# Color segments in b/w films **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 3, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110 "2002-11-03T13:33:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/1 "2002-11-03T13:33:19Z")
I’ve seen 3 recently: _The Picture of Dorian Gray_ - shots of the painting of young-and-pretty Dorian and old-and-dissipated Dorian are in color. _Portrait of Jennie_ - like Dorian Gray, Jennie’s portrait at the very end of this film is shot in full color. The storm sequence is also tinted green, and the morning after the storm is tinted pale red. _The Secret Garden_ - When the children go into the garden, the film switches to color. Seeing these so close together made me wonder: How many films are there like this? Can anyone name any others? (No, not _Wizard of Oz_–I’m thinking of short segments in otherwise black-and-white films.) All three of the above were made in the late '40’s; was this sort of thing a fad during the post-war era, when Technicolor was too expensive for all-but-the-most-special movies, but film-makers still wanted to highlight certain shots or give their films that little extra kick? Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/2 "2002-11-03T15:46:14Z")
The practice goes all the way back to the silent era: the classic Lon Chaney version of _Phantom of the Opera_ includes several scenes in color. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/3 "2002-11-03T15:48:57Z")
Didn’t D.W. Griffith’s _Broken Blossoms_ (1919) have some hand-tinted scenes? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/4 "2002-11-03T16:17:13Z")
One of Douglas Fairbank’ silent films had the final reel in technicolor. Color films were technically feasible very early on; the technology was not often used because it was much more expensive than T&W. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/5 "2002-11-03T16:40:32Z")
Schindler’s List had one object in color: a girl’s red coat. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/6 "2002-11-03T18:16:10Z")
This practice was much more common in the silent era. Some notable examples: Cecil B. DeMille silent version of _[The Ten Commandments](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0014532)_ (1923) had the Exodus scenes photographed in Technicolor. The masked ball in _[The Phantom of the Opera](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0016220)_ (1925) was photographed in Technicolor. _[Ben-Hur](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0016641)_ (1925) had the Natvity scenes, a triumphant [procession](http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor3.htm), and one or two other scenes, in Technicolor. DeMille’s _.[The King of Kings](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0018054)_ (1927) had the Resurrection scene in Technicolor. Some examples from the sound era: _[The Broadway Melody](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0019729)_ (1929), winner of the Oscar for Best Picture, had the musical number “The Wedding of the Painted Doll” in Technicolor. _[The Hollywood Revue of 1929](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0019993)_ (1929) had several musical numbers, and a scene from _Romeo and Juliet_, in Technicolor. A musical number in the MGM’s\*.[The Cat and the Fiddle](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0024960)\* (1934) had the first live-action use of full (3-trip) Technicolor. The final four minutes of _[The House of Rothschild](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0025272)_ (1934) were in Technicolor. The final scene of the Shirley Temple feature _[The Little Colonel](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0016029)_ (1935) was in Technicolor. The “Alice Blue Gown” number in _Irene_ (1940) was photographed in Technicolor. Alfred Hitchcock’s _[Spellbound](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0038109)_ (1945) had only one brief sequence in Technicolor, a point-of-view shot of a man coimmiting suicide with a gun, in which the screen splashes bright red for a few frames. _[The Tingler](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0053363)_ (1959), a thriller starring Vincent Price, was an otherwise black and white movie with one shock scene in which the foreground action (an arm rising out of a bathtub of sludge) was in color, and the background (a woman reacting in horror) was in black and white. The American WideScreen Museum has a well-illustrated [history](http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor1.htm) of Technicolor. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/7 "2002-11-03T21:57:07Z")
Ironically, making a black and white Hollywood movie is now more expensive than making a color one. The Coen Brother’s recent black and white movie, The Man Who Wasn’t There, was shot on color stock and then processed to make it B&W, because it was prohibitively difficult/expensive to find film labs who could deal with B&W. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/8 "2002-11-03T22:15:19Z")
Hmm. That’s not what I read. The director of photography said that the quality of 35mm black and white camera negative available today and has not kept pace with the quality of color negative available today. Also, the financial backers wanted a color master to fall back on if they decided to release a color version for home video or television. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/9 "2002-11-03T22:20:29Z")
