Liz Taylor Appeared In A Smelly Movie
She only has a wordless cameo, but it was enough to justify my headline. Producer Mike Todd Jr. and his financial partner and stepmother, Miss Taylor, licensed this flop to Cinemiracle, which distributed and exhibited ultrawide films in a process similar to Cinerama. This outfit released “Scent of Mystery’’ in a deodorized version titled “Holiday in Spain,’’ which converted the film’s original 70mm negative into three separate 35mm prints that were projected side by side in theaters operated by both Cinemiracle and Cinerama. A heavily edited version of the film had limited TV exposure in the 1980s under its original title, “Scent of Mystery,’’ with convenience stores distributing scratch-and-sniff cards similar to those used for the 1981 John Waters film “Polyester.’’ All that survives of either version (they ended up being owned by Cinerama) are a severely damaged and faded print, and a negative, which have been miraculously restored in vivid color and high definition for arguably the year’s most surprising video debut — a limited edition is just out on Blu-ray via the new Redwind label (sold exclusively through screenarchives.com).
