From George Feltenstein: “The film went into production in mid-1953 when the ‘widescreen boom’ was already infecting Hollywood.

“THE ROBE” (the first film released in CinemaScope) had not yet been released when M-G-M decided as a safety bet, to start shooting all its films for projection at 1.75:1 aspect ratio. This would give a ‘wide screen effect’ without them having to spend the money on CinemaScope or another process owned elsewhere. When the 1953-1954 M-G-M release schedule was issued to theaters, it indicated most films as OK to project up to 1.75:1 aspect ratio.

More importantly, the attached ads from the NY Times at the time of the film’s opening clearly indicate that the film was shown in WIDE SCREEN.

On our documentary, the film clips come from an older non-widescreen transfer, where extra room is visible at the top and bottom of the image. This is the way many people have become familiar with seeing the film on TV.

However at time-code 11:10-11:12 in the new documentary on the DVD, the marquee of the Loew’s State in NYC premiering the film clearly indicates WIDE SCREEN as a selling tool.

All production records indicate that was the chosen aspect ratio. If you take a film from earlier in 1953, the titles will be cropped and cut off if the screen area is increased to 16×9. (1.77 aspect ratio). However, for TORCH SONG, they look appropriate.

This is an issue that perplexes many historians when it comes to non Scope movies from mid-1953 to late ’54. M-G-M’s files clearly indicate what the studio’s position was going forward (until the choice to license CinemaScope became broad).

We researched this very carefully before proceeding with our new transfer of which we are most proud.”

Thanks for clearing that up, George! If you’re still interested, you can find more about non-anamorphic widescreen releases of 1953-4 (who knew they began with “Shane,” originally shown at 1.66:1?) at the fascinating website Widescreen Museum which has details about every widescreen process going back to the ’20s, not to mention how they translate to TV.

“Torch Song,” by the way, wasn’t the only title in the Crawford set to play the Metropolitan, Loews’ Brooklyn flagship. The photo below, taken circa 1941 to record the demolition of the old Fulton Street elevated subway, shows George Cukor’s “A Woman’s Face” on the Metropolitan marquee at left. Coincidentally, a men’s clothing store named Crawford’s is at right.