3-D GLASSES
Stereoscopic
films had been around since the 1920s, but the 1950s was
unquestionably the golden age of 3-D, with excited teenagers
flocking to the cinema to see such classic fare as The House Of
Wax, Dial M For Murder and The French Line (or
"Jane Russell in 3-D!" as it was marketed).

The plot never actually mattered in a 3-D movie. Forget boy
meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy dies at the hands of a
sadistic German U-Boat captain . . . all a 3-D movie needed was a
man with a stick. All that is required is that at some point in
the movie he point that stick out towards the audience so in 3-D
terms it looks like it's coming straight at them.
The other downside of 3-D movies was that they weren't really
date movies. For a start you were required to wear stupid glasses
with coloured lenses . . .
The format fell out of favour in the 1960s, replaced by drugs
which - if taken in the right quantities - could make everything
come at you in freaky 3-D. Even things which only existed in your
mind!
3-D movies made a short return in the 1980s.
Unfortunately some
of the worst movies ever made were produced to take advantage of
the effect - possibly the worst offender being Jaws 3D,
although Amityville 3D, Friday The 13th Part 3 and Freddy's
Dead: The Final Nightmare (aka A Nightmare On Elm Street 6)
all took turns to hammer nails into the medium's coffin.
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