“Those Redheads from Seattle” may not be a well-known musical classic, but it is a notable American film as the first ever 3-D musical and the first widescreen film released by Paramount Pictures. And now, one can enjoy the this wonderful Blu-ray release (in 2D and 3-D) courtesy of Kino Lorber.
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TITLE: Those Redheads from Seattle
DATE OF FILM RELEASE: 1953
DURATION: 90 Minutes
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 1:66:1 Aspect Ratio
COMPANY: Kino Lorber
RATED: Not Rated
RELEASE DATE: May 23, 2017
Directed by Lewis R. Foster
Written by Lewis R. Foster, Daniel Mainwaring, George Worthing Yates
Produced by William H. Pine, William C. Thomas
Music by Sidney Cutner, Leo Shuken
Cinematography by Lionel Lindon
Edited by Archie Marshek
Art Direction: A. Earl Hedrick, Hal Pereira
Set Decoration by Sam Comer, Ray Moyer
Costume Design by Edith Head
Starring:
Rhonda Fleming as Kathie Edmonds
Gene Barry as Johnny Kisco
Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Edmonds
Teresa Bower as Pat Edmonds
Th Bell Sisters as Connie and Nell Edmonds
Jean Parker as Liz
Roscoe Ates as Dan Taylor
John Kellogg as Mike Yurkil
Frank Wilcox as Vance Edmonds
Walter Reed as Whitey Marks
William Pullen as Rev. Louis Petrie
Newly Restored in HD and 3-D from 2K Scans! A married woman (Agnes Moorehead) takes her four unmarried redheaded daughters (Rhonda Fleming, Teresa Brewer, Cynthia and Kay Bell of The Bell Sisters) to Alaska during the 1898 Gold Rush so they could help their father run his newspaper. All four are members of the singing sister act The Edmonds Sisters, and upon arriving in Yukon they find out their father was murdered. The four heroines get work at the saloon owned by Johnny Kisco (Gene Barry). Kathie Edmonds (Fleming) searches for her father s murderer, who may or may not be Kisco. Hollywood veteran Lewis R. Foster directed this wonderful and colorful musical, which was the first ever 3-D musical and the first widescreen film released by Paramount Pictures.
In 1953, the 3-D American Technicolor film “Those Redheads from Seattle” was released in theaters.
While “Kiss Me Kate”, the November 1953 MGM film adaptation of the Broadway musical, was considered as the first 3-D musical, Paramount Pictures “Those Redheads from Seattle” was released a month before and is now considered the first ever 3-D Musical. Also the first widescreen film released by Paramount Pictures.
“Those Redheads from Seattle” was directed by Lewis R. Foster (who wrote the film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “The More the Merrier”) and co-written along with Daniel Mainwaring and George Worthing Yates.
The film stars Rhonda Fleming (“Spellbound”, “Out of the Past”, “The Spiral Staircase”), Gene Barry (“Burke’s Law”, “The War of the Worlds”, “Bat Masterson”), Agnes Moorehead (“Bewitched”, “Citizen Kane”, “The Magnificent Ambersons”), music artist Teresa Brewer, singing duo The Bell Sisters, singer Guy Mitchell and John Kellogg (“Twelve O’Clock High”, “The Greatest Show on Earth”).
The 3-D film was remastered in 2K and now “Those Readheads from Seattle” will be released (both 2D and 3-D versions together on Blu-ray) courtesy of Kino Lorber.
The film is set in Alaska during the 1898 Gold rush and Dawson is a booming community. We see an article on the Dawson Daily Bonanza newspaper with the heaadline “No Place in Dawson for Klondike Club – say Law Abiding Ciizens” and how the newspaper would be publishing prison records of Klondike Club employees. And then we see a man burning the newspaper and then we see the Daily Bonanza warehouse on fire.
Dawson Daily Bonanza publisher, Vance Edmonds (portrayed by Frank Wilcox) and the citizens suspect that someone working for John Kisco (portrayed by Gene Barry), owner of the Klondike Club is responsible. And Edmonds confronts Kisco’s partner Mike Yurkil (portrayed by John Kellogg) and splashes water on him.
Despite the warehouse being burned down, Edmonds manages to use wallpaper to publish the latest newspaper and goes into the Klondike Club to present that day’s newspaper. Johnny confronts Mike and Mike admits that he burned the warehouse and John warns him to stop because it will give his place a bad name.
Seeing that Vance may pose a problem, while writing his family back home to not visit Alaska (due to the problems), while on his way to mail the letter, he is shot and killed by Mike, who then suddenly disappears.
Back home, we are introduced to the Edmonds family. Pat (portrayed by Teresa Brewer) is the daughter he saw a burlesque and would love to be onstage doing that type of career, while oldest sister Kathie (portrayed by Rhonda Fleming) is more conservative. Meanwhile, middle sister Connie (member of the Bell Sisters) has a similarity with her sisters that they each have red hair, with the exception of younger sister Nell (the other half of the Bell Sisters) who has blonde hair and often teased by her sisters because of her hair color and also because she tends to tattle on them.
While the Edmonds live a lavish life and each of them are well-educated, with their mother (portrayed by Agnes Moorehead) worried about her husband, she and the family make the decision to travel to Alaska. When they arrive, the family has been waiting for transportation to take them to Dawson but after a week waiting, they are still stranded in Skagway.
