With news that the recently announced re-release of Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life will include the colourised version of the film as well as a remastered version of the film in its original Black & White, we look back at the best colourisations of Hollywood classics:
CASABLANCA
This 1942 romantic drama, directed by Michael Curtiz, was based on Murray Burnett and Joan Alison’s unproduced stage play Everybody Comes to Rick’s. The film focuses on Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), who owns a nightclub in Casablanca. He discovers his old flame Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) is in town with her husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). Laszlo is a famed rebel, and with Germans on his tail, Ilsa knows Rick can help them get out of the country.
The film was translated into colour in 1988.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938)
The 1938 version of A Christmas Carol was directed by Edwin L. Marin and adapted by Hugo Butler from Charles Dicken’s original novel. In this world famous film and novel, Crotchety miser Ebenezer Scrooge (Reginald Owen) hates Christmas and mistreats his long-suffering employee, devoted family man Bob Cratchit (Gene Lockhart). But a visit from the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley (Leo G. Carroll) and three Christmas spirits (Lionel Braham, Ann Rutherford, D’Arcy Corrigan) might convince him to change his ways and become more kindhearted.
The film was translated into colour in 1988.
KING KONG
King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code monster adventure film[4] directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. The film portrays the story of a huge, gorilla-like creature dubbed Kong who perishes in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman (Wray) when A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal ape who takes a shine to her.
The film was translated into colour in 1989.
MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET
Made in 1947 and initially released as The Big Heart in the United Kingdom, Miracle on 34th Street is a Christmas comedy-drama written and directed by George Seaton and based on a story by Valentine Davies. The film takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas and follows the story of a nice old man who claims to be Santa Claus. When the man is institutionalised as insane, a young lawyer decides to defend him by arguing in court that he is the real thing.
The film was translated into colour in 1985.
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Directed by Frank Capra, this 1940s film quickly became an enduring popular classic. The film is based on the short story and booklet The Greatest Gift, written by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1939. The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams to help others, and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched, and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be if he had never been born.
It’s A Wonderful Life arrives on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-Ray for the first time on the 4th of November – order from Amazon.co.uk*
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