Comin' at Ya!

Comin' at Ya!
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Ferdinando Baldi
Written by	Tony Anthony
Starring	Tony Anthony
Music by	Carlo Savina
Cinematography	Fernando Arribas
Edited by	Franco Fraticelli
Production company	Lupo-Anthony-Quintano Productions
Distributed by	Filmways Pictures
Release dates	1981 (1981)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Comin' at Ya! is a Spanish-American 3-D Western film, featuring Tony Anthony, Victoria Abril and Gene Quintano and directed by Ferdinando Baldi.^[1]

It was produced as a co-production between American company Filmways and Lupo-Anthony-Quintano Productions, an independent company. Released in 1981, the film effectively started the 3-D film boom of 1983. The same filmmakers returned in 1983 with Treasure of the Four Crowns.

Plot

H.H. Hart, a bank robber, loses his wife to kidnappers on their wedding day. Subsequently, she is traded as a prostitute by villain Gene Quintano. H.H. Hart races against time to find his wife, with the help of an Irish priest. The film features many 3D effects, many of which are intended to "fly off the screen" at the audience.

Cast

• Tony Anthony as H.H. Hart
• Victoria Abril as Abeline
• Gene Quintano as Pike Thompson
• Ricardo Palacios as Polk Thompson
• Lewis Gordon as Old Man

Stereoscopic 3-D Process

Comin' at Ya was filmed in the then-common over-and-under, single-strip 3-D format. Two Techniscope-format frames, one for the left-eye image and one for the right-eye image, are stacked one above the other in the same area as one ordinary 'Scope-format frame. The resulting frames, though diminished in size, yielded a nominal aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

The lens system used was Optimax III (Bill Bukowski of Optimax III served as 3D Technical Advisor), notorious for introducing vertical parallax error owing to its flawed design (i.e., the optical axes of its twin lenses are not at the same horizontal level). The film's posters by turns heralded the 3-D process as SuperVision and WonderVision.

Projection required prismatic or "mirror box" converters in front of an ordinary spherical projection lens. These converters were meant to converge the stacked left and right pictures on the screen, at the same time cross-polarizing them to match the filters in the 3-D glasses worn by the audience.

By some accounts, Tony Anthony himself designed a relatively low-cost projection lens which made the film marketable for general release. It is further claimed that during the film's initial run, its unexpected success caused it to be pulled from release when the distributor realized they were running out of 3-D glasses.

DVD release

This film was released on DVD in the Anaglyph 3D process. The conversion procedure involved separating the over and under images and digitally combining them as red and cyan images layered over each other.

Reissue

In May 2009, a new restoration of the film was announced.^[2] In late January 2011 it was announced by Fangoria magazine that they would be sponsoring the film's premiere screening. The premiere screening of this newly restored version was held at the Berlin Film Festival on February 12, 2011.

References

External links

• Comin' at Ya! at the Internet Movie Database
• (French) Review
• Tony Anthony interviewed on Zombie Popcorn