Cinerama's Seven Wonders of the World

This movie highlights many of the wonders of the world, both natural and man-made. The time given to each subject is a little uneven, though. For example, a lot of time was devoted to the Japanese geisha performances, but Paris (Eiffel Tower?) wasn’t even included. I was disappointed about that. It was very interesting to learn about the traveling Cinerama tent production that made its way through the French countryside, enabling many people to see the movie. The set up and take down of the tent theatre was extensive!On an historical note, my parents took my sister and I to see this movie at a theatre in San Francisco when I was very young. We lived on our farm north of Sacramento and a trip to “the city” in 1956 was a rare and exciting occurrence. We had eaten dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf before the show. At the theatre we sat in the front row of the balcony. The opening of the movie viewed from an airplane was so realistic my mom got airsick and had to run to the bathroom and lost her lunch!Of course watching this movie on TV is not nearly as dramatic, but it’s still fun, very educational, and brought back many memories for me. From a teacher’s standpoint, it would be wonderful for older children to view. There is a lot here to learn!

First of all, I purchased this DVD relying on the comments of reviewer "Hite" and he is correct. It plays just fine in my standard Sony BluRay unit. It is a special DVD, indeed. Two additional DVD's are included. Also in the package is a reproduction of the original souvenir booklet from the Melba Theatre in Dallas, Texas. This is the same theatre where I first saw "This Is Cinerama" in the early 1950's and one or two of the succeeding productions. I saw the later Cinerama films at the Windsor Cinerama Theatre in Houston. In 1937 the first edition of Richard Halliburton's "Book of Marvels" was published. In 1937 there were motion picture news reels, but, there were no television sets in every home. Halliburton's images were found only in books. Halliburton's book included the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, one of which was the Pyramids of Giza and are still standing. He also covered the wonders of the modern world, both natural and man made. In the late 1940's and early 1950's Fred Waller was working on his motion picture technological breakthrough and tapped Lowell Thomas to be the narrator of his first release, "This Is Cinerama". Thomas continued to be involved in the various subsequent Cinerama productions and this one, the "Seven Wonders of the World" was his next to last effort in Waller's new medium. Even though this is vastly abbreviated in it's coverage of world wonders as compared to Halliburton's texts, Halliburton himself would have been amazed at the images that are shown in this Cinerama production. Cinerama was responsible for the later developments of Cinemiracle, CinemaScope, Todd AO, 3D, Super Panavision 70 and the IMAX that we have today.

I never got to see this Cinerama film when it was released, but I had heard about the thrilling runaway train sequence and bought this set for that alone. As with "This Is Cinerama" this is a big exciting travalogue with no real story or plot. That would come later with "How the West Was Won". Seven Wonders entertains with Fred Mantz's skillful aunt flying tricks, including his trademark bridge fly-unders. We see beautiful exotic scenes such as Japan's geishas, cherry blossoms, and the famous Kamakura Budha. The train ride in India, complete with a bit of comic silliness, did not disappoint. One very historic scene of which I was not previously aware and which moved me deeply, was the Papal blessing by then-Pope Pius XII, at Castel Gandalfo. This amazing section was shot both from the crowd's viewpoint and then in closeup at the pope's balcony. I can imagine devout audience members making the sign of the cross as they watched.I was surprise see at the gorgeous color and by the smoothed "seams" where the three filmstrips join. They were much more noticeable I the theater as I remember. Since I don't have access to a theater that shows these wonderful historic pieces of cinematic history, I gladly paid what I consider a premium to add it to my personal collection.

This was the first CINERAMA movie I ever saw as a kid of about 7. It has always stayed with me and I even have the original souvenir program! The main memory is of the runaway train.This wonderfully restored version is a real throw back to the 1950s. The sights you see, you now see on the National Geographic or IMAX and are sights that you may take so much for granted these days.But presented in CINERAMA, you must place yourself back in those days so that you can be blown away with the images unfolding across that gigantic CINERAMA screen. Having a home cinema with video projector and an 8ft screen helps.It is also fun to see where the "joins" of the 3 strip projection are, which to me is the special memory. So they are well presented here and not too distracting but still fun to see where they are.This and the other CINERAMA restored films are a unique collection of a different era. Extremely well restored by David Strohmaier and his team who obviously had a unique challenge on a limited budget to give us this extraordinary step back in time.Thoroughly recommended.

