The Epics... THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD matte shots - part three in an ongoing series

George Stevens' THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD (1965) was really one of the last of the huge Biblical genre films (though not the last in my series of tributes) as the theme tended to become more personalised in the forthcoming years with much smaller religious type shows such as BROTHER SUN, SISTER MOON and such.  GSET is an extremely well made film with beautiful production values and even the odd guest director such as the eminent David Lean and Jean Negulesco to fill some gaps in the narrative once Steven's was done with it.

Visual effects wise it's a bonanza!  Colleagues on stopmotionanimation.com matte painting thread I'm sure are sick to death of me praising the effects in GSET, so anyone tired of this, best skip to another blog as I'm going to really sing the praises of these effects here.  The film was Oscar nominated in a number of categories, including best special visual effects, yet unbelievably lost that year to the frankly plain third rate effects in the 007 adventure THUNDERBALL!!  Incredible... a film with minimal, and quite poorly executed visuals even getting a nomination is one thing, but taking home the bloody statuette is quite another.  I guess it's all down to film popularity above quality (same story with 'ET' years later when clearly BLADERUNNER should have swept that and other awards, but don't get me started).

GSET was a mammoth production, and it shows.  It's all up there on the big CinemaScope screen - in fact in 70mm 6 track stereo on initial runs.  Glorious visual effect design by Joseph MacMillan Johnson, a long time figure in volved with big effects shows such as GONE WITH THE WIND and PORTRAIT OF JENNIE.  Not a special effects man per se but certainly the vision behind the effects concepts, most of which in this case were matte paintings.  Johnson headed the MGM visual effects department after the departure of Lee LeBlanc and oversaw a number of films.

Among the myriad of effects people concerned with GSET were veteran visual effects cinematographer Clarence W. Slifer - another key player from GWTW as well as KING KONG, BEN HUR and hundreds of others and one of the industry's most acknowledged visual effects cameramen for his applications of aerial image optical cinematography to facilitate clean, non locked off matte composites. With such a load of matte and glass shots the film employed several matte artists, namely Jan Domela, Matthew Yuricich and Albert Maxwell Simpson.   Simpson had enjoyed a long career as a matte artist and had worked extensively with Slifer on numerous shows, including KONG and GWTW.  Future effects cinematographer Richard Yuricich, Matthew's brother, was also involved with the matte photography in what very well could have been his first film.

So without further ado, on with the show....................

Special Effects Supervisor - A.Arnold Gillespie

Special Photographic Effects Supervisor - J.MacMillan Johnson

Visual Effects Cinematographer - Clarence W.D Slifer, ASC

Matte Camera Asssistant - Cliff Shirpser

Matte Artists - Matthew Yuricich,  Jan Domela and Albert Maxwell Simpson

Matte Rotoscope Effects - Richard Yuricich

Optical Effects - Robert R.Hoag

Process Projection - Charles MacLeod

Probably a Jan Domela matte painting as I have a number of before and after old photos from Jan's daughter of this view.As with all of the mattes in this film I must whole heartily compliment the wonderful final composites overseen by Clarence Slifer and in many shots such terrific atmospheric elements such as this breathtaking daybreak effect.

I love this view - and as I've said before, 'the music maketh the matte' - in this case, Alfred Newman's score.  What a magnificent shot.

I'm guessing it's the same basic Jan Domela painting with new skies added to it (?)

I recall that the show was filmed in Utah and Arizona and much of those landscapes are well utilised, and as seen here adapted with matte art to lend a terrific 'edge' to the narrative.

Classic matted set extension with upper third or so painted in to conceal studio lights and such.

Another view of what I assume to be the same Domela painting - or maybe these are all separate paintings each view?

Pretty much invisible set extension here with Matthew Yuricich adding alot of subtle architecture that's never obvious.

A Jan Domela painted addition to the Arizona landscape.

The city once again, and with beautiful dusk interactive lighting effects - maybe a whole new painting here?

A Jan Domela shot.

Not sure here, but that distant out cropping of rock may be artificial?

A vast set with subtle painted cityscape seen at right and I'm assuming the left top of the frame as well.

Possibly the real deal Arizona or Utah here.  May be slightly altered in the fx studio...I dunno.

Process projection shot with a composite painting and ocean as background plate.

That city again, with rain storm overlay.

A Jan Domela combination painting, locale and optical starburst.

A beautiful and full painted matte with minimal live action added lower centre.

Jan Domela's finished painting of the above on the matte stand at MGM.  Domela's diaries mention such a positive and happy time while employed at MGM for a year or so on this and a couple of other shows.  Domela's daughter Johanna recalls visiting her father then and told me how the effects cameramen on the shoot praised her dad for the no nonsense speed of his painting. So very different from his later years of constant stress under John Fulton at Paramount. She also remembers the matte building as "old and rickety and ready to fall down at any minute".  (*it was eventually torn down in the mid seventies and an awful lot of original classic matte art was chucked into dumpsters)

A Matthew Yuricich matte extending the view outward from just below the upper edge of the city walls.

A rare unfinished test comp of one of Domela's exteriors of the city with the sea beyond.

