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RKO’s 3D DEVIL’S CANYON (1954) is another title I gave up hope of seeing. The picture belongs to Warner Archive. The current management thinks it unwise to spend money restoring essentially two films to make one 3D picture.

This attitude makes me appreciate Robert Furmanek’s 3D FILM ARCHIVE and its partners all the more. They have worked and continue to work quiet miracles.

A friend sifted through the many digital copies of DEVIL’S CANYON looking for matching right and left pairs (3D motion pictures having originally been filmed with two cameras).

Miracle of miracles, my friend found not only this picture but several others Warner Archive is sitting on.
DEVIL’S CANYON is exciting to see. There is not much use of objects hurled out of the screen (if there is any at all). The story is soberly told. 3D enhances that telling wonderfully. I love looking at what I know is a flat surface now transformed into a window.

It is a real shame Sony, Warner’s and the very few others who own historic 3D motion pictures are not using THE 3D FILM ARCHIVE to restore their materials so they may be presented as they were created to be seen.

The movies keep giving up on 3D. The public doesn’t. I am grateful I can now see DEVIL’S CANYON in true 3D. This week was my fifth viewing. If you’d like to experience it drop by.

For a long time the motion picture industry placed little value on its past, Much was lost. Private collectors and outlaws saved much that otherwise would have been lost (so much was).

Perhaps private collectors will step in where the industry always has refused to because it is viewed as too expensive.

Private collectors don’t care about the expense. They care about the work.

DEVIL’S CANYON is a devilish good picture.—Reg Hartt

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