MATTE & EFFECTS FILMS CELEBRATED: Part Nine

 

It's been a while, and a few loyal and long time dedicated Matte Shot readers of foreign locales have been gently 'prompting' me to "pull finger", and get some damned mattes and models onto the cyber-waves.  It's summer here, and household jobs, bits of carpentry and sundry unsavoury repairs - too numerous to mention - have held my attention of late, but they are pretty much done, so here we are.

Oh, and it's probably worth noting, that it's the fifteenth anniversary of NZ Pete's Matte Shot, and a hell of a lot of movie magic has passed under the bridge in that time.  I frequently wonder whether to keep it going after all those years, with those who appreciate and even understand this 'old stuff' dwindling in their numbers.  Though, when some fascinating shots show up, or are brought to my attention, I feel I simply must share them with the (very) small brigade of like minded traditional effects fans.

I have always tried to make these epic posts as informative and detailed as possible - perhaps too much so...you tell me?  These 'articles' won't suit the flaky Tik-Tok and Facebook generations, who want to see a picture of a poodle or some inane 'see what I'm eating for lunch' rubbish.  Give me a break!

So, with that said...as usual, I've put together a truly massive collection of traditional era magical trick shots - both painted and miniature - with a confident feel that many will be barely known to Matte Shot fans and quite a number completely fresh.  There are some great flicks here, with a wide spectrum of visual tricks.  I've got a very entertaining classic Ealing wartime picture that's chock-filled with cool model work; some more lost Matthew Yuricich matte art;  a popular Technicolor MGM bio-pic and a fantastic historic epic from that same studio;  not one, but a pair of Japanese films from vastly different eras that couldn't be more dis-similar if you tried.  From the beautifully poetic on one hand, to the completely insane fx fest on the other.  Also some more very rare old Columbia mattes from Larry Butler and, surprisingly, Russell Lawson, and also a heap of newly discovered old Warner Bros. Stage 5 fx out takes and miniature tests.  Incredible stuff I assure you.  So what else... well another entry into the 'NZ Pete Official Hall of Matte Fame';  also an ingenious sample of trickery from a brilliant Spencer Tracy historic epic;  some totally invisible Mike Pangrazio work done for a low budget video store rental from the 80's.  But wait..... there's more.... literally so much more!

Before our journey into this fascinating realm, I need to pay attention to the passing of a great.....

Enjoy

Pete

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A TRIBUTE TO THE LATE GENE HACKMAN

Regular readers of my blog will know I frequently 'digress' from matters 'matte', and discuss other cinematic areas - all of which I'm fascinated by.  There are no areas of film making which are off-limits to me, and it's always been that way since a young age.

The recent and quite shocking passing of Gene Hackman had an impact on me - as did his entire career.  I'm an enormous fan of what we may call 'character actors' - those familiar faces who crop up in countless pictures and tv shows, often where we know the face but just can't place the name.  You all know the sort of 'faces' I'm talking about.  Well, for me, Gene Hackman was the consumate 'character actor's character actor'.  He may well have been what he himself never really liked as a label, 'a leading man', or a 'star', but Gene was the finest character actor of his generation.

Gene Hackman's finest work, according to NZ Pete:  THE CONVERSATION;  CRIMSON TIDE;  SUPERMAN 1 & 2; THE FRENCH CONNECTION; SCARECROW;  THE UNFORGIVEN and NIGHT MOVES (in no particular order)

The Hackman screen 'persona' was impossible to simply nail down, such was Gene's ability and instinctive talent to slip into a vast array of characters across a myriad of different pictures seeminly with the greatest of ease.  So much fine work, and none of it easy to pigeon-hole.  Just take a great little film like Michael Ritchie's arguably one-of-a-kind Mid West Mob revenge flick PRIME CUT (1972) made right after THE POSEIDEN ADVENTURE and you'd never see two completely opposite career choices by a leading man in all your life!  A devout man of the cloth, to a sadistic sex-trafficking butcher!  The films illustrated above mark my personal favourites among Gene's vast output - and they're all as different as one could ever imagine.  Francis Coppola's 1974 masterpiece THE CONVERSATION (from top left) - one of the absolute finest thrillers of the seventies - a decade that in itself that turned out so much incredibly good film that no other decade could hold a candle to, let alone see a studio exec giving the green light to in this era.        

CRIMSON TIDE (1995) - Tony Scott's edge-of-the-seat submarine thriller (and I love sub flicks).  SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN 2 - both pure magical enjoyment, with a perfectly cast Gene as Lex Luthor demonstrating comic timing and megalomania in equal measure.  Whoever came up with that casting suggestion deserves a 'casting Oscar' folks, so great was Hackman.

SCARECROW from 1973 (bottom left) - a wonderful pairing of Pacino and Hackman as a couple of down on their luck grifters on the road, in a flick most people probably never even heard of.  As I said, the seventies were prime time for great movies and great performances, with Pacino at his best with things like this, SERPICO and DOG DAY AFTERNOON, long before he did utter crap like the dire SCENT OF A WOMAN, though I digress(!)   NIGHT MOVES, made in 1975 by Arthur Penn was another excellent piece.  A complex and deliberately convoluted private eye picture, with beautifully controlled work from Gene, Susan Clark and a very young Melanie Griffith.

Middle frame illustrated above is from William Friedkin's still brilliant THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) - a film I saw on first release and about 25 times since. For my money, this sequence illustrated here sums up the whole movie perfectly.  I mean the car chase was sensational and all of that, but this particular sequence where Gene and Roy chill out at a nightclub after a heavy day busting druggies is a masterwork of screen direction, editing, sound mix and of course acting by the two principals.  

Popeye and Sonny enter the club where The Three Degrees are up on stage.  Popeye moves about the club meeting, grinning and greeting, and flirting with the gals.  All sound mix is 100% loud (and terrific 'Everybody Goes To The Moon') by The Three Degrees, with all other ambient audio 'mixed out'.  Through carefully timed shots and edits, Popeye casts a casual eye around the club and sees an oddly mismatched table of faces.  Friedkin's audio track subtly fades out the Three Degrees song and gradually fades in a single, isolated chord from Don Ellis' score, as Popeye's expression slowly changes from one of vague curiosity, interest and then grave suspicion.  The actor's face in this sequence is a class in acting in itself.  Not a word is spoken.  The lengthy sequence concludes with Hackman's unforgettable line to Scheider:  "That table there is definitely wrong!"  Quite possibly Gene's best isolated scene ever, and also director William Friedkin's finest individual 'piece' as a stand alone scene. The later John Frankenheimer sequel is also excellent BTW.

