Let me say before I get into this review, that I am a staunch supporter of Cinerama and purchase these remasterings when they are released, regardless of what the film is. The format was abandoned just as the franchise found it's way out of the boring scripts and scenic travel films. If they had kept going, after "How the West was Won," and built on that film's success, we might have had many more wonderful widescreen films to watch.

Unfortunately, "The Golden Head" epitomizes the issues with the Cinerama films before "How the West Was Won." They were lovely to look at, but they were in essence a travelogue of exotic places with virtually no story, which doomed them to failure. This isn't even a true Cinerama film. It was begun in that format, then changed over to a Super Technirama 70 format.

It's meant to be a family film, but even kids want a story. There are long stretches of film with someone repeatedly saying, "Look at that," as we go past some landmark in Budapest, Hungary. If you took all of these scenes out, the film would be about 30 minutes long.

A prior reviewer mentioned "Emil and the Detectives," a better caper film than this. I'll mention Disney's 1963 film, "The Horse Without a Head," a "stolen loot hidden in an unlikely place" movie with an imaginative, well-written script and an interesting cast of both kids and adults, still memorable after 55 years. Both were superior to "Golden Head," and were made for a fraction of the cost. It was pointless to make this, yet they did, and here we are five decades later dealing with its myriad faults.

On to the cast. Buddy Hackett, who seemed to be a staple of Cinerama-class films, having shown up in three of them, including "Brothers Grimm," is in full annoyance mode here. He could be a wonderful actor, as he was in "The Love Bug," but the director apparently gave the actors no guidance. It's criminal to have George Sanders, one of the most suave, satiric actors in film, and not use him to his fullest potential. He smiles his way through the movie, and mostly sleepwalks through his part. Again, the script is the major culprit; the director just abets its failures.

There was also a change in directors; it was begun under one director, who then left and another took up the rest of the filming. Actors were also replaced, and that kind of chaos can have a bad effect on a film. However, without a good script nothing could have saved this.

There are a few moments of interest in the "Golden Head," but it's a hackneyed affair no matter how you look at it. It's worth a viewing simply to see the scenery, and for its historical value. It also has some valuable extras on the release, and you should buy it for those. They are worth the money of the disc

It's been reported that the true Cinerama film, "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm," hasn't been released on Bluray because the original negative is in such bad shape. Yet "Golden Head" survived, a travesty of justice. Note to the group that remasters these Cinerama films: The laserdisc release of "Brothers Grimm" looked amazing...can that be used along with whatever elements of the negative are in good shape, and used for a Bluray? With the technology today, I would hope something could be done. Bring that out and I'd buy it the minute it was for sale.

This movie is mainly aimed at small kids, so you might feel like I am being too harsh on it. And I am pretty sure, there won't be many that agree with me (hence I expect quite a few "not helpful" checks),but despite that, I cannot just act as if I liked the movie. Speaking of "act" ... I wish they had chosen child actors that could spell the word (even better: Practice it!).

But if you do not care about the simple story, the simple gags (I wonder if kids nowadays even would care about the gags .. maybe if they are small enough not to care about an incoherent story and other things that make the movie almost dreadful ... or so bad, that it's good?),than you might wanna try this out. It's not worse than all those "spoofs" that are coming out in the "noughties" ...

This was a Disney style movie for kids,not really adults too.This is the reason why it had so much trouble with finally being released in the United states by 2012 at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood,way after Cinerama was dead.If it was made for adults first children second,then,it could of been better.For the expense of the film the producers were not wise.I guess they might have been trying to compete with Disney Emile and the Detective ,maybe?it was shot in both Super Technirama 70 and M.C.S. 70 The plot is about a families annual Trip to Budapest Hungary. The way it looks when the the guide,played by dancer and actress Cecilia Esztergalyos, greets them as if they met before.The father, played by Douglas Wilmer is in a conference for detectives ,internationally,and obviously looks like he's divorced,when he ask Lorrain what does her mother does for her as she ask him why does he bring his own tobacco ,as he is hiding it from the customs as they are about on the white rabbit to check what was brought, when he can buy some at Budapest. The three children,Milly,played by Lorraine Powers.The youngest Brother played by Denise Gilmore and the oldest grown up 28 year old brother,Wilmar's character had to have had him when he was 15 in 1936,don't make any sense here,played by Jess Conrad,the James Darren of England ,except Jess is still working.This was a combo Commie- Budapest,British,American production.Originally British Director James hill was doing the job,but, due to difficulties he was replaced by Till the cloud's roll by Director Richard Thorpe .The other American actor comedian Buddy Hackett plays an idiot,this is a kids picture so it's hard to understand from an adult perspective the idiotic character he is playing,of an other half of an international art thief,played by George Sanders,but,the focus is mostly a travelog on Budapest in 63 ,way before it got sexually liberated when the Commies fell and sex and nudity in the public became legal in that country.I would not trust a little girl ,Milly, to get the bread for breakfast.Why would a priest,played by Sandor Pecsi, go up to her and all of a sudden show some valuable religious relic? the naivete of telling George sander about it.You never see Hakette and Sander stealing it as if the film was on some budget. In the trailer the way you see Jess singing like the scene came out of surprise.In the feature it's different it comes in predictably .I had though that it would of had dialog leading to the song .Low budget? it was not all that bad.There is another detective in the film which who is also a kid from England who helps the two kids and two grown ups stop the thieves For some reason is not credited,unless that was Denis playing a second person,but,I don't think it was, Honorable Augustus Smyth .The funniest scenes,where it picks up,is when Buddy Hackett is pick pocketing at a horse race for George.Unlike the preview of that ballet scene ,where two Hungarian ballet dancers makes an appearance, it's short. It last until Robert Coote asks Wilmar to leave the theater,due to recent discovery of the thieves.The way the scenes where both Hackett and Sanders were caught were so predictable,but,it picks up again.The chase scenes help the film,but,it doesn't tell you how both the thieves escaped and now work as servants for the queen ,until Milly catches them and it's Japan they go.This was suppose to be funny,but ,it was only funny for kids in 65 perspective.In spite of the imperfection and only 1 hour and 42 minutes ,with an intermission that show up abruptly, rather than smoothly,it's very entertaining.In the restoration of it part I learned that the original intermission card was eliminated and a new one was created cause the old one just did not mix with the movies theme,I think it was the same old card that was used in Circus world.It also looked like ,up to point, that Cecilia's voice might have been dubbed,may be cause of her thick accent.Now in the DVD and Blu -Ray combo it included Fortress of Peace which I already reviewed separately in another review.I'm going to review ,"Tale of old Whiff," now separately,which is part of the disc.I just did.In spite of it's shortcomings it was well worth seeing.If you get it you might want to invite your grandchildren or nieces or nephews or your own children to watch it with you.If you don't got any that's okay it's still good for an adult to watch.03/26/19