American Cinematographer - January 2000 - 146

and tungsten speed of 200 ASA, the Triwas considered by many cinematogra¬

X

"wonder" film.

phers of the time to be

a

The stock was twice

fast as Eastman's

as

5232 Super-XX Negative Film, yet its
grain structure was actually less appar¬
ent. In using the Tri-X on Jungle, Harlan

achieved

a

level of illumination between

100 to 125 footcandles, and a stop of f5.6
on a 30mm lens, providing him with the

depth of field

necessary to cover
classroom interiors the way Brooks
envisioned them.

the
had

The
high-speed Tri-X also
produced impressive shadow detail,
decreasing the amount of fill light that
was needed and therefore saving setup
time. "To give you an idea of the speed
with which

we

shot," Harlan commented

in the June 1955 issue of AC, "I

might
location
high school auditorium packed with

mention
in

a

one

sequence filmed on

about 600 students. We worked with
With his head in
the blimp,
Russell Harlan,
ASC lines up a
rehearsal shot
in which
tormented
teacher Richard
Didier (Glenn

Ford) tries to
catch up to his
worried wife,

Anne(Anne
Francis).

The raw emotional power ofrock'n' rol
music and the effect of juvenile

delin¬
quency on urban high schools in the
1950s were vividly brought to the public's

attention

with

MG M's

Blackboard

Jungle. What caught the attention of
cinematographers, however, was a new
high-speed Eastman emulsion used to
photograph the 1955 drama.
In the picture, instructor Richard
Didier (Glenn Ford) returns to teaching in
an New York inner-city school, only to be
harassed by a gang of high-school thugs
(led by Vic Morrow). Meanwhile, Didier's
wife, Anne (Anne Francis), struggles to
convince her husband to find another job.

few lights. Starting at 9:30 in the
morning, we were finished at 10:45 and

very

back in the studio for lunch

story of student malfeasance. Since

were

would take place inside
classrooms, Brooks wanted to stage the
action so that dialogue between
students sitting in both the front and
back rows could be captured in one
composition without the need for cuts or
rack-focusing. However, such a deep
depth of field would require a tremen¬
dous amount of light. Harlan also felt

something of a record, in view of the fact
that if we had been shooting with ordi¬
nary black-and-white film, the sequence
would have taken a full day or longer to

many scenes

that the dramatic unrest called for

a

gritty, documentary-like realism, but
graininess accompany¬
ing that style.

without the usual

-

shoot."
Harlan in fact took the "less
notion

light"

step further with the Tri-X
stock. Average street scenes at night
one

photographed using only available
light. No arc lights were used throughout
the production, except for the occasional
effect of sunlight coming through a
were

window. "Tri-X Pan is

a

real cameraman's

Blackboard

friend," Harlan noted. "You can shoot
faster, lighting is greatly simplified, and

directed

released, ultra-fast Eastman 5233 Tri-X

on

Evan Hunter's novel,

Jungle was adapted and
by three-time Academy Award

nominee Richard Brooks, who selected

Panchromatic 35mm film stock (a new

when you need depth, you can get it
without burning up the set. Not all

seasoned

product that was unveiled in AC July
'54). Jungle became the second major
motion picture filmed with the new
emulsion; Black Tuesday, shot by Stanley

pictures should be shot on Tri-X, but
Blackboard Junglewas made to order for
it. Not only did [the Tri-X] solve a lot of
problems for us, but this picture gave us

cinematographer

Russell

Harlan, ASC to shoot the picture. The
cameraman's efforts
him his first

on

the film would

Academy Award nomi¬
nation for Best Cinematography (he later
garnered nods for Hawaii, The Great
Race and To Kill a Mockingbird).

earn

January 2000

arose

To achieve these desired effects,
Harlan decided to shoot with a recently

Based

144

Certain technical issues

when the filmmakers discussed their

Cortez, ASC toward the end of 1954,

was

the first (see AC Jan. '55). With its
remarkable daylight speed of 250 ASA

a

chance to demonstrate all the advan¬

tages of this remarkable new negative."
-

Douglas Bankston
American Cinematographer - January 2000

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