I must of course mention his Oscar winning role in Eastwood's THE UNFORGIVEN, which I re-watched again just last night.  Simply outstanding work by Gene here, and again, a single, deliberately paced and quite lengthy set piece where the man simply blew the screen apart by doing very little - or so it might seem.  The brilliant 'Duck of Death' sequence with Gene facing off against Richard Harris and Saul Rubinek in the jail house.  This solitary sequence sums up the entire movie.  Hackman was never more terrifying, in his own particular sinister way, than in this sequence.  Challenging - in a frighteningly friendly way - the utterly terrified Rubinek - an excellent character actor in his own right - to "go on...pull the trigger" and the subsequent suggestion to Harris' English Bob to "go on Bob....shoot me". Again, Gene never raises his voice here, nor performs violence - at least not in this particular scene - but is as calmly menacing a figure here you could ever confront.  Kudos to Clint for handling this bit so damned skillfully, whereas it could easily have been a half-arsed, cliched mess.

Rest in Peace Gene

  

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NZ PETE'S HALL OF FAME MATTE SHOT: Part Four

This issue's selection for a hall of fame matte is this famous masterpiece by Albert Whitlock for the 1974 smash hit EARTHQUAKE.  Probably one of the most recognisable matte paintings around as it was quite widely publicised at the time in numerous industry journals and things, and at a time where matte trickery was till pretty much kept under wraps, though Al was more than happy to open his bag of tricks and talk about it all.

I was lucky enough to actually see this glass painting, as well as some others from THE STING, during a tour of the Universal lot back in May of 1979.  We went around in those little train things and stopped at a SFX stage where various tricks were demonstrated, including the mattes and accompanying 35mm before and after projections, much to the ooohs and ahhhs of the tourists.

The composite image as seen in a seriously mis-timed BluRay mastering! Quite why so many BD discs are authored with a bias toward magenta hues (MARY POPPINS was notably mis-coloured too).  See below for the old DVD release, which, while it have odd artifacts, the colour was 'true'.

The DVD edition of EARTHQUAKE had a most peculiar artifact.  The extreme right side of the frame extends somewhat beyond the normal 'printing edge' of the 35mm frame.  It looks like overscan of some sort, though I well recall sending this to the late Bill Taylor and quizzing him about it.  He was horrified and, although it was shot just before his time, he couldn't explain it.  Bill said that there was no way Albert would have let the shot go with such a gaping error, where the DX elements of fire appear to crop off suddenly within the available painting.  The BluRay is cropped in closer and omits this error.

Some close up detail as photographed by effects artist Richard Kilroy at a Universal display.

Excellent detail demonstrating Whitlock's incredibly loose and free impressionist style, which while rough in close appearance, sells as completely believable once filmed and projected.  This snapshot by Richard Kilroy is most revealing as we can see Whitlock's roughed in pencil lines extending up and sketching in the missing portion of the central building as a guide to perspective etc.  Just look at the strictly impressionistic handling of Albert's brush - all dots and dashes, with flicks of pigment just where needed to convey what, when properly viewed, the accurate sense of light and phenomena.

More detail.  I well recall seeing EARTHQUAKE on it's opening day in 1974 here at our once majestic Cinerama theatre in Auckland.  The sold out full house loved the experience in 70mm, 6-track stereo and above all else, the incredible, bone shaking Sensurround.  As the posters said...'An Event'.

Oscar winner for Best Special Visual Effects, Sound and the Sensurround process.  I'd like to have seen effects cameraman Clifford Stine included in the VFX Oscar too, but they only ever allowed up to three names in those days.

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THE BURMESE HARP (1956):  A beautifully made, lyrical anti-war classic

THE BURMESE HARP - BIRUMA NO TATEGOTO (1956) directed by Kon Ichikawa.  I must thank frequent Matte Shot follower Steve, for bringing this marvellous film to my attention.

The film is a remarkably well acted and directed story centering around the surrender of Japanese troops stationed in Burma in 1945 at war's end, and the psychological effects the event has on one particular soldier.  Although not in any way an effects film, the picture has several very well rendered matte painted shots by an uncredited artist.

Very dark, I know, but excessive adjustment tended to ruin the original shot.  Distant mountains and sky added in here.

A later wider establishing shot with most of setting painted in.

My New York matte pal Steve reckons these distant temples were matted in, and I tend to agree.  Possibly an in camera glass painted shot.

Not 100% certain, but likely a matte, and if so, an excellent painting and blended in with perfection.

A pivotal part of the story involves a still heavily armed hold-out platoon in caves atop this steep mountain.  Matte painted shot, again very nicely combined.

An exquisite matte painted shot, with our central character who has eschewed all contact with his comrades and The Land of the Rising Sun, and has now become a devout Monk whose mission in life is to recover and bury as many dead Japanese soldiers as he can.

Although I can't be sure if this is a matte or a bloody impressive production shot, I'm swayed toward matte artistry largely due to the magnificent sense of composition of mountain, clouds and distant Buddhist Temples.  If it was a 'real shot', I'd say cinematographer Minoru Yokoyama really got lucky and hit pay dirt that day.  

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STEAL THE SKY:  A flashback to the days of $3 VHS rentals

STEAL THE SKY (1988) was but one of a slew of xerox copy low budget air combat actioners which always seemed to fill the shelves of VHS rental stores back in the day.  As the slick states:  "Seduction is the greatest weapon of all".  Oh Jesus.... maybe we in the free democratic world should ship boatloads of 'seduction' now to poor Ukraine, now that a certain mercurial and mentally unbalanced thug in the Oval Orifice (no, not a typo) has decided to embrace Russia with open arms.

The company Matte Effects had the contract for the vfx work, with former ILM'ers, Craig Barron and Michael Pangrazio on camera and painting duties respectively.  Above is Mike at work on a large backlit glass for the film HOCUS POCUS.

