushes her puckered lips right at the camera. These are gimmicks, and poor ones, since the third dimension does not seem to work near the camera. The image becomes blurred and Miss Britton develops another head. The only sensation that the audience feels is one of eyestrain. But equally poor are long distance shots, backgrounds seem that and artificial. The best effects come in the middle distance, although close ups of immobile faces are not bad.

The picture, by the way, is fail. Slowly Paced, but with enough action to offset the generally insipid acting of Robert Stack. Bwana Devil is 85 minutes of railroad building and lion hunting.

In any event, the picture is not important. Whether Bicana Devil be comes to sight what The Jazz Singer was to sound, will depend on how well authors and directors accustom themselves to this essentially new me dinm. Despite its importation everyone should see the picture, it only to add another story to his backlog, of takes to admiring grandchildren. ROBERT L. SCHOENBERG