User reviews

I saw this movie with the smells. Since the smells in many cases served as clues, it would be confusing without them. The machine that generated the smells was located in the lobby for examination by theater goers. The smells were introduced to the theater using a compressed air system and after a few examples, the audience recognized the noise (which was minimal) and commented to each other "Here comes another one" All in all not really a very good movie but a fun experience. I don't really see how this could ever have been anything more than an experiment.

Englishman Oliver Larker (Denholm Elliott) is on vacation in Spain. He doesn't speak the language. He hires taxi driver Smiley (Peter Lorre). He thinks that he has stumbled upon a murder attempt on an unknown blonde woman.

This movie apparently came with a few gimmicks. It had Smell-O-Vision system and shown in Cinerama. I just simply watched it on TCM. While it maintained the curved picture, the smells can't be transferred. It's still interesting to see Peter Lorre at the end of his career. It's also interesting to see old Spain. I love the locations and the real people. The best scene may be the running of the bulls and it's nothing more than a traffic jam to the story. It was probably interesting to have the smells. There is a lot of interesting stuff other than the main story. I would also prefer to have less narration. This is better as a travelog.

Scent of Mystery, which is also known as Holiday in Spain. Stars Denholm Elliott and the talented but mysterious Peter Lorre. at the beginning, the card tells us we're going to see the original Smilebox version. wikipedia dot org shows us that this is a curved version of letterbox filming, where the camera tries to show things from the viewers point of view, curving around the viewer. then we spend a lot of time, as the butterfly flies over Spain. Elliott is "Larker", the writer who has created mystery stories about his private eye. and Lorre is his taxi driver. i guess because he's a mystery writer, he thinks he is caught up in a local incident, and they drive all over Spain following Mrs. Jordan (Beverly Bentley, who was married to writer Norman Mailer). and of course, we end up in Pamplona, during the running of the bulls. at one point, Peter Lorre even jokes about being in Casablanca years ago, stealing someone's wife. it kinds of plods along, as the story and the taxi tires go flat. a couple plot twists and turns, as Larker tries to help save the attractive young lady. Directed by Jack Cardiff, who won for Black Narcissus. and one of only three films produced by Mike Todd junior. (his dad, Todd senior had invented several filming techniques, before passing away a couple years back. and was married to Liz Taylor.) this adventure is like a slow, low-budget north by northwest. The best part of this film is the scenery! beautiful mountains, castles, views of Spain.

Sent Of Mystery is not a bad film, though basically the answer to a trivia question it's still fun.

Over the years there had been various attempts at filling a movie theater with smells linked to the film being shown. Around 1915, a silent exhibitor distributed a tinted newsreel of the Rose Parade that came with Flit guns of rose sent so that the theater ushers could walk the isles pumping perfume while the film was being shown. In 1940, the Clark Gable & Spencer Tracy vehicle `Boom Town' subjected certain unfortunate audiences to the smell of crude oil pumped into the theater's ventilation system. This went over so poorly, that nobody tried anything like for years.

The `Smell-o-vision' used in Sent Of Mystery was an elaborate system that had vials of several scents within a rotating drum beside each theater seat. These drums were rotated on silent cues actually recorded onto the film's magnetic soundtrack. Each sent was puffed at the patron via compressed air, and in the system's real innovation, each sent was then nullified by another puff of fresh air when the scene was over. It was an elaborate gimmick that would have made Mike Todd Sr. or William Castle proud. In the film, it was used to great affect to identify the killer with a particular kind of pipe tobacco and at the climax the audience is were alerted to his presence before he is seen on screen! Unfortunately this crucial scene is meaningless without the scent and one is left to wonder how the hero is able to identify him, but at least the film does have a fun cameo by Liz Taylor at the end.

Scent Of Mystery later went into wider release under the more pedestrian title of `Holiday In Spain', and under that name it was eventually sold to TV. Around 1983 the film surfaced again when it aired in several US cities and on MTV as part of a cross-promotion with 7-11 convenience stores, which was when I saw it. The 7-11 stores sold a package containing coupons and a foldout card that came with a sheet of scratch-n-sniff decals. As broadcast, the film's `scent points' were marked with a flashing number at the bottom of the screen, which was the viewer's cue to peel & paste the corresponding decal onto their card, which was decorated with images from the film that could be followed like a board game. This included the peach blossoms, the cask of wine, the cooking onions, and the distinctive tobacco. Unfortunately, this broadcast gimmick blew the films surprise by making it more like the `Odorama' used in John Waters' `Polyester.'

