Every movie addict probably keeps a list of “holy grail” films, ones they’ve longed to see for years on the big screen in their original theatrical release presentation but probably never will. While some peoples’ lists might include lost films such as the complete, uncut version of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons or Tod Browning’s London After Midnight, my constantly changing list usually includes movies that aren’t yet classified as lost and just might turn up in a rare retrospective screening at some film archive, museum or film festival such as Claude Chabrol’s LES COUSINS (1959) or Satyajit Ray’s DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST (1970) or Ingmar Bergman’s NIGHT IS MY FUTURE  (1948). But my list isn’t all high brow art cinema and includes plenty of odd and eccentric films like William Castle’s IT’S A SMALL WORLD (1950), a drama about a conflicted circus midget (that bore the tagline “When the emotions and longings of a man are pent-up in the body of a child!”) and THE WILD EYE (1967), an exploitation drama made by Paolo Cavara, the co-director of Mondo Cane, that not only attacks the mondo genre but also his former partner, Gualtiero Jacopetti. At the top of my “holy grail” list though is SCENT OF MYSTERY (1960), which was originally presented in Smell-O-Vision, a process that released odors in the movie house that served as clues to the mystery at crucial moments during the film.      

I’m a sucker for movie gimmicks and was always the kid that wanted to be first in line at the new William Castle film so I could get my magic ZOTZ! coins or Illusion-O ghost viewer glasses for 13 GHOSTS. So how can I resist a movie like SCENT OF MYSTERY with a gimmick like Smell-O-Vision? Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t William Castle who thought this one up but Mike Todd, Jr., the son of the famous theatre and film entrepreneur Mike Todd Sr., who introduced the wide screen process Cinerama to the world in THIS IS CINERAMA (1952) and then left that company to create his own wide screen process with the American Optical Company (in order to perfect the flaws of Cinerama) known as Todd-AO. This process in which film shot on 65mm negative stock was then printed on 70 mm print stock resulted in an aspect ratio of 2:20:1. OKLAHOMA! (1955) was the first Todd-AO release but it was Todd’s own production of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956) that confirmed his reputation as a master showman. Seen today, the film is a leaden, star-filled, overproduced epic but Todd’s insider lobbying in Hollywood helped the film win 5 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Cinematography.

Mike Todd, Jr., wasn’t as lucky as his father when it came to his big debut as a movie producer with SCENT OF MYSTERY. 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?

According to the web site Kewlest Inventions, “The Smell-O-Vision scent-releasing system was developed by Hans Laube, a Swiss professor or entrepreneur (depending on who you ask). Before Smell-O-Vision, many theatres throughout the years used ad hoc scent-releasing solutions (one theatre, for example, planted lilac oil in the ventilation system for the opening credits of a movie). Smell-O-Vision, by contrast, was meant to automatically release certain smells – both sweet-smelling and not-so-fragrant – throughout the movie.” SCENT OF MYSTERY, however, was not the first theatrical release to feature a process like Smell-O-Vision. The year before (1959) a documentary entitled BEHIND THE GREAT WALL, directed by Carlo Lizzani and narrated by Chet Huntley, was released in the process known as AromaRama, a system that pumped a total of 72 smells through the theatre’s air conditioning system. The tagline for the film announced, “You must breathe it to believe it!” AromaRama, however, was an afterthought that was added to BEHIND THE GREAT WALL after the film was completed. SCENT OF MYSTERY was conceived with the smells playing a key role in the film’s plot.  

In the beginning, Mike Todd Jr. referred to his new process as Scentovision but then decided, for marketing purposes, that Smell-o-Vision was a better name, a decision which attracted criticism and an angry response from him: “I don’t understand how you can be dignified about a process that introduces smells into a theatre. To my mind you are being pretentious if, to paraphrase Shakespeare a bit, you call a smell by any other name. To go one step further, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to have fun when you are being pretentious. Thus we called the process Smell-O-Vision to indicate that we think of it as a fun device.”     