Yep, it's those city walls again - but this time we can see Jan Domela's original painting below...

Domela art on masonite ready for the matte camera.

Close up detail of Jan's city walls.

Another beautifully detailed aerial Jan Domela shot - and one I couldn't find in the film.  Though just between you and me, I did fall asleep for a while during this three hour marathon, so maybe I missed more effects shots?  Keep that to yourself.

The epic pullback shot  - frame one

Frame two

Frame three

Frame four

Frame five, just as it dissolves into a new scene.  Fellow matte painter and long time friend of Matthew Yuricich, Rocco Gioffre shared with me some details on the Slifer aerial image process used on this shot - ..."Clarence Slifer had been in charge of Selznick Studios visual effects department from it's beginning and as early as 1938 he had developed a technique for doing post production camera moves on matte painting shots. This method was used on Gone With The Wind as well as other features. The unique set up he devised involved a lathe bed arrangement with the camera focused on a process projector movement in the same manner as an optical printer, but instead of using a lamphouse for a light source he mounted an additional (aerial image) lens behind the projector head and focused it on a brightly lit artwork easel, which held the matte paintings and other artwork elements. [...] I'll tell you that the pullback shot in The Greatest Story Ever Told was plagued with a number of problems among which was a visible seam that appeared during a part of the scene. So they hid the problem by photographing a flock of pigeons flying in the area and then rotoscoped all these birds onto a series of glass panes (!) in the closest artwork plane of the matte stand ( which was used strictly for foreground roto'd items like people's heads crossing matte paintings, etc..) The closest art stand was slightly out of focus, so it helped a bit for fake motion blur. So even these guys use to hide their problems by devious means!"

Interestingly, this old photo of that amazing painting still in progress here as seen in the sequence of frames above was part of Jan Domela's collection of memorabilia, so I wonder whether Jan also painted on the shot with Matthew?

Extremely rare test comps of Domela's painted city with the matte cameramans (Slifer?) notations on the edges here illustrating the choice of filters for the painting shoot, filtration for the plate, the take, length of shot and lenses used.

Mood and forboding added by the matte artist during the crucifixion scenes is a pre-requisite of the genre - excluding naturally, MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN, which took an arguably less regimented viewpoint.

A vivid cloudscape, possibly manufactured in the fx unit thus endeth thou George Stevens' epic

Cosgrove's Technicolor wonderland - matte painted effects from two vintage Selznick films.

For anyone familiar with my early blogs, as well as my contributions on the matte painting forum of stopmotionanimation.com, you'll know I'm a huge devotee of golden era photographic effects man and master matte painter Jack Cosgrove.  My earlier blogs have concentrated on a number of Cosgrove matte shows - many for wonder child David O'Selznick such as my all time number one matte exposition GONE WITH THE WIND in addition to SINCE YOU WENT AWAY, REBECCA, THE PRISONER OF ZENDA,  A STAR IS BORN, SPELLBOUND, DUEL IN THE SUN as well as the many films he later worked on for Warner Brothers.  Those new to this blog may want to check out these posts - although the unfamiliarity of this technology at the time meant that the layouts were all over the place and they organisation questionable at best (I was even considering deleting the first 2 or 3 blogs altogether as they are a shambles - but will leave them as a sort of shaky, amateur matter of record)

Today I will focus in on two glorious vintage Jack Cosgrove effects shows - both produced for David O'Selznick in the thirties, and notable for being among the very first 3 strip technicolour matte shot films.  The first one here today, THE GARDEN OF ALLAH was made in 1936 and was to a large extent a learn as we go along exercise for the burgeoning new Selznick photographic effects department.  I've written much about Cosgrove already so I'll not repeat myself other than to say that with friend and associate, effects cinematographer Clarence Slifer, Cosgrove was tasked with the until then unknown world of compositing glass paintings onto the 3 strip technicolour process, a task requiring much experimentation of use of filtration, incandescent light sourse on the artwork and above all else much trial and error testing of the unforgiving precision in negative developing.  

Technicolour was a lifetime away from the then bog standard monochromatic effects work, and as such the Technicolour corporation who owned the cameras and lenses placed strict caveats upon the Selznick operation (and presumably other studios of the day as well) to adhere to their dictates in all aspects of camera and negative.  For example it was a dictate that all rewinds of camera elements requiring second or multiple exposures was to only conducted by licensed technicolour staff on technicolour's premises!  For a time Cosgrove and Slifer acquiesqued to this arrangement, but as the matte load grew and grew on most of these colour Selznick productions it was soon apparent that for speed of operation and consistency of quality such work had to be carried out (behind closed doors) in the Cosgrove effects department.

