Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich (1958)

Windjammer, the first presentation in CINEMIRACLE, is the record of a training cruise of the full-rigged S/S Christian Radich from Oslo across the Atlantic, through the Caribbean, to New ... See full summary »

Directors:

Bill Colleran, Louis De Rochemont III

Writers:

A.J. Villiers (book) (as Captain Alan Villiers), James L. Shute (adaptation)

Stars:

Bjørn Amvik, Arne Andersen, Per Antonsen

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Bjørn Amvik	...	Cadet #5
Arne Andersen	...	Motorman
Per Antonsen	...	Cadet #21
Niels Arntsen	...	First officer
Svein Aske	...	Cadet #23
Trygve Bendiksen	...	Second assistant bosun
Tore Bilet	...	Cadet #85
Sigurd Borgen	...	Sailmaker
Boston Pops Orchestra	...	Orchestra
Even Børresen	...	Cadet #31
Pau Casals	...	Himself
Jan Christiansen	...	Cadet #28
Peer Dahl	...	Cadet #25
Thor Dalelv	...	Cadet #84
Wilbur De Paris	...	New Orleans Jazz Band Leader

Storyline

Windjammer, the first presentation in CINEMIRACLE, is the record of a training cruise of the full-rigged S/S Christian Radich from Oslo across the Atlantic, through the Caribbean, to New York and back home again.

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Plot Keywords:

training | orchestra | boston pops orchestra | willemstad curacao | u.s. navy | 

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Taglines:

Thrill After Thrill After Thrill...And You Are In The Picture!

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Genres:

Documentary | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 April 1958 (Norway)

Also Known As:

Windjammer

Filming Locations:

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinemiracle Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

142 min

Sound Mix:

Cinerama 7-Track

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.77 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Erik Bye served as the ships scribe during the voyage and also narrated the films English-language version, without credit. He has been credited in the 2010 restoration.

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Alternate Versions

For its 1962 re-release, the film was converted to the Cinerama format.

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Connections

Referenced in The Last Days of Cinerama (2012)

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Soundtracks

The Battle Hymn of the Republic
(uncredited)
Music by William Steffe

User Reviews

"Cinemiracle" - a one-time rival to Cinerama.

This was released in southern California at Grauman's Chinese Theater where its three-projector and massive screen requirements were provided at an expense that would probably never be reproduced today. I doubt that the IMAX system is anywhere near as complicated and the specially built theaters for its presentation are possibly less expensive to construct, adjusting for inflation, than what was done at the Chinese.

The opening scenes on an ordinary size screen were a suspenseful buildup to what was eventually revealed: a seemingly infinite opening of the drapes to a dizzying crow's nest view of the storm-tossed Christian Radich Windjammer as it left Oslo's harbor for its voyage. The Cinemiracle three-camera system (which involved a complex setup with mirrors and other technical details too numerous for an amateur to recount here) and the three-projector theater presentation, with full stereophonic sound, was an amazement in its time and I have not been as impressed with my recent visits to IMAX theaters to see the usually less interesting subjects designed to wow us today. The kinetic feeling imparted to the late-Fifties audiences who saw this film was easily more realistic than anything that IMAX has attempted.

Some years later, after the initial release, at the Cinerama Dome Theater on Sunset Blvd. (which was never set up to show three-projector films, since "Cinerama" was by then a single camera process, generally shot with 70mm Panavision cameras) a return engagement of "Windjammer" was advertised. I told a film-loving friend of mine, who had not seen its original release, that we ought to attend a showing. Imagine my disappointment when all that was shown was the middle panel, leading to some really strange sequences when seascapes were blank for an extended period of time as the Christian Radich proceeded from the unseen left panel, across the middle one, and off onto the unseen third panel on the right! I really didn't understand why they didn't edit this version so that only the action in the middle panel was shown, but that would probably have required some tinkering with the soundtrack, something that the people who had gotten their hands on this curiosity were seemingly much too cheap to do. Anyway, I convinced my friend that we were wasting our time and, after complaining in the lobby to a representative of the Cinerama Dome's management about what was undeniably a rip-off, we went up to Hollywood Blvd. and saw a first-run film, probably shot in CinemaScope or one of its equivalents. Less than a week later the ads for "Windjammer" in the LOS ANGELES TIMES movie listings carried a tiny disclaimer that the film was not being presented in its original format. IMDb.com information on this film seems to indicate that the 1962 re-release, under the Cinerama Corporation's aegis, was an anamorphic presentation, but what we saw at the Cinerama Dome was nothing more than a reproduction of the original negative's center panel and there wasn't anything wide about it.

Obviously the original negatives were not preserved, since a major studio was not involved in the production, and so its eventual transfer to video (which was, for example, accomplished with M-G-M's three-camera/projector Cinerama extravaganza, "How The West Was Won" with clearly visible demarcations to the left and right of the center panel, which were much less obvious in the Cinemiracle process, by the way) is now something that is lost in the mists of movie-going memory.