60th anniversary of "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm"
"The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" digital remaster will have it's European Premiere at the 16. Todd-AO 70mm-Festival 2022 at the Schauburg Cinerama, Monday 3. October 2022, followed by screenings in Wien and Bradford

"Brothers Grimm" 35mm negative sample.

By the end of 2021, it was officially announced by Warner Brothers that MGM's CINERAMA production #2 "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" (1962) was finally being released on Bluray by March 2022. A full 14 years since the home-video release of MGM's first CINERAMA production "How the West Was Won" (1962) in 2008. "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" has been remastered in both letterbox and SmileBox formats for Blu-ray and home video release from the Warner Archive Collection. The new remastered version was reconstructed from 6-perf Cinerama negatives and in some cases YCM separation masters as well as a 7-channel magnetic soundtrack print master.

The new 2022 2-disc DeLuxe special edition BluRay contains "Grimm" in two versions, made from 1080p HD Masters from 4K scans of the original Cinerama Camera Negatives! Disc 1-Restored Cinerama image letterboxed and Disc 2-Restored Cinerama image in SMILEBOX format, to approximate the curved theater screen experience in the home. Audio Specs DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround. 140 Minutes-Roadshow presentation with Overture, Intermission , Entr'acte, and Exit Music. Special features includesa new featurettes "RESCUING A FANTASY CLASSIC" (HD); "THE EPIC ART OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM" (HD); "THE WONDERFUL CAREER OF GEORGE" PAL (HD), and more, plus multiple trailers and audio pieces.

"The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" was produced in CINERAMA, only 10 years after the first film came out in that LARGE-SCREEN motion picture process, which revolutionized cinema exhibition in the years to come. For the 50th anniversary of Cinerama in 2002 Greg Kimble wrote:

Fred Waller had indeed labored that long on his dream of a motion picture experience that would recreate the full range of human vision. It used three cameras and three projectors on a curved screen 146° deep. Making an anagram of the letters in "American," he called it "Cinerama". Even in an industry up to its Mitchell magazines in hyperbole, its impact was staggering. Running only 13 weeks in one theater in New York, "This Is Cinerama" was the highest grossing film of 1952. Several more travelogues would follow, climaxed by two dramatic films co-produced with MGM in 1962.

Tom March (Canada) working on "Brothers Grimm" remaster during Covid pandemic.

"The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" was largely a "lost" film for many years. Short of a 2½ month encore engagement at the Empire - Cinerama in Paris (France) in 1971/72, some private screenings in a back-yard of a surburbian Sydney home, and occasional TV screenings on the TNT network, "Grimm" has not been seen publically in the original three-strip version for the better part of 55 years.

"Grimm" has been on the wish list for many people for many years, but restoration work was not in the pipeline until recently. Here, Dave Strohmaier gives you a look behind the screen about the film elements:

Many have heard in past years that the “Grimm” elements had suffered damage due to some sort of a flood many years ago at MGM and until now there has been an understandable hesitancy to attempt such a digital restoration due to the great expense of dealing with these 3-panel films. Utilizing new amazing software and much faster computers, it is possible to perform restoration miracles in your own home restoration/edit bay. Truth be told, and to my relief, I did not have to follow up with all of my former assumptions about the negative damage. Fortunately, we found the negatives were in somewhat better condition than a 1994 inspection report seemed to indicate, however still problematic with the many damaged and worn areas. Digital restoration can allow a lot of flexibility that photo chemical or earlier digital work could never accomplish.

Since the project started last November [2019], I have to say it has been a real pleasure working with Cinerama’s Jim Vandever and the Warner Bros. people such as George Feltenstein, Steven Anastasi and Craig Johnson with this project as they are all thrilled as we are to see it finally coming to fruition.

Producer Randy Gitsch and Cinerama Restorer extraordinaire Dave Strohmaier getting excited to see an authentic 3-strip presentation of "Grimm" in 2012. Image: Thomas Hauerslev

In 2012 the Australian 3-strip Technicolor 35mm print was shipped to Bradford in the UK, for a one-off sold-out screening. "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" had been at the top of every Cinerama fan's wish-list, and the auditorium was sizzling in excitement. It was surely a "I was there" presentation to remember, to which in70mm.com reporter Mark Lyndon wrote:

On the evening of Saturday, April 28th 2012, delegates to the Wide Screen Weekend strand of the Bradford Film Festival were granted the rarest of rare treats, a screening of the only surviving three strip Cinerama print of “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm”. The IB Technicolor print had come all the way from Australia to Bradford courtesy of the patron saint of Cinerama preservation, legend, and all round good egg, John Mitchell.