**A Man and a Woman** had some color segments. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/10 "2002-11-03T22:29:09Z")
Roger Deakins, director of photography for _The Man Who Wasn’t There_: > [@](#): > > I wanted _The Man Who Wasn’t There_ to reflect the era in which we’re working, so I used the newer technology. Black and white film stock hasn’t changed in forty years. In today’s color negative stock, the grain is finer than it’s ever been, so you’re able to achieve a great deal of beauty shooting on color negative and printing in black and white. From [Rotten Tomatoes](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/TheManWhoWasntThere-1110075/about.php). ---
**Author:** ![Baraqiyal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@Baraqiyal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baraqiyal)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/11 "2002-11-03T23:57:47Z")
**Kafka** started and (I think) ended in black & white but switched to color when Jeremy Irons penetrated the secret society. ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/12 "2002-11-04T01:54:30Z")
[The Women](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0032143) (1939) featured a fashion show sequence in color. I’m not sure, but I think there’s a color sequence in [Hell’s Angels](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0020960) (1930), too. It’s my understanding that there’s a seen of a garden party that Hughes had hand-tinted, but I don’t remember for sure. ---
**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/13 "2002-11-04T02:06:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Enderw24 \* > \*\*Schindler’s List had one object in color: a girl’s red coat. \*\* Nope, you’ve forgotten that the candles in the ceremony the Jewish prisoners perform are in color as well. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/14 "2002-11-04T02:26:20Z")
More on _The Man Who Wasn’t There_: > [@](#): > > The decision to go black-and-white would suggest a limited number of film stocks from which to choose, but another factor soon arose to complicate matters. “The producers told us that their delivery contract specified they supply a source that could be used to output a videocassette release in color for some overseas markets,” reveals Deakins. The cinematographer had already begun an investigation into various approaches, examining modern color films as well as older black-and-white originating stocks, but the question of how best to achieve the final black-and-white look would remain unanswered for a time. His solution involved shooting color and outputting in black-and-white. This would allow the producers to distribute a color version, while also permitting the cinematographer to avail himself of technological advances recently made to color stocks. From [The International Cinematographers Guild](http://www.cameraguild.com/index.html?interviews/chat_deakins/index.htm~top.main_hp). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/15 "2002-11-04T02:28:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gr8Kat \* > \*\*I’m not sure, but I think there’s a color sequence in [Hell’s Angels](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0020960) (1930), too. It’s my understanding that there’s a seen of a garden party that Hughes had hand-tinted, but I don’t remember for sure. \*\* The garden party was photographed in Technicolor. Some other night scenes in the movie were tined blue. ---
**Author:** ![Hunsecker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d78d45/32.png) [@Hunsecker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunsecker)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/16 "2002-11-04T02:45:38Z")
_Raging Bull_ had some home movies in color, right in the middle of the film. _Putney Swope_’s fake ads were in color, and the rest of the film was B&W (weird. two chances to mention putney swope in two days. :)) ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/17 "2002-11-04T03:14:20Z")
**The Great Train Robbery** , one of the first narrative movies ever made, had some color in it. The scene where the bandits blow the safe has color explosion and smoke. ---
**Author:** ![AnnaLivia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@AnnaLivia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnnaLivia)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/18 "2002-11-04T04:31:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > The masked ball in _[The Phantom of the Opera](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0016220)_ (1925) was photographed in Technicolor. > > The American WideScreen Museum has a well-illustrated [history](http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor1.htm) of Technicolor. \*\* Thanks for the link- the second answers a long-standing question about the first. The two color process seems to be responsible for the abundance reds and blue-greens in this scene. (It always seemed counter-intuitive and lessened the visual impact of the Red Death.) The books I had only noted it as being “technicolor” AL ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/19 "2002-11-04T08:48:13Z")
[A Matter of Life and Death](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0038733) mixes Technicolor for scenes set on Earth into an otherwise B&W film (most of the scenes are set in heaven). ---
**Author:** ![Timchik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@Timchik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timchik)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/20 "2002-11-04T13:22:58Z")
[Andrei Rublyov](http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0060107) is four hours long and entirely in B&W, except for a colour coda consisting of a verrrrry slow pan (did Tarkovsky ever do any other kind?) of Rublyov’s most famous icon. and, from the sublime to the nearly ridiculous, [Pleasantville](http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0120789) used the B&W/colour mix as a major plot point. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110.md?page=2)