A Duet of Disney: SUMMER MAGIC and JOHNNY TREMAIN

I've been getting a tad irritable not being able to 'express my inner matte' with the blog lately, so I'm delivering a somewhat smaller article today and may do many more of similar scale for ease of preparation and less hair pulling - (although I must point out that the same blogger tech problems are still occurring and it seems that nothing has changed).

Anyone who frequents these pages will know how much I love classic Disney photographic effects work and today I celebrate a pair of films from the Mouse Factory which beautifully demonstrate the significant matte work carried out in two totally different pictures.

That classic of Americana, the timeless story of the Revolutionary War of 1773, JOHNNY TREMAIN was filmed in 1957, almost entirely on the Burbank studio lot and through the magic of the glass painting a great many vistas of period 18th Century Boston.

The other Disney picture I have selected for this retrospective is a pleasantly warm hearted family musical, SUMMER MAGIC made in 1963. Also a period picture set in Boston, though this time it's supposed to be 1912.  As well as a spirited cast and at least one great song by Burl Ives (The Ugly Bug Ball) SUMMER MAGIC has a number of  beautiful pastoral mattes of rural heartland America that are wonderful.

For no apparent reason other than a tall cold pitcher of Jack Daniels just having been consumed, I'll start off with the latter film....

The maestro, Peter Ellenshaw oversaw the many mattes here, with long time deputy Jim Fetherolf and most likely Constantine 'Deno' Ganakes also assisting with the artwork.

The glorious opening tilt down matte painted composite for Boston in 1912.  Virtually the entire shot is painted with just the first floor or so of the buildings on the left being an actual set, with everything else including all of the right side of the street being manufactured in the Disney matte department under Ellenshaw.

Multi plane moving clouds with sun burst.

Atmosphere according to Ellenshaw.

Disney were always gung ho when it came to bold painting.  Rarely were the mattes under the Ellenshaw regime a simple split screen affair, but more often than not the matte art would be worked around into the  foreground of a shot as well as the more traditional background or top ups such as shown here.  It wasn't unusual for the Ellenshaw unit to completely paint an entire frame leaving just a tiny slot for live action, such as in the DAVY CROCKETT films.

Soft blend, probably using the in house rear projection compositing methods.

If there's any one element that Peter was king at, it was the skies and cloudscapes in so many films.

You just don't find beautiful shots like this much outside of Disney.

Distant town flawlessly added.

Perennial studio favourite, Haley Mills seen here as one part of an Ub Iwerks sodium composite.

C'est Magnifique!   Virtually all painted with minimal live action plate.

I suspect Alan Maley may not yet have joined the Disney matte department.. but would soon do so.

The cloud work strongly suggests the hand of Ellenshaw.

Again, most of the frame appears to be painted, in particular the house and lawn at left.

A dramatic pull back with multi plane elements of foreground trees etc and most likely a process plate rear projected live action shot of the party in progress.

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Now, the other of today's duo of Disney matte shows, JOHNNY TREMAIN (1957).  The matte work is pretty extensive and has always been a source of curiosity to this writer, mainly due to the fact that celebrated matte artist and photographic effects man Peter Ellenshaw has never, to my knowledge, taken credit personally for the many mattes in the show, instead, taking the credit as production designer.  Even the two autobiographical volumes Ellenshaw Under Glass and The Garden Within by Peter himself only mention his designer role.  I'm sure Ellenshaw would have been overseeing the work in the department, with Albert Whitlock having painted some of the mattes along with Jim Fetherolf.  In fact Whitlock would often mention the paintings to his Universal visual effects cameraman Bill Taylor, as to the very small sets augmented with vast matte art.

Both the above and below mattes interestingly utilise the exact same little piece of Disney backlot for the live action to take place - a curious example of rushed schedule would be my guess as it's also the case in other Disney fx shows such as DARBY O'GILL and THE LOVE BUG. 

Everything is painted except the small area with that same rain puddle as seen above.  As with many Disney matte shows the matte art extends all the way up to the immediate foreground as well as the grand background view.

Rooftops and tall ships...

This set appears to be the very same one used in the other matte shot shown below, and possibly the upper frame as well, with a few small alterations and new glass art added.

Incongruous indoor lighting tends to mar the composites.

An unusually brave split screen blend with matte line bisecting midframe through the treeline.  In later years Albert Whitlock would master such a bold shot many times.

