Gordon Cheatham (cheathamg) 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?

elvis-30 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.

brucebox 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.

againsam 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.