Redwind Productions Inc., in association with Cinerama Inc, is proud to present for the very first time - the lost and now re-mastered 70mm treat, filmed entirely in Spain...Originally titled "Scent of Mystery" and presented in "Smell-O-Vision", this unique and magical adventure, follows a mystery novelist, played by Denholm Elliott, who discovers a plan to murder an American heiress, played by Beverly Bentley, while on vacation in Spain. He enlists the help of a local taxi driver, played by Peter Lorre, to travel across the Spanish countryside in order to thwart the crime. Directed by noted cinematographer-turned director Jack Cardiff. Paired with Mario Nascimbene's fine score, and a cast that includes, Paul Lukas, Liam Redmond, Leo Mckern and Diana Dors, it made for solid entertainment. It also featured a big major star cameo, in a role critical to the film's scenario. That cameo was unbilled, although the film itself had no credits on screen. They were originally given to the audience in their road show program. The film's restoration has now added, for the first time, a credit roll at the picture's end. The screenplay was adapted from the 1947 novel Ghost of a Chance by Kelley Roos, the pen name of husband and wife mystery writers Audrey Kelley and William Roos. 

A Sense of Murder. He was a young Englishman on a holiday in Spain and she was the kind of scenery he didn't want to miss. Even from the back, the long graceful legs, the slim waist, and the large hat were quite a sight. He didn't know her, but wanted to. Then he discovered they wanted to kill her. And if he didn't stop them within the next 36 hours, the only place he would see her again would be in the morgue.

Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 STS-HD Master Audio restoration created from the 6 track 70mm masters.
* Holiday In Spain Locations short. A look at the film’s location then and now -15 min.
* Missing Scenes from Scent of Mystery version A selection of rare film elements including “rushes” found in the Cinerama vaults -10 min.
* 36 page booklet: Reproduction of the original 1960 Scent of Mystery program.
* Feature Length Audio Commentary. With historian Bruce Kimmel, Sandra Shahan, and remastering director David Strohmaier.
* Exclusive Interviews With actress Beverly Bentley who plays Sally and with Susan Todd daughter of the producer. -35 min.
* Remastering of Holiday In Spain short. An exclusive look at the remastering of the film from deteriorating 65 and 70mm elements -8 min.
* Slideshow. A montage of behind the scenes production stills, publicity stills, and original ads and posters. -10 min.
* Cinerama Trailers Gallery. Trailers for This Is Cinerama, Cinerama Holiday, Seven Wonders of the World, Search For Paradise, Cinerama South Seas Adventure, Windjammer, Holiday In Spain and the Golden Head. -34 min.
* Plus bonus stereo music audio CD of Mario Nascimbene's score.

RESTORATION NOTES :

Holiday in Spain is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinerama and Redwind Productions with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in Cinerama's "smilebox" curved screen format, which equates more or less to a 2.59:1 aspect ratio. (Original "flat" 70mm screenings of Scent of Mystery were around 2.20:1, and indeed when I measured some screenshots from the restoration featurette included on this Blu-ray which features some of the flat source material, it measured at around that aspect ratio.) David Strohmaier has done near-heroic work here rescuing a little remembered film that was never curated properly. If we had a rating for restorative efforts, this would no doubt be a five star affair all the way, but that said, there are simply some inherent source issues which even Strohmaier's valiant efforts couldn't completely ameliorate.

As mentioned above, this was sourced from a damaged 65mm negative as well as two very badly faded 70mm prints. The result is a patchwork of image quality which has been "normalized" to a degree, but which is still widely variant. The sections sourced from the negative look best in terms of color timing, clarity and sharpness, though even here, as Strohmaier mentions, some incorrectly looped film resulted in image instability at the negative level (obviously passed on to prints) which could not be completely stabilized. The print sourced material presents the biggest challenges in terms of color timing, and the results here are watchable but problematic. Strohmaier mentions the difficulty in obtaining decent fleshtones with such a strong magenta fade as the two prints evidently had, but at times fleshtones tip almost more toward a kind of weirdly ruddy brown-green look.

There is also still some occasional damage stemming from what looks like emulsion issues and other splotching, something which Strohmaier addresses in his reconstruction featurette, and which is certainly improved here, though not completely eradicated. There is also occasional flicker on display, as well as minor density issues.

With all of that said, some may wonder why this is rated as high as a 4, and a case could be made for a lower score. But looking at what Strohmaier had to begin with, and what the eventual results are, is a lesson in both the advances as well as the limitations of current day technologies of image harvesting and color correction. While the source material here was so variable that only so much could be done with it, there are no issues with over aggressive digital tweaking that would have kept this from looking as organic as it does. The fact that Holiday in Spain looks as good as it does is something of a minor (cinema?)miracle.