I can't recall, but I think that tree has great significance to the events.

Ellenshaw would have been in his element with this show, as a highly skilled gallery artist of tall ships.

I believe JOHNNY TREMAIN was a fairly rushed, low budget affair, with the matte department expanding the director's vision.

I wonder how many, if any, of these vintage Disney mattes still survive?

In Jim Danforth's long awaited just released memoir he describes the time he visited the Disney matte department in 1959 as a young man and watched Peter and Albert and other artists at work on numerous films of the era such as POLLYANNA and the layout of the department.

I'm pretty sure only the bit of road and the small window with the guy are the only pieces of live action here!

As I've said before, I'd bet my left kidney that Whitlock's skies were a direct influence from his years with Ellenshaw.

Ellenshaw had mastered the art of 'only painting what the camera requires', and passed this onto his artists. This of course would become Whitlock's stock in trade for the remainder of his career.

A series of receding silhouettes with very little detail and just a keen sense of backlight and some flame elements laid in.

Walt with what might be the actual matte art, but is probably Peter's conceptual painting for the above final shot

WELL, ONCE AGAIN THIS HAS BEEN A STOP START AFFAIR, WITH THE %$#@ BLOGGER CONSTANTLY 'LOGGING OUT' EVERY FEW MINUTES.  NOT TOO PAINFUL ON A SMALL BLOG LIKE THIS ONE, BUT I'LL CERTAINLY NOT EVEN ATTEMPT MY 'RANK-PINEWOOD TRIBUTE' NOR MY 'MATTES UP CLOSE PART 3' AS THOSE ARE BIG DEALS, AND MY PATIENCE AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE.

ENJOY

PETER

Disney's THE LOVE BUG - matte painting in top gear!

I've always had a soft spot for this film ever since seeing it on it's first release, which in itself was something of a compromise with my older cousin who didn't want to see such a kiddie film and much preferred to see THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN which happened to be showing just across the street!  What to do?  My Auntie decided that the only outcome which would suit both defiant kids was for the three of us to catch the 11.00am screening of THE LOVE BUG at the magnificent 2200 seater Civic theatre, and afterward to cross the road to see BATTLE OF BRITAIN at the 2.00pm session at the almost as magnificent St James theatre, Auckland.  

Both films were great, though I recall having bad dreams for a week over the bit in the war film where the pilot gets shot and we witness his flying goggles filling up with blood.

 

THE LOVE BUG  (1969) was a huge hit and spawned around four sequels plus a pseudo new millenium re-make featuring a third rate washed up junkie in the lead role!  So, here today we have the first of the series and I've also added a few of the more interesting matte shots from the immediate sequel HERBIE RIDES AGAIN (1975).  The special effects work in THE LOVE BUG has always enchanted me, and every time I see the film (probably over 20 viewings) I'm constantly dazzled with the many beautiful matte paintings, not to mention the many complex mechanical gags that feature throughout and the hundreds (350 to be precise) sodium vapour travelling matte composites - something of an all time record for the studio.

Anyone familiar with my blogs will know how I feel about the work of Peter Ellenshaw.  The master matte painter and production designer was semi-retired for a period from the late sixties and much of the seventies  so that he could pursue his fine art career.  Throughout this period to a large extent  matte painting duties were handled by studio matte department head Alan Maley with long time departmental associates Jim Fetherolf and Constantine Ganakes on staff.  Ellenshaw did come back to work on THE LOVE BUG  as conceptual designer of all of the effects shots and, as matte painter to work through the sheer number of matte effects required.

Bob Broughton with Ub Iwerks

Disney had always been near pathologically gung ho on shooting huge percentages of their sixties and seventies films on soundstages and integrating background action in post production via their refined yellow screen process  -though I've never quite understood why?  Pictures like the later ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD (1974) is nothing but sodium and painted matte shots! THE LOVE BUG, as mentioned above, contained a record number of sodium shots, not only for the auto racing background plates but also practically every scene which takes place outdoors involving dialogue.  This was so common in Disney's comedies and one can just gasp at the volume of shots thrown at Eustace Lycett and Bob Broughton on each production.  In an interview Lycett said "..by using travelling mattes we were able to avoid, almost entirely, taking the principal actors on location.  We had two scenes with Dean Jones in San Francisco and a couple with the principals at the Paramount ranch, otherwise all of the first unit photography was done all right here on the lot".  When asked about the shooting of the plates, Lycett commented ..."There were so many backgrounds required that I personally went along on each location to supervise and record the background data on each shot so that we could correctly match the foreground action when we shot here on the sodium stage. We also set up a closed circuit TV system on the stage so that we could run the backgrounds on monitors and cue the actors and crew while shooting.  This picture ended up with around 350 travelling matte shots and close to 50 painted matte shots, which was a record for us at the time".

