MATTE & EFFECTS FILMS CELEBRATED: Part Twelve

 

Greetings fellow enthusiasts and fans of the wonderful world of traditional era matte painting and associated special effects trickery.  It has indeed been a while (quite a while in fact) since I embarked on yet another one of these gargantuan 'tomes' celebrating traditional era movie magic, and of course acknowledging those often unknown practitioners and artisans that were responsible for such dazzling scenes.

Why is this blog post so delayed, I hear you ask?  Well, let's just say that the occasionally unjustly maligned, 'free to all' New Zealand public health system was put to the test recently, without delay by yours truly, and thankfully, outcomes all worked out well in the end, by all accounts far better than they could have done.  Utmost professionalism of the highest standard all round and more care, expertise and dedication than one could ever wish for.

So anyway, here we are, back in the beloved Matte Shot sphere, and fully loaded with a veritable warehouse load of amazing matte shots - many never (and I mean, never) seen before, from a wider than wide variety of motion pictures, across the decades.  As is my mission, there are a few well known films, though even those will be illuminating with very rare shots and out-takes.  I've got a huge sci-fi classic - one of a long running franchise, though for me this part was by far the best.  There's a spectacular old Warner Bros historic western with a staggering number of mattes and some of the boldest and most complicated special photographic effects work for it's day that I've ever seen (and I've seen every-godammed-thing!)

We have a beautifully shot MGM silent epic, filled with glass shots; a collection of rare-as-hens-teeth original Pinewood painted mattes from a personal collection;  a big budget scope WWII-in-the-Pacific picture; and an assortment of British mattes from a handful of comedy quickies just to round things out.  Also, a very rare 'Blast from the Past' piece, and of course another of my 'Hall of Fame' matte shots.

Three good reasons why we quite like the artform of matte painting.

So, without further a-do, let us climb aboard the bus and begin our journey into the mystical wonderland of pre-CGI and AI true golden era special photographic effects. I positively guarantee there is something here to please everyone, and indeed things heretofore never seen.  Please give me your feedback, at least so as I can see someone (hell, anyone) out there is even interested in this Matte Shot endeavour.

Enjoy

A curiously gothic pastel MGM matte from the Newcombe department, circa 1931 - one of a large collection I hope to present in the near future.  **If anyone recognises this, let me know.

***This vast and utterly exhaustive post, and all 190 previous blog posts known as 'Matte Shot', were originally created by Peter Cook for nzpetesmatteshot, with all content, layout and text originally published at http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/ 

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

Jim Danforth certainly ranks up among one of the greats of special visual effects, with skill and expertise right across the board in all facets of trick work.  From stop-motion animation and model work, to matte painting, and all of the intricate photographic methodology required to combine all of these elements, largely as a one man band, Jim (now long retired) was a master. The selected 'Hall of Fame' matte below is from the film NEVER ENDING STORY (1984), while these two stills show Jim at work on TWILIGHT ZONE-THE MOVIE and the western, SHADOW RIDERS.

I told Jim that I feels this was his best ever matte, and he was grateful for my sentiment.  Jim told me that this NEVER ENDING STORY matte was actually one of the very few he was proud of in his long career.  Last I heard, it was in storage at the wonderful film artifacts museum in Berlin, Germany.  I visited in 2008 but was disappointed to find that this - and several vintage Whitlock mattes - weren't on display, and were relegated to deep storage in a basement!  Talk about a bloody letdown!

The final RP composite.  The film had a large number of mattes, split between ILM and Danforth.  I felt that the ILM ones didn't hold a candle to Jim's five or so shots, which were breathtaking.  Jim said he almost always uses rear projected plates when combining his mattes.  This was a VistaVision live action plate, shot in Spain by effects supervisor Brian Johnson, while the foreground stream was a different plate filmed by Jim himself in standard 4-perf 35mm and also projected in.  Such a wonderful composition and palpable sense of backlight (an effect I particularly love in matte and even non-matte art).

When I asked him about the quite remarkable feeling of translucency, Jim told me he took some time to study the way in which light refrcats and reflects around and inside glass forms, then trying to reproduce the phenomena in paint.  Jim applied thick glazes to a couple of crystal-like forms, carefully allowing a degree of deliberate transparent distortion so that the rear projected plate of the boy on the horse would 'show through' as he rode by.  Brilliant.

More close up detail, just for you pathological nerd types who love this sort of stuff.  **You know who you are.

I conducted a very in depth career interview with Jim, back in 2012, concentrating on his, up until then, largely overlooked, yet quite substantial matte contributions.  Up until then all articles centered on Danforth's stop motion films.  Click here for that illuminating interview.... you'll kick yourself later if you don't!

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A BLAST FROM THE PAST:  A look inside the matte painting studio.

Now, here folks I've stumbled across an incredibly rare, insightful glimpse into the Paramount matte art studio, 1955, during production of Cecil B. DeMille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.  Pictured here is visual effects maestro John P. Fulton (standing) along with matte painter Jan Domela (extreme right) and, quite possibly, Albert Maxwell Simpson (middle).  Utterly fascinating as, reported in my previous blog post last October, I've never found a single picture of Simpson - an artist with a very long and busy career - and this may well be him.  IMDB list both him (and Domela) as matte artists on this big project, so it's more than likely him.  Domela and Simpson worked together a few times on different films.  I quizzed Domela's daughter about this photo and she told me she felt her father would have hated this 'set up' publicity shoot, as he very much preferred to paint alone, away from the 'buzz' and 'commotion'.  The two final matte shots are shown below.

Here is Jan's finished matte, as composited by Irmin Roberts with live action foreground.  Additional physical cloud elements and flaming animation has been added atop by optical cinematographer Paul Lerpae and crew.  What a wonderful shot.

Here's the other matte, most likely by Albert Maxwell Simpson, in a multi-part composite involving cloud-smoke elements and blue screened Yul Brynner on chariot.

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SHENANDOAH (1965) - Albert Whitlock's matte department tackles the Civil War

The great Jimmie Stewart - one of cinema's all time legends - headlined in Universal's Civil War drama SHENANDOAH (1965).  A crowd pleaser in its day, and with a good roster of character actors such as George Kennedy, Warren Oates, Doug McClure, Patrick Wayne, Tim McIntyre and a very young Katherine Ross. I do like old time character actors, and, hell, anything with Warren Oates in it will always draw my attention.

Albert Whitlock's frequent screen credit as 'Matte Supervisor', which at least was a step up from his odd Hitchcock credits as 'Pictorial Designs' earlier at Universal.

Director Andrew McLaglen, between takes with star James Stewart.  As mentioned in my THE WAY WEST blog piece, Andrew often worked with Al Whitlock on a number of different films and said that he placed great value in what Whitlock could bring to the screen, and with considerable economic sense.

SHENANDOAH has a number of fine matte shots - a factor I well recall when first seeing it on New Zealand tv in the early 70's. Illustrated above is the first Whitlock shot, as seen in these before and after frames.  Actually, I think this painting is from the closing scene.  The vista appears two or three times in the film, with differently painted skies.

A closer view of the location set up, as seen through Ross Hoffman's Mitchell matte camera, prior to the black matte being placed.  Note the barren landscape. Whitlock will alter this mundane view considerably with painted extensions, as shown below.

From the original Whitlock 35mm show reels, here is the 'uncorrected' composite in full frame 'Academy ratio', prior to the not always friendly theatrical crop-down to 1.85:1 ratio for cinema, and later DVD viewing.  Television presentations back in the day usually preserved the 1.33:1 full frame, and 16mm prints at the time were often struck retaining the full image (and often accidentally left in portions never intended to be shown).

The final, as exhibited in its cropped 1.85:1 format.  Whitlock's painted homestead and ranch as photographed and composited by Roswell Hoffman on original negative.  Note the rising smoke element - one of a large library of Universal bare 'smoke' 35mm elements that dated back to the John Fulton, David Horsley and Russell Lawson years and would be repeatedly used over and over on countless films.  Bill Taylor told me how he could recognise and identify individual 'smoke' elements from experience, with them being integrated in countless shows.

A subtle matte that many didn't spot.  The left frame has a stand-in for Jimmie Stewart while Whitlock's crew make final preparations.  The right frame is the finished scene.

Location plate with stand-in, prior to black matte being placed.  **I am most grateful to my friend, Thomas Higginson - foremost Whitlock archivist - for sharing these before and after frames, as well as a surviving Whitlock painting from the film. Tom was mortified that I wished to illustrate these raw frames due to the fading of the old 35mm footage.  I did my best to gently adjust the colours for informative purposes.  At least they aren't completely 'pink' as is so often the case.

The matte line runs just above Jimmie's head, with a flawless 'new landscape' replacing a dull and uncinematic location.

Before and after of the army camp and distant landscape.

A handful of real tents and extras will be expanded by the artist's brush (see below).

A great cost saver in expanding a director's vision.

Universal had this old paddle steamer prop boat on the backlot for decades, and it appeared in many old films, even for different studios.

A closer view allowing us to appreciate just how intricate Whitlock's extensions will ultimately be for a spectacular establishing shot (below).

Final Whitlock shot largely altering the original plate photography on the Universal lake.  Note Ross Hoffman's 'rising smoke' elements doubled in.  I suspect the fellow standing up on the platform is likely 'painted' as well.

The live action photography for what will be a fabulous statement of The Civil War and its consequences once Albert completes his matte.

What a sensational painting this is!  I've always loved this matte shot, and in particular Al's use of matte demarkation which doesn't at all pass where one might expect.  The wagon wheel is partly Albert and even the 'dead horse' is half painted!!  Genius!!  I think this was the only SHENANDOAH original matte still at Universal when Bill Taylor went through the storerooms and photographed them all for posterity.  **Thanks to Tom Higginson for sending me this and others. You're a bloody legend, mate!

How to create a slice of American history.  Whitlock shows us how...

You want detail??? .... NZ Pete's got detail.

