Smells like a lost classic!
1 comment January 5th, 2009
Over at Turner Classic Movies Movie Morlocks Blog, Morlock Jeff writes about the 1960 movie SCENT OF MYSTERY, a film originally presented in …. Smell-O-Vision!
As he says…
The Smell-O-Vision concept, which was pitched as a major advance in filmmaking technology, seemed promising with viewers being able to experience the smells of fresh cut sugar cane, train smoke, oil paint, tobacco, incense, a salty ocean breeze, perfume and more. The film poster for SCENT OF MYSTERY proudly announced “First they moved (1895)! Then they talked (1927)! Now they smell!” Who could resist a carnival pitch like that?
Everybody, evidentally. After premiering in New York, L.A., and Chicago, the film died, a victim of technological mishaps and its own mediocrity. According to the original Variety review, the film’s smells (which didn’t reach the audience at the right times, if at all) included “flowers, the perfume of the mystery girl in the film, tobacco, orange, shoe polish, port wine (when a man is crushed to death by falling casks), baked bread, coffee, lavender, and peppermint.”
Morlock Jeff also mentions a smell-fueled movie that I have seen, John Waters’ 1981 feature POLYESTER. Waters, a fan of tacky movie gimmicks, wisely bypassed the complicated technology of Smell-O-Vision and relied on the low-tech (but more reliable) method of a simple scratch-and-sniff card. At certain points in the movie, a number would flash on the screen and you’d scratch and sniff that number on a card you were given before the show.
I still have my card (signed by Waters when he visited my alma mater, Kent State, back in the mid 1980s), but the smells don’t work anymore. I do, however, remember to avoid scratching and sniffing No. 2 at all costs. If you get the DVD (which I think has some version of the card), I’d suggest you follow that advice as well.
