First colour stereo sound movie

This page was last revised on 2009-06-08.

NB Full references to printed sources may be found at the foot of this page.

First colour stereo sound movie

Distant Thames, 1951

For London's Festival of Britain, in 1951, a futuristic cinema was constructed - the Telecinema - at which four stereoscopic films were presented in stereophonic sound. Two of these were animations, so not considered here. Of the others, one was in colour. This was the 9½ minute International Realist documentary Distant Thames, released by the British Film Institute on 30 April 1951. It was later retitled Royal River (possibly in a slightly expanded version).

Director: Brian Smith; cameraman: Stanley W. Sayer; Stereo Techniques technology: Raymond and Nigel L. Spottiswood; stereo sound: Ken Cameron. [Zone (2007); Hayes (1989)]

First colour stereo sound movie including men & women speaking, and first colour stereo sound feature film

House of Wax, 1953

The first commercial motion picture to be exhibited with stereophonic sound was Walt Disney's Fantasia, but animated films are excluded here.

The American horror film House of Wax was released on 25 April 1953. Although well-enough known as one of the most important of the 3D films of the 1950s, it seems less well known that it was appears to have been the first live-action colour film in stereophonic sound. It was directed by André de Toth (1912-2002), and starred Vincent Price.

House of Wax, originally titled The Wax Works, was Warner Bros answer to the 3D hit Bwana Devil, which had been released the previous November. Seeing something big in 3D's future, WB contracted the same company, Natural Vision, run by the Gunzberg Brothers, Julian and Milton, to shoot the new feature. The film is ultimately a remake of the studio's 1933 film, The Mystery of the Wax Museum, which in itself was written and based on Charles Belden's three-act play, The Wax Works. [Wikipedia]

Earliest-born person whose voice was recorded in a colour stereo sound film

Little information yet located. Leo Curley (1878-1960) seems to have been the oldest person to appear in House of Wax.

Earliest-born woman whose voice was recorded in a colour stereo sound film

Little information yet located. Sybil Thorndike (1882-1976) appeared in the 1953 Melba.

© 2009 Benjamin S. Beck

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