If the movie stinks, well, that’s scent-ertainment

Bad films inspire olfactory terms. Exiting a bomb with their noses wrinkled, people will say, “Whew, that stunk!” or “Man, did that reek!” One-word reviews would include “rotten,” “offensive,” “garbage,” “putrid” and “P.U.”

Now, a telecommunications company is adding actual aromas to a movie. A revival of an old idea that failed the smell test 46 years ago, the latest version of scented cinema is being piped into Japanese theaters to accompany showings of “The New World.”

Audiences in Tokyo and Osaka whiff flowers while characters make love, and peppermint and rosemary during a sad scene. A mix of orange and grapefruit will convey joy, while a concoction with a hint of eucalyptus and tea tree accompanies anger.

Disney World also has entered the “smellertainment” arena with two films showing at its Magic Kingdom in Florida. Scents piped to the audience in “Mickey’s PhilharMagic” include apple pie, while the title character’s belch in “Stitch’s Great Escape” is accompanied by an odor meant to replicate partially digested chili dog.

“Research has shown that the human sense of smell can create stronger, more lasting impressions than sight, suggesting that the system has the potential to greatly heighten the intended effect of communication for diverse purposes,” according to a news release from Japan-based NTT Communications.

“The New World” is about 17th century America, however, and considering the way people smelled back then, it’s probably a blessing that NTT technicians stopped their scent transmission efforts at flowers and citrus.

On the larger point of whether fragrant flicks will take hold in the U.S., theater group manager Joe Masher quickly answered, “No.”

“It’s one of the ‘60s gimmicks, and you’ll get a crowd of people to experience it once,” said Masher, general manager of a business that owns Criterion Cinemas in New Haven, Conn.

The failed “gimmick” he referred to was Smell-O-Vision -- introduced in 1960 with the movie “Scent of Mystery.” The brainchild of Swiss “osmologist” Hans Laube, Smell-O-Vision employed vents under theater seats to transmit scents -- including flowers, brandy and pipe tobacco -- corresponding to different scenes and the film’s evolving plot. Martin J. Smith and Patrick J. Kiger described the device in their book “Oops: 20 Life Lessons From the Fiascoes That Shaped America.”

Opening in three specially equipped theaters in February 1960, the scented “Scent of Mystery” was a stinker. People in the balcony seats “complained that the aromas reached them a few seconds after the action on the screen and were accompanied by a distracting hissing sound,” Smith and Kiger wrote.

Smell-O-Vision evaporated, but the idea of adding fragrance to enhance drama dates back as far as ancient Greece. In more recent years, scratch-and-sniff cards accompanied both John Waters’ “Polyester” in 1981 and “Rugrats Go Wild!” in 2003.

Like Smell-O-Vision, NTT’s scent-transmission system also is hooked under theater seats.