To date I have now seen four of The Flicker Valley Cinerama releases. Of the original ‘This is Cinerama’ I thought it had dated badly and one tends to remember the spectacular opening of the roller coaster ride and forget that in places it was overlong rather static and needed considerable shortening. However some of the flying vistas still are very impressive. Personally I found ‘The Windjammer’ far far too long and mostly fairly boring, though the extras were really interesting to see the once young crew as old men. I do remember though when I saw it on its original release in London at The Casino Cinerama Cinema how impressive the Windjammer looked on that enormous curved screen, more so than in real life when I saw it moored in Oslo. Much better was ‘Cinerama Holiday’, though my motive for buying it was that my son lives in Switzerland and we consider it is by far the best destination in Europe for a holiday. On U-tube the trailer to ‘Seven Wonders of The World’ (1957)’ had been one of my favourite views and with a price drop to just over thirty pounds; I decided to buy now! To me this is the best of these Cinerama releases, though I have not revisited ‘South Seas Adventure’ since I saw it on its original release, other than to watch the trailers on U-tube (U-tube has Cinerama trailers/ material about Cinerama). The other title in the series, which I have never seen is ‘Search for Paradise’. Well Lowell Thomas introduces the film and discusses what one would consider being the modern wonders of the world and takes us on a world wide visual journey of sixty years ago to consider his thesis. Starting at The Pyramids, the only remaining wonder from ancient times, we move onto rather stunning views taken from the Pan Am Clipper of New York and the Hudson River, I never realised how long and narrow Long Island is! We travel onto South America and Rio. Then to Asia, Japan, Africa, India and our final destination is The Vatican in Rome; the epilogue is back home in the USA. This is a much more satisfying film than the others in that it never drags and the camera is mostly on the move and the cinematography is breathtaking when viewed sitting close to my 8ft screen. The smilebox format and my surround sound system help in recreating the Cinerama experience viewing via my Panasonic HD Projector. The restoration though not perfect is very good and when you view the extras and see the difficulties the restoration team had to overcome makes you very appreciative. The package comes with a Blu-ray disc and two DVD’s that have the feature on one and the extras on the other (the DVD’s are of very good quality and have the same content as blu-ray, which is region free). Also included is a small reproduction of the original Cinerama Programme, which fits in the disc sleeve. It is an expensive package that enables you to visit some of the world’s most stunning locations from the comfort of your armchair with no travel costs! You may wish like me to offset some of your costs by selling the DVD’s. Highly recommended and in my opinion the best to date, its a disc that is worthy of numerous repeat viewings.

This is a terrific package.The best result you will get by viewing this film on the largest screen you can get hold on.There are some scenes that can drag a bit on comparing with the way films are being edited today.My favourite scenes are those in where the camera is on the ground (in contrast with aerial scenes). Some of them simply show a world that has dramatically changed or disappeared...I didn't like at all the scene where baby elephants are captured and domesticated. Awful!But any negative thing I may have encountered while viewing 7 Wonders is completely overshadowed by the extra material, the booklet included and the journey back to another era.But once again, try to watch this film on a very large screen...Outstanding!

After viewing Seven Wonders of the World, on my digital projector, it bought back happy memories of the Cinerama days. The smile box effect was fantastic & very realistic. I look forward to purchasing another one soon. I have already bought two others previously off you & have the same comments about those.

Excellent

Als historisches Dokument ist die Scheibe über jeden Zweifel erhaben. Es wurde technisch das Maximum herausgeholt, so dass man sich auf eine beeindruckende Zweitreise begeben kann.Inhaltlich muss man einfach den zeitlichen Kontext berücksichtigen. Heute könnte (und sollte) man den Film so nicht veröffentlichen. Daher nur die 4 Sterne. Aber mit der richtigen Erwartungshaltung kann man gerne auch 5 Sterne ansetzen.