Yep... the details keep coming.  Note the half horse and half wagon wheel.  Takes some skill to match-blend this sort of thing convincingly.  *Note:  Albert did a similarly invisible wagon wheel split-match matte in Disney's incredible DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE in the late 50's... (One of the finest vfx films ever made, and one that should have enjoyed a special effects Oscar, but didn't.....though don't get me started on friggen Oscar injustices).

Classic Whitlock cloud hues.  Albert only ever put seven or eight pigments on his pallet apparently, and worked up his renderings purely by instinct.  He once said he mixed his hues and manipulated his brushes much like a seasoned carpenter whose tools-in-hand were almost a part of his 'being', with everything instinctive from many years of experience.

Much destruction in detail.  Screw so-called 'digital matte painting' ... who really could appreciate 'digital CG' detailed close ups when compared with beautiful, hand rendered oil painting brush work such as this.  A lost artform we should all bow our heads for and mourn the passing of.  :(

Lots of 'dabs' and 'flicks' of paint sell a matte more than tight academic detail, as Albert found out once he started working alongside Peter Ellenshaw in England around 1952.  Another 'master' of the artform.

The final scene after all the shooting and mayhem.  Jim Danforth told me that when he worked with Whitlock at the time, Al was bothered by one of his SHENANDOAH mattes - even though the film had long been exhibited in cinemas - and pulled out whichever matte it was, and "corrected" whatever he felt he hadn't accomplished to his satisfaction in the first place.  Nice story, though Jim can't recall which painting it was so long ago.

I attempted a blow-up from one of Whitlock's original 35mm takes as an illustration of his mastery with painting skies.  I've forever been enchanted by Albert's cloud renderings in countless pictures, as far back as his 1940's work in Britain.

The full frame 'open matte' matte shot as it looks today on the old Universal showreels, albeit considerably faded (though Pete has seen farrrrrrr worse than this, believe me!)  Here, we can better appreciate the full extent of Whitlock's marvellous panorama, especially the superbly moody sky, much of which is not visible in the release prints.  As a most intriguing  illustration, I've loaded up both this final reel scene, with that - below - of the opening reel scene as comparisons.  Toggle between the two mattes (both separate paintings) and note the changes and differences in a number of features.  The trees on right change shape, as do those behind the house.  Subtle bits of window architecture change as well.  Worth noting too, that the amazing sky remains completely stationary, without any form of 'cloud drift'.  I assume Al had not yet employed his soon to be admired cloud animation technique utilising multiple soft-split screens and bands of horizontal hand cranked movement.  It's quite possible Whitlock introduced this around the same time on SHIP OF FOOLS, and to excellent effect.

This frame is from the beginning of the film.  Note the large tree at left foreground which isn't present in the upper matte, and a number of other changes.  I'd put it down to the long narrative time period between these two scenes, while the war was on etc, one could expect trees and so forth to have changed size - or be chopped down?  I'd never noticed until Thomas Higginson brought it to my attention.

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THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON (1941) - Custer's last stand & photographic fx galore.

The Warner Bros. classic, THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON (1941) was not only an epic western, loosely based on the famed Custer's last stand fiasco, but was also a mammoth special visual effects enterprise for the studio, as you shall see.  *Interesting to note above middle poster art has supporting actor Anthony Quinn - who played Custer's antagonist - billed first (and mis-spelled to boot) above megastar Errol Flynn!!!  Possibly a Mexican daybill poster, as Quinn was, after all, half Mexican... though I digress.

Flynn made his name with Warner Bros, and starred in so many memorable pictures. I still reckon Flynn's best one was OBJECTIVE BURMA (1945) - also directed by Raoul Walsh, who happened to helm this General Custer film - and so many other great tough guy Warners movies.

Raoul Walsh was a true original.  One of the great 'macho' film makers of the golden era.  So many gritty shows like THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, HIGH SIERRA, WHITE HEAT, OBJECTIVE BURMA, THE BIG TRAIL - all flicks I love - and even softer stuff like the silent THIEF OF BAGDAD.  He also directed another 'punch-in-the-guts' war picture, THE NAKED AND THE DEAD, which features later in this very same blog post.  I do try to cover all bases.

This film is absolutely packed with matte shots, as well as an incredible array of special photographic effects scenes, the likes of which left me with my jaw on the floor, as was their complexity.  This opener is a standard painted matte, enhanced with some actual tree elements bi-packed in to lend it some life.

Another angle of Westpoint.  Oddly, for a Warner's film, there wasn't any screen credit for 'special effects', whereas they always did through the 1940's.  Strange, as this was such a gargantuan effects assignment for the tried and true Stage 5 trick department.

A softer composite due to duping when cut into a dissolve, which always screws up resolution.

Warners had one of the biggest 'camera effects' departments in Hollywood, and were the envy of many practitioners.  Just look at the endless list of WB flicks with truly astounding trick work, all through the 1940's especially.  Things like YANKEE DOODLE DANDY,  RHAPSODY IN BLUE, THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT, PASSAGE TO MARSEILLES,  THE FOUNTAINHEAD,  THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN to name but a few absolute stand outs in movie magic.

Although uncredited, a glowing review in American Cinematographer was particularly complimentary toward Warner's chief of effects Byron Haskin for the film's great many special photographic effects, and to senior matte artist Paul Detlefsen for the multitude of painted mattes and other complex scenic additions, as you will see.

Classic golden era matte work - Washington DC.  The 1940's (and 30's) were probably my favourite era for the matte artform.  There was a palpable sense of romance to the technique then which gradually got lost as the decades progressed.

Frame #1:  Now, this is the first of many examples in which I invite the reader to 'toggle' through successive frames to appreciate the way in which the matte has been applied - and some examples are quite bloody mind blowing in sheer boldness! 

Frame #2:  Incredibly, a wholly matte painted sky has been applied to a surprisingly NON-LOCKED OFF shot of live action, with the production camera seemingly completely 'free'. While this may not impress the pimply faced 'Tik-Tok' generation of flaccid CG & AI jockey's, please remember, this bold composite work was done in 1941.  The 'registration' between the painting and the live action is quite 'loose', but it worked a treat.  The film was full of such shots, each more daring than the last.

More examples of painted sky replacements.  Note the top two scenes, where flags are partially translucent for a couple of frames as double exposed clouds bleed through.  The lower right frame has 'loose' camerawork, which one would expect to drive the matte artist crazy - but it worked.

Frame #1:  On a first viewing an audience probably never noticed these effects, but with as many times as I've seen THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON, I've been utterly baffled with trying to figure out the methods Haskin used to achieve soooo many shots like these. Were they a pre-production design, an on-the-set shooting-in-progress notion, or an entirely post production idea?  Mind boggling to say the least.  Toggle through these........ please.

Frame #2:  Again, an entirely painted in sky, and an apparent live action shoot not from any locked off camera!

Frame #3:  Some studios, such as 20th Century Fox around this era, would do clouds and skies as in camera glass shots, as developed by Charles Clarke in the Fred Sersen dept.  Clarke developed a method where a clear area in the lower cloud bank allowed some live action to be photographed at the same time. On certain films, Fox would install huge glass panels with painted skies etc - sometimes two or three at a time - through which traditional panning glass shots were made very successfully. I can't see that method being used on this film as, will be illustrated later, many of the shots were rapid action and extremely long ranged dolly, tilt or moving vehicle shots - impossible do do as a 'glass shot' per se.

Frame #4:  Some painted cloud is quickly visible through Flynn's upper body - but just a couple of frames.

Frame #5:  I assume the entire 'cloud' assignment was a deliberate choice to darken the mood of the piece.  I'd say the production shoot likely took place against flat, featureless skies on location, and no doubt Raoul Walsh made the decision at some point to completely overhaul the settings, and add forboding atmosphere.  And he certainly did, as it plays so damned well.

The lovely Olivia DeHavilland in a 'locked off' studio matte shot with Paul Detlefsen's night sky.

Two more examples of matted in skies.

One of several 'freestyle' pan shots, following the action.  The registration between the live and the additional elements isn't completely steady, but then, how could it be in 1941?

I cannot get my head around how Haskin's people managed to deliniate, plot and match-move the painted skies so damned successfully.  This film has forever been a 'head scratcher'.

Classic case here - a 'wild pan' following the horseman, matched up with a similar move across a painted sky!!!  None of the scores of shots were done on a printer as an optical pan & scan.... all the work was seemingly 'freestyle'.... somehow.

Frame #1:  Full frame of same sequence we can see quite loose brush marks in the upper right patch of cloud.

Frame #2:  Same sequence, with camera following action.

Part of same sequence:  a wild pan follows rider, with the sky added in.

A superb shot with a sky painted in later.  The spear and flag briefly have some sleight bleed through of Detlefsen's clouds, but again just for a frame or two.  I am perplexed however as to just how much - if any - post production rotoscoping work might have been neccessary for the two Indians and horses to isolate, or alternatively extremely careful soft blending of the matte art into the actual location sky immediately around the actors.

I'd say this shot comprised of a matte painted sky almost all the way down to just above the trees, with expert soft blending into the actual sky photographed on the day.  It's all so impressive.

A standard matte shot with everything beyond the wooden wall being painted in by one of Haskin's artists.  The Stage 5 fx department employed some 6 or 7 top matte artists around that time, with Detlefsen as head artist.  Others included Chesley Bonestell, Mario Larrinaga, Juan Larrinaga, Hans Batholowsky & Jack Shaw. 

Oddly, in his book, Byron Haskin never mentions this film among the great many he worked on as either an effects cameraman or as a fully fledged director (such as WAR OF THE WORLDS and the other huge effects show THE NAKED JUNGLE, etc).

I cannot recall any film ever with so many painted in sky shots.

All that vfx work added much to the feeling of doom, which I think was the purpose.

It's a tough technical one to figure out.

