Page 27 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2003 #41

The Bourke Street Metro was a two-gallery theatre, like
the Collins Street Athenaeum, and as was the case there, the
projection rake was quite steep. I cannot remember if the
screen was tilted at all. An ultra-wide screen would have
required some sort of a curve, which would have produced
the sort of distortion that the picture had at the Greater
Union’s Chelsea Cinema in Flinders Street. Horizons and
credits buckled upwards towards the sides of the screen.
It is reputed that the CinemaScope prints of Ben-Hur had
a slight frame-line because of the wide aspect-ratio used in
shooting, and it is likely that the height of the screen was
actually reduced a fraction, so the picture would have been
about 2.5:1. If you look at the DVD, it is taken off a Scope
print and the "letterboxing" is more severe than normal.
I am not sure to what extent Ben-Hur was shown with the
squeezed 70mm prints overseas. I believe that some
American first-run engagements would have been presented
in this way, but even in 1959 70mm theatres were not all that
thick on the ground and those that existed would mainly have
been showing Around The World In Eighty Days and South
Pacific, with perhaps a bit of Sleeping Beauty thrown in.

The Metro - right at the top of Melbourne’s Bourke Street.

In the late 1960s there was a revival of Ben-Hur at the
Chelsea in Melbourne and this was an unsqueezed 70mm
print with an aspect ratio of about 2.2:1. It may well be the
same print that is screened at St.Kilda’s Astor Theatre from
time to time (usually at Christmas and Easter). As the aspect
Philips were only producing about 50 pairs of 70mm ratio is narrower than that used during filming, the sides of
machines a year and Cinemeccanica was only just starting the picture get cut off. For most of the time this does not
production. Of course, there were also Simplex and Century matter, but in a couple of shots it is noticeable. The DVD
70mm machines coming into production. But it could not be shows everything however.
taken for granted that every big American city would have a If you wish to see Ben-Hur in its 70mm splendor, a visit
70mm house. So I cannot say to what extent Ben-Hur was to the Astor is well worth the trip. The print is still in very
originally shown in 70mm. good condition, with the colour intact. ★

Photographs: Diagrams and artwork from
the collections of Ross King & Kevin Adams.

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