I never saw the flick but I think it was set in Iraq during the war (probably the one started by Bush, with all those WMD's that never actually existed, but I digress...)  An apparently genuine location, but in fact much trickery was afoot, as shown below...

Scene on film compared with Pangrazio's artwork.

Mike's intricate matte painting, interestingly rendered with a very bold Whitlock-esque slice right up and across the sky.  An approach that not too many matte artists would be game to attempt.

Very detailed close up reveals the immense talents that Pangrazio had during the traditional era.  He did a couple of low budget shows and then found work at ILM around 1980.  Mike and Craig left ILM probably in the late 80's and formed Matte World up in San Francisco, possibly with fellow matte artist Christopher Evans.  Mike retired from film work at one point and concentrated on illustrative work, though was eventually induced to come down here to New Zealand by Peter Jackson to work at WETA FX on shows like KING KONG and I think AVATAR.

Before and after Iraqi airbase.

Before and after Iraqi railway station.  See below for hi-rez breakdowns.

At left is a seemingly real train station, though a significant amount of it was pure paint.

Mike's jaw dropper of a matte painting, which takes this blogger's breath away.

Close detail of astounding quality.  This matte was auctioned a while back.

Note the baggage and small details.

You want detail... NZ Pete gives you detail.

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TROPIC HOLIDAY (1938):  Ahhh, Dorothy Lamour ... plus a matte painting!

All the old time studios had their 'slinky queen of the silver screen', and Paramount had the utterly magnificent Dorothy Lamour.  TROPIC HOLIDAY (1938) was one of many exotic smooch-fests that the ever lovely Ms. Lamour starred in, most usually togged out in a figure hugging sarong, and often alongside Ray Milland (lucky Ray) or Hope & Crosby.

Whenever a Dorothy Lamour flick has a place on my blog, I feel contractually obliged to pay hommage to Ms.Lamour.  You can keep all your Kardashians, Beyonce's, Swift's and sundry artificial botoxed, surgically enhanced, pierced, trimmed, bleached and tattooed fake 'bimbos'........ Yukk!  

Anyway, back to matte matters at hand....  TROPIC HOLIDAY had a really nice matte by old time veteran Jan Domela and his cameraman Irmin Roberts.  Here is the original live action plate, as filmed at the Paramount Ranch on their Hacienda set which was used in scores of films and many matte shots over the years as I've just learnt from Don, a dedicated Paramount back lot historian.

The Hacienda set on the Paramount Ranch as masked off by Irmin Roberts.  This same set was used in the sci-fi movie DR CYCLOPS, with mountains and valley painted in by Domela. 

Jan's matte painting.  Dutch born, Domela trained in the Academies in Paris and Amsterdam and came to the United States in 1915.  Jan learned the art of matte painting under old timer Hans Ledeboer - a fellow Dutchman, employed at Paramount.  Jan worked in mattes until the mid 1960's and painted on hundreds of pictures, with THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD being among his last in 1965.

Finished composite with the bullfight arena and village.

A blow up of Jan's matte art.

We couldn't possibly end a Dorothy Lamour piece without a farewell totally befitting the princess of the sarong.  As Steppenwolf sang in the title of Easy Rider.....  "She get's my motor running..."

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THE GREAT CARUSO (1951) - Opera, opera and more opera...plus some mattes.

I'm not an opera nor a Mario Lanza fan by any stretch, so it was a tough watch.  Had some nice mattes though.

A pretty lavish, big budget affair, as most of MGM's shows tended to be.

Quite a number of vast, expansive opera house interiors were manufactured in the MGM Newcombe studio, and to excellent effect, as one had come to expect.  Slot gags among the painted audience introduced a sense of 'movement'.

Frame #1  Toggle through these and appreciate the 'movement', introduced through scratch away slot gags and some form of interference device.  Almost all painted here.

Frame #2

Frame #3

Multi-part composite, with a painted theatre, matted in live action stage area and additional foreground close people blue screen matted in by optical man Irving G. Ries.

An original GREAT CARUSO matte painting from the collection of Matthew Yuricich's family.  Matt didn't paint it as he was still at 20th Century Fox then and it would be several more years until he shifted over to MGM.  This was one of many paintings that Yuricich rescued while the demolition crews were tearing down the old Newcombe building and backlot sets.  Hundreds of mattes were 'stolen' or plain lifted by outsiders employed on demo crews and trash removalists.

A typically grand Milan opera house matte created by artists under Warren Newcombe.

A wonderfully ethereal painting for a cathedral interior. Note the 'real' people matted into a tiny little slot at lower left.

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MORE VINTAGE COLUMBIA MATTES FROM THE BUTLER/GLOUNER DEPT.

Continuing on from several previous blog posts, I have more, largely untitled, mattes from numerous old Columbia pictures, made under Larry Butler's supervision. 

The final shot.  All I know is what's penned on the slate, which is 1946 and a production number.

Now this one of the Catholic College is from the Glenn Ford picture GALLANT JOURNEY (1946).  I have several other mattes on the same reel with the identical '1103' number, and director William Wellman and cameraman Burnett Guffey.  Practically all painted from the top edge of the camera slate and all the way horizontal across the screen.  Artist unknown, but maybe Juan Larrinaga?

Good find again.  This too I know.  The film was VOICE OF THE WHISTLER (1945).

VOICE OF THE WHISTLER was one in a series of really quite good enjoyable little Columbia thrillers starring Richard Dix, mostly running about an hour each, and often quite exciting and surprising as the star sometimes plays the good guy and sometimes the villain(!!).

Unknown title, with a splendid painted in sky.

Now folks, this one is fascinating.  It's a Russell Lawson matte shot for a Columbia film!  Lawson was a career Universal matte artist, though I know that Russ had worked for a bit at Columbia - with Jack Cosgrove - in the very early 1930's, so this one is a real mystery.  The slate board is the exact same one Russ would use at Universal for years, so I wonder whether the assignment was contracted to Universal for a single shot??  Anyway, the matte art is extensive, extending from just above the heads of the actors.

The final shot.  The director was King Vidor, but the title is a mystery.  Any ideas?

Another mystery scene, this being from a James Cruze picture, maybe from the thirties?  Again the slate shows Russ Lawson and veteran Jack Cosgrove did the matte work.  Interesting.

