Viewers swarmed into Loew's State Theatre yesterday to watch Bwana Devil, the first full-length 3D film created by Arch Oboler's United Artists' production.
Most of the scenes of Bwana Devil were shot in Hollywood, but the background action was captured under Oboler's guidance in the Belgian Congo and in British East Africa.
Loew's State Theater provided its audience with polaroid glasses to have a better sight of the feature film that seems to have depth and breadth. However, the plot of Oboler's movie is regarded as the least significant thing about it. Rather, the way in which it is presented becomes the main attraction.
Bwana Devil attracted remarkable interest, becoming a box-office hit wherever it has been shown and engaging Hollywood’s top producers to announce plans for a 3-D movie. Oboler is likely to be recognized in American history as the man who pioneered 3-D movies, since he is the first producer to utilize the Gunzburg Natural Vision method on a feature-length film.
Polaroid glasses will become a thing of the past when 20th Century-Fox producers perfect their CinemaScope and their theaters. While this may be the solution to Cinerama, I do not think any process that involves glasses to get the complete effect will impact Cinerama.
While watching Bwana Devil via the polaroid glasses, I did not feel eye strain but I was sensitive to making visual adjustment whenever a scene changed on the big screen.
I believe Oboler chose his pilot material well as the stereopticon effect is pretty striking. Although the story of Bwana Devil is unremarkable, Oboler (who penned the screenplay from an African legend, and also produced and directed the film himself) has established a plot that fits the 3-D process.
Bwana Devil follows the story of man-eating lions, aka “bwanas.” Many workers on a railroad project in Africa were killed, prompting engineer Jock Howard (Robert Stack) to kill these monsters and change the native belief that lions are supernatural devils. Howard’s battle with the beasts are bloody.
Barbara Britton plays Stack’s wife and Nigel Bruce portrays the doctor of the expedition. Paul McVey, John Dodsworth, Ramsay Hill, and Pat O'Moore were also part of the cast.