Unfortunately, the Smell-O-Vision process was not perfected prior to the release of SCENT OF MYSTERY, which was premiered in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago in three specially equipped theatres in February of 1960. The responses were not good. Critics complained that the film on its own was more of a travelogue than a mystery thriller and mediocre in almost every respect despite a cast that included Denholm Elliot, Peter Lorre, Leo McKern, Paul Lukas, Diana Dors and in an unbilled cameo, Elizabeth Taylor. The behind-the-camera crew wasn’t too shabby either and included Jack Cardiff as director, art direction by Vincent Korda and a music score by Mario Nascimbene, Harold Adamson and Jordan Ramin. The main problem, however, seemed to be the malfunctioning Smell-O-Vision.

The 1960 Variety review noted some of the major complaints: “Reaction of those at the Smell-O-Vision premiere was mixed. Of those queried, not all claimed to have whiffed the some 30 olfactions said to have been distributed during the course of the film. A number of balcony smellers said the aroma reached them a few seconds after the action on the screen. Other balcony dwellers said they heard a hissing sound that tipped off the arrival of a smell. Among the smells that clicked were those involving 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.”

The unsuccessful tri-city premiere of SCENT OF MYSTERY doomed the new Smell-O-Vision process and, according to an article by Rick Mitchell on www.in70mm.com , “…the film was subsequently acquired by the CineMiracle Corporation, which was itself soon taken over by Cinerama, Inc. Either of them cut the film by about 20 minutes, added some voice-over comments from the main character played by Denholm Elliott, and optically converted it to three panel Cinerama (!), re-releasing the results under the title “Holiday in Spain.” This version, which was distributed without the accompanying odor process, wasn’t successful either. The Daily Telegraph review reported that “the film acquired a baffling, almost surreal quality, since there was no reason why, for example, a loaf of bread should be lifted from the oven and thrust into the camera for what seemed to be an unconsciously long time.”     

Years later SCENT OF MYSTERY would show up on MTV in 1985 accompanied by a scratch and sniff card available at local 7-11 stores for a dollar in areas that were sponsoring the promotion. Purportedly the card held up to 50 different scents including strawberry, rose and popcorn (the latter scent was described by one user as “just bizarre and indescribable”). Otherwise, SCENT OF MYSTERY has reminded in limbo although a faded 70mm print of the edited version, HOLIDAY IN SPAIN, showed up in a 2004 retrospective screening attended by Rick Mitchell.   

No one else has decided to follow in Mike Todd, Jr.’s footsteps and reproduce the Smell-O-Vision experience for contemporary audiences although John Waters did employ the scratch and sniff card concept for his 1981 feature POLYESTER which he called Odorama. I kept my used scratch and sniff card for POLYESTER for years but I have to say that gimmick didn’t work very well either with such advertised smells as grass, glue, pizza and farts – all smelling like gunpowder or some awful chemical. According to blogger Christopher Campbell, however, Smell-O-Vision is not dead but is being revived in Germany under the name Cinescent – http://www.cinematical.com/2008/08/10/the-exhibitionist-return-of-smell-o-vision/

As for SCENT OF MYSTERY, I have no illusions that it’s some undiscovered masterpiece but I would just love to experience it in its original Todd-70 presentation with the Smell-O-Vision working properly (allegedly, the technicians got the bugs in the system corrected after that disastrous premiere but it was too late at that point for distributors to want to risk showing the film). I also understand that the film had a wonderful stereo soundtrack – you can still buy the limited edition CD that was released in 2008 through Kritzerland at http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/scentofmystery

But just to see Denholm Elliott, Peter Lorre (as a philosophical taxi driver), Paul Lukas (as a hit man) and Diana Dors, cavorting in color in picturesque Spain – what could be more fun? So SCENT OF MYSTERY stays on my “holy grail” list.

SOURCES:

http://cinerama.topcities.com/scentofmystery.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-o-vision

http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/scent-of-mysterymario-nascimbene/

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117794675.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0

http://www.kqek.com/cd_lp_reviews/s/CD_0117_ScentOfMystery1960.htm

http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=10314

http://blog.ucsd.edu/artslib/2007/09/13/smellovision-attempting-a-comeback/