In his memoir Byron Haskin speaks of his Stage 5 FX stage:  "As head of department I expanded it  and hired five special effects directors, including Larry Butler, Jack Cosgrove and Roy Davidson.  I had eight first cameramen including Edwin DuPar, John Stumeier, Kenneth Peach, Warren Lynch, Robert Burks and Hans Koenekamp - who was the greatest individual trick-man in the business - and the old original, in my book.  I had eight of the top matte artists in the business, headed by Paul Detlefsen, the two Larrinaga brothers, Chesley Bonestell - the greatest space artist who ever lived - and a guy named Hans Bartholowsky, who could grab a brush and in ten minutes paint you a hillside full of weeds, which is an art, believe me."  Haskin also mentioned his team of matte artists in amusing recollections:  "That was one of the weirdest outfits in the department.  They all sat around and painted, discussing world affairs.  Eight matte artists giving their opinion of the way the world should be run.... it should have been preserved for posterity... Of all the naive, childish intellects I ever ran into!" In that interview, Haskin laughs a lot.    

All just above the roofline painted in.

Even at midnight, the full moon clouds were dramatic.

One of my fave shots in the film. They don't make mattes like this anymore. A sincere, almost poetic quality to the composition and rendering.

Some foreground set ups completed with much matted set extension beyond.

If they remade this today, they's surely upload all the CG mattes to 'The Cloud'.  Joke!

'Into the valley rode the six-hundred...'

Detlefsen and team must sure as hell become sick of painting clouds by the time this job was over!

According to Haskin, his effects department employed around 100 staff, rising up to 130 at it's peak, and they were never short of projects and inventive 'go the extra mile' attitude.  Haskin said that: "Jack Warner never really knew how many staff were on the FX payroll.  If he had, he'd have fired the lot of them".

Almost all of these BOOTS ON shots seem near first generation, suggesting a degree of technical expertise of the highest order - and moreso worth appreciating being executed at a time as far back as 1941, no less.

On the many viewings of this film I've had several opinions.  One was the possible use of red filtration with panchromatic film stock, increasing the contrast of actual skies, as I think was done later on classics like RED RIVER.  This scene almost suggests just that, with the very dark 'non cloud' portions.  ???

Matte shot, I'm sure.

Frame #1:  Now this sequence is rather interesting.  Toggle through these frames and observe.

Frame #2:  I'd say that this was accomplished by shooting the actors within the 'safe zone' of actual blank and featureless sky, and by introducing the painted sky just at the appropriate 'height' in the same frame, just atop the trumpeter's hat, and with a soft, careful blend.  

Frame #3:  Same scene.  Note the registration between the live and the painted.

Frame #4:  Even the trumpet is 'safely' within the live action plate.

Frame #5:  Same scene though I've skipped a few frames.  Here the soldier's hat and face partially are superimposed with the painted clouds, and all while the POV camera is moving with the guy.  Astoundingly brave tech work for it's day, and decades before FX guys were spoiled with motion control, or repeatable systems.

Frame #6:  As it pans with him, the cloud elements are visible through his face momentarily - but it's barely noticeable. Watch too how the 'sky' shifts in 'registration' a little, which is none surprising as it must have been a son-of-a-bitch to somehow line up these moving elements.

Frame #7:  I wonder whether Haskin's fx cameraman, Hans Koenekamp might have made high contrast dupes of the live action (filmed in daylight against a flat and blank sky) in order to facilitate later bi-pack combining of live and painted elements at the studio? 

Frame #8:  Just how they managed to match - as best as possible - the elements as one is baffling!

The Little Big Horn skies are progressively becoming darker and gloomier - an omen of things to come.  Incidentally, DeMille had John Fulton do a similar thing with the 1956 TEN COMMANDMENTS, with a gradually forboding sky in the latter reels of the film, though mostly done with practical smoke gags, matted in later.... though I digress.

The finale wouldn't be half as effective without this superb artistic choice.  Once again, admire how the doubled in sky shifts to match Errol Flynn as he charges off.  All quite remarkable, though I'm sure the CGI crowd will have become bored to death by now and found another blog, or some fucken Tik-Tok crap with a tap dancing poodle or a cat driving a jet fighter!!!!!!!!!

Frame #1:  Toggle this sequence to see what I'm attempting to explain/illustrate...

Frame #2:  This sequence was a show stopper for Pete, as far as 'balls-to-the-wall' sheer audacity.  The hundreds of cavalry charge, in a lengthy scene photographed from a speeding truck.  What struck me is that what almost any visual effects exponent would reject outright and consider an 'unusable shot', is in fact used to the full - and more than once and in different configurations - with an amazingly adept painted sky and cloud bank somehow (how???) match moved and matted in, with corresponding 'pan' applied to the painted sky!!!!!!!

Frame #3:  The cavalry are mostly within the 'safe zone' of the effects composite, with the painted sky sufficient in placement well above their bobbing heads.  The matted sky occasionally slips in it's registration (that is, line up with the live action), though that is likely more the fault of the live action photography as it's all taken from a speeding truck, on uneven ground, and with no such thing as a gyroscopic device to smooth camera judder, as that was decades away.  So godammed well done.

Frame #4:  keep toggling......

Frame #5:

Frame #6:

Frame #7:  I hope you are toggling these frames.  If not, why not?  :(

Frame #8:  I wonder if all of this complex photographic effects work was planned beforehand or deemed an essential artistic choice during the shoot?

Frame #9:

Frame #10:  Note the sky's progression as the camera dolly and pan continues.

Frame #11:  Note the jiggle between the two separately photographed elements, but even with this artifact, I'm still blown away.

Frame #1:  The opposition also take the charge and pile on in.  I can't help but feel these Indian sequences should have been flopped to be racing from the other direction toward the Custer mob.

Frame #2:

Frame #3:

Frame #4:

Frame #5:

Frame #6:

Warner's absolutely headed the pack when it came to highly complex and multi-faceted trick work.  Most studios kept to a fairly standardised visual effects regime, and aside from the occasional pan and tilt matte gimmicks, and combination shots few were as brave as the Stage 5 team at Warners.  Many of those classic 40's Warners shows still to this day leave me in awe of the ingenious design and application of their visuals, with so many I'm unable to 'reverse engineer' and figure out!

Multi-part matte shot, with extensive scenic vista and an entire Indian village, combined with what looks like two separate live action placements - the cavalry and the Indian warriors. 

Matte painting with 'two tribes going to war', as the song went.

All poised and ready to fight...

Skies actually aren't the easist thing to paint, with realistic clouds quite difficult to produce without looking like cotton balls.  Albert Whitlock of course was a master when in came to skies, and his HINDENBURG paintings being sublime.

Custer's sabre momentarily goes behind the painted clouds.

Three part matte comp, with foreground cavalry matted into scenic vista, and the Indian warriors also an additional element in the distance.

The camera pans across the stampede - and matted in cloudscape.  Live action all in the safe zone.

Apologies to those with very short attention spans.... I do extremely deep dives on these things and try to leave NO stone unturned. Ya' don't like it.....?  Then find a different FX blog... one that says it all in 180 characters, or less!

John Crouse was Byron Haskin's favourite matte cinematographer, and Hans Koenekamp was, according to Haskin, "the greatest special effects cameraman of them all".

Frame #1:  I purposely put these multiple frames as, aside from seeing the actual film or disc, it's the only way to convey the technique being discussed.

Frame #2

Frame #3:  Interestingly, future celebrated thriller director, Don Siegel directed several of these action sequences.  Don was a longtime 'Montage Director' at Warners, and that was when every film had to have a montage or two in the narrative.  Don worked closely with the Stage 5 special effects unit on all of his montages, as all required optical transitions and various tricks.

Frame #4:  Same sequence.  Notice how the camera followed the action, and the painted in sky was 'moved' in concert.....somehow?

The flag at left flutters in the breeze and ever so sleightly shows through the painted cloud.  I'll say it again... this work is a complete and total mindfuck when it comes to attempting to ratioalise the work and design that must have gone into it.  But brother, did it pay off in pure dramatic and cinematic terms.

If any real vfx people out there - and I know several do read my blog posts - can offer any, and I do mean ANY opinion or technical knowhow as to how all of these shots were pulled off, then please let Pete know.  I can't sleep well at night as this film's trick work keeps nagging at me.  Go on, do it for Pete.... please.

There may well be 'some' genuine skyscapes in some scenes, I'm not sure, but the sheer bulk of it is manufactured in the studio, of that I'm certain.

Comments most welcome from Matte Shot regular readers.

THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON (and believe me, they really are about to!), must rank as one of the biggest photographic effects pictures, certainly from that era, that was never fully acknowledged nor discussed in terms of its extraordinary visual effects.  There is so much from the Golden Era of movie magic that we really may never know.

Frame #1:  The moment Custer bites the dust.  Toggle through these frames and note how the foreground live action footage, which comprises a long 'dolly in' tracking shot and partial 'tilt' has been superimposed with the matte painted cloudy sky, with as much of a 'match-move' as was no doubt able to be achieved for a 1941 picture.  Staggering is the word for it and anyone who doesn't agree I hereby challenge to 'pistols at dawn' - a duel to the death!  No shit!  

Frame #2

Frame #3:  The cloud 'blurs' into the flag a little, but what the hey... it's godammned amazing!

Frame #4:  Again with the flag, but when seen as a complete sequence nobody noticed, as the drama was so intense, courtesy of Errol and his top-flight director Raoul Walsh, who knew a ton about bringing tension and edge of the seat moments to the silver screen.  Trust me.

Anthony Quinn has his big moment and shows Errol 'who's really the boss' at Little Big Horn.

Breaking the news to Custer's lady-friend, as Paul Detlefsen's evocative sky looms overhead.

One of Don Siegel's classic montages bookmark the epic story quite beautifully.

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THE NAKED AND THE DEAD (1958) -  A rugged epic WWII mission in the Pacific.

From the controversial novel by Norman Mailer, the big budget WarnerScope war epic THE NAKED AND THE DEAD (1958) was also directed by Raoul Walsh - the same man who made the Errol Flynn film on General Custer, above.

A great cast, and very strong performances from the three leads.  Also some great character actors in the mix (you know Pete likes character actors), such as James Best and the wonderful L.Q Jones (and if you don't know who the hell L.Q Jones is, then shame on you!)  Outstanding production values, with Panama actually standing in for the un-named South Pacific island (maybe Saipan?) and superb wide screen photography by Joseph LaShelle, with the legendary Bernard Herrmann providing the score.

