I am out of town for a couple of days this week at my daughter’s wedding, but I didn’t want to leave you all without a post. While I am away, I thought we might revisit the fascinating Mitchell FC 70mm Fox Grandeur camera. We recently passed the 94th anniversary of the release of the Fox Grandeur western epic “The Big Trail” which our subject camera worked on. The Grandeur system was the pet project of William Fox who dreamed of bigger theaters with bigger, higher fidelity projection on massive screens. And of selling his wide film system to the rest of the industry. Earl Sponable, head of Fox’s research and development team, investigated several systems for capturing and projecting widescreen images to mass audiences, before settling on an enlarged version of the industry favorite Mitchell Standard camera, which now became capable of shooting 70mm 4-perf pull-down film. Prior to his work on Grandeur, Sponable was part of the team that developed the Movietone sound-on-film process. He brought this technology to the Grandeur system with its larger soundtrack and picture areas. Sadly, only 4 features were shot in the Grandeur system, culminating in “The Big Trail,” the only film of the 4 that took full advantage of the scenic possibilities of the 70mm wide film format. While the story is a bit bland, there are so many spectacular scenes in the movie that make it definitely worth a watch, at least in its Grandeur incarnation. The restoration of the 70mm Grandeur original of “The Big Trail” is widely available to rent from the various streaming services and is a must see. If you are interested in more of the history of how this system came to be, and why it failed, check out our website where we have assembled a concise history: https://bit.ly/3YHzlwH
