Documentary

This Is Cinerama (1952): Cast & Plot

Name: This Is Cinerama
Genre: Documentary
Released: 1952-09-30
Duration: 1 h 55 min
Cast: Lowell Thomas

This Is Cinerama is a 1952 documentary directed by Merian C. Cooper and Gunther von Fritsch, starring Lowell Thomas as Host / Narrator. It runs 1 hour 55 minutes.

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Watch the videos Read the plot summary

Released: September 30, 1952
Runtime: 1h 55m (115 min)
Directors: Merian C. Cooper and Gunther von Fritsch
Genre: Documentary
Original language: English
Studio: Cinerama Productions
After the credits: No No extra scene

The story

What Is This Is Cinerama About?

The premise of This Is Cinerama without spoilers. The whole story is in the plot summary further down.

It immerses viewers in a groundbreaking widescreen spectacle designed to introduce the new Cinerama process. The sequence moves from the thrilling roller‑coaster at Rockaway’s Playland to the temple dance from Aida, then across Niagara Falls, a Viennese choir, Venice’s canals, a military tattoo in Edinburgh, a bullfight, and more. It concludes with a low‑altitude view from the nose of a B‑25 bomber as “America the Beautiful” swells.

This Is Cinerama Themes & Keywords

· 16 tags

national film registry
widescreen
cinematography
film and video technology
roller coaster
blockbuster
niagara falls
special venue
demonstration movie
cinerama as subject
water skiing
opera

+4 more

venice italy
first of its kind
travel
bullfighting

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Cast & crew

This Is Cinerama Cast & Characters

Lowell Thomas plays Host / Narrator in This Is Cinerama. Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Gunther von Fritsch.

Co-director Merian C. Cooper
Co-director Gunther von Fritsch

Lowell Thomas as Host / Narrator

From the directors

More from Merian C. Cooper and Gunther von Fritsch

More films directed by Merian C. Cooper and Gunther von Fritsch, best-rated first: King Kong, Stolen Identity, Give Us the Earth! and Traffic with the Devil.

Plot

This Is Cinerama Plot Summary

What happens in This Is Cinerama from start to finish, spoilers included, with a timeline of 14 key events. The opening is below; the full summary is a 2-minute read.

Spoilers ahead

The film opens in black and white, framed in the standard Academy ratio and presented with mono sound, as travel writer and newscaster Lowell Thomas guides viewers through the arc of film entertainment. He outlines a journey from the earliest cave paintings that hint at movement to the advent of color and sound, sketching how cinema has evolved into a immersive, wide-screen experience. After a concise, 12-minute lecture, the host declares the famous line, and the screen expands into the full Cinerama format, bursting into color and inviting us into a sequence of vivid vignettes that are clearly designed to showcase technology as well as spectacle.