Initial exposure test where the live plate exposure is mismatched.

Perfect line up and exposure match for final shot.

I've no clue as to this one either.  Very gothic, almost with a Bram Stoker flavour to it. The upper tree branches and leaves were doubled in as a separate element as some movement is seen.  I don't recall Columbia doing that.  MGM and Universal did often.   Any help would be much appreciated.

No clue as to the title nor the studio.  This full matte painting (with smoke doubled in) looks very 1930's?  Even the horse and trap were painted as best I could see from the motion picture footage.

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MATTHEW YURICICH:  More long lost paintings.

The interior of the defective nuclear reactor from the still chilling Jane Fonda-Jack Lemmon picture THE CHINA SYNDROME (1978).

A closer look.  Matthew himself wasn't happy with this painting - partly because he had no idea what the inside of a reactor actually looked like (a big state secret at the time apparently), and also, he acknowledged the upper left cylinder thing wasn't up to his usual standard, with his perspective a bit off.

Part of the final push in shot.  Matthew said he wanted to keep some of the other CHINA SYNDROME mattes, but the director, James Bridges, kept them all for himself!

There were a number of invisible matte shots in this movie showing the nuclear reactor exterior from various vantage points.  Matthew said that he had serious 'issues' with matte cameraman Jim Liles on this (and other) projects leading to a less than happy association and much tension between cinematographer and artist.  Cinematographers....ya can't live with 'em...ya' can't live without 'em.

Another of Matthew's Oscar winning mattes for LOGAN'S RUN (1976).  Most all of them were painted enhancements over the top of large, mounted colour photographic prints from large format negatives. As is clearly evident here, the original chemistry within the colour darkroom print developing proved somewhat problematic for Matthew's oil paint, with the red 'chemistry' constantly bleeding through.  This all drove Matt crazy, particularly when effects chief L.B Abbott would waltz on into the painting room, take a glance at the creeping 'pink' and remark:  "Jesus Christ Matt, I thought you could paint!".  The whole plan to paint directly over colour prints was all Abbott's to begin with!

Matthew's painting seen closer, with the tiny little slot for Michael York and the lovely Jenny Agutter to be matted into.  I loved this flick when it first came out.  It too was something of a big event.

The shot as seen on the big screen.  I spoke earlier of my great admiration for character actors.  LOGAN'S RUN had the always reliable Richard Jordan as Michael York's Sandman pal.  Richard was a stalwart support actor of some great 70's flicks like THE YAKUZA and THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE - both powerhouse movies, and both with the great Robert Mitchum... though as usual, I digress.  

A curious one here.  A beautifully crafted matte from an unknown film.  I've no idea what this could be from.  I was thinking of some historic epic like the Fox film THE VIRGIN QUEEN with Bette Davis, but couldn't pin it down for sure.  Exquisite drapery work on the hundred or so flags.

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THE JOLSON STORY (1946):  A colourful period bio-pic enhanced with much matte work.

Jolson was famous for doing 'blackface' in vaudeville and beyond, which is replicated by actor Larry Parks in this flick and it's sequel.  I wonder whether the forces that be have ordered the negative and all prints incinerated??

THE JOLSON STORY (1946) was a popular recreation of the life of famed American entertainer Al Jolson and his rise to fame.  Lots of matte shots - with one truly amazing bit - all under the supervision of Lawrence W. Butler, who on this occasion was credited as 'Montage Director'.  I have a number of sensational before and after frames here from the old Butler/Glouner showreels.

The picture starts with this tail-end of the 19th Century shot of the US capitol.

A great matte shot that would be recycled in several other films later on.

The standard back lot street prior to trick work...

Matte slate, with demarkation of painting and set evident. 

Final shot, albeit from a b&w show reel.

Matte shot of Washington DC shunting yard.  See below...

Original live action plate, presumably made in LA.

Effects cameraman slate

Soft blend matte line masked off.

An early rough test take, with unfinished artwork, exposure and blend.

Final approved take, though it will be 'printed down' somewhat for a day for night effect.  Note the extent of the newly created Washington DC.

A plate for an unused second shunting yard view.  This is the original LA photography. 

Masked off plate.

FX slate with painting lined up.

Final scene with excellent matte art and blending, though, it wasn't used in the final cut.

In this preliminary unbalanced test we can appreciate the expert use of a soft blend as it literally wipes across the middle of the shot, not at all conforming to any 'hard edges' at all.  The sign of a truly skilled matte artist and cameraman to so precisely match the perspective lines and vanishing point etc.  Albert Whitlock was a genius at this sort of approach... the 'if in doubt, black it out', and he could so easily just paint it all back in if necessary.

I'm a great fan of old school painted theatre facades and glowing neons.  This is one of many rendered for THE JOLSON STORY.

Neons flicker on and off.

A nice bit here with a sweeping camera move, suggesting it may have been a large miniature set fully illuminated.

I've always felt these theatre marquee's were an art form all of their own.  MGM's Newcombe department were the undisputed masters at this sort of thing, and I'm happy to say I own one of those wonderful Newcombe mattes.

Movie magic here... Just the front half of the stalls (bottom level) consist of real folk, with several rear rows all painted in, as well as the entire Grand Circle ('upstairs', to those who only ever know a damn multiplex, or worse still, bloody Netflix, for Christs sake!), including the audience and theatre architecture.  Great shot.

A couple of possible matte extensions here maybe, with set top ups?

Camera slate for the best shot in the film - the amazing night turning into day matte transformation.

Looking at the show reel, it appears two near identical paintings may have been rendered - the first a night view, and the second a complimentary daytime view of the exact same vantage point.  I came to this conclusion as two separate paintings with their own FX slates were on the show reel.

Frame #1  Toggle through this set to appreciate better.  The sequence is astonishingly well done.  The night portion is complete with city lights and various flickering neons and signage.

Frame #2  The night view subtly dissolves into a morning one.  I don't know how they did the interactive lights in windows and street signage?  Possibly backlit gags right behind the glass painting.

Frame #3  As day breaks, the city lights gradually go out.

Frame #4  As exquisite as a matte shot could hope to be, and for 1946 it's a winner!

Frame #5

Frame #6  Sensational work.

