I have seen a few films using the Cinecolor process and one film that used it was the subject of the  last article on ‘The Man from Nevada’  or ‘The Nevadan’ released in 1950.

Previous to that I have a DVD of The Prince of Thieves’ with Jon Hall playing Robin Hood.  I just loved the Cinecolor in that one – it seemed to fit the film so well.

Another one – a bit later – with Jon Hall was ‘Hurricane Island’ filmed in Super Cinecolor – see further below

By the end of the 1940s, Cinecolor seemed to have improved their process quite a bit (they eventually switched to three strip colour) 

I read a comment from someone who originally thought the Cincolor was poor  but late changed his mind after seeing nice looking cartoons originally processed in Cinecolor.

He thought that it was just as appealing as Technicolor, but in a different way.  Technicolor seemed richer, but Cinecolor has a sort of shimmering quality to it.

I would tend to agree with this observation.

Cinecolor

Cinecolor

While Cinecolor wasn’t perfect, I read a comment about it’s long lasting qualities –  Cinecolor standard 8mm print I have,  Blackhawk eastman color print is only 25 years old, (and already starting a slight fade), the Cinecolor print is at least 50 years old, (as Cinecolor ceased in 1955) and yet still retains it’s full and rich color, which at least tells me that this cinecolor process, while a little grainier, was a much better process.

Randolph Scott made all the films he produced himself in cinecolor. Notoriously tight with money, the Cinecolor process was much cheaper than techicolor.

In “The Gunfighters,” Cinecolor looked as great as Technicolor.

While Cinecolor may not have been equal to Technicolor’s 3-color system, it was  far superior to the 2-color Technicolor that was its early competition, both in colour balance and a pleasing appearance on screen.  Cinecolor never stopped refining and improving its process, and by the 1940’s achieved some outstanding results.

ABOVE: Jon Hall was ‘Hurricane Island’ filmed in Super Cinecolor

Cinecolor was a dye-transfer printing process very much like Technicolor.