This legendary “lost” Cinerama feature has held up well over the years and delegates were captivated and entranced by its old magic. For a fifty year old feel good film it still felt and looked pretty good. George Pal produced and directed the fairy tale sequences with Harry Levin for the real life drama. “The Wonderful World” is a skilfully scripted and acted production with some fine performances to enjoy from Laurence Harvey as the waifish, romantic and hopelessly impractical Wilhelm Grimm, and Karlheinz Bohm as his terminally exasperated brother Jacob.

The new official and Smileboxed remaster trailer was released in the fall of 2021 on in70mm.com's channel, and was seen more than 6000 times by January 2022. The new trailer has sparked several enthusiastic comments like this:

"That looks amazing. I saw this in Cinerama when it opened. It had an everlasting effect on me." Moses Nebogipfel

"My God, that looks amazing. I saw it in Cinerama some years ago and this looks even better than I could have imagined. I cannot wait to get this Blu-ray!". Gerardo Paron

Facade of Empire Cinerama, Paris front 12 February 2005. By then the Empire had been a TV studio for decades. Image by Thomas Hauerslev

Filming and locations by Gerhard Witte, in70mm.com:

Filming began on 31 July 1961 (source: "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" newspaper from that time), most likely at the MGM-Studios in Culver City, a city in Los Angeles county. In charge of the cameras was the American cinematographer Paul Vogel (1899 – 1975), who previously, in 1950, was awarded with an Academy Award for the movie "Battelground" (USA, 1949) in the category "Best black and white Cinematography". "Brothers Grimm" was directed by Henry Levin, who took over the biographical script. Producer George Pal was responsible for the fairy tale sequences. Before start of filming, both had toured parts of Europe seeking authentic backgrounds for the story. They found suitable film motifs in West-Germany, but not in Hesse, the immediate homeland of the Grimms, where most buildings from the 1800s had been destroyed during the past wars. They filmed at Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria (the Royal Palace in "The Dancing Princess"), at Weikersheim Castle in Baden Württemberg (the Duke's Residence), in the Rhineland and in the historic, late medieval districts of the Bavarian towns of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Middle Franconia (in the film their home town), and Dinkelsbühl – also located in Middle Franconia. Pal and Levin were able to convince the famed Regensburg "Domspatzen" Choir, consisting of boys and young men, to sing (the boys) in the movie's Rheinburg sequence. The steam-propelled side-wheeler tugboat (built in 1921 / 1922), named "Oskar Huber", taken by the Grimms down the Rhine is the oldest such item in Germany. The boat's last towering operation, now powered with fuel oil instead with coil, took place in 1966. Today it is a museum ship and is located in "Vinckekanal" (Vincke Canal) in Duisburg-Ruhrort, and is part of the local Museum of the German Inland Navigation. (Gerhard Witte)

Premiere

The official World Premiere took place at New York's (New) Loew's Cinerama Theatre on Tuesday, 7 August 1962 (festive World Premiere where it subsequently ran for 33 weeks). There had been a World Preview of "Brothers Grimm" on Saturday, 14 July 1962 at the Cooper Cinerama Theatre in Denver (Colorado)

Score

In 2010 Film Score Monthly re-issued the entire score:

Disc one of this 2CD set presents the premiere release of the complete score to "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm", newly mixed and mastered from the original seven-channel Cinerama masters. Disc two has three sections: First is the David Rose “cover” version of the Brothers Grimm soundtrack released by MGM Records at the time of the film, featuring Rose’s versions of Merrill’s themes on side one, and six contemporary movie themes on side two. In the middle of disc two is a program of bonus tracks from the original soundtrack sessions to Brothers Grimm.

Congratulations to the team behind the BluRay and remaster – and ALL the work, which has gone into this, and remastering (and archiving) ALL the 3-strip library the past 15 years. A wonderful conclusion with “Grimm” now available again for cinemas and home cinema. Only question that remain - What’s Next? A new remaster of “Porgy and Bess”, “80 Days” or “The Alamo”? Only time will tell……..

See more about "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" on Remastering the CINERAMA Library

"The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" digital remaster will have it's European Premiere at the 16. Todd-AO 70mm-Festival 2022 at the Schauburg Cinerama, Monday 3. October 2022, followed by screenings in Wien and Bradford