Frame #7

A painted daylight version from the old Butler/Glouner show reel.

Daylight painting with effects camera slate.

Live action on stage, augmented by painted theatre surrounds, and I strongly suspect, a painted audience too.

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THE BELLS GO DOWN (1943):  An Ealing Studios wartime era comedy-drama.

A curious and not entirely successful mix of danger, intense drama and lightweight comedy, THE BELLS GO DOWN was nevertheless an interesting and very entertaining British film, despite it's oddball casting choices.  Tons of special effects and miniatures, generally of a high standard, especially considering it was produced during the harsh and restrictive years of World War II.

Ealing may have been a relatively small scale operation when compared to the mighty J.Arthur Rank, Denham and Shepperton Studios, but Ealing held their ground with a catalogue of highly memorable comedy classics, many of which have withstood the test of time, gracefully.  The technical staff at Ealing were first rate, with a very able effects department controlled by Roy Kellino and his very able assistant, Cliff Richardson. Later on matte and special processes artist Geoffrey Dickinson proved invaluable, as did practical effects man Syd Pearson.

At left is chief of Ealing's special effects department, Roy Kellino.  At right is miniatures and physical effects maestro, Cliff Richardson, seen here in his back garden 'secret laboratory' with his wife and young son, John.  John would be enchanted by his father's work and would later join him as assistant before becoming a fully fledged mechanical effects expert in his own right on films as varied as STRAW DOGS, SUPERMAN, THE OMEN and several James Bond pictures to name just a few.

Photographs taken on the Ealing effects stage of some of the quite complex miniature set ups for THE BELLS GO DOWN.  *photos courtesy of John Richardson and his marvellous memoir Making Movie Magic - an essential read for those like myself who thrive on practical effects.

Miniature wartime London in close up detail.  I'd love to see a behind the scenes pic showing a crew member as well, so that we might see the scale.

Cliff Richardson was a key asset at Ealing Studios from as far back as 1932, and specialised at first with various mechanical effects gags before venturing into miniatures and a particular area of interest, pyrotechnics.

The film has a ton of excellent miniature sequences, and all are extremely well shot, with surprisingly good focal depth for the time.  I'd guess the models must have been quite significant in scale, as the fire fx are well worked, as are the water fx.

Roy Kellino was long time head of effects at Ealing, and I believe he was a cameraman.  Both Roy and Cliff were tasked with building up the Ealing miniatures department in the early 1940's, largely due to the war, difficulties with actual locations and everything being in very short supply.  The Ealing effects unit produced many bold, large scale model shots for many films during those years, with big patriotic shows like SHIPS WITH WINGS and the hilarious war satire THE GOOSE STEPS OUT both having a massive effects component on tight budgets.  I did an FX retrospective on the film THE GOOSE STEPS OUT back in 2019, and that can be found right here.

As mentioned, the model photography was exceptionally good, as was the lighting of said miniature set ups.

The action set pieces were all well orchestrated, with good process work and excellent editing.

Care was taken to 'manipulate' the tiny puppet figures and various pieces of machinery.

That's future star James Mason there.  Funny story (or not?) ... Effects man Roy Kellino introduced his lovely wife Pamela to Mason, with the result being she ran off with James and left Roy in the dust!  Moral of the story... never introduce your good lady wife to a godamned movie star... especially one with the silky vocal tones as the legendary Mr James Mason.  Lesson learnt!

The fireman's water hose was intriguing.  Water is tough to scale well so I'm thinking maybe they might have used salt or some such, pressurised from a nozzle?

I can't recall whether this was an entirely miniature set up or a split screen shot with live extras?  I'd have to check the scene again.  Pretty sure it was a split screen optical matte by Geoffrey Dickinson.

Fine camera work and mobile ladder gags.

Process shot with extensive miniature street conflagration projected behind actors with hoses in foreground.

Cliff Richardson remained at Ealing for over 17 years and eventually went over to Shepperton's London Films under the stewardship of veteran trick shot specialist, Ned Mann.

Richardson would become one of the industry's most respected special effects men.

All model work.  I don't know what method they used to 'drive' the fire engines etc.  Old Warner and MGM pictures always had a sort of razor incision along the miniature 'road' (often rubber in construction), in which a hidden mechanism projecting beneath the car or truck could be 'driven' by devices of one sort or another under the set.  No evidence here of that, so maybe some remote control gag?

Well lit and composed model work.

The great fire of London...1943

Several other good olde school British actors are in THE BELLS GO DOWN... Finlay Currie, Mervyn Johns and future DR WHO, William Hartnell.  John Laurie from tv's DAD'S ARMY was probably in there too, as he was in almost everything in those days.

The great James Mason - an actor so many a fine film, with some faves of mine being JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH, LOLITA as well as THE VERDICT and in particular the excellent John LeCarre spy thriller THE DEADLY AFFAIR, with both of these being outstanding Sidney Lumet pictures.

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WARNER BROS. STAGE 5 SFX REEL:  Some amazing finds from an amazing unit

One of the great trick shot units in all of Hollywood were Warner Bros. famed Stage 5 effects department.  Never moreso than during the 1930's and 1940's where a director's imagination and art director's desires were taken on and delivered, with often mind boggling results.  I've covered so many legendary Warner trick shots in many blogs, with eye poppingly impressive films such as THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN; THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT;  YANKEE DOODLE DANDY;  MISSION TO MOSCOW; RHAPSODY IN BLUE; SVENGALI and many more.

An early bi-pack travelling matte set up for an unknown Warners film, probably in the 1940's.  I'm fairly sure the middle man is legendary effects cinematographer Hans Koenekamp, while the guy at right may be effects boss Byron Haskin(??)  I do wonder whether this could be a set up for the Errol Flynn historic piece THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON made in 1941, which had a massive number of matte shots and, as this photo might suggest, a number of incredibly well composited 'cloud elements' matted into moving and tracking (yes, incredible, but true!!) action shots of Custer's last stand for dramatic and artistic effect.

A rare sequence of frames from the unforgettable climax of Alfred Hitchcock's classic STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951).  The miniature merry-go-round is in place in front of a process screen, upon which a live action crowd will be projected.  Hans Koenekamp supervised and shot the sequence.  The notation 'key' on the slate signifies a process plate, which this will ultimately serve as.

