Search for Paradise

SEARCH FOR PARADISE is the fourth of the Cinerama travelogue/documentaries and it doesn't quite live up to its predecessors. The photography is stunning as you would expect and the travelogue narration of Lowell Thomas is not as parochial as in SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD, That being said, PARADISE is saddled with a bad case of "going Hollywood". The major problem, from my perspective, is the soundtrack. The orchestrations are overly lush considering the visuals and the subject matter. While I love Robert Merrill's voice, especially in opera, here the songs he sings sound like SOUTH PACIFIC which I'm sure is intentional but I found it to be hugely distracting.

For that I place the blame on Hollywood composer Dmitri Tiomkin. My other chief complaint is that the pacing is not as good as in past offerings since several scenes, notably the Jeep ride in the beginning, go on far too long. This was designed to show off the Cinerama process but even on a big screen it would grow tiresome. Perhaps this is due to the fact that this time around there is only one director (Otto Frank) and so the segments lack variety. Still in spite of these criticisms, SEARCH FOR PARADISE should be seen.

Released in 1957 it gives us a glimpse back to a very different world which seemed more exotic and mysterious than the internet connected world of today. Destinations in SEARCH FOR PARADISE include Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), the Hunza valley in Pakistan, the Kashmir district of India, a trip down the Indus river and finally, witnessing a ceremony in Katmandu, Nepal. The new Smilebox technology allows the reproduction of the curved screen 3 camera Cinerama technique to be captured faithfully if on a somewhat smaller scale. Doesn't matter. The effect is still magical and on some of today's large flat screen home theater setups, it will look most impressive.

SEARCH FOR PARADISE is one of two new releases from Flicker Alley (they sent me an advance copy) along with SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. That one is the better of the two but I am grateful to all involved for making these movies available. Now if only they could release THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM and KRAKATOA: EAST OF JAVA in the Smilebox technology, then I would truly have a lot to smile about. Both titles come with Blu-Ray, 2 CDs, and a reproduction of the original Cinerama program...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

UPDATE: Both BROTHERS GRIMM and KRAKATOA have been released on Blu-Ray but not in Smilebox.

This was actually the first Cinerama film at the Cinerama Festival that I saw. Being an original print, in fact the very last known of its kind, the color was somewhat pink throughout most of this picture. Despite the discoloration, I actually enjoyed this most of all the films I saw during the week (SFP, Windjammer & This is Cinerama). I even caught a glimpse of some reds, greens and yellows in the Royal Parade in Katmandu. To me, this represented the closest vision of the true goal of a Cinerama film - to thrill, educate and captivate. I had such fun I left the theater feeling like I had actually visited the places we went in the film. This film had it all - had it been released in summer of '57 it could have been a blockbuster!