Third Dimensional Murder
Encyclopedia
Third Dimensional Murder is a 1941 3D
comedy short produced and narrated by Pete Smith
. It is the last of the Audioscopiks 3D short series.
It is MGM
's first 3-D all-color film, but was otherwise in black and white, including the opening credits.
, an archer and Frankenstein
(specifically modeled after Boris Karloff
in Son of Frankenstein
).
With he success of the first two shorts, Smith consulted J.M. Nikolaus in the camera department at MGM. Nikolaus went to studio manager E. J. Mannix who gave Nikolaus a budget of "about $3,000" to create a stereoscopic camera rig. After some trial and error, Nickolaus created a camera using two Bell & Howell 35mm cameras with specially matched lenses made by Bauch and Lomb. The lenses were 2¾ inches apart and were shot into prisms. George Sidney directed the short. Sidney later directed the 3-D feature for MGM, Kiss Me Kate. Prints were in anaglyph
by Technicolor
.
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
comedy short produced and narrated by Pete Smith
Pete Smith (film producer)
Pete Smith was a film producer and narrator of "short subject" films from 1931 to 1955....
. It is the last of the Audioscopiks 3D short series.
It is MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
's first 3-D all-color film, but was otherwise in black and white, including the opening credits.
Plot
Our narrator, Pete Smith, gets a phone call asking for help at an old castle. Smith arrives and is attacked by a witch, a skeleton, an Indian warriorNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, an archer and Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
(specifically modeled after Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
in Son of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein is the third film in Universal Studios' Frankenstein series and the last to feature Boris Karloff as the Monster as well as the first to feature Béla Lugosi as Ygor. It is a sequel to Bride of Frankenstein....
).
Background
The third and last in the Pete Smith Audioscopiks 3D series of shorts, Third Dimensional Murder the footage in the short was shot specifically for it, unlike the previous two shorts which utilized test footage shot by Jacob Leventhal and Jack Norling.With he success of the first two shorts, Smith consulted J.M. Nikolaus in the camera department at MGM. Nikolaus went to studio manager E. J. Mannix who gave Nikolaus a budget of "about $3,000" to create a stereoscopic camera rig. After some trial and error, Nickolaus created a camera using two Bell & Howell 35mm cameras with specially matched lenses made by Bauch and Lomb. The lenses were 2¾ inches apart and were shot into prisms. George Sidney directed the short. Sidney later directed the 3-D feature for MGM, Kiss Me Kate. Prints were in anaglyph
Anaglyph
Anaglyph may refer to:* Anaglyph image, a method of encoding a three-dimensional image in a single picture by superimposing a pair of pictures* Ornament carved in low relief...
by Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
.