Tri-Opticon

Three dimensional films are an optical disillusion. In their present form, the Tri-Opticon Pictures premiered in New England last week are more suited to a science classroom that a Boston theatre. Two of the five shorts are cartoons-abstractions of lines and triangles which seem to drift from the screen to an audience squinting through special gray-tinted glasses. The effect is startling and impressive for a few minutes, then with a succession of dull and technically imperfect pictures, the wondering eye becomes increasingly strained. In a film of the Black Swan ballet, where leg movements are only a jumbled blur, the infancy of the Tri-Optic method is most evident.

The content of the films is not worth the resulting headache. Besides the effective cartoons, there is an explanation of the "Tri-Optic technique and a tedious British travelogue. After a long and enjoyable intermission, the showing resumes with the flickering Sadler Wells ballet. Often in these latter pictures, a dimension is misplaced and the scenes appear flat and ordinary. More research and better material are necessary to change Tri-Optic films from an experiment to entertainment.

Even a third dimension would not give depth to The Pathfinder, the conventionally-filmed cofeature. At one point, 'cooncapped George Montgomery embraces Helena Garter and then reflects, "I shouldn't have done it." He could say the same of the entire picture.