This Movie Was Made To Be A Stinker

#Cinerama

Scent Of Mystery a.k.a. Holiday In Spain was a movie with two gimmicks.
Smell-O-Vision and Cinerama. A mystery adventure with Denholm Elliott and Peter Lorre. The director hated it.

00:00 The Intro With A Birthday Gift
01:49 Smell-O-Vision
05:40 Scent Of Mystery
08:55 Cinerama
10:00 Holiday In Spain
13:33 Outro.

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[kaboombox]

IIRC John Waters’ Odorama scratch-n-sniff cards used in Polyester were inspired by Smell-o-vision.

[timeliebe]

HOW THE WEST WAS WON was a Cinerama release that, when it was released on Blu-Ray, wasn't done in "SmileBox" (a format I've never heard of before today!), but in 16:9 with extreme letterboxing so you could enjoy it in all its grandeur—assuming your HDTV's big enough. It...mostly works, though there's a buffalo stampede (shot in my birth state of South Dakota!) that becomes unintentionally hilarious when the three-camera Cinerama effect makes it appear as if the buffalo are running around a maypole!

That's the Cinerama—the movie itself is so...epic that it has no time for things like connecting setpieces together to tell a cohesive story, any sort of depth in characterization, or even casting actors so they fit who they're supposed to be playing. Imagine phlegmatic John Wayne playing the manic-depressive Gen. William T. Sherman to Harry Morgan's short and energetic Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (not Morgan's fault—he had to step in at the last minute when Spencer Tracy had to drop out due to illness, and took over narration duties instead)—not sure why John Ford didn't just swap the actors' roles which would have fit better! Despite being absurdly miscast as a Good Girl Happily Going Bad as a Saloon Singer who falls in love with a Riverboat Gambler (played by the equally-miscast Gregory Peck!), Debbie Reynolds does the best job in the movie, holding what overarching plot there is together. Technically that's George Peppard's job as Jimmy Stewart's son, but despite being in most of the movie he's just...there, a decent actor but not enough of a star to hold everything together.

[kong-okyi]

As you described this movie, Terry, it’s addled gimmick, it’s strong cast and the director’s disdain for the gimmick, my mind snapped back to The Beast Must Die which also ticked all those boxes. At least ‘The Werewolf Break’ didn’t stink up the theatre.

[RSEFX]

I suppose they might've been able to make a second attempt at a Smelly release by providing customers with scratch'n''sniff cards?
Fun to finally see something from this movie, which I 'd heard about when it was originally announced for production. Even as a kid i knew this was not something I would ever see (or smell) or would even want to (even though I had grown up during the era of gimmicked movies (Castle), 3-D, Cinemascope, "Spectra-Rama" etc.
I would think this could be released "flat" framed for video-projecting onto home-made curved screens....BUT, there likely would be absolute zero market interest to make such a thing worth doing.. I had completely forgotten that re-release version that played at the local Cinerama theater in Detroit way back in the day.
Thanks for covering this one. Might be fun to see if only for the photography and Peter Lorre!
(maybe "ScentamaScope" would have been a more alluring name for the process, though the use of the word "scope" in this context doesn't make much scents Er, sense.) ;-7

[Bent-Ed]

John Waters perfected the olfactory experience with Polyester and the Odorama Scratch'n'Sniff cards. I believe you can still get them online

[jackfriendu]

my DVD copy of John water's "Polyester" came with the scratch and sniff card for its own jokey smell-o-vision aspect, but i guess they don't age well (there was no kind of seal on them to keep anything in) and indeed they may already have lost their scent by the time the product was sold. In any case i decided one night (after a few beers) to just stop holding on to them as though they were some precious item and start a scratchin'. And every one of them smelt the same...and it was not a pleasant smell but nor was it horrendous...just some light weird chemical scent. so the card was a bust...but a friend told me how he saw "Polyester" at a cinema (Adelaide Film Festival?) with everyone in the audience having a card and the smells just hung around and mingled and so that wasn't exaclty working either. To have seen a film that tried it out seriously though would have been something...not necessarily a good thing... but something!

[nealepaterson]

Jack Cardiff had a curious career as a director (as did Freddie Francis). I see this came out the same year as Sons & Lovers! And Gerald Kersh as screenwriter...

This surely must have been one of the biggest budget movies of the time to adopt this sort of ridiculous gimmick - perhaps Dial M For Murder? (The trailer certainly has a Hitchcockian feel). Todd Jr definitely didn't have the flair of Todd Sr, although he was determined to give it a go.

I love watching the youthful Denholm Elliot 😊

[jackfriendu]

3-d seems to have been the only gimmick/ effect to have worked enough to warrant multiple attempts and money put into to it to keep improving it. I remember a segment in "Kentucky Fried Movie" where a Cinema starts showing films in the new wonder "Feel- O "Vison" which entails having an usher stand behind you and replicate the physical sensations of the movie characters story onto You- which means variously being roughed up, kissed, soothed etc. The punch line comes with the announcement that "Our Next feature will Be "Deep Throat" "sending the patron screaming into the night! Ha!

[barrywerdell]

This is the type of movie "Matinee" with John Goodman made fun of.

[MiddleAgedGeekGrrrl]

I'm watching this on my Laptop, so I can comment! Your nephew has taken over the entire couch! Great video as always, and what an awesome surprise from Keith F ❤.

[carlrenzi]

Even though I have never seen a movie with smells (not counting the odors of the movie theater) I'd heard about them when I was a kid and I remember a comedian doing a spoof on television imitating a movie goer watching one of these smelly films; he was strapped to his chair and the character would go to bad smelling places: a sewer, eating limburger cheese, etc. while the viewer squirmed in his chair making disgusted faces. So if a moving picture is a movie, and a movie with sound is a talkie and in "Brave New World" a movie in which the spectators feel is caller a feelie, is a movie with smells a "smellie, or a stinkie?

[dlee]

Peter Lorre making throat cutting gestures to children. A reference to M?

[taker]

Recently saw Polyester with the scratch and sniff card but the card was old and everything smelled the same. I've noticed the smile box used on channels like TCM.

[d.bcooper]

I’m going out on a limb and saying gasoline smell-o-vision seams just a bit dangerous in a theater. Probably during a time when smoking was allowed in theaters.

[jameshardison]

John Waters wanted to use the “Smell-o-Vision” name for his film “Polyester”, but it was trademarked and he had to invent the name “Odorama” instead.

[captlazer]

If you had the audience wear a gas mask pumping in the smells, it might work! (joking) Cinerama would like to see, IMAX's grandfather. I might check it out as Peter Lorre is one of the greats.

[SneakyNinjaDog]

Was this before they came up w the scratch and sniff cards?

[keithf_]

Don't know this movie, but I'd like to see it. Maybe 'Smell-o-vision' was a gimmick that William Castle considered but then abandoned as being just too naff.
OMG I never knew that Leo McKern - for many years he's been one of my favourite British actors - was actually Australian LOL.

PS Glad you got 'The Spider and the Fly' safely. OK not the most extras-laden dvd pack in the world, but hey the movie is the important thing. I wasn't sure if you were familiar with the movie, but as it seems you aren't then hopefully you're in for a treat, Terry.

[PhiloYT]

Even if it's obviously a gimmick, I'd still like to try Smell-O-Vision!

[SmithMrCorona]

Speaking of Judith Furse, check out "The Adventures of Barry McKenzie" - a stunning young Dame Edna!