FOXFIRE (1955)

Eye-popping restoration of William Daniels’ TechniColor cinematography (last Hollywood feature to use the classic 3-strip process*) makes this KINO-Lorber DVD worth a look. Shot in a ‘flat’ 35mm format, then masked (or framed via projector aperture) to yield a 2:1 ratio WideScreen picture, it threw a near grain-free image almost matching VistaVision clarity. Too bad they couldn’t do a restoration for the plot & Joseph Pevney’s direction! Tame stuff about rich Eastern gal Jane Russell (very hubba-hubba as long as she’s not acting) who meets-cute with mine engineer Jeff Chandler after getting a flat tire. He’s half Apache, a taciturn type not prone to sharing; she’s an outgoing gal always putting her foot in it. So, no surprise after an impulsive wedding things quickly go bad. He puts work first, hoping to reopen an old Indian gold mine his Apache granddad told him about. But it’s Jane who raises the working capital, rubbing Mr. Money Bags the right way at a party. The chalk & cheese relationship between Jane & Jeff is meant to heat things up, but you only believe it when these two are on the outs. On the other hand, our wary couple do share a Queen-sized bed. A big deal in 1955 Hollywood! Dan Duryea tags along as a heavy-drinking doctor pal, but his also-ran lover act, like the rest of the pic, goes nowhere.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *While the TechniColor three-strip negative system was quickly put to bed, their legendary dye-transfer printing process lived on for decades. Finally giving up the ghost some time in the 1990s in, of all places, Mainland China.