The 50 Worst Inventions

Forget 3-D — what audiences really want is to smell a movie. So went the thinking of Mike Todd Jr., who in 1960 funded the ill-fated Smell-o-Vision gimmick, an elaborate system that allowed a film reel to trigger the release of bottled scents that were piped to the audience in sync with pivotal moments in the movie. The only film to make use of Smell-o-Vision was 1960's Scent of Mystery, written specifically with the gimmick in mind. The results, predictably, stunk, and Smell-o-Vision was never used again.