Scent of Mystery (1960)

Pretty Good

Overrated

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Mostly when people discuss this film they get sidetracked by the Smell-O-Vision aspect. It was made at a time when there was a lot of experimentation with the technology of film making. In the decade previously they had tried 3-D and Cinerama, so adding aromas to film didn't seem that far out of bounds. The technology really wasn't ready as yet and the film, "Scent of Mystery", wasn't good enough to stand on its own. The story was silly and the dialog was stupid. The original film no longer exists as such. Another film called "Holiday in Spain" was cobbled together from pieces of various prints. Some say, therefore, you can't judge the original by the copy. However, the copy does have a strongly coherent narrative flow. It's the original that was stupid. The actors were competent professionals and there is the occasional clever line, but there is a certain amount of embarrassment in watching talent going to waste. There is an inside showbiz secret society feel to it. It's Elizabeth Taylor and her then husband Eddie Fisher working with Mike Todd, Jr. trying to salvage the botched job his father had done. By the way, what I said earlier about the addition of aromas to dramatic entertainment, watch what happens when V. R. adds story lines and acting. They are already adding tactility to V. R. Can odor be far behind?

I had seen the restored previews on you tube.I had presumed one day that flicker alley was going to release it ,once they ran out of three panel classics.I Was wrong It was released on Nov. last year from Redwind productions ,distributed exclusively by screen archive dot com. I found this out last month.I also found out that flicker alley is not going to stop selling Cinerama films ,but, this had nothing to do with them.It was Cinerama's decision ,probably. This is the 109 minute version,When It was sold to Cinema miracle and when that went out of business sold to Cinerama ,it enlarged and slice and diced.The first story plot film to be projected in Cinerama.This was not combo DVD and Blu-Ray.Which was not fair for those with d.v.d players.It had a CD disc of the original L.p. sound track. It came with a pamphlet that explained the making of the film and all the actors.It also showed that Diana Dors was not a bimbo ,when you learned she did stage work also and a t.v. show in England The print was excellent.David Strohmaier did a great job restring with what they found,the 123 minute version is lost except for some fragments of the other film.It was originally in Smell-O-Vision ,but, every time a cue scent for a smell would com up ,I would get dizzy cause my nose was feeling compelled to smell a sensation that was not their .In spite of the lack of odors, the story was still good.Denholm Elliot plays the writer on vacation in Spain.He ends up getting involved with Beverly Bentley,when he is in a car wreck cause by a truck that was trying to knock her down. Liam Redmond tells Elliot the situation.With the aid of Peter Lorre as the taxi driver ,they track her down to save her from those who are going to kill her.The location in Spain were wonderful and the 70mm cinematography was great.This was not Todd a.o. process, but a different 70mm process.Vincent Korda did the production design .He built a fake hotel room,on the roof of a real hotel,for the effect of the 70mm cinema photography .There's an intermission and a surprised ending.The stereo sound was great to .It was originally eight tracks stereo sound.It would be reduce for the Cinerama convert 7 tracks .There's an interview with Beverly Bentley,years later, as well as Mike Todd j.r daughter,who was born the same year I was .Thank goodness this was in smile box.02/6/15

I have been tempted by the Belock/Everest Records/Todd AO link up in terms of LPs, Around the World in Eighty Days, and highlights from Mike Todd's Broadway shows and the Night in Venice, where I think one part of it was filmed in Todd AO. You can hear the front 5 channel sound compressed into remarkable standard 2 channel stereo on the 80 Days LP.I know the 6 channel Todd AO sound was Westrex and entirely independent of Belock recording but the later development of 8 channels held the possibility of rear stereo effects, the 6 channel format having mono rear sound, but in this case of smello vision one of these channels was also used to steer the scent effects. I have spotted a Scent of Mystery soundtrack LP from Everest Records and wonder whether it is worth getting in terms of quality of the music on this film.This may have been a cinematic dead end. But the real bad thing that happened was the tragedy of Mike Todd's premature death in that plane accident. This is a most interesting discussion and I thank the others for their helpful comments, especially the guy who speaks from first hand experience and who commented on the great sound...that's why I am curious about whether it supplied rear stereo and what the prospects of the LP. I imagine this all predates any form of dolby encoding so the notion of being able to extract a pro logic surround sound from a two track stereo source did not exist.

I was at the premiere in Hollywood (1960) - A first-date thing ......Didn't know what to expect .. but the pipe tobacco and peach smells (among SEVERAL more) were astounding! Each time you smelled the perfume... you KNEW something bad was going to happen! .....I don't know how they did it, maybe a hose or fan mounted on the seat in front of you, but when the scene changed, the smell did too !! NEET!If I remember correctly, the program LISTED all the smells you would encounter during the film as well.Needless to say, the food smells probably helped the concession stand because the lines were a mile long !!My date was NOT impressed... (should have made her buy popcorn!)Too bad, This film followed the 3-D craze and is now gone.