Other than the aforementioned John Waters film, the only other use of scented cinema that I'm aware of in recent years is in an attraction at Disney's California Adventure theme park. Those experiencing the Omni-max film `Sorin' Over California' experience a pine scent as they `fly' over the Sierra forests and an orange scent as they `glide' over orchards of the Central Valley. It seems the `Smellies' are just one of those ideas that will never catch on.

Mostly when people discuss this film they get sidetracked by the Smell-O-Vision aspect. It was made at a time when there was a lot of experimentation with the technology of film making. In the decade previously they had tried 3-D and Cinerama, so adding aromas to film didn't seem that far out of bounds. The technology really wasn't ready as yet and the film, "Scent of Mystery", wasn't good enough to stand on its own. The story was silly and the dialog was stupid. The original film no longer exists as such. Another film called "Holiday in Spain" was cobbled together from pieces of various prints. Some say, therefore, you can't judge the original by the copy. However, the copy does have a strongly coherent narrative flow. It's the original that was stupid. The actors were competent professionals and there is the occasional clever line, but there is a certain amount of embarrassment in watching talent going to waste. There is an inside showbiz secret society feel to it. It's Elizabeth Taylor and her then husband Eddie Fisher working with Mike Todd, Jr. trying to salvage the botched job his father had done. By the way, what I said earlier about the addition of aromas to dramatic entertainment, watch what happens when V. R. adds story lines and acting. They are already adding tactility to V. R. Can odor be far behind?

There was a race to get smells into films at this time. It was won by the Walter Reade organisation in late 1959 with a documentary called "Behind The Great Wall", which added smells after the film was completed, in a process called aromarama. "scent of Mystery" was produced by Mike Todd Jr. in 70mm, with the smells to be used as clues to the mystery. It was a lighthearted romp, beautifully shot in Spain, with Elizabeth Taylor as a guest star. It has never been revived, or put out on video.

There are three different versions of "Scent of Mystery", though today you're likely only to find the version pieced together by Turner Classic Movies. First, there was the 1960 version....named, of course, "Scent of Mystery". It came with the sort of gimmick you'd expect in a William Castle movie...'Smellovision'. During key parts of the movie, scents were pumped towards the audience to duplicate what they're seeing on the screen. The idea was complicated and rarely worked well and ultimately most theaters refused to install the expensive system needed to distribute the scents. So, after the movie tanked, several years later they re-released it in Cinerama (a wrap-around film technique) and re-named it "Holiday in Spain". Unfortunately, that version apparently no longer exists...but TCM put the film back together and showed it on TV. To simulate the Cinerama experience (not well), they showed is with a concave picture. You really have to see it to understand what they've done...but it is unusual. I found this version on YouTube. I cannot comment on any other version, as I have only seen this TCM version. Oddly someone said there is another version (or perhaps they thought it was the TCM version) where someone panned and scanned the film using a cheap video camera. I've seen a couple of these travesties...this was not the case with the TCM/YouTube version.

Of the versions, making a Cinerama version made sense. After all, Cinerama films were BIG--huge films which often showed various exotic locales around the world. So, having a film in Spain which seems in some ways like a travelogue with some plot seemed reasonable. Installing expensive smelly equipment, in hindsight, made little sense and only works are places like DisneyWorld where they could make a film and show it for many years...such as "Philharmagic"...which provide you a variety of smells like "Scent of Mystery".

Denholm Elliott stars in this one along with Peter Lorre...both actors who were generally supporting actors. Elliott plays a writer with writer's block who has gone to Spain to clear his mind and, hopefully, excite his desire to continue writing. There, however, he thinks he's stumbled onto a plot to kill a woman and he and a cabbie (Lorre) follow her all over Spain. As I said, it's more like a travelogue than a traditional movie...with the emphasis more on locations and sites in Spain than the plot.

The problem I found with the film is that while it looks great and the actors try their best, the story itself seems more like an afterthought. Instead, the film (TCM and Cinerama versions) are more for the big screen spectacle as opposed to the story....which is just okay.

If they ever re-open the Cinerama theater in Seattle and show it, I'll be sure to see it and update my review. The claim is that the theater WILL one day reopen but I won't hold my breath as they just didn't make very many films in this format and even later versions of Cinerama (without the lines you can clearly see unless the film is shown perfectly) don't number all that many. Plus, while I'll plunk down $15-20 to see an old film, this isn't often the case with others.

