In 1960 hundreds of filmgoers attended a movie that stank. As Scent of Mystery flashed onto the screen, fragrances wafted through a tangle of tubes beneath the seats. "Best are the easily recognized ones: perfume, mint, wood shavings, roses," wrote an Associated Press film critic in the audience. "Some—pipe smoke, shoe polish, horses— are well nigh nauseating." It was a strange but stimulating time in the history of film. Mid-century movie studios were looking everywhere for something new. Decades had passed with little innovation: talkies had been an industry standard for more than 20 years, while color film was already five decades old. Even 3-D, or "stereoscopic," films seemed like old news by the late 1950s. Fleeting widescreen technologies, such as Cinerama, Cinemascope, and Vistavision, each tried to outdo the other.
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