Long Day's Journey

Cinema's latest gimmick for bigger entertainment spreads itself on the world's largest indoor screen, and once again fails to prove that bigger movies make better movies. The new film process, tagged "Cinemiracle" by its sponsors, National Theaters Inc., has a field of vision (146DEG wide, 55DEG high) almost equal to that of the human eye (160DEG-60DEG) and, at the renovated Roxy Theater in Manhattan this week, got tucked in on a canvas 100 ft. long, 40 ft. high. Like Cinerama, Cinemiracle is shot through three cameras, translated through three projectors, but avoids its older brother's sideline distortions. Cinemiracle may not be a miracle, but it offers a cinespectacle.

To ballyhoo the new process, Producer Louis de Rochemont (who produced Cinerama Holiday) hashed out a travelogue-type adventure of the Norwegian square-rigged windjammer Christian Radich and followed its bouncing cruise, wave to wave, from Oslo to the Caribbean to New York. More than two hours long-winded, the Windjammer splashes into numerous ports of call, catches some fine scenes of native dances and fireworks parties. Other good shots: Cellist Pablo Casals playing a Catalan ballad in a Puerto Rican garden; a panoramic tour of Norwegian fjords; a vibrant Caribbean sunset, gold and red against a serene black sea. The whole thing would have made a great 20-minute short.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.