 

Matte effects staff at left- top: Constantine 'Deno' Ganakes and Eustace Lycett.  middle:  Alan Maley and Jim Fetherolf  bottom: Peter Ellenshaw

The many mechanical effects were the domain of Robert A. Mattey, Danny Lee and Howard Jensen.  Mattey was a seasoned veteran from 20'000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA whereby his giant squid still stands the test of time in engineering and puppeteering marvels (thankfully re-shot a second time in a simulated studio storm to really sell the effect).  Danny Lee too was a career Disney effects man, having worked on shows with Mattey such as ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR and BLACKBEARDS GHOST right through to THE BLACK HOLE to name just a few.  Howard Jensen was one of A.D Flowers chief mechanical effects men providing fire and explosion effects for THE TOWERING INFERNO.  Finally, before leaping headfirst into these wonderful matte shots, and as a lifelong music score fan,  I have to mention the dizzy, head spinning comedic musical score by George Bruns that will stick in your brain for years after seeing the film......... music really does maketh the matte here!

a mid seventies re-issue quad poster.

The major establishing shot of Herbie's ex firehouse abode as depicted in this fantastic Alan maley matte painting.

Alan Maley's original full frame matte painting.

I'm not sure if this is the same painting printed down for an evening effect or a separate painting altogether?

The central effects showcase:  Dean Jones's frantic moonlit search through the moonlit streets of San Francisco for his beloved 'Herbie'.  This remains my all time favourite Disney effects sequence as it's totally wall to wall glass shots all the way, with an utterly beautiful, dreamlike quality present in every matte painting.  Peter Ellenshaw concieved these mattes and his pre-production art in itself is glorious.

An amazingly romanticised viewpoint of the already very nice city (as I recall it from 30 years ago).

As with most of this sequence, the mattes themselves constitute almost full frame artwork with minimal live action plate.

More from the same sequence that is so palpably 'Ellenshaw' in feel and texture.

A full painting with actor added at right, with even the reflected light in the puddles being Ellenshaw's brushwork.

I'm pretty sure this shot is a full painting with just Dean Jones and nearby trash can added via sodium matte.

I find the work in this sequence absolutely marvellous, and I'm hopeful that the original painted glasses still survive.

Ellenshaw was never afraid to fill an entire frame with artwork, extending right around into the foreground stonework, bushes and even the 'El Dorado' banner across the top.  The only live action being the people, cars and tents.

Herbie takes the wrong turn!  Exterior gold mine painted hills and once inside a number of complex split screens to show many racing cars tearing through the tunnels and across overhead gantries as astonished miners look on.

Herbie's downhill run from the mine - all paint except Herbie.

Herbie near the edge!  The valley floor and distant mountains all painted, with the car's dust trail passing through matte.

Once again, virtually all painted from just above the umbrellas.

One of Eustace Lycett's 350 sodium backing matte composites.

A telling before and after matte shot - with Herbie's escapades achieveing an added sense of danger via matte art.

One of three sequential  frames from the giant pullback conclusion offering a good look at the very loose impressionistic brushwork employed in rendering the city of San Francisico in very agreeably poetic terms.

Further out - the same large full painting with lovely application of sunlight touching the central buildings.

The final frame before 'The End' title card.

Below are a few of the many mattes from HERBIE RIDES AGAIN (1974), many of which appeared to be minor additions to beachside cliffs, bits of mountains and skyscraper additions.  I've just included a few of the shots which appeal to me.

Not a bad little yarn, with Helen hayes and Keenan Wynn stealing the show

Herbie's firehouse facing demolition - an extensive matte painting by Alan Maley.

Some of the trick effects and stunts involving travelling matte techniques and by the look of it, cell animation.

Another wide painting of the SF Bay and most of the Firehouse.