The Rocky Horror Picture Show (partially found open matte version of musical comedy horror film; 1975)

The film's theatrical poster.

Status: Partially Found

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, based on the original stage show, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The original screenplay was written by Sharman and actor Richard O'Brien.

Background

Many films were originally recorded in an open shot or a open matte version. These versions of the films had the top and bottom of them matted out to obtain a "widescreen" look for the theatrical releases of the films (later to become useful for viewing on widescreen or HDTV televisions, though unintentional). For cases of 4:3 televisions or general home releases, the top and bottom of the film is still matted out, though less has been matted out than the widescreen version, allowing the film to fit correctly on these televisions. These 4:3 versions coincidentally have more information than the widescreen versions available to see. The open matte versions can have certain objects (such as cameras or boom mics) viewable near the top of the frame, that when matted out are not viewable in the widescreen and 4:3 versions of the film, hence why open matte versions are not the preferred way to watch these films.

Availability

The only available clips of the open matte version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is of the song "Sweet Transvestite," taken from an educational television center in the United Kingdom that was about to transition to color, however due to the expenses required to switch to color television broadcasting in the 1970s, and the fact that this was recorded on redundant equipment from bigger TV stations that had since transitioned into color broadcasting, caused this recording, and the following Tim Curry interview this clip was taken from, to be in low quality, black and white.

Gallery

Screenshots

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  Dr. Frank N. Furter and Brad Majors during the song "Sweet Transvestite."

Comments

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  YouTube comment from the OP of the video.

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  YouTube comment from the OP of the video.

See Also

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (lost songs from cancelled sequels of musical comedy horror film; 1978-2001)