Play It Again, This Time in Color

By Philip Elmer-DeWitt

Electronic magic touches up the classics of black-and-white

When Robert Duvall falls in love with a toy doll this week in the syndicated rerun of a 21-year-old episode of The Twilight Zone called Miniature, he is transported into new dimensions not only of sight and sound but, for the first time, of color as well. As Duvall's dollhouse sweetheart comes magically to life, the set of Rod Selling's stark black-and-white classic is suddenly painted in rainbow hues.

Serling is one of the dozens of television pioneers who did their best work before the advent of color TV. Like the great black-and-white films of the '30s and '40s, TV series from the early '50s can seem faded and dull to viewers accustomed to color. Now computer technology offers a way to revise cinematic history. Two firms, Colorization of Toronto and Color Systems Technology of Los Angeles, have independently devised methods for turning black-and-white reels from the golden ages of television and Hollywood into so-called colorized videocassettes.

"It gives old black-and-white a new life," says Lisa Merians of Viacom Industries, which distributes the Twilight Zone special and owns the rights to such filmed series as The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Honeymooners and The Phil Silvers Show. MGM, which has more than 4,000 films in its library, is paying up to $180,000 a movie for computerized-color versions of such classsics as the 1942 musical Yankee Doodle Dandy, starring James Cagney, and the 1941 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which featured Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. Hal Roach Studios, which owns 35% of Colorization, expects to have 15 movies for sale or rental in video shops by next spring, including ten Laurel and Hardy features and the original, 1937 version of Topper, starring Gary Grant and Constance Bennett.

The basic techniques used by the two coloring firms are similar. First an electronic scanner breaks each frame of the film into an array of 525,000 separate dots that can be stored in the computer. Then an art director reviews the first frame of a given scene and selects a specific color for every object on the screen. A computer operator, using a digital graphics tablet and an electronic palette, hand-paints the image according to the art director's instructions, much like a child filling in a paint-by-the-numbers picture. Then the computer takes over, coloring the rest of the scene by comparing every new frame with the preceding one. Since less than 4% of the dots will change from frame to frame, the computer can keep track of moving objects.

The operator reviews each frame, making adjustments, for example, when a new character or object appears in a scene. Colorists have considerable freedom over their choices; a heroine's dress can be mauve or shocking pink. Says Buddy Young, president of Color Systems: "We can make jewels sparkle."

The process requires painstaking attention to detail and a fair degree of endurance. One frame of Topper called for 30 different color assignments. Although the computer can carry most of those colors through the 24 frames that make up each second of the movie, it still takes technicians an average of four hours to finish one minute of color videotape. When it is done right, however, the effects are stunning.

The colormakers see only one color when they talk about their potential market: green. Since copyrights have expired on thousands of old black-and-white movies, they can take out new copyrights on the colorized versions of the same films. Boasts Earl Click, chairman of Hal Roach Studios: "I could take 200 A-l pictures, colorize them, and turn them into solid gold." He estimates that a $30 million investment might yield a billion dollars in profit within 15 years.

Not everyone is entranced by the idea of seeing a favorite film classic reissued in color. "The great Hollywood cameramen knew what they were doing in black-and-white," says Ken Wlaschin, artistic director of the Los Angeles International Film Exposition. "Many great films could be harmed." Concurs Gene Allen, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: "I shudder to think what they might do to Casablanca."

In fact, Color Systems already has plans for a color version of Casablanca. "We'll probably be crucified," says Young, "but because of the controversy, it will probably be one of the highest-rated shows on television." In any case, viewers can always turn the color adjustment knob on their TV sets all the way down and go back to seeing Bogart in black-and-white. --By Philip Elmer-DeWitt. Reported by Jeff Gottlieb/Los Angeles and Beverley Slopen/Toronto

With reporting by Jeff Gottlieb, Beverley Slopen