The cinematography is great, as expected with Jack Cardiff directing. A lot of the shots are ingenious. The story, or lack of a story, is terrible. Denholm Elliot, usually an engaging actor, walks through the film in a sleepy state looking like he's waiting for direction. I can't blame him for that. Peter Lorre is his taxi driver, at least in closeups, and his wisecracking guide. The Cinerama filming is a real treat for me. I've seen several roadshow movies in Cinerama including Ice Station Zebra. Diana Dors has a way too short bikini cameo. The film should have been built around Dors in that bikini. Elizabeth Taylor, wife of the producer, pops up at the end.

Some movies created to be used with in-theater tricks such as 3-D or Sensurround or whatever are entertaining to watch even without the gimmick. This isn't. The young Denholm Elliott makes a most unengaging leading man/narrator, and though Peter Lorre as his dirty old man sidekick perks things up a bit it's basically a low octane assemblage of corny gags and sub-Hitchcockian intrigue. Still, it's the film that inspired John Waters' classic Odorama classic "Polyester," which is quite a claim to fame in itself.

This is very silly and should not under any circumstances be taken seriously. Any attempt to not follow that advice will lead into the inevitable result of you not liking the movie at all. Actually of you dreading the movie. And it's comedy might be considered poor taste, it's acting poor too.

But it is silly and simple for a reason and it stays true to that formula til the end (even if it has hits and misses throughout). The main character with his conviction of knowing more than he actually does helps the movie a lot. Also Mr. Lorre in a role that we are not used seeing him, is great too. All in all, a crime comedy, that might not be something to really recommend ... But still funny to watch

THE SCENT OF MYSTERY was brought in 1960 by Mike Todd. It was a 70 mm Technicolor thriller made in the new process of "Smell-O-Vision". The scents used - which ranged from ozone, pipe tobacco, garlic and oil, to paint, pine, wood shavings and boot polish - were piped to each individual cinema seat on cue from the "smell-track" of the film.

However, the first film officially made as "smelly" was a wide-screen travelogue about India called BEHIND THE GREAT WALL (1929). It premiered at the DeMille Theater in New York and was accompanied by 72 smells that included incense, smoke, burning pitch, oranges, spices and a barnyard of geese. The scents were circulated thought the ventilating system.

I love the IMDb. Where else can you get people commenting on a film they clearly haven't seen in the way it was first exhibited. Only one commenter claims to have seen it. The others saw a seventy-minute butchered version taped with a video camera aimed at a seventy-millimeter movie screen which is the ONLY time it ever aired on TV (in other words, it was never "sold" to TV). Scent of Mystery was a true oddity, but one I adored. The camera-work and sound recording were unbelievably brilliant, and the film was a lark. The smells were dispensed to each seat via a tube and by the time of the LA run they'd figured out how to "clean" the air between smells and it worked very well. As to Holiday in Spain, here we have people making comments when they clearly know not of what they speak. When Scent flopped big-time, it was sold to the Cinerama corporation. The film was converted into three-panel Cinerama, cut by twenty-five minutes (making its plot completely incoherent - of course, this is the version people are commenting on - well, not exactly - their commenting on the shortened version which was further shortened for its one-time TV showing), narration by Elliot was added (terrible), and the intermission point, which in the original was sublime, was moved up by twenty minutes and made no sense at all. Given that all but one of the commentators here have only seen the dreck that they showed on TV (completely faded print and missing sixty percent of its image), well, I find it a bit galling. The Todd AO image was and is stunning, the director of the film was the great cameraman, Jack Cardiff. And the sound - amazing eight track Todd-Belock sound system which, to my mind, has never been bettered. Not by Dolby, not by DTS, not by anything. And, just in case you think my memory may be faulty, I have just this day watched a seventy-millimeter print of the film, the shortened (but not as short as TV) Holiday in Spain - and that sound blew me away.

So, at this time, Scent Of Mystery is a lost film. It's never even been printed down to 35mm. It is uncertain whether any 70mm elements survive for the uncut Scent - there are 70mm elements (and even YCMs) for Holiday in Spain. If the uncut neg can be found, I am here to tell you there are plans afoot for a DVD.

In Spain, touring birdwatcher Denholm Elliot and local cab driver Peter Lorre investigate a murder plot focused on beautiful Beverly Bentley. Jack Cardiff directs like he's shooting one of the beautiful travelogues he had done twenty years earlier.

