Comin' at Ya!
| Comin' at Ya! | |
|---|---|
 US film poster | |
| Directed by | Ferdinando Baldi |
| Written by | Lloyd Battista Wolf Lowenthal Gene Quintano Uncredited: Esteban Cuenca Ramón Plana |
| Story by | Tony Pettito |
| Produced by | Tony Anthony |
| Starring | Tony Anthony Gene Quintano Victoria Abril Ricardo Palacios |
| Cinematography | Fernando Arribas |
| Edited by | Franco Fraticelli |
| Music by | Carlo Savina |
Production company | Lupo-Anthony-Quintano Productions |
| Distributed by | Filmways Pictures |
Release date | July 24, 1981 |
Running time | 91 minutes |
| Countries | United States Italy Spain |
| Language | English |
Comin' at Ya! is a Spanish-American 3-D Western film, featuring Tony Anthony, Victoria Abril and Gene Quintano and directed by Ferdinando Baldi.[1]
It was produced as a co-production between American company Filmways and Lupo-Anthony-Quintano Productions, an independent company. Released in 1981, the film effectively started the 3-D film boom of 1983. The same filmmakers returned in 1983 with Treasure of the Four Crowns.
Plot
H.H. Hart, a bank robber, loses his wife to kidnappers on their wedding day. Subsequently, she is traded as a prostitute by villain Gene Quintano. H.H. Hart races against time to find his wife, with the help of a Scottish preacher. The film features many 3D effects, many of which are intended to "fly off the screen" at the audience.
Cast
- Tony Anthony as H.H. Hart
- Gene Quintano as Pike Thompson
- Victoria Abril as Abeline
- Ricardo Palacios as Polk Thompson
- Lewis Gordon as Old Man
Stereoscopic 3-D Process
Comin' at Ya was filmed in the then-common over-and-under, single-strip 3-D format. Two Techniscope-format frames, one for the left-eye image and one for the right-eye image, are stacked one above the other in the same area as one ordinary 'Scope-format frame.[citation needed] The resulting frames, though diminished in size, yielded a nominal aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
The lens system used was Optimax III (Bill Bukowski of Optimax III served as 3D Technical Advisor), notorious for introducing vertical parallax error owing to its flawed design (i.e., the optical axes of its twin lenses are not at the same horizontal level). The film's posters by turns heralded the 3-D process as SuperVision and WonderVision.[citation needed]
Projection required prismatic or "mirror box" converters in front of an ordinary spherical projection lens. These converters were meant to converge the stacked left and right pictures on the screen, at the same time cross-polarizing them to match the filters in the 3-D glasses worn by the audience.[citation needed]
By some accounts, Tony Anthony himself designed a relatively low-cost projection lens which made the film marketable for general release.[citation needed] It is further claimed that during the film's initial run, its unexpected success caused it to be pulled from release when the distributor realized they were running out of 3-D glasses.[citation needed]
DVD release
This film was released on DVD in the Anaglyph 3D process. The conversion procedure involved separating the over and under images and digitally combining them as red and cyan images layered over each other.[citation needed]
Reissue
In May 2009, a new restoration of the film was announced. In late January 2011 it was announced by Fangoria magazine that they would be sponsoring the film's premiere screening.[citation needed] The premiere screening of this newly restored version was held at the Berlin Film Festival on February 12, 2011.[citation needed]
In January 2016, for the movie's 35th anniversary, a remastered version was released for home video, which includes new 5.1 surround sound.[2]
References
- ^ Maslin, Janet (August 22, 1981). "'COMIN' AT YA'". The New York Times.
- ^ Alexander, Chris. "Classic 3D Gore Western COMIN' AT YA! Comes to Blu-ray!". ShockTilYouDrop. CraveOnline. Retrieved 10 April 2016.