Blake Edwards' THE GREAT RACE - a big, bold and brassy live action cartoon

One of Warner Bros studios big budget shows of the sixties, THE GREAT RACE (1965) was a particularly loud though undeniably fun film with alot going for it.  Star Jack Lemmon, whom I'm very fond of, (especially in THE ODD COUPLE) was really allowed to cut loose hare and personify a hosh-posh of elements from every cartoon villain you've ever seen.

Tony Curtis was his usual dull and utterly forgettable self, with Peter Falk and Natalie Wood shining here.  Blake Edwards knows his stuff when it comes to slapstick comedy and in fact made a couple of the funniest films ever, THE PARTY and RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER  - both with Peter Sellers.

Henry Mancini contributed a sensational comic score that works perfectly, with the wonderful centrepiece musical number by Dorothy Provine being one of those numbers you just can't get out of your mind for days afterwards - in fact I'm playing it right now as I type this ("He shouldn't a had, ought-to-have had a swang on me").

An aspect I liked about THE GREAT RACE was that it won the Oscar for best sound effects editing - by one of the greats of sound effect creation, the legendary Treg Brown.  Now if anyone out there is anything like me, a fan of Chuck Jones Looney Tunes cartoons of the fifties, you'd know that Brown was Warners' chief sound cutter to all of those hundreds of six minute marvels - sound effects that were unlike ANY other animation studio in their sheer lunacy and incongruent hilarity.  Chuck Jones himself credited Brown as one of the great unsung heroes of the Warner Bros cartoon division for 30 years.

Anyway, on with the special photographic effects from THE GREAT RACE.  They are great!  The picture is loaded with matte shots painted by Cliff Silsby, Howard Fisher and Albert Maxwell Simpson, blue screen shots by Linwood Dunn and miniatures photographed by James B.Gordon - not to mention some amazing full scale mechanical effects by Lee Zavitz. The show looks and sounds great, even today.

So, on with the show...........

Special Photographic Effects - Linwood G.Dunn - Film Effects of Hollywood

Special Effects Cinematographer - James B.Gordon

Optical Cinematographer - Don Weed

Matte Painters - Cliff Silsby, Albert Maxwell Simpson, Leon Harris and Howard Fisher.

 Mechanical Special Effects - Lee Zavitz

Sound Effects Editor - Tregoweth Brown

A great title sequence done as a series of old lantern slides, complete with several projectionist jarring gags.

One of the 25 matte shots (I've never been able to spot that many).

The race begins - NYC painted cityscape. One of the key matte painters on this show, and many more for Linwood Dunn was Albert Maxwell Simpson - an artist who's career harked way back to the silent era and who had among thousands of films painted on THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, GONE WITH THE WIND and other Selznick pictures as well as the original KING KONG and many, many more mostly for RKO over the decades.  Simpson had a long association with Linwood Dunn right from the KONG days and they continued a working relationship up until the late sixties.

Another angle with matte painted NYC buildings added to Warners backlot street.

Painted western lanscape with simulated explosion and fire element on horizon.

A large miniature of Lemmon and Falk's evil lair - with typically cartoonish outcome.

The ole' west - probably a backlot set with painted in Arizona scenery.

Alaska - partial soundstage set with substantial matte painted snowy landscape.

Small set with actors matted into ocean plate.

A dazzling Cliff Silsby matte painted newpaper office - with flawless attention to detail and superb compositing.  Silsby was one of Hollywoods old hands at matte art, having worked over the decades for Twentieth Century Fox and Warners.

A beautiful soft blended matte shot as the adventurers reach land at last.  I suspect that possibly former Paramount matte artist Jan Domela may also have been involved with the show as he did do several contract matte jobs for Linwood Dunn around that year.  He did paint on HAWAII at Film Effects of Hollywood the following year.

A very rare original matte painting that still exists from the scene shown below.  The painting is 5 feet wide and is on thin hardboard.  The artist would either be Al Simpson or Cliff Silsby.      *Picture courtesy of Jim Aupperle.

A detailed photograph from the above original matte painting.

One of the mattes that was up for auction many years ago, and was credited to Leon Harris as matte painter.  The 1990 Disney movie DICK TRACY had Harris on the matte team along with six other artists, primarily as draghtsman for laying out the many complex architectural requirements on glass for the other artists to work from.

Another flawless painted matte, and like the others seen in this film very cleanly composited.

Paris!!!  A Linwood Dunn miniature Eiffel Tower perfectly lit and lined up into actual location plate.

The spectacular finale - the Eiffel Tower comes crashing down.  The story behind this wonderful sequence is fascinating.  In an interview effects supervisor Dunn was faced with the prospect of investing considerable sums in contstructing a large sixteen foot miniature, yet came across the notion of employing nothing mre than an over the counter seven dollar plastic model Eiffel Tower, from which an amazingly convincing scene of destruction was achieved which to all concerned was perfectly acceptable.(from an interview with Dunn in the book Special Effects in the Movies by David Everitt)

Jules Verne take us on a trip... JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH

One of my favourite 'evergreen' fantasy films has always been the wonderful 1959 20th Century Fox adventure JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH, a film that to me is still as entertaining today as it was when I first saw it on television (in black and white) back in the early seventies.

old tv showings were in 'EMASCOP'  !