Just a few matte shots, but by whom, I don't know.  The film had a curious pedigree - an RKO picture, released by Warner Bros, filmed in both 'RKO-Scope' and 'WarnerScope', and release prints struck in 'Warner-Color', so it's anyone's guess?  I think RKO had in fact gone out of business around this time (1958), so maybe Warners picked up the negative and finished the project?

Some really nice mattes, such as this one as viewed by Japanese as they keep a close watch on Aldo Ray and his marines (very small in frame middle right) as they head toward the mountain.  A very powerful film for its day, a typical Raoul Walsh 'take-no-prisoners' kind of deal as far as nasty bastards and a sadist or two.  Apparently the novel was quite a page turner, and strong for its day.

The climb is not without peril as one or two will discover...

A very dramatic perspective matte shot of the crossing the narrow trail.  All painted, with just a narrow band of live action on the ledge.  Though only readers looking at this on a proper PC screen will see it.  Those on some stupid cell-phoney gadget will be, sadly, shit out of luck.

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STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE (1979):  To boldly go where no visual effects man has gone before.

I was always a fan of the original 60's television series, and in fact now I'm enjoying it all over some sixty years later on my remastered DVD box set.  STAR TREK-THE MOTION PICTURE (1979) to me, is by far the best of the movie series by a long shot.  The sheer intelligence of the script and masterfully measured direction are true to the lore of Gene Roddenberry's original imagination and intent.

A very large visual effects crew, from a number of quite separate effects houses, all spread across the city, contributed to the massive photographic and miniature visuals for STAR TREK.  Although only brought in at the end of first unit production, Douglas Trumbull would be signed on as overall supervisor of special photographic effects, replacing the original visual effects supplier (which I will explain later).  Pictured here - in a photo taken a few years after TREK on the fx stage for BLADERUNNER - is Doug's long time associate, Richard Yuricich - the younger brother of matte maestro Matthew.  Richard would serve as photographic effects producer on TREK, and overall director of effects photography.  Richard's FX career went back to shows like THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD (1965) at MGM as rotoscope artist for animated birds doubled into his brother's matte art, and with Trumbull later on Kubrick's 2001, as a matte cinematographer for the moon pit sequence.

Richard's older brother Matthew Yuricich also had a strong relationship with Trumbull's EEG organisation, painting mattes on several pictures, though not dating back anywhere near as far as his brothers' connections with Doug.  Matthew need little introduction to my Matte Shot readers I'm sure, as I have long covered his illustrious career in many articles, as well as a complete oral history, candidly revealed to me by Matt back in 2012.

A look inside the matte photography room at EEG (Entertainment Effects Group) where we can see assistant matte artist Rocco Gioffre (far left) putting some final touches on a sunset rendering of San Francisco, some 300 or so years from now.  The shot never made the film unfortunately, and I've not seen it in any of the different 'cuts' of the show. A similar unused 'sunset' matte by Rocco is illustrated later in this article.

Another look at the EEG matte stand, with perhaps matte cameraman Don Jarel at right(?)

Miniature of the Enterprise, some seven feet in length, being photographed for the memorable 'dry dock' sequence.

The film utilised the services of several companies to achieve the visuals.  Initially, Paramount engaged Robert Abel & Associates - a somewhat prestige smaller effects house famous for producing glossy, dazzling, attention grabbing television commercials throughout the 70's.  Although Abel did produce a few finished visuals for TREK, it became apparent they could not possibly meet the 'set-in-stone' deadline, nor did they have sufficient experience in actual feature film work, as opposed to 60 second tv spots.  Reluctantly, Douglas Trumbull was enticed by the studio to take over and subsequently farm out a fair percentage of visual effects work to others.  One such company being John Dykstra's Apogee, who, fresh from STAR WARS, proved the perfect collaborator.  This opening sequence with the Klingon cruisers was entirely Apogee, though I think the models were built by Magicam - a firm entrusted with practically all of the TREK spacecraft miniatures.  Additional model construction was given to Brick Price Movie Miniatures.

One of the few 'action' sequences in the film as it really didn't call for 'action' purely for the sake of 'action', and was all the better for it.  Apogee was responsible for this sequence.

Matthew Yuricich completing a spectacular planetary panorama representing Spock's home planet of Vulcan.  For whatever reasons I've never fathomed, director Robert Wise never went with this idea and instead re-designed it (quite badly in my humble opinion) as some weird dark mausoleum!  

Matthew's brush held at arm's length, adds just the right amount of 'impressionistic' texture, but hell... they felt they knew better and never used it.

From the family of Matthew I have this Vulcan landscape, probably photo enlargement with extensive matte painted extensions, which was a common method Matthew had to use at 20th Century Fox back in the day.  Interestingly, the 2001 'directors edition' of TREK more-or-less went back to the overall design here, and presented all of the Vulcan scenes in a sunset-hued landscape, although entirely computer generated.  As much as I'm not at all a CG fan, the 'directors edition' version of the Spock sequence was far better, and looked really as it should have done all along.

The Vulcan planet-scapes as seen in the original theatrical version.  I never liked these shots and felt they were completely out of place.

Again, this Vulcan stuff really didn't work at all. As much as I strongly dislike 'special editions' where film makers screw around with original footage (George Lucas.... you damned idiot!!), the Robert Wise 2001 re-cut of TREK dumped these shots completely and created infinitely better material.  This 1979 shot is all matte art, with steaming lava(?) elements added.  Nimoy and co are so small in the frame they are barely visible. Bad overall design.

As much as I wish to keep this blog as a purely traditional methodology platform, I'll include this Vulcan establishing shot from the Robert Wise supervised 2001 'directors cut' for comparison.  As far as design and narrative necessity goes, it was a vast improvement over the very misguided 'dark' Vulcan scenes shown above.  It always should have been in 'daylight', as all of Nimoy's close ups were clearly shot in brilliant sunlight!

The original bare bones Vulcan steps and not a lot else, built in the parking lot at Paramount in 1978.  I think this area was also used to build a big-assed tank for DeMille's Red Sea vfx on THE TEN COMMANDMENTS back in 1955.

From Matthew's archive, here's a matte shot nobody ever spotted, with expanded Vulcan temple and such shown at left and upper right.  Interestingly, the scenes were shot in full sunlight and in the Paramount parking lot.  The obviously daylight flooded Nimoy in close ups never matched the 'sunless' dank, darkness of those 1979 Vulcan establishing shots.

Also from Matthew's family collection is this preliminary establishing concept (rendered by whom?) of the futuristic San Francisco (see below...)

The final matte painting by Matthew Yuricich, with blaced out areas for actual water, and, oddly, the foreground superstructure of the Golden Gate Bridge also 'unpainted' for some reason.  Love that sky. In studying this matte art I assume this shot at least, must have been painted 'normally', with true-to-the-eye colour pallette, as opposed to the way Trumbull's organisation usually mandated matte art, to be rendered in ghastly, muddy greenish tones, on purpose, to be photographed and composited using intermediate duplicating film stock.  Matthew's original paintings done for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, BRAINSTORM and BLADERUNNER all had to be rendered in that fashion to suit Trumbull's choice of composite photography.  As much as Matt hated the process, he was quite adept at it, having had experience along similar lines in the latter days at MGM under Clarence Slifer.  Matt, from experience, knew how to 'compensate' with that deliberate and limited pallette, with how he instinctively knew the hues would 'turn out' when later cut into the final film. There was no way on God's little green Earth that seasoned practitioners like Albert Whitlock would have stood for that for a minute.

The final composite, with shuttle craft in flight matted in.

Same scene, though from different regionally coded discs, with noticeable colour/contrast differences.  There is supposed to be slot animation of traffic in those bridge 'tube' things, but I never saw any?

Close up detail.

More to please those of us who dig detailed matte brush work...

More showing Yuricich's 'free hand' brush handling.  Note, this scene was dropped from the later 'directors edition' and replaced with a longer CG digital sequence, though I liked this one better.

A rare snapshot of Matthew, earlier on, sketching in the Golden Gate matte, basing it upon the conceptual painting.  The matte recently was passed in at auction as it seems nobody wanted it(!)

I've also included this original 35mm clip blow up from Matthew's collection, which really demonstrates his wonderful application of colour and light, in the sky especially, which, regrettably, got sort of 'washed out' in the final dupe composite.  

Now this one has me baffled.  This is Rocco Gioffre at work on what I'd presumed to be another TREK bridge shot, though ultimately unused.  I've only just noticed after having the pic all these years that there are motorcars on the bridge(!), so maybe it's not a TREK matte shot at all??  It certainly appears to be an Entertainment Effects Group set up, under Yuricich's supervision, due to the size, shape and markings on the masonite panel.  Hmmmmm?

Here's another wonderful matte-concept painting from Yuricich's family collection.  It's clearly a base photo enlargement of seashore and some cliff, but the rest is all painted, and certainly looks like Matthew's hand.  The proposed scene - as part of a quick flyover - was never included in the final cut, but a similar 'digital' thing showed up in the re-issue version.  Before this feature was 'green-lit', the studio had fully commissioned a tv movie a couple of years before, that thankfully never materialised or we'd never have this film.  Anyway, Matthew was called in to meet and discuss proposed matte work:  "At the first conference I was faced with a director and a cameraman who didn't know a thing about mattes, which is not unusual. They asked me to paint a shot of San Francisco overgrown with pine trees, with maybe just the Golden Gate and Transamerica Tower remaining... that was to be their opening shot... like a helicopter shot.  Then the director wanted to know, if after I painted it, we could 'fly' around the painted Transamerica building to the other side!  I thought they were pulling my leg, but they were entirely serious."

Also supplied to me by Matt's son is this wonderful conceptual painted sketch of the SF tram station.  I can't make out the signature, but it's not Matthew's.

Here's a partially painted-cut and paste mock up of the desired look for the big arrival scene.  I note the sunset sky in the distance which looks like the one Rocco had on the camera stand right at the start of this article?  Perhaps an evening shot was planned and started?

