Comin' at ya: Cornell Cinema presents a 3-D movie weekend

Don't miss Cornell Cinema's 3-D marathon weekend Feb. 27 and 28. "Dial M for Murder," one of Alfred Hitchcock's finest films, will be shown along with André de Toth's "House of Wax." For more information call 255-3522. Courtesy of Cornell Cinema

Friday and Saturday, Feb. 27 and 28, Cornell Cinema presents a 3-D movie marathon featuring two of the most distinguished 3-D films ever made: Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder" and André de Toth's "House of Wax."

As good as the special effects are in the latest "Lord of the Rings" movie, the effects in these films feature scissors buried in backs, masked murderers, can-can dancers, melting wax figures and many other shocking (and titillating) images that appear to jump off the screen.

Screenings take place in the Willard Straight Hall Theatre. Tickets are $9 general/$7 students and seniors and are available at the Willard Straight Hall Ticket Desk. For more information call 255-3522 or visit http://cinema.cornell.edu.

Cornell Cinema purchased a special screen, special lenses and, of course, the famous glasses, to make for an "entertainment experience of a lifetime." Far superior to the more common anaglyph process, in which the projected image is viewed through glasses with each eye piece a different color (usually red and green), polaroid 3-D achieves the effect of binocular vision and simulates what would cost big bucks to see at Sony's IMAX theaters. Filmed in 3-D but not released in it, "Dial M for Murder" (1953), Hitchcock's suspenseful story of murder and deceit, was sometimes dismissed as a fine film but not on par with his masterpieces. But many critics who later saw it in 3-D revised their evaluations and lauded it as one of his very best, a truly visionary work of genius. Also this weekend, check out Vincent Price in "House of Wax" (1953), widely acknowledged as the best 3-D horror film ever made.