There is so much going in favour of JTTCOTE  - from the story itself which is just delightful, to the casting of the ever reliable James Mason in the lead to the perennially sinister and slimy character actor Thayer David as the nemesis in the story.  Hell, even Pat Boone fits in here well too, though that bloody duck got on my nerves a bit!.  As a huge fan of the film scores of the great Bernard Herrmann I'd naturally have to put his name forward in this little tribute as well.  Lot's of organs at play in this score and it sets so uniquely vivid an atmosphere of creepiness, coupled with the virtual cathedral like settings and the equally 'cathedral-esque' ominous score complimenting the terrific Lyle Wheeler sets.  Bernie did several great scores for Fox, and I personally feel his utterly unique one of a kind score for the earlier Fox science fiction masterpiece THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL to be his career best (with 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD not far behind, though as usual, I digress...).

The trailer pomised it!

Well as this is a visual effects blog I'd better get to the photographic effects, of which there are so many wonderful and unforgettable examples I will display here today.  Let's be clear, I've never seen any of the other (three I think) incarnations of this Verne classic, least of all the recent CG one, which to be honest interests me not one iota.  Remakes don't cut the mustard for me, with so many disasterous 're-imaginings' or whatever sales hype they label them with nowadays depressing me endlessly.  The abysmal, bottom of the septic tank Tim Burton remake of the great PLANET OF THE APES should say it all!   Anyhow, I digress (when I do digress here, kindly tap me on the shoulder and politely suggest I get back with the job at hand - mattes!!  I'll not think badly of you for such gentle 'shake ups')

The effects - well where do I begin?  The film, being a period piece and a grand, epic adventure is chock full of sensational matte painted shots, which for this viewer still enchant and thrill fifty years down the track.  In fact I'd say that the race for the visual effects Oscar in '59 between JOURNEY and the competitor BEN HUR was a pretty close one, though the MGM show probably deserved the statue all things weighed up.

Emil Kosa jnr and his fine art

The Fox photographic effects department had a long and almost unequalled history of wonderful quality effects work, largely due to the stewardship of the legendary Fred Sersen who ran the shop for around 30 years.  Fred was a skilled matte painter who built up a large and well equipped photographic effects unit with many big name exponents in the field working with Sersen for, in many cases, their entire professional lives.  Ray Kellogg was with the department from the thirties as chief matte painter and right hand man to Sersen, and upon Sersen's retirement in the early fifties Ray assumed departmental head status.  According to long time matte painter Matthew Yuricich who had worked at Fox for several years at the beginning of his career "Ray Kellogg was a very conciencious all round visual effects man" - and I will cover key work from Kellogg's war film special effects in an upcoming post.  I mention this as it's fascinated me that several Hollywood effects units for decades were 

run by matte artists (Cosgrove, Sersen, Kellogg, Newcombe) and later on 

cameramen ran these same units.

Kosa - a portrait.

Upon Kellogg's departure to persue a career in direction and second unit work in 1957 long time visual effects cameraman L.B Abbott (Lenwood Ballard Abbott) assumed control of the unit.  JOURNEY was one of Abbott's biggest films as director of visual effects and utilised all manner of trick work. Sersen, though retired was retained as a special consultant for the remainder of his life.  By this time 'Bill' Abbott had hundreds of films under his belt  as chief cinematographer for the Sersen unit as it was known, from assistant cameraman duties on the silent masterpiece SUNRISE right on through to his earliest special effects assignments in that capacity such as SUEZ and IN OLD CHICAGO.  Abbott's wonderful autobiography 'Special Effects - Wire, Tape and Rubber Band' is essential for the visual effects fanatic and describes this film in detail.

The effects crew on JOURNEY included James B.Gordon as effects cameraman.  Gordon had a long association with Fox dating back to the thirties on such epic effects extravavganzas as THE RAINS CAME and IN OLD CHICAGO - two of the best visual effects showcases ever made.  Gordon later became director of effects photography for Linwood Dunn at his Film Effects of Hollywood on such big shows as THE GREAT RACE and IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD.   Another vital name associated with visual effects, possibly one of the most important names in this field who should never be overlooked although he so often was, was Ralph Hammeras.  Ralph had a vast history of expertise in this arena with expertise in every aspect from glass painting right through to model photography on films such as the original LOST WORLD.   Ralph was miniatures cameraman on JOURNEY and shot the lizard sequences and the volcanic finale.  Hammeras was a genuine legend in visual effects and contributed extensively to hundreds of films without screen credit such as painting the amazing Oscar winning in camera glass shots of Alexandria for CLEOPATRA (which Emil Kosa jr actually was given the Oscar for!).  Anecdotal evidence I have from two other matte painters who worked under Kosa suggest he was difficult to work with according to one Academy award winning matte artist "had a mean streak which he directed at the matte painters under him" and another Oscar winning journeyman matte artist ..."didn't have a single kind word for Kosa".

The matte paintings play an important role in this film obviously, and as such there are many expansive moments which are aided immeasurably by the artform.  Long time resident chief matte painter Emil Kosa jr oversaw this area with equally long time Fox artists such as Menrad von Muldorfer and Cliff Silsby providing the requisite art.  Fox had probably the largest effects department at that time with a veritable stable of top quality matte artists, cameramen and opticals people.  A number of blue screen travelling mattes also feature, mostly in the giant lizard sequences, and for the most part they are effective, though matte lines being as hard to conceal as they were with this process in the anamorphic process at the time are inevitable, but add to the fun of the ride to my eyes.  I didn't include the blue screen shots here, nor the collapsing miniature temple, but they look pretty good and add up to the overall high level of enjoyable entertainment that is JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH.                            So, on with the show...

Special Photographic Effects - L.B Abbott, ASC

Special Effects Cinematographers - James B.Gordon, ASC and Walter Castle

Miniatures Cinematographer - Ralph O.Hammeras

Matte