Original plate photography on soundstage. Trumbull called this "...the most complicated composite optical shot in the movie.  They built a big floor set on one of the Paramount stages, with phoney columns and supports, and shot all the actors down there from a pre-set angle.  Then, since even that wasn't big enough, the cameras were moved over and the action was all staged again, so we could fit that section into another part of the frame."

Matthew busy on the air tram station matte painting.  I well remember seeing the film on first release in 1979 - and possibly shown in 70mm - at our showcase Cinerama theatre (R.I.P), which had the biggest screen and great 6-track stereo sound, and this shot - among numerous others - blew me away.

The air tram station original matte painting, still in the custody of Matt's son, Dana was the first painting finished for TREK. I've always loved this matte, and in particular the sky over the bay.  Matthew said that Trumbull hassled him to put in more detail over in the distance - all sorts of stuff - but Matt, being Matt, fought back "you'll never even see any of that!"  And he was right.  According to Matt:  "Doug got a bit carried away adding little lights and things that he doesn't realise don't add to the matte shot.  He would get down to within 2-inches of the painting and want little pin pricks of light added across the bay - as if there was a wharf over there or something.  Here's this tremendous shot...I had this beautiful ceiling painted in, which Doug washed out by adding more lights and light flares, so all that was gone...everything that made the painting work.  And he still worried about these tiny pin pricks of light, which nobody was going to see!"  Matthew never took any crap, and frequently battled with 'know-it-all' fresh faced directors and the like, and at one point was even fired by Spielberg on CLOSE ENCOUNTERS for this.... but was later re-hired when Steven knew Matt was right all along.

Detail is my 'middle name'...

Where else on the cyber-web thing would you find such marvellous matte detail?  Seriously?

Final composite as seen in the original release version.  Doug Trumbull:  "There was a big, hanging foreground piece (left) with people in it for scale.  The rest is painted, except for the introduction of the air tram which was a model shot.  The miniature had to come in and settle down on a track, casting a moving shadow on the wall to make it tie in with the set.  That shot turned out to be a nightmare for the optical department, and it took us weeks to perfect it."  Matthew shared his version of the story:  "The SF tram station incorporated three live action elements and a model, shot with a travelling matte.  When they shot the model - it was one of the first things they did - they couldn't get a good matte from it.  Perhaps the tracks weren't tied down yet.  With so many parts being added to the shot, the elements were always 'shifting'.... the shot just started to fall apart."

As much as I try to avoid, this is the re-jigged digital version, done under Robert Wise's instruction for the later re-release cut.  I like Matthew's one better, but then, you just knew Pete would say that, didn't you?

Before and after of the docking bay scene.

The large docking bay matte art by Matthew.

Docking bay final comp.

Detailed art

Yes, more of that same matte art. Dig that crazy 'life boats' locker!!!

Yuricich detail 

Top: an early 'blocked in' view of the shuttle bay, and below, the finished shot.

Live action plate masked off, and combined with Yuricich's painting, sans the model shuttle element.

A large, yet never completed set, augmented by Matthew's painted ceiling, lights and walls.

Doug Trumbull lining up the 65mm camera for the so-called 'space office complex' sequence. Trumbull - who passed away quite recently - was one of the great 'thinkers' when it came to conceptualising and designing literally 'out-of-this-world' photographic effects.  His catalogue of credits was surprisingly brief, with barely a dozen features to his name, if that, but his unique technical vision was really in a class of its own. 

The final composite of the above 'space office' sequence.  A very large miniature matted against a Yuricich painted Earth.

Subsequent sequences have Kirk and Scotty transported from the 'space office' toward the still dry-docked Enterprise, in her latter stages of a big re-fit.  Here's a great EEG set up using old school knowhow, which Trumbull would have picked up from Wally Veevers when they worked together on Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968).  The small shuttle has an open reverse side, in which pre-shot footage of Shatner and Doohan was rear projected through the open and unseen rear, onto a small process screen just behind the miniature craft's windscreen.  An old trick used as far back as KING KONG, and known as 'postage stamp back projection'.  Operating the 35mm portable process projector is another up and coming visual effects man, Hoyt Yeatman, who would later on lead a team of highly talented technicians as the boutique fx house, Dream Quest. The fx cameraman here is Alan Harding.

Multi-part effects shot.  Miniature space station, star field, matte painted Earth, miniature shuttle shot in motion control with projected Kirk & Scotty - filmed in separate passes in 65mm. Many of the same type of scenes in 2001 were executed the exact same way.

So many were critical of this lengthy sequence (I was not one of them) - and in fact quite a lot were critical of the film as a whole.  The tremendous 'dry dock' reveal simply couldn't have been handled better.  A wonderful, gradual reveal of the mighty 'beast' as Kirk & Scotty slowly approach.

VFX miniature director of photography Dave Stewart, programs the motion control rig for the incredible 'fly-under' point of view from the shuttle.  Dave was another of Trumbull's 'brigade' of trusted experts, having carried out superb UFO model photography previously on CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. At left a tech arranges dozens of tiny dental mirrors to strategically reflect and redirect 'spotlights' at various parts of the Enterprise chassis and engines. Such detail is admirable.

I remember this in the cinema, with Jerry Goldsmith's rousing theme and score absolutely complimenting every frame of the deliberately paced, roll out of the big reveal.  What a magnificent score, and from a true master of so many great film scores.  Think PAPILLON, PLANET OF THE APES, RIO CONCHOS, THE OMEN, TORA!, TORA!, TORA!, LOGAN'S RUN, THE SAND PEBBLES,  CAPRICORN ONE and many more.  Yep, I love great movie scores.

EEG's Enterprise in dry dock set up.  The miniatures were mostly constructed by a company called Magicam, long before Trumbull or Dykstra were engaged to do the film.  The deal was that while that firm built the models, the EEG crowd were allowed to add finishing detail and such.  Doug said, that although the miniature ship was fine, it was, by his account, too small at barely seven feet, whereas he'd have much preferred double that length.  On previous space films, Trumbull was used to enormous model spacecraft, such as a 52 foot one in 2001 and an almost 22 foot model in SILENT RUNNING (1972).

The computer controlled motion control snorkel camera on its track.  EEG handled all of the Enterprise effects shots among others, while Apogee concentrated largely on the important V'ger material, which was immense both in workload and in pure cinematic scale - and numerous sequences such as the Klingon ships, photon torpedoes and the energy probe sequence later on.

Matte painted Earth that was used in certain scenes early on.

A glorious vision.  Multi-part composite, Enterprise photographed by way of Trumbull's preferred 'frontlight-backlight' self matting system which was a safer bet than traditional blue screen whereby shiny white surfaces, such as this craft, would have had a tendency to 'catch' blue spill or relections, rendering 'holes' in the mattes.  Trumbull's method avoided such artifacts altogether and was very successful both in TREK and later BLADERUNNER.  The photography of each miniature element was a long and tedious process, with each individual frame requiring an up to 30 second exposure, due to a maximum depth of field requirement and saddled with quite 'slow' 70mm optics. (*Thirty seconds per frame.... remember there's 24 frames per second!)

'Give her all she's got, Scotty'.  I'm not certain, but this has the look of a Robert Abel & Associates visual fx shot?  It certainly has all the hallmarks of their unique 'streak photographic effects' techniques as applied in commercials and things.

Now, I've always found this wormhole sequence very interesting.  It sure looked really good on the huge screen back in '79. This was one of the sequences done at Abel's effects company - and an incredibly drawn out and complex sequence at that - by another former Trumbull alumni, animator Robert Swarthe.

What could be done in minutes today was a tremendously time consuming and complicated affair for Robert Swarthe back in 1979, who had previously provided stunning cel animated light effects on CLOSE ENCOUNTERS mothership - material that still dazzles to this day.  For TREK, Wise wanted to only have selective parts of the scene 'streaked', and not the whole thing, which could have been done somewhat easier on an optical printer.  From previously shot live action, Swarthe made a large series of individual hand drawn and inked rotoscope mattes to isolate only the areas to be 'streaked', such as faces and certain control console lights.  Those mattes were then projected, in bi-pack, with the original live action onto a rear projection screen linked to a motion control system, called COMPSY.  Swarthe then carefully plotted and programmed moves which allowed the chosen area of the frame to be 'streaked' in any desired manner.  These streaks were re-photographed and superimposed back in over the 35mm live action. This dramatic sequence is one of the few Robert Abel visuals that made it into the final cut.

Swarthe's roto artists had to make rotoscope masks of actor's faces for every individual frame, as well as a separate series of roto mask/mattes for each individual 'streak'.  A simple three second cut could easily run into several hundred hand drawn and inked in roto-matte cels.  The sequence took an incredible amount of time to finalise and was only complete very close to the end of post production.

Trumbull had begun his career at a company called Graphic Films in the 1960's, where quite groundbreaking work was done for space oriented documentaries like TO THE MOON AND BEYOND - a film that caught Stanley Kubrick's attention when he was pondering just how the hell he was going to make his opus, 2001.  A great many future visual effects people found their footing at Graphic Films, such as John Dykstra, Con Pederson, Robert Abel, Colin Cantwell and much later in the 1970's, Ken Marschall and Bruce Block who would go on to form the small but extremely efficient specialty fx house Matte Effects.  In a curious turn of events, Matte Effects were called on late in the game to supply one or two matte painted views of the Earth (below).

Ken Marschall of Matte Effects, was given the assignment of rendering this matte painting.  Ken told me he was delighted, as both the original STAR TREK tv series and 2001 had been favourites, with the Kubrick film cementing his love of science fiction. So to get this small assignment kind of brought it all around full circle.

A word about director Robert Wise.  To my mind, Bob was the perfect choice to helm this epic motion picture.  He was a highly respected director with a vast career spanning back to the 1930's as an apprentice sound effects editor at RKO, which eventually lead to Bob being elevated to fully fledged film editor on Orson Welles' immortal CITIZEN KANE (1941) for which he was Oscar nominated, in what was certainly not what studios felt was 'the accepted editing style' by any pinch. Wise found his way into direction with some eerie and still quite wonderful Val Lewton chillers like CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE also for RKO.  In later years Wise directed a number of outstanding pictures in my book: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (still one of the best sci-fi films ever made);  RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP; THE HAUNTING;  THE SAND PEBBLES;  THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (a particular fave of NZ Pete);  THE HINDENBURG and of course STAR TREK TMP.