I have been tempted by the Belock/Everest Records/Todd AO link up in terms of LPs, Around the World in Eighty Days, and highlights from Mike Todd's Broadway shows and the Night in Venice, where I think one part of it was filmed in Todd AO. You can hear the front 5 channel sound compressed into remarkable standard 2 channel stereo on the 80 Days LP.

I know the 6 channel Todd AO sound was Westrex and entirely independent of Belock recording but the later development of 8 channels held the possibility of rear stereo effects, the 6 channel format having mono rear sound, but in this case of smello vision one of these channels was also used to steer the scent effects.

I have spotted a Scent of Mystery soundtrack LP from Everest Records and wonder whether it is worth getting in terms of quality of the music on this film.

This may have been a cinematic dead end. But the real bad thing that happened was the tragedy of Mike Todd's premature death in that plane accident.

This is a most interesting discussion and I thank the others for their helpful comments, especially the guy who speaks from first hand experience and who commented on the great sound...that's why I am curious about whether it supplied rear stereo and what the prospects of the LP. I imagine this all predates any form of dolby encoding so the notion of being able to extract a pro logic surround sound from a two track stereo source did not exist.

One of the reviewer's complains that people are reviewing a movie that they have not seen the full version of and I just have seen what claims to be a fully restored version on TCM. It runs Close to two hours. I often enjoy movies that are quite terrible but somehow are unintentionally funny Or in someway watchable. But for myself only, I just found this really silly and boring. The one interesting thing about it is well photographed scenery and architecture. I gave it a four for that. But it unfortunately is not a travel log. We have "travel talks" for that. And yes, Peter Lorre is cute and fun as the taxi driver.

I was at the premiere in Hollywood (1960) - A first-date thing ......

Didn't know what to expect .. but the pipe tobacco and peach smells (among SEVERAL more) were astounding! Each time you smelled the perfume... you KNEW something bad was going to happen! .....

I don't know how they did it, maybe a hose or fan mounted on the seat in front of you, but when the scene changed, the smell did too !! NEET!

If I remember correctly, the program LISTED all the smells you would encounter during the film as well.

Needless to say, the food smells probably helped the concession stand because the lines were a mile long !!

My date was NOT impressed... (should have made her buy popcorn!)

Too bad, This film followed the 3-D craze and is now gone.

I love the 1932 Renault Mona Quattro used in the film.

OK, I am basing this review on my recollection of this film, which I saw at the Warner Theater in Manhattan along with other members of my Brooklyn Cub Scout group back in 1960, at the age of nine. I recall the Scent -A- Vision aspect very well. The odors matched the action on the screen quite closely, and we kids enjoyed it, especially the scene where a guy is crushed to death by a rolling wine barrel, which breaks apart on impact. I recall little of the plot, but that was clearly not the point of the film, which in addition to the aromas was in color with nice cinematography. My rating is predicated on the presence of the Scent-A-Vision while watching the film.

Dispensing with this Cinerama movie's gimmick of Smell-o-Vision, which no longer is part of the experience of watching it on video rather than in an especially-equipped cinema, "Holiday in Spain" plays like a pastoral travelogue. Though an American venture, it is cast & crew a British mystery of escapism, permitting us to enjoy top production values in gazing at Spanish landscapes and local color.

Oddly enough, it reminded me of two rather contrasting genres: first off, Russ Meyer's classic short movie "The Immoral Mr. Teas", which set off the Softcore Porn genre with its voyeurism as we watched for glimpses of nudity. Adding to the nudie-cutie format is the star's frequent voice-over asides, meant to be humorous and all falling flat. Similarly, there are the romantic movies of a traveler or emigre to France or Italy or Spain, Provence the ideal target, similarly picturesque and escapist, with or without the presence of a Diane Lane.

In this case, Denholm Elliott as the mystery writer who gets mixed up in a murder mystery while on vacation -a treat to see the wonderful character actor and his smooth delivery in a leading role. The beautiful American girl he's pursuing is not Diane but a really obscure stage actress Beverly Bentley, whose screen career went nowhere: she married Norman Mailer not long after this role.

Director Jack Cardiff is a renowned cameraman, and visually the movie is enticing if languid. All that makes for a gripping entertainment is missing, no pace, no drama, no suspense, some stupid "action" scenes or chases, and despite its original title of "Scent of Mystery", no real mystery. The big-budget would have been better spent making the first Bond movie in Cinerama.