Treasure of the Four Crowns

Treasure of the Four Crowns
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Ferdinando Baldi
Written by	Tony Anthony Lloyd Battista
Starring	Tony Anthony Ana Obregón Gene Quintano Francisco Rabal Emiliano Redondo Jerry Lazarus Francisco Villena Kate Levan Lewis Gordon
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Distributed by	Cannon Films, Inc.
Release dates	January 21, 1983
Country	United States
Language	English

Treasure of the Four Crowns is an action adventure film, featuring Tony Anthony, Ana Obregón, Gene Quintano and Francisco Rabal and directed by Ferdinando Baldi. It was produced as a co-production between American company Filmways and Lupo-Anthony-Quintano Productions, an independent company, The same filmmakers the made Comin' at Ya! in 1981 the film effectively started the 3-D film boom.

Treasure of the Four Crowns was released on January 21, 1983 in the U.S. by Cannon Films, Inc.

The Plot

The Movie is centered around the character J.T. Striker who is a Soldier of Fortune, portrayed by Tony Anthony; J.T. Striker has been hired to assemble a group of professional thieves to retrieve the gems which are hidden inside two of the remaining four Mystical Crowns. These crowns are being held inside a heavily guarded compound that is the home of a cult lead by the evil Brother Jonas.

Tony Anthony

Tony Anthony, born Roger Pettito on October 16, 1937, in Clarksburg, West Virginia), is a former film actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for starring roles in spaghetti westerns such as A Stranger in Town, The Stranger Returns, The Silent Stranger and Blindman produced by Allen Klein. He also wrote, produced, and starred in two 1980s 3-D films; Comin' at Ya! and Treasure of the Four Crowns. He co-wrote a handful of films with director Saul Swimmer, and in once instance co-directed a Swimmer film. Treasure of the Four Crowns marks the final on-screen performance by Tony Anthony, though he continued working as a television producer

History

Treasure of the Four Crowns was rushed into production by Cannon Films, Inc. after the runaway success of Comin' at Ya! another 3D film by the same producers. It was released just as the 1983 3-D era was coming to an end.

The 3D Process

Posters credited the 3-D process used in the film as "Supervision" and "Wondervision". Both of these processes are fictitious, the actual camera system was the Marks 3-Depix Stereospace Converter.

The film used a single strip 3-D process which involved two 2:35:1 format images being printed onto one 4:3 frame of film, stacked one over the other. Traditionally, this process is known as the "over and under" process. This camera system was named the Marks 3-Depix StereoSpace Converter (though the film posters heralded it as both SuperVision and WonderVision). In order to be projected in the Polarization 3-D process and viewed with clear glasses, the film required a 3-Depix Reverser which re-ordered the over and under images into separate projections. Tony Anthony himself was credited with designing a relatively low cost projection lens which made the film marketable for general release.

Home Video

MGM released Treasure of the four Crowns on VHS in the "big grey box" style made popular by MGM home video in the early 80's however there is no news of a DVD as of yet. Treasure of the four Crowns was also available on CED video discs.

Soundtrack

composed by Ennio Morricone

1. CROWNING GLORY 3:54
2. EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO MORGAN 3:47
3. BROTHERHOOD OF THE CROWNS 2:14
4. EXPLORATION 3:24
5. BISTRO 1:33
6. BIRDS OF FREY 3:43
7. CITY OF LOVE AND UNITY 2:04
8. CASTLE OF EVIL 2:56
9. BOBSLED RUN 1:40
10. THE GOLDEN CROWNS 3:14
11. DANGER POINT 3:08
12. CIRCUS-SOCRATES THE STRONGMAN 1:44
13. SOUND OF THE ALARM 2:58
14. THE FINAL ACT 3:38

External links

• Treasure of the Four Crowns at IMDb
• Roger Ebert's Review