The second slate and device identifies the intended scale that the later foreground extras will be in the final triple sandwich shot. 

The miniature rotates at speed (photographed by Koenekamp with a high speed camera).  The process plate 'focus leader' can be seen prior to 'action'. 

Miniature spinning very fast, pre-rigged to destruction, while the live action background process plate of screaming extras is introduced.

Oh...the humanity!

Merry-go-round mayhem, but still to be completed for final sequence...

The final scene was one of utmost horror.  Triple element fx shot:  Foreground actors in front of a large process screen where miniature Merry-go-round is out of control.  The miniature was photographed in front of it's own process screen with more people projected at the back, thus creating a final composite.

A brilliantly conceived bit of old school trickery.

Go on, try toggling through the set of frames.  Come on... you only live once, and you'll kick yourself later when on your death bed when you suddenly realise:  "Oh shit... I just remember, I never toggled through that fucking amazing STRANGERS ON A TRAIN trick shot!"

Nice matte from the excellent noir thriller FLAMINGO ROAD (1949), with Zachary Scott and the great Sydney Greenstreet.

Some great footage here for miniature freaks like me.  An unidentified Warners film, from the early 1940's based upon the name 'Roy Davidson' on the slate.  Roy was head of Stage 5 from the mid forties (he did incredible miniature work in the silent film THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD which I covered in my last blog).  Hans Koenekamp is identified here as fx cameraman.  Toggle these too!  

Let me know if anyone can i.d this.

An interesting effects shot from Warner's CONFLICT (1945).  I think the whole scene comprises a miniature set up, likely with painted cliffs and valley nicely merged in on the effects stage.  I think the car is a model as the standard 'slit in the road' gag is visible.

New York city painted into a shot for the film NORA PRENTISS (1947)

Now folks, I found this incredibly interesting.  A miniature 'key' shot - that is, a shot intended to be used solely as a back projected plate elsewhere.  The film was THE SISTERS (1938) starring Bette Davis.  The sequence involved the San Francisco earthquake, and the excellent miniature work was photographed by long time Warners SFX cameraman Edwin DuPar who did much outstanding work for the studio over a long career.  Toggle through these...if you dare.

The very large miniature must have been mounted on a rumble platform of some sort, as the building shakes from side to side very realistically.

Now, as the walls fall away we will see people inside, panicked and falling all over the place...

See the people in panic.  Now it took me several viewings to figure this one out, but I came to the conclusion that it was in fact a cleverly devised perspective shot.  The large miniature was pretty much a facade, while the people (real) were positioned some ways behind the miniature on a rostrum, also shaking, whereby Edwin DuPar has perfectly lined up the two pieces of action and shot it entirely in camera with the people visible through the hollowed out model set.  Quite bloody brilliant.

An incredible piece of movie magic that was ultimately wasted, sadly, as this wonderfully inventive footage was used as a process plate as seen at some distance through the window of Bette Davis' apartment as she falls about in the quake.  I saw the finished sequence on a rat-shit awful YouTube copy, and unless you'd seen this blog report, you'd be hard pressed to even spot the clever work!

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FIRST FAMILY (1980):  Bob Newhart meets Rocco Gioffre.

I'm a huge fan of the late, great Bob Newhart.  I used to love his tv series and have some great comedy albums Bob did in the 1960's.  A very funny guy, with the driest of delivery and observation. FIRST FAMILY (1980) sees Bob as President of the U.S of A...which is a far better option than that of the dangerously unbalanced lunatic they currently have in the White House(!!)

Dream Quest Images was a bona fide boutique trick shot house from the late 1970's through the 80's.  The tight crew of artists, cameramen and animators were responsible for so many, often uncredited mattes and model shots and assorted visuals.  The late effects journal Cinefex did a fantastic article on Dream Quest around 1983 or so, which remains my all time favourite article out of all the issues I own. So re-readable and utterly fascinating.  Shown here is one of the key founding members of DQ, matte artist Rocco Gioffre, as he sets a matte for an early scene in FIRST FAMILY depicting the lost island with strange things to offer.

Before and after, presumably done latent image, as Rocco was a strong advocate of original negative matte photography.

Frame #1  Toggle through to appreciate Rocco's drifting clouds, which appear to have been done using a method close to Whitlock's, where soft splits have been introduced in bands to create 'depth' to the cloud base.

Frame #2

Frame #3

Miniature with fire optical added.

The smoldering volcano, and home to another late, great character actor, Julius Harris (LIVE AND LET DIE;  SUPERFLY;  THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123; HELL UP IN HARLEM and tons more, though I digress, but don't care who objects!)

The island soil has a peculiar attribute to grow enormous crops.  This is one of the shots made in the Introvision process. 

Introvision was a reflex front projection system, though with a variation upon the standard front process methods whereby the projected image was able to be 'split' during projection allowing actors to appear to interact within a process projected setting as opposed to the traditional 'in front of' a process projected setting.

Another Introvision process shot.  Here the actors appear to interact well within the 'depth' of an otherwise 2-Dimensional process plate taken of a miniature set..

The Introvision crew, with possibly John Eppolito shown kneeling.

The process came to prominence with the Sean Connery sci-fi thriller OUTLAND (1981), and later on in films like THE FUGITIVE and numerous tv commercials.

The camera lined up at 45 degree angle to the Introvision process projector and accompanying beam splitter/mirror.  It was popular for a time as directors could immediately see the given result through the camera's viewfinder as opposed to waiting days or weeks to see an optical comp.

Giant vegetables invade the US capitol.  Matte shots by Rocco Gioffre.  Incidentally, the film wasn't very good, and Bob was kind of a wasted potential here.  As an aside (I love asides...) Newhart's best film was CATCH 22 (1970) where he played 'Major Major'(!!).  Funniest bit, and one that nobody ever noticed was Bob - in an uninterrupted shot - walks around his office while talking to Norman Fell.  A keen eye might spot the portrait on Newhart's officer's wall each time he passes by is completely different.  First it's Roosevelt, then a minute later it's Churchill and shortly after that as he walks by, it's bloody Stalin!!!  The gag works a treat as both Newhart and the brilliant Fell remain completely straight faced.  Hilarious sequence that director Mike Nichols dreamt up on the spot while they were shooting, though, yes... I digress.