Robert Wise trusted Doug Trumbull completely - and in fact wanted him on the payroll from the start, but Doug was sick of being the so-called 'wizard of special effects' and wanted to do more personal, real time projects such as the visionary ShowScan ultra format system.  Trumbull had in fact worked previously for Wise back in 1971 on the sci-fi / sci-fact masterpiece THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN - a film I never tire of.  Douglas was really a motion picture visionary, and also was fundemental in creating incredible theme park interactive OmniMax rides like the phenomenal BACK TO THE FUTURE ride that Universal Studios had on their tour for several years.  Hell, I rode that three times!!!

We're getting into the big V'ger section of the plot, and I don't want to do any spoilers as that screenplay was just so damned clever, that none of the subsequent TREK films could hold a candle to this one.  I always liked the original tv show but never got into the myriad of quasi-sequels and spin-offs and what have you.  NZ Pete's a purist at heart, you better believe it.

One of the exterior V'ger scenes, which John Dykstra's company Apogee were tasked with.  Apparently the live action had long been completed but nobody had figured out just what or how to present this ominous V'ger?  They couldn't even settle on a design, and the film was seriously locked into a December grand opening, regardless... even with reel 8 potentially missing altogether.  Not a good prospect.

Spock begins his space walk. Interestingly, EEG like to shoot all of their material in 65mm high resolution, while Apogee use 35mm in the VistaVision format, with some compatibility issues between the two vastly different sized negatives.  A special 65mm to VistaVision 35mm optical printer was designed and built by Dykstra's guys in order to convert negatives and plates one way or the other.

Seriously, aside from the less than impressive Vulcan planet sequence, the vfx art direction is superb throughout TREK, and as I said, it was absolutely breathtaking on it's theatrical showing on the very big screen.  I admired the gentle pacing and great attention to detail - both in the the visuals and the intelligent writing, both of which compliment each other.

Such was the frantic rush to meet the release deadline, some of the optical composites were only delivered less than one week prior to the grand premier in Washington DC, with footage delivered straight from the MetroColor labs and literally spliced into multiple prints en mass.

Another of Trumbull's CE3K alumni, the highly regarded miniaturist Greg Jein, was brought onto the project when schedules were pushing the large effects crew(s) to breaking point.

Much of the V'ger extended 'wild journey' was carried out under the supervision of Oscar winning effects man John Dykstra at his Apogee vfx operation.  See below...

Technicians at Apogee apply finishing touches to the complex V'ger aperture mechanism, which presents as both a striking and quite bloody terrifying 'orifice', for want of a better word.

Although his green Vulcan blood never allows 'emotion', Mr Spock suddenly experiences one of those "Oh...Shit!!!" moments, as he's drawn into the 'orifice' of doom.

Apogee effects sculptors at work on the V'ger interior.

Apogee's motion control stage.

Motion control cameraman - possibly Bill Neil - sets up a 'fly over' sequence, which in the final film was pretty damned impressive.

I presume this wonderful cel animation was executed by Robert Swarthe - a true master with delicate cel 'lighting' effects.  In a class of his own. Robert originally worked alongside Doug way back in the 1960's when they - and other TREK guys - were at Graphic Films in Hollywood, doing short documentaries for NASA and such specialised assignments.  Swarthe was a 2-dimensional animator, while Trumbull at that time was a highly skilled airbrush artist doing backgrounds of the Milky Way and galaxies etc, which Swarthe says were sensational.

Now this was a ripper of a sequence, and brilliantly performed by the lovely and perfectly cast Indian actress Persis Khambatta.  V'ger sends an 'alien probe' aboard the Enterprise, which proceeds in sucking all 'knowledge' and 'intelligence' from the ship's computers.  The bastard of an energy probe takes a bit of a shine to Ilia (hell, who wouldn't?) and literally dazzles her with it's 'electrifying personality'.  A tremendous vfx sequence, done by John Dykstra's people over at Apogee.  I can't think of a similar 'high voltage' effect as well done as this bit.  

The once docile and exotic Deltan crew member, Ilia is now but a facsimilie of the actual Lieutenant Ilia, and definitely NOT to be messed with... especially if you're one of those damned "carbon-based units infesting the USS Enterprise"

'Bones' McCoy runs a very sophisticated full body systems scan of Ilia - or more to the point, the facsimilie of Ilia - and of course remind us that he's "just a simple country doctor."  A superbly done and detailed progressive scan sequence designed and by Mike Minor, who had a fair bit of involvement with the original tv series back in the 60's.  Not sure who did the animation?

As V'ger has taken measures to blow the Earth to kingdom come unless "he/she/it" is able to 'meet it's maker', our 'carbon-based Kirk unit' then (somehow?? never explained) manages to 'land' the Enterprise and leave via the fire exit.  A Matthew Yuricich matte painting.

Yuricich in the EEG matte painting studio.

Matthew's original matte painting that was sold not long ago.

Close up

Large masonite panel matte art.

A follow up matte shot as they see V'ger in the distance.

Virtually full frame painting.  You can make out the 'square' live action matte box around the actors.

Again, mostly matte art with just a narrow passage of live action.

Commander Decker (Stephen Collins) takes one giant step for mankind... sort of.  Outstanding backlit cel animation by Robert Swarthe worked brilliantly with masses of interlaced horizontal swirles of light.  I have great affection fo classic cel animated vfx work, and it's sorely missing these days.

V'ger, as always, has the very last word!  Damn those 300 year old NASA space probes!

STAR TREK TMP was a success, though not everybody 'loved it'.  Hell, I did then and still do now, all these years later.  It was among the finalists in the Best Special Visual Effects category that year, and many thought it was a dead-cert.  The final line up of nominees included:  MOONRAKER, 1941, THE BLACK HOLE, ALIEN and of course STAR TREK.  I have it on very good authority from another of the nominated fx guys that when the titles had been read out and the envelope was about to be peeled open, the TREK boys had already started shifting in their plushly upholstered Dorothy Chandler Pavilion seats and were all set to recieve glory, only to be 'knocked-for-a-six' as we'd say here, when in fact Ridley Scott's ALIEN was read out as winner.  A more forlorn looking bunch of depressed creative types you never saw in your life (said my anonymous high profile co-nominee).  I mean, I absolutely, positively fucking loved ALIEN, and still reckon it's one of the best films of the 70's - perfect in every conceivable way - but when it boils down to it, I think TREK should have gotten than award that year (although 1941 was a close second in my book).  **Just out of interest, several other films were submitted to AMPAS for the VFX Oscar that year, but never got enough votes.  Some of these were bizarre choices indeed: APOCALYPSE NOW (mechanical effects); AVALANCHE EXPRESS (miniature effects);  CONCORDE-AIRPORT 79 (miniatures);  HURRICANE (physical effects);  METEOR (optical effects & mechanical effects) and WINTER KILLS (process, optical fx & mechanical effects).  *A special thanks to Will Mavity for these details and other utterly illuminating and occasionally gob-smacking Oscar visual effects data from days long gone, but seriously... 'METEOR' as a bona-fide FX submission!!!  Surely they were joking?

So, I hear you mutter... what the hell has this got to do with matte shots?  Well, as the legendary soulman Edwin Starr once sung so succinctly "...absolutely nothing!". However my friends, any gal with legs as perfect as the exquisite (and sadly no longer with us) Miss Persis Khambatta will absolutely get a placement in NZ Pete's blog post.  Ya' don't like it? ..... So, sue me .... if you think you have the balls!

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THE LOST MATTE ART OF CLIFF CULLEY:  A collector reaches out.

I am always thrilled when someone out there reaches out to me in matters pertaining to matte shots, either to ask questions or to inform me they have something in their possession that I may well find interesting.  Case in point, Rodney Sims - a collector in the United Kingdom - sent me a stack of excellent photos of several original and extremely rare Pinewood matte paintings, rendered for the most part, by long time studio artist Cliff Culley.  It's not every day that such artifacts turn up, so I am extremely grateful to Rodney for contacting me. *That's Cliff at left lining up the camera for a foreground glass painted shot for LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1984).

In this old Pinewood publicity still, circa 1964, Cliff Culley is shown with the matte he painted for the opening scene in the James Bond film FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.  Cliff painted mattes and contributed to various optical gags on most of the 007 films from DR NO to ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, with one or two additional shots for THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN and OCTOPUSSY much later on.

While on the subject of 007, this matte isn't from the 1995 Pierce Brosnan Eon Films version of GOLDENEYE, rather this is a never before seen matte painted on glass for a different 1989 film by the same name - GOLDENEYE - THE SECRET LIFE OF IAN FLEMING, a rather good British television movie based on the life and times of Ian Fleming, which starred the always excellent Charles Dance as Fleming, who was in fact heavily involved with the S.O.E (special operations executive) during WWII, a forerunner to Britains MI6

I couldn't find a good quality shot of the final composite, unfortunately. Charles Dance would have made an excellent James Bond I think.  Terrific actor.

Rodney was kind enough to provide a lot of detailed close ups of the collection.  Note Cliff's signature at left.

During the war years, Fleming - who really was a top British Intelligence agent which surely stoked the fire to much later pen the Bond novels - visited New York city, as this matte detail shows.

Even Cliff wasn't sure about this matte.  He told Rodney it was from the 1952 Peter Ustinov comedy HOTEL SAHARA, though it's not.  It's actually a more recent title, from the CARRY ON series, FOLLOW THAT CAMEL (1967).  This, and all of the others measure 102cm x 71cm (or 40" x 28" if metric is a foreign concept!)  As Cliff told Rodney when he purchased them a number of years ago "these were all photographed and composited on either a Mitchell or a Bell & Howell 2709 35mm motion picture camera with bi-pack process or frame by frame with animation."

One of the scenes in the finished film using Cliff's painted hotel and desert.

A close up reveals a fair bit of damage.

More detail and Cliff's signature.

