No doubt the golden age of 3D came in 1952-53, back when “It Came From Outer Space,” “Creature From the Black Lagoon” and “House of Wax” ruled the cinemas. Those awkward-goofy red-and-cyan glasses made for some surreal scenes at the local bijou.
Last year, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” did its digging in 3D. Hannah Montana flew the multi-dimensional flag for Disney with a concert film. Before that, it was U2, “Chicken Little” and “Polar Express” in 3D. In March, DreamWorks unleashes “Monsters vs. Aliens.”
January was a big month for 3D and home media.
At CES, Panasonic showed off an eye-popping solution that uses a second TV video channel using HDMI inputs. The DVD Forum, a trade group, adopted the
Sensio 3D technology as a standard. The search is on for a
Blu-ray standard, with high hopes for high-definition dimensionality. And, of course, the Super Bowl broadcast took a stab at 3-D ads, with fairly lame results.
January also brought us the return on DVD of “The Stewardesses,” a 3D softcore romp from 1969 that made millions for its low-budget producers.
“The Stewardesses” are looking good. Shout! Factory presents the film in its original high-quality 3D format, not the compressed scheme that many audiences saw with 1971’s wide release.
The double-disc set unspools the film in three versions: color 3D, black and white 3D, and “2D” color. The version of choice is b&w, as the menu advises.
I fired up the ”The Stewardesses” and was quickly impressed by 3D images of a bikini beach scene. The DVD set comes with two pairs of glasses, so I called in my teen son to witness the wow. Unfortunately, seconds later, young Nick was introduced to the world of 3D with a young woman’s legs poking out of the screen … as she was giving it up to a horny sailor.
There’s something perverse about a kid-friendly format being used for sex, but that’s part of what made “The Stewardesses” such a hit back in the day.
The movie offers non-stop female frontal nudity (pre-landing strips), with swaying boobs ping-ponging about in 3D. The mostly fresh-faced ladies find plenty of objects to poke out of the screen.
This being the end of the ’60s, there’s plenty of drug taking, including a scene in which a hottie drops acid and makes it with a face on a lamp. Far out.
As a movie, the X-rated ”The Stewardesses” could be a lot worse. It started out as “a series of loops,” the filmmakers recall in the extras. For the wide release, content was added to provide “artistic merit” — thus keeping the cops at bay. (This was a couple of years before “Deep Throat” made porn hip.)
Basically, “The Stewardesses” follows around swinging stews who put out for handsome pilots and business travelers, who happily bring the wood. The movie is pretty funny, intentionally and otherwise.
The DVD extras include an interview with one of the key actresses, who never felt exploited and has good things to say about the mom-and-pop filmmaking operation. The producers share a good chuckle over the key art, which proclaimed the film was based on “The unpublishable novel!” Unpublishable because it never existed.
The first DVD’s extras are test footage (lots of balloons) and some outtakes. On disc 2, “A Short History of 3D” provides a decent overview, ending with a few cool 3D samples from movies it cites, including “The Maze.” Two short docus look at ”The Stewardesses” production and technology, as well as the surprising boxoffice haul that rivaled “Love Story.” (The extras films are in 2D and hail from 2006.)
Ending on a high note, SCTV spoofs the movie on Count Floyd’s 3D TV show as John Candy and Eugene Levy strip some helpless flight attendants. Very scary.
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