# Did you know there were movies shot in color back in 1930s?



## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

In 1930s,

Technicolor (3 strips) in the USA was the best color system back then.

Agfacolor in Germany might be the second best back then in terms of showing colors, which also came in 1930s.


Why am I not mentioning earlier color movies?

First, the color was very bad until the 3rd version of 2 strip Technicolor which already came in late 20s, it was almost 30s.

Second, color was only used in very, very smart parts of movies ( 5 percent or something) until 1929 or 1930 which is when full of the movies started being shot in color. 

Third, 3 strip Technicolor, which came in 1930s, showed all colors. Followed by Agfacolor.

It is safe to say that color movies came after silent movies were over.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Two of the most memorable 30s movies happened to be in color: Gone with the Wind, and The Wizard of Oz. The latter started out in black and white, when Dorothy was still in Kansas.


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## Guest (Nov 24, 2021)

Colour has been part of film since the early 20th century; different systems were tried, even including hand tinting individual frames!! Blended processes were tried by applying colour filters to monochrome film. Commercial coloured motion pictures didn't get seriously underway until shortly after the sound era, circa 1927. There had been decades of trial and error before that, as seen in this brief overview:


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Christabel said:


> Colour has been part of film since the early 20th century; different systems were tried, even including hand tinting individual frames!! Blended processes were tried by applying colour filters to monochrome film. Commercial coloured motion pictures didn't get seriously underway until shortly after the sound era, circa 1927. There had been decades of trial and error before that, as seen in this brief overview:


True. There were color films long before there were "talkies".

Generally, those that are experts in silent films cite *The Toll of the Sea* in 1922 as the first color film, but years ago either TCM or AMC did a series and found some earlier color films, although not feature film length. However, I think we're still talking about 2-strip color for both.

And, as you point out, they were using hand tinted films, as well as color washes (blue for night, sepia tone, etc.).

*"Filmmakers were using dyes, stencils, baths, and tints as early as the late-19th century."*

https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...rgotten-history-of-color-silent-films/396785/


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

atsizat said:


> In 1930s,
> 
> Technicolor (3 strips) in the USA was the best color system back then.
> 
> ...


Except for your last sentence, you have a great grasp of the history of color technology. Your sentence is correct if you qualify "color" to mean "Full color".

There were color silent films made before the 1930s. You can quibble about the quality of the color (3-strip, 2-strip, hand painted, color-washed) all you want; color is color, and there WAS color. Georges Méliès, for example, employed 21 women at his Montreuil studio to hand-color his films frame by frame, but, of course, hand-coloring was not cost-effective unless the films were very short.

Here's a short Edison film from 1895. In color, although it's actually not his first experimentation with color.


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

Off-hand I remember:

Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), filmed in two-strip Technicolor, was a late-night U.S. television staple in the 1960s-70s.
Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), three-strip.

Three Fleischer Studio Technicolor Popeye cartoons:
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936)
Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves (1937)
Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp (1939)

Of course, Disney had Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937); but color animation is better a separate topic.


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## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

pianozach said:


> Except for your last sentence, you have a great grasp of the history of color technology. Your sentence is correct if you qualify "color" to mean "Full color".
> 
> There were color silent films made before the 1930s. You can quibble about the quality of the color (3-strip, 2-strip, hand painted, color-washed) all you want; color is color, and there WAS color. Georges Méliès, for example, employed 21 women at his Montreuil studio to hand-color his films frame by frame, but, of course, hand-coloring was not cost-effective unless the films were very short.
> 
> Here's a short Edison film from 1895. In color, although it's actually not his first experimentation with color.


Hand paint doesn't reall count. That is not natural color.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

atsizat said:


> Hand paint doesn't reall count. That is not natural color.


"Not natural color" isn't color?

What does that make it then? 

Adding an adjective in front of the word color doesn't negate it.

Maple bacon is still bacon.


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## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

pianozach said:


> "Not natural color" isn't color?
> 
> What does that make it then?
> 
> ...


Color is shot in color, not hand painted films.

That is no color filming technology. Only hand painting.

Oldest color filming goes as old as 1901-1902. However, it can only be played with modern technology. No one coud play this back then. That is the modern technology that let us do that.


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