Magically matted mushroom mayhem!  Film at eleven!

I heard that Trump plans to deport all watermelons as part of his psychotic 'Tarot Card' rule!  Don't laugh... anything could happen!

Rare original matte art of the melons.  Rocco must have been quite busy as this matte was rendered by his old mentor Matthew Yuricich, and it's still in Matt's family estate.

Detail of the Yuricich melons, and juicy they sure are.

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HOUSE (1977): An indescribably insane fx filled Japanese teen ghost flick.

We had a solemn, beautifully poetic Japanese war picture at the top of this blog post.  This entry, HOUSE couldn't be more different if you tried!  An off-the-wall rollercoaster ride of wacky art direction, hallucinations, out-of-control visual effects, hungry flesh-eating pianos, ass-chewing flying severed heads, evil pussycats, a witch or two and some pretty girls.

I watch a lot of foreign language films (with Korean thrillers and crime flicks being my fave these days), and must say I've seen some pretty weird shit come out of Japan.  They did some great 60's and early 70's films and I own quite a number on DVD.  HOUSE - aka HAUSU - falls outside of any category known to mankind, which is all the more reason it should be reviewed and watched.

It's by no means a cheap affair, what with the beautiful art direction and enormous visual effects load, which remain constant throughout the 99 minutes of sheer, unbridled insanity. Here we have the first of many lovely matte shots.

Even a straight forward pan or tilt such as this involves a complicated matte painted sky added in optically.

The amount of painted matte extension in shots such as this is mind boggling.  The sky, all of the blossums and foliage and the wall all matted in.

Continuing on, all the flora has been matted in here too.

Split screen running across the frame just atop the car, with all above it painted in.

Teens in Tokyo... almost entirely painted.  I've not been able to discover who the matte artists were, and there must have been several as the flick has so many painted shots.  When I was in Japan, I went to the Gibli Museum and saw tons of incredible background paintings rendered for the many Gibli animated features.  The work was utterly superb (I bought a few picture books there all on their background art) and I wonder whether some of those artists worked in live action such as this one?

Even unsuspecting shots like this were largely augmented with matte art.

HOUSE is loaded with unusual, beautifully composed shots such as this, where monochrome was the director's choice for emotional impact.  Note, the sky may well have been painted in?

Rotoscoped rose red...

For reasons known only to the director, some scenes were deliberately 'out of frame' (left) while some others had simulated 'water damage' (right) which must have confused projectionists in the day.

No... sadly it wasn't a 'Pink' film. (!!!)

Everything above the bus roof has been added by an anonymous matte painter.

This looks like a full painted backing behind the gals.

The girls set out on a train journey, which, unsurprisingly begins wholly as a cartoon animation and then shifts into a number of different animated landscapes passing by.

Foliage in front of matte art with push in through the bamboo.

Continuation of same shot...

...continuing on, with an optical transition from one matte painting to another.

...from one matte to another.

The chicks go it on foot.  Note, the entire right side of foliage has been painted in addition to all beyond the girls heads.

Oh, now listen girls... I really wouldn't go there!  Possibly a model here.  Love that painted sky though!!

One of literally scores of blue screen travelling matte composites used in HOUSE.

Matte art very nicely blended in with live action plate.  I do wonder whether some of the shots might have been made on the spot with in camera glass paintings?

Possibly a large cyclorama?

...Welcome to the Hotel Yokohama...you can check out any time you want but you can never leave...

Top marks to cinematographer Yoshitaka Sakamoto and highly creative production designer Kazuo Satsuya.

And now, things start to get pretty fucken' strange..

For reasons never properly elaborated upon, the severed head chases this teenie all around the yard and eventually munches down on her shapely arse (or 'ass' to you Americans!).  Blue screen matting used as never before folks!!!  I'll bet Linwood Dunn never thought they'd use printers for stuff like this?

A warm bath after the aforementioned 'arse biting' episode.  The flick might have made an interesting double bill with IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES - an absolute must see of Japanese art house cinema.

HOUSE has such a load of optical effects that I've only been able to illustrate a handful of sequences here (as this blog post is already a giant among blog posts).

I can't even begin to describe what the director and writers had in mind with the last 20 minutes of the flick.  It all seemed to be made up as the film ran through the projector(!), if that were possible.

Take the crazy piano sequence... firstly the instrument chews this chick's fingers off (nice effect), then the detached fingers continue to play a sonata.... and then it gets a bit weird(er)...

Rarely has a motion picture stretched the capabilities of the good ole' optical printer as much as HOUSE did.  Optical cinematographer Takeshi Miyanishi and his crew at Toei Studios must have worked the printers to death in doing so many optical composites, mattes, rotoscoping, animation and special printing requests.

...See what I mean.  That son-of-a-bitch of a Steinway devours our comely young character, boots and all!!  Remember folks...it aint' guns that kill people, it's fucken' piano's that kill people!  The sheer number of piano related deaths in Japan has reached epidemic proportions, and come second only to Covid.

Another of the group loses her legs (don't ask!) and goes all 'Sonny Chiba' on the other gals asses (don't ask!)  *Oh, and if you don't know who Sonny Chiba is, then shame on you.

After careful deliberation, I came to the conclusion that the director Nobuhiko Obayashi and the writers must surely have spent a wild weekend, locked in a mountain cabin, on an endless Asahi beer and magic mushroom bender till they came up with this flick, with some sort of hara-kiri pact in the event of failure!  

The film must have been a blast on the big screen in Japan for it's target audience in '77.

It's been a while since I watched my disc so I can't recall what eventuated...

Blue screen comp.

Probable miniature with painted backing.  Actress blue screened in.

Nice lens flare added to the comp.

The House on Haunted Hill...Japan style.

Suddenly, the house goes all out Disney and transmogrofies into another entity(!!)

All based on a true story?  ... Perhaps not.

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A MAN CALLED PETER (1955):  ...no, it's not my life story

A fairly pleasant and interesting true life CinemaScope drama from Fox which had a handful of painted mattes, under the supervision of long time Fox effects specialist, Ray Kellogg

If I recall, the film started off in Scotland(?), with this upper frame being a full matte painting, with the lower being likely a large painted backing for the same setting.