When the ladies arrive, middle sister Connie Edmonds strikes a friendship with Joe Keenan (portrayed by Guy Mitchell), a singer who comes to Alaska to perform at the Klondike Club and wanting to help the Edmonds family get to Dawson, convinces his friend Joe to bring the family and escort them to Dawson. While John was unwilling, when he finds out that they are the family of Vance Edmond’s, feeling guilty for what his partner did to Mr. Edmonds, he decides to help the Edmonds family get to Dawson.
When the ladies and their mother arrive to Dawson to book a room at the hotel, he is unaware that the family does not know what happened to Mr. Edmonds. While no one has the guts to tell them that Mr. Edmonds had passed, Johnny has Rev. Louis Petrie (portrayed by William Pullen) tell Mrs. Edmonds and the children the bad news.
But as there is an attraction by Kathie and Johnny, when she finds out that he knew that her father was killed, she wants nothing to do with him. But to make things worse, while she still has feelings for Johnny, her sister Pat comes in and kisses him and reveals that she has become one of the burlesque dancers at his club (Johnny has feelings for Kathie but due to the circumstances, he knows that the kiss from Pat probably hurt his chances with her).
This leads Kathie to continue the work that her father had done and that is to be the new editor of the newspaper.
But what will happen between John and Kathie? And will the murderer of Mr. Edmonds ever be caught?
VIDEO:
“Those Redheads from Seattle” maintains the Technicolor look and thanks to the restoration and 2K remastering, the film’s colors are much more vibrant, detail is much more evident. But while the HD restoration no doubt makes this film look great on Blu-ray, watching the film in 3-D, was quite amazed of how much went into the 3-D of this film in 1953.
Credits are shown in different levels and for an older 3-D film, there is impressive depth, much better than a few modern 3-D films that I have watched. Overall, a wonderful restoration by the 3-D Film Archive.
It’s important to note that to watch the 3-D version of the film, you must have a 3-D enabled Blu-ray player and 3-D glasses. Otherwise you can select the 2-D version.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Those Redheads from Seattle” is presented in the film’s original 1953 monaural soundtrack (DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0) and also a 3.0 soundtrack. Dialogue and music are crystal clear through either soundtrack.
It’s important to note that the original 1953 3-channel magnetic stereophonic tracks no longer survive. So, this is a new 3.0 stereo mix from existing elements.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Those Redheads in Seattle” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentary – Featuring audio commentary by film historians Hillary Hess, Greg Kintz, Jack Theakston and Bob Furmanek.
- Restoration Demo – (5:25) 3-D Film Archive discusses the restoration demo through comparisons and the challenges they faced for the restoration.
- 3-Channel Stereo Demo – (3:00) A demonstration via the song “Chick-a-Boom” and how the central channel is utilized with the front channels.
- Interview with Rhonda Fleming – (8:15) An interview with Rohnda Fleming by Bob Furmanek at the 2006 3-D screening at the World 3-D Expo in Hollywood.
- Original Theatrical Trailer
“Those Redheads from Seattle” will historically be known to be one of the first drama/musical films to be released in 3-D. In fact, technically it is the first 3-D drama/musical, despite MGM proclaiming “Kiss Me Kate” of being the first 3-D musical, the Paramount Pictures film came out one month before the MGM film.
The film would star the popular Rhonda Fleming (who starred in the Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck, Alfred Hitchcock 1945 film “Spellbound”), while Gene Barry was known for his work on “The War of the Worlds”.
“Those Redheads from Seattle” would also star music artist Teresa Brewer (popular for her hit songs “Music! Music! Music!” and “‘Till I Waltz Again With You”), music duo The Bell Sisters (best known for their songs “Bermuda”, their cover of “Wheel of Fortune”) and music artist Guy Mitchell (known for his hits “My Heart Cries For You”, “Singing the Blues”, “Heartaches By the Number” and “My Truly, Truly Fair”).
The film is quite entertaining and also humorous. As it deals with a love triangle between sisters Kathie and Pat vying for John Kisco. Also, drama as Kathie is upset that John never told her that he knew about their father’s murder and that his partner was responsible. This leads Kathie taking up the newspaper publisher/editor mantle of her deceased father and continuing his goal to stop the Klondike Bar, which is run by John Kisco. John’s livelihood is the club but he also has fallen for Kathie Edmonds.
Comedy is primarily for younger Bell Sisters, Kay Strother, who places Nell Edmonds, the only sister with blonde hair. And the treatment the redhead sisters give to their younger sister, treating her that she may not be part of the family, which upsets their very conservative mother, played by Agnes Moorhead.
And while the 2K restoration of this film look great on Blu-ray, what made me watch this film in awe is how well-planned the 3-D was for this film, when it came to how the credits were featured and the depth which was very great for its time and even bests a few of the 3-D films of today. But of course, the technology of the time was not perfect, as viewers suffered headaches or eye problems during the earlier years of 3-D and not much was known about the technology, other than trying to get people into the movie theater as the theaters saw television being a major threat. But whichever version you want to see, both 2D and 3-D version of the films are included.
Also, included is a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 monaural soundtrack and also a new three channel stereophonic sound soundtrack as well.
As for special features, the Blu-ray comes with an audio commentary by film historians Hillary Hess, Greg Kintz, Jack Theakson and Bob Furmanek, a 2006 interview with actress Rhonda Fleming who plays the role of Kathie, the before/after restoration and a stereophonic sound demonstration.
Overall, “Those Redheads from Seattle” may not be a well-known musical classic, but it is a notable American film as the first ever 3-D musical and the first widescreen film released by Paramount Pictures. And now, one can enjoy the this wonderful Blu-ray release (in 2D and 3-D) courtesy of Kino Lorber.