Cliff had a very long career in mattes and effects, mostly for J.Arthur Rank.  In the latter 1940's Culley would work alongside other notable matte artists such as Albert Whitlock, Peter Melrose and Les Bowie while in the matte department at Pinewood.

This alpine matte art was done for a Suchard-Milka commercial, and Cliff said it was one of his favourites apparently.

Before and after showing the final shot in the commercial.

Detail

Over the years Culley painted many mattes for things as diverse as the old Norman Wisdom slapstick shows, through to fully fledged epics like KHARTOUM which had particularly fine matte work; musicals like CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG and Clive Barker horror-fests like NIGHT BREED.

Now this one is very interesting. Although Cliff has signed it, I was always pretty sure that effects man Steve Begg had rendered it, so I asked Steve to set the record straight;  "After using Cliff Culley's Westbury Design & Optical to do two mattes for the film HARDWARE (1990), I was asked back by Cliff to help out on two mattes for THE STRAUSS DYNASTY (1991).  Cliff sketched it out in pencil on a piece of glass painted matte white on the front and black on the back.  Then Cliff basically asked me to colour it in.  I did most of the work at my home in acrylic and gouache, with some visits to Cliff's Westbury operation for colour wedge tests."

Some of Steve's attention to detail.

Steve did two mattes for this film:  "I did almost all of the artwork on the one in the snowy setting with the frozen pond.  There was a day shot and a night or dusk version of it as well.  Cliff may have done some tweaks on it after I delivered it, such as the trees, but mainly my art."

More wonderful detail. Steve told me there was no live action in it aside from some bipacked snow falling.  he said he helped out with a second matte but unfortunately can't remember specifics.

The old slot gag.  Certain areas at the reverse side of the matte glass had small portions of the black paint scraped off with a razor.  These parts were then afixed with coloured gels for backlight purposes to simulate interior illumination (see below as Rodney has done just that for the demo)

And there you have it... instant illumination.

Steve was but one of a number of budding matte artists that Cliff took under his wing over the years.  There was Charles Stoneham, Steven Archer, Terry Adlam and Leigh Took to name a few.

Now here we have a rather fascinating matte, and one with a convoluted journey.  Blake Edwards' THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (1976).  First point of interest is that Cliff has painted this view of New York city 'squeezed', which will later be photographed using spherical lenses I presume, and cut into the feature which was a Panavision anamorphic 2.35:1 film.  The movie would be eventually projected with anamorphic, or scope lenses thus stretching it out to 'widescreen' format.  It's quite unusual to see a matte painted 'squeezed', unless they were wanting to avoid a duplication step?

Close up of some of the NYC skyscrapers.  The final sequence involved the United Nations building getting zapped and vanishing, layer by layer.

More detail with black outs where actual NYC foreground will be composited, in what would become a very complicated shot.

For many years Cliff's son Neil would photograph and composite his mattes.  In the 1960's and 70's it was often Roy Field and Martin Shorthall doing those duties at Pinewood.

The same Culley painting, which I've 'stretched' into an approximate anamorphic shape.  Now, the story doesn't end there.  I heard from Matthew Yuricich that the film makers weren't satisfied with Cliff's matte and hired him to do a replacement one.  I can't find fault with this myself, but perhaps the final composite work failed as it involved a great many carefully drawn and hand inked cels to animate the UN Building slowly vanishing, floor by floor.  I believe apprentice Terry Adlam was tasked with the roto fill ins.  See below...

Presumably this sequence was the Yuricich re-do?  The sky design is different but otherwise little else.

Here is Cliff's matte (top) with the probable replaced matte by Matthew.  Odd really, because if anything needed a serious (and I do mean serious) rejection and complete overhaul, it would have been another fx sequence where a castle up in the alps also vanishes, in what must rank as one of shoddiest optical printing combination shots seen in years.  Hard to believe that one slipped by, but I digress....

And now, I do indeed have a treat!  An unbelievably rare matte from Disney's IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS (1962) - one of that studio's biggest visual effects shows, and as far as mattes went, top shelf paintings and exemplary composites.  Although Peter Ellenshaw was effects supervisor and key matte artist, the film had such a huge matte schedule that Pinewood - where the film was based - were heavily involved.  

The final scene with live action wharf and people added.  CASTAWAYS was quite a standout for the quality of the matte composites done at Pinewood.  Even Harrison Ellenshaw agreed with me on that when I did a big blog on the film's effects, and he had many stories and images to share.

Pinewood's matte department were all involved with this film.  Cliff and fellow matte artist Alan Maley, along with three cameramen all added to CASTAWAYS surprisingly high quality mattes - and that's not counting the wall to wall sodium vapour travelling mattes handled by the optical department.

Detail of sail...

The paint has long been flaking off, though fortunately only around these parts at this stage.  Remember this painting has been in the rack somewhere since 1962 - some 64 years!

Cliff's Westbury Design & Optical got the contract to supply quite a number of mattes and foreground in-camera glass shots for the expensive American miniseries, THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1984).

My collector friend in London managed to secure this wonderful key matte painting of the doomed city.

A view of the large partial set built on the Pinewood back lot, from which Culley would add a great deal of production value in oil paint.

Cliff's assistant, a young up and coming effects artist named Leigh Took also contibuted several foreground glass painted shots for some similar scenes.

Detail of some ancient Roman architecture.

Note the painted in 'Romans' who would blend in invisibly with actual extras. Nice.

More detail, with a veritable 'Toga-Party' going on, by the looks of it?

And lastly, here is an evocative Atlantic sunset the Cliff painted for the German epic Wolfgang Petersen film DAS BOOT (1981), which was also released as THE BOAT, and was actually an excellent war film 'from the other side'. 

According to what Cliff told Rodney, the matte was completed and composited but somewhere along the ways it landed on the cutting room floor, as many in fact do.

a bit of detail...

Once again, I extend my gratitude to Mr Sims in the UK for going the distance and sharing with me these lost artifacts.  I so often get assurances and loose promises from people (some high profile) who will "absolutely send such-and such a matte image or collection" or whatever, but never follow through, despite multiple attempts to nudge along the process from my end.

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ANNIE LAURIE (1927):  A torrid matte filled silent romance with shades of Braveheart.

I have a very broad spectrum of movie tastes, depending upon my given mood at the time.  I'm not in the least adverse to watching silent pictures and have come across many really impressive ones.  ANNIE LAURIE was a 1927 silent from MGM, and quite a lavish affair it was at that.  

The film clearly was an expensive one with lavish production design by the great Cedric Gibbons and cinematography by Oliver Marsh.  The star, Lillian Gish was what we'd term a 'superstar; today and had considerable control by this stage in her very long career.

Although I really can't be sure, it's possible that Neil McGuire and associate Warren Newcombe may have had involvement with the films' great many excellent matte and foreground glass shots. This rare trade advert from around the mid 1920's describes 'settings & title effects' being a specialty, though at the time based on the East Coast.  Apparently MGM's studio manager, Eddie Mannix hired Newcombe to head up the new matte department in Hollywood.  According to storied matte artist Matthew Yuricich, Newcombe came to MGM and brought with him Neil McGuire, and it was Neil who was the artist and did all of the early era 'Newcombe shots', as they were known, and not Warren.  Many sources state that Warren never picked up a brush (aside from interludes with his own expressionist style personal art, in which Matthew observed Warren "holding his brush as if it were a hammer!"), and all of the Metro matte work both then, and all through the following decades, was done by a great many, mostly anonymous artists.

The moral of the story:  never cross an opposing kilt wearing clan in olde' time Scotland!

The film was filled with mattes and glass shots, and all of exceptionally high quality.

The live action split with the painting.  Far more extended than you'd expect.

The man's shadow passes under the matte line as and others run out.

All painted, probably on glass as a foreground shot which was the modus operandi in the day.

Possibly a painted in top-up of castle wall?

I replayed this scene several times and feel it's a glass shot.  They may have built the big set but for better economy and speed, a competent matte artist most likely rendered the upper half of the set.  There is a soft 'blur' running horizontally across the scene, strongly suggesting 'trickery was afoot'.

The effervescent darling of silent cinema, Lillian Gish - the curly headed babe with the pearl necklace - was the cinematographers dream-girl.  Few ever photographed as exquisitely as Miss Gish.  She was offered a packet (one million dollars for six films) on pictures like ANNIE LAURIE, but instead turned it down and instead took a percentage and insisted on great creative control.

For a 1927 film I was shocked at this "bit of the old ultra-violence" (as Malcolm McDowell once so well described it.)  During this stand off, a fellow reaches forward with his unsleeved forearm, to which this other bastard whips out his sword and hacks off his arm in a single uninterrupted shot. I had half expected the poor bugger to have all his limbs cut off and then mutter "Come here you bastard... I'll bite your kneecaps!"  I often ponder who, if anyone, ever gets my in-jokes?  

Don't you just adore some of these old school inter-titles?  Hell, I sure do.  ;)

This particular shot appears to be a miniature, though other later wider shots were definitely matte paintings.

Lillian Gish.... she lived to 100 you know.

The caption says it all...

Atmospheric castle matte shot...

Another snowy mountain cabin matte shot, quite similar to one shown at the start but with different features.

The matte division is pretty tight, but ingeniously saves on construction costs by painting in much more than you'd think.  Nice one.

'Who be-eth that upon thy yonder rocky outcrop?'  Miniature set.

Glass shot where guy leaps across the chasm after bridge has fallen, and ends up hanging by his finger nails.

The coach traverses the steep road up to the castle.  All matte art except small foreground area.

A subsequent view done as a miniature.  Depth of field, although pretty good, gives it away.

A very impressive matte shot of the castle in the snowy landscape.

An extensive, practically full screen painted glass shot.  Only the narrow slot where the two soldiers are is 'actual'.  It may still be a total matte painting, with soldiers added in later via the Dunning travelling matte process, which was very common at the time, with this scene calling for just such a method.

A cleverly designed matte shot where it's impossible to distinguish just where the live action ends and the painting begins. I suspect the entire right side is painted, along with a bunch of weeds and undergrowth at left to tie it all as one.