Mostly matte painted here, running a split across the Scope screen at the halfway mark.

British actor of some pedigree, Richard Todd - so damned good in one of my all time classics THE DAMBUSTERS made the previous year - here plays a Scottish clergyman who would eventually rise to a high rank as chaplain in the United States Senate.  The shot here is entirely painted, with what I presume to be a stand in doubled in for Todd.

A beach location married up with matted in distant town and houses.

The Lincoln Memorial, which here I'm fairly confident was done as a matte painting.  Many artists worked at Fox over the decades, and in fact they had the biggest matte department for many years under Fred Sersen, surely due to the fact that they knocked out so many big, epic scale movies, most of which had vast matte and visual effects demands.

Fox used mattes frequently and in inventive ways.  This interior is just such a matte, with the entire upper level and ceiling all painted in, just above Richard Todd's head, with just a slot unpainted where the clergymen at the upper back will stand up.  I think the near group on the balcony at right may be painted, as they remain motionless(?)

Reverse angle whereby I suspect the set may have been slightly 'topped up', and the top right architecture added in as well.

Excuse the lousy cut & paste here, but this was a dramatic tilt down in a storm.  I suspect the church to be a painting, as well as the trees.

Among the artists in Ray Kellogg's department were Lee LeBlanc, Jim Fetherolf, Emil Kosa jnr, Matthew Yuricich and Menrad von Muldorfer.  Kellogg himself was a skilled matte artist, having started off under Fred Sersen back in the late 1930's on big shows like THE RAINS CAME and IN OLD CHICAGO.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the shot was a large photographic blow up, over painted, which Fox did quite a lot.

Matte shot with the house, presumably on the Fox lot, combined with ocean, beachfront, mountain and trees.  See below for strange comparison...

A different scene with the same matte shot, though this time the foreground tree is missing(??)

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NORTH WEST PASSAGE (1940):  A tremendously exciting telling of Colonial America.

This is such a good epic sized movie.  A massive project to undertake, and best of all, completely shot out on location, with many precarious and nail biting set pieces orchestrated by director King Vidor.

Set in 1759, one might expect a matte-fest to flesh out the period setting, but no, there were just three mattes (and a couple of process scenes) in the whole 125 minute epic.  To have made it on the back lot would have been a cheat, and thankfully, MGM gave Vidor the time and budget to shoot it 'for real' - with some sequences being legendary still to this day.

Oscar nominated for Best Colour Cinematography, 1940, cameramen William V. Skall and Sidney Wagner are shown here on location with the heavy Technicolor 3-strip cameras.

The Newcombe department furnished three mattes for NORTHWEST PASSAGE, with this being the first.  The period view is virtually all matte art, with just a small slot of live action where the horses and carriage travel on across.  The matte was then used as a process plate by Arnold Gillespie, and projected behind Spencer Tracy.  It's a shame they didn't use the matte as a stand alone 'cut' first, as the fine work loses much when re-photographed on a huge RP screen.

The second matte where much appears to have been painted in around the lake and immediate foreground action.  Nice sky.

Now, this one is very cool indeed, not to mention bold.  I really admire the intricate matte photography here, which sets the matte art well within the live action plate.  You can appreciate it by looking at the painting below.  Excellent blending of colour and soft matte line which runs through the bushes and tree trunks.  Really good work, with the Newcombe unit being absolute aces when it came to marrying together matte elements.  You'd barely ever spot a matte line in MGM's golden era work.

A low-rez b&w pic of the original Newcombe matte art.

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FINAL WORD:  

It is now quite apparent that the long honoured and accepted concept and international agreements on Rules Based World Order have been not only disregarded, but deliberately sabotaged and circumvented  by the autocratic dictator, the  self proclaimed King of the World and Emperor of all he surveys, President Donald Trump.

Among other things, Trump's recent and carefully rehearsed bully-boy treatment of Ukraine's democratically elected President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was disgraceful and has brought considerable shame to what was long ago regarded as the highest office in the land.  Trump and his pathetic little 'hand puppet' Vance are beyond contempt, and the entire world sees both for what they are:  low life gangsters with sheer devious, selfish, sinister intent.

The mere fact that Trump now regards Ukraine as nothing more than one of his dubious 'property deals', or 'a potential lucrative minerals deal', regardless of the years of havoc, murder and destruction that innocent country has faced at the hands of it's nuclear neighbour, with the mercurial and seriously unstable Trump now completely throwing Ukraine to the wolves as part of a Trump/Vance orchestrated Oval Orifice (not a typo) temper tantrum, staged purely for Trump's carefully chosen sycophantic (and frightened) followers.

For Trump to have 'switched sides' as he has is nothing less that treasonous at the very highest level.  It means nothing to this vile individual who has no ethics and no sense of honour whatsoever.  A repugnant human being on every level.  The fact that the United States voted along with fucking North Korea(!!), China and godammed Russia in the United Nations General Assembly last week, as a form of childish punishment toward the very honourable and courageous President Zelenskyy was an act the rest of the world will never forget, nor forgive.  I'd bet every living US President (and all the dead ones) would want to have Trump up on treason charges, wrapped in a straight-jacket, and banged away in a cuckoo's nest, out of sight and certainly out of mind.  As dozy as Biden was - no fault of his own - at least he was (is) a decent human being, humanitarian and diplomat.

This same sad, orange hued creature, who, amid all his many and unending demented mutterings, just this year alone, has proclaimed plans to invade Greenland, Panama, Canada and unforgivably the absolute worst of all, The Gaza Strip.  The mere suggestion of engineering some sort of pogrom of the entire population of some 2 or 3 million Palestinian Arabs OUT of their homeland to in turn create some magical coastal club-med Zionist utopia, and resettling the true people of Palestine wherever the USA never has to so much as even think about them is of a level of fascist evil, it's hard to believe a so-called President would dare to utter such muck and not be called to account for his actions or at least warned off by his frightened little minions.  

The world has never been in a more unhinged, nor perilous state...hanging on a knife edge, and all on the whims of an extremely dangerous, vengeful, lying, cheating, self absorbed, power hungry, narcissist in the Oval Orifice.

Peter