The first of today's retrospectives is the Marlene Deitrich - Charles Boyer romantic starrer, THE GARDEN OF ALLAH.  The use of three strip colour in the production cinematography by W.Howard Greene and Hal Rosson is extraordinary to say the least.  Selznick was gung ho to have his films meticulously designed and orchestrated to make maximum use of the new expensive process.  Veteran art director Lyle Wheeler, who was to play a major role in Selznick's GWTW worked out glorious, almost fairy tale settings reminiscent of the many of the exquisite orientalism paintings (an art genre I love dearly) of the late nineteenth century.  The Selznick studio was a tiny one, and it's effects unit similarly 'cosy' - yet the films that came out of the studio were some of the biggest pictures of their day - though several lost money, such as GARDEN OF ALLAH which cost a fortune was not a success.  The critics trashed the film and it never really found it's audience, though I rather liked it.  Interestingly, Selznick allowed Cosgrove significant artistic and autonomous freedom in his effects work and had utmost faith in what Jack and Clarence could achieve.  No department on GWTW went more significantly over budget than Cosgrove's effects department.  Cosgrove budgeted for $29'772 yet the finished roster of mattes and composites came in at a then staggering over run of $89'832.  Selznick wasn't purturbed as he had so much faith in Jack's wizardry - a wizardry without which, GWTW could never have realised the old south anywhere near as successfully.

THE GARDEN OF ALLAH  (1936)

The opening shot - it may be a Cosgrove shot, but could be one of the only actual location shots in the film, with the rest, aside from the extensive Palm Springs location, being extensive matte painted composites.

The monastery - all Cosgrove!

One of Cosgrove's trademark effects - the sun rays streaming across the set  - almost all of which is a glass shot.  Jack utilised this lovely sense of romanticism in many of his mattes over the years, notably GWTW,  SINCE YOU WENT AWAY and several Warner Bros films.

Although I can't be certain, I think the ceiling work and the upper part of the archways is more than likely a Cosgrove shot.

More classic Cosgrove glass shot magic. Whether other painters worked on this film I can't be sure.  Fellow matte artist Albert Maxwell Simpson worked numerous times with Cosgrove on several of these films so I assume he could very well have painted on GARDEN OF ALLAH as well.

Backlot limited set with painted mosque, rooftops and skyline.

Some of the many romantic visions of the desert night as augmented by Cosgrove.

As far as I know, most, if not all of the matte compositing on this and many other Selznick films of the era was carried out original negative.  None of the shots in the least appears to be duped as quality is magnificent.  Certainly GWTW bennefitted from this method three years later.

Why go to Cairo when you can ask Cosgrove to paint it on glass?

Marlene Deitrich waves her burning torch to attract her suitor.  The matte demarcation is visible and the actress walks partly through it becoming transparent briefly on her way down to greet her saviour.

More glass enhancements that lend a wonderful feel to the proceedings.

Back to the monastary.

Most of the trees and all of the monastary are Cosgrove's work.

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 A year or two later Selznick embarked upon another technicolour production, this one being the delightful ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (1938),  A number of lovely matte shots permeate this thoroughly enjoyable film of the famed Mark Twain classic tale.  The casting is terrific, with young Tommy Kelly stealing the show as everybody's favourite kid hungry for adventure.  I could easily imagine pre-adolescent audiences of the day screaming with delight in movie houses throughout this film and immediately re-enacting all of Tom's daring do straight after the movie emptied out.

Again Cosgrove and Slifer teamed and produced siome great heavily romanticised shots which suited the theme, time and notion so well.  Legendary production designer William Cameron Menzies was on staff here, at least for the substantial cave sequences which occupy the last 20 minutes of the film.  Menzies' creations supplemented with Cosgrove's glass art just added to the thrills and fun. Of course Menzies would be one of the key creative members of the next up GONE WITH THE WIND, and much of that film's grandeur is due to him.  So, on with the mattes.......

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER  (1938)

Tommy Kelly - the kid just stole the show!

Cosgrove establishing shots of the small backwaters town.

A classic and customary Cosgrove sky - a specialty which would present itself again and again in many films Jack painted on over his career.  See DUEL IN THE SUN for some fantastic examples.

The boys are off on an adventure - all painted from just under the roof eaves.

Tom and Huck confront danger in the guise of Victor Jory.

I love that full painting at left - complete with animation of a shooting star.

The boy's secret (all painted) pirate island - now what kid wouldn't want their own pirate island like this?

Picnic at Cosgrove Rock - high drama.

Extensive glass art with kids on set.  Danger lurks within.

Some of the many interior glass shots based upon the wonderful design of William Cameron Menzies, with the lower left frame of the underground waterfall (possibly created with falling salt?) and the kids approach simply magical!

The kids encounter swarms of cave bats - a cell animated composite by the looks of it, and it looks great.

Tom nearly falls into one of Cosgrove's glass shot subterranean canyons.

The search party await anxiously for the lost Tom.

Menzies' set and Cosgrove's additions.

A sense of old time romance in this beautifully designed glass shot that is all but forgotten nowadays.

Trouble's afoot!   The duel to the death...but who will win?

Well of course Tom Sawyer won, and perenial screen heavy Victor Jory took the dive!  The kids see the light and find their way out at last - all Cosgrove paint with what appears at right to be a small projected element of the kids due to odd looking contrast of the plate (?)

Free at last - a gorgeous matte painted shot to conclude the drama.

So endeth today's blog - I hope some of you enjoyed these shots.  I'll do a separate blog shortly on Cosgrove's mattes for JOAN OF ARC as I wanted to keep this one all Selznick oriented.