Another really nice matte painted shot.  Not sure if it's a foreground glass shot - due to the extreme close to camera branches and leaves - or a photographic composite matte shot possibly with the trees added as an additional bi-pack element?  I can't recall if the branches are moving?

Another quite extensive matte painted scene, though just where 'fact' meets 'fiction', I really cannot tell.  Falling snow done as an overlay later on.

A distant view of the carriage and horses far up the roadway may have been a slot gag of some description, or a form of animation?

No... your eyes aren't decieving you.  The last five minutes of ANNIE LAURIE was actually filmed (or likely 'processed') in very early 2-colour Technicolor, which must have rocked the audiences back in the day.

Matte painted from about the halfway point, and likely among the earliest examples of Technicolor matte work.

And they all lived happily ever after, except for those killed in battle and that poor bugger with the hacked off arm!

***This vast and utterly exhaustive post, and all 190 previous blog posts known as 'Matte Shot', were originally created by Peter Cook for nzpetesmatteshot, with all content, layout and text originally published at http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/ 

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FINAL WORD:

               "OUR ALLIES NEED TO UNBLOCK THIS IMMEDIATELY!" - Trump                                     *(New Zealand media satirists positively thrive on Trump's stupidity and mental instability!)

Yeah... right Donald Chump.  You're the psychotic, corrupt, war-mongering, brainless sack of shit who caused the latest war and its associated oil crisis to begin with, strictly to appease your beloved 'B.J.F.F' ("Best Jew Friend Forever") Netanyahu - an equally despicable deposit of rancid, fly blown pig excrement.

The world hasn't been in such a dire and perilous state since World War II.  Never in my lifetime has there been such global disharmony on an ever increasing and frighteningly expanding scale. The key instigator of much of this of course is none other than Donald J. Trump, an outright, complete and utter imbecile of near Olympian proportions.  And to recall the international community unanimously thought that George W. Bush was a simple minded fool!  Bush jnr could take on Mensa gold medal status when compared to the delusional mind of 'the Trump!'

Trump, to put it in terms his slack-jawed, gun-toting fascist support base might comprehend (that means "understand") ... The man is pure and base evil, no question about it.  The 'glow-in-the-dark', orange-hued Emperor of all he surveys regards the entire world as his very own personal, inflatable global sex-doll - for the sole purpose of 'fucking it up the ass' at each and every opportunity, or whenever the 'whim' takes him, though usually Trump does so just 'because he can' and he knows it'll be unpleasant for the recipient sovereign country or its elected leader.  

He seems to act daily or hourly purely on "whims" and 'sudden threats' and his endles 'stream of unpredictable semi-concious' declarations that appear to be made up as he goes along, with no consultation with aids nor senior political figures.  Just watch their faces when he 'makes his 'King-of-the-World' proclamations..... Some barely hidden "What-the-fuck-is-he-doing?" gestures visible among his flock of Maga-Cult inductee sheep.

No political leader has done - and has continued to perpetrate - as much damage to international relations, sovereign governments, economies (enforced completely illegal trade tarrifs), decades long treaties, global pacts, threats of military invasion and wholesale destruction of race relations in his own country than this ignoramus with the fake spray-on tan and that ludicrous carefully glued down comb-over has managed in nearly two terms.

What with the violent invasion, deposing and fraudulent arrest of the government of Venezuela (on entirely faked-up reasons); the planned and long promised military take-over of Greenland (yes... I'm sure the peaceful Greenlanders would love to give up their very long free-association with highly developed and civilised Denmark to instead become a nation made up of attorney's, botox wranglers, serial killers, psychiatrists, land speculators and of course, that old US 'chestnut', school mass-shooters!). It's all got the makings of a devilishly pointed SOUTH PARK episode, hasn't it? 

The planned invasion of Cuba (what the fuck did Cuba ever do to America to make it so terrified and perpetually 'on edge', like some frightened little school girl?)... this present extremist and ultra-fascist US Government has such Neo-Nazi designs of world domination that it can no longer be either trusted, nor respected by the international community. Goddamm, just look at that cancerous I.C.E Gestapo operation and the brutal, gun-toting 'round ups' of people without warning, nor legal protection.

 

It harks back to the early days of Hitler's Germany, and a great number of decent Americans are well aware of the undertones, when a shameless, egotistical, self-promoting and extremely corrupt narcissist is given total and unhindered power, and is answerable to NOBODY.  When the day comes that this bastard is finally 'taken out', be sure it's done "with extreme prejudice", and followed up with a stake through his fucking heart!

Long gone are the days when America was looked upon by much of the international community for generations as a "great country" and all of that.  And I've not even started on the present disgrace that is the totally illegal, morally corrupt attacks on Iran.  'OPERATION EPIC CLUSTER-FUCK' just the latest in a series of Epic Cluster-Fucks throughout the Middle East that through US tampering actually created extreme horror shows like Al-Queda and ISIS, where none previously existed.

The outright lies from the orange-dyed simpleton and brash MAGA bandleader that "America was facing an imminent threat of a nuclear attack from Iran" was, and remains proven as complete and utter bullshit, that the entire world - and many of Washington's elected insiders and tactitions - know full well.  

The one and only reason Trump embarked upon yet another U.S instigated war in the Middle East was at the advance command and directive of his 'B.J.F.F" (Best Jew Friend Forever) Benjamin Netanyahu - himself an absolute, complete and thorough Zio-Nazi fascist, weeping ulcer on the arsehole of humanity who would unquestionably win the 'World's Most Despised Genocidal Mass Murderer Of The Decade Award', hands down, and also in the ever popular sub-category 'Most Loathsome Excuse For a Human Being Since Hitler'.  All rather ironic when you think about it. 

Mr Trumpet  - the self annointed Lord of all he surveys (*and all he imagines he surveys, that often doesn't actually exist, only nobody dares tell him with risk of 'losing ones head'!) would do absolutely everything and anything for that Israeli  pig, in order to support the vile and wholly illegal fetid stench of Zionist expansionism.  After all, Israel is the 51st State of America, though of late there have been utterings of America actually being the second State of Israel, which comes as very little surprise at all.

While I have no affection of any sort for the top leadership of Iran, nor any connection whatsoever, the completely illegal military attacks from the Zio-Nazi State of Israel and their intimate 'cuddle-buddy' the United Fascist Dictatorship of Trumpland have no right whatsoever to instigate and carry out the heinous war crimes directed at Iran as well as the many decades of flagrant, out in the open murder of innocent citizens of Palestine and Lebanon which are currently ongoing, and if anything are accelerating by the day with the full and complete approval of the ultra-extremist Zionist government.

Under article 51 of the UN Charter, states have the legal right to use force in self defence in response to an armed attack.  Neither the US nor Israel were at any point being attacked when the two agressors unleashed massive strikes of Tehran and many major cities.  They call this 'Crimes Against Humanity'. 

Additionally, that vile disease ridden cockroach Netanyahu now has approved the death penalty with a very specific codicil added to their statute that it may ONLY to be used against the Palestinian people.  Each and every fucken Israeli JEW is therefore completely absolved and protected 'in Zioist law' in what could in the event clearly be seen as a potential Capital crime!!!   This is completely fucking illegal and unacceptable in every notion and concept of  established 'law' in every country in the world, to specify one particular racial or religious group as the sole qualifier for extermination .... or have you so conveniently forgotten already what those German goosestepping motherfuckers inflicted upon your relatives 80 years ago??  SHORT MEMORIES it seems!!!

Yet the daily assaults and broad daylight killings of West Bank and Gaza PALESTINIAN citizens, perpetrated with glee in the crowded, enforced Palestinian ghetto's by grinning Jewish scum, both by illegal settlers (ALL Israeli's are illegal settlers actually!) and scum-sucking Israeli Defence Force (itself a powerful state sponsored terrorist organisation if ever there were one, as is Mossad - an evil entity with such an open mandate to frequently execute 'terror' operations on foreign soil!) as usual, go completely unpunished and even rewarded.  It's all in the name of so-called 'A Greater Israel'.  

Well, A GREATER ISRAEL can go fuck itself. The world doesn't want one!  Israel is the pestulence of the Middle East which has been the root of more unrest for the entire region since some misguided piece of paper known as The Balfour Declaration over a century ago. It's a 'square peg' trying to fit into a 'round hole', it's as simple as that.  History has proven the point ever since.

The unfettered rapid expansionism that the Zionists are pushing - flattening Gaza completely to create some sick joke of some Jewish Club Med Utopia by the sea.  You can bet America will be in on that huge 'property deal', with greedy Jew speculators all coming out of the woodwork and rubbing their hands together at the vastly immoral 'profit margins' to be had.  Now these Zionist cunts are flattening Lebanon as well... driving citizens away with vast swathes of heavily armed Zio-Nazi 'stormtroopers', and crushing their homes en mass.  HOW TO THESE MAGGOTS GET AWAY WITH THIS?  The United Nations have for decades attempted to STOP these Zionist fuckers from continuously carrying out these acts of genocide and persistant CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, but guess who ALWAYS blocks any UN resolution from passing???  Easy guess.... Uncle-fucken'-Sam... that's who, which due to the strong and ever present DNA links with Israel, it's hardly a surprise, is it?   A forgone conclusion that will never change.

As a result of the uncalled for attacks on Iran, they - Iran - being well within their rights to self defence and retalliation have returned fire, and will continue to do so with great determination.  Happily, missiles are hitting Israel, causing death and destruction. The more the better, the bigger barrage the better - though those IDF cunts will never, ever reveal anything near to the truth of the damage, through fear of causing panic and losing 'face' in front of the Gentile world at large. 

So much for their fucken' Iron Dome - a gift wrapped present with a gold ribbon tied around it from The Pentagon with endless very expensive munitions all included with love and affection .... but it ain't stopping everything is it  :)  Let 'hell' reign down.

Just remember, Iran did nothing to start this now rapidly expanding crisis.  

Thomas Jefferson - the primary writer of America's Declaration of Independence - said:  "If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest".  I'd frankly be surprised in Donald Tramp had ever actually heard of Thomas Jefferson.