Rewatched this classic for the third or fourth time the other day – man my wife and I got pulled out of the movie by the incredible number of times (okay, five or six) the focus was just plain damn fuzzy. The director does acknowledge one of the longer unfocused takes (Sinatra and Harvey at the table discussing the cards), but it seems every time anyone moved an inch or two they went out of focus.
Is it harder to pull focus on black and white films?
Was it just a lower budget film that did not have the luxury of multiple retakes?
I love the movie, but after a while, I wonder why it looks so sloppy in that regard.
B&W vs Color should not be the issue. If the film stock was grainy or not may affect it. But focus is more dependent on measure of distance from the object to the film plane and throw the aperture setting to make the equation more interesting.
After having seen it a number of times, I suppose I do start letting my mind wander and start nitpicking just for the heck of it. It is still a great film, no doubt. In my top twenty-five or so.
The story I heard was the Frank Sinatra was great for the first take of a scene, then not nearly as good in later takes. In at least one case, this caused them to use footage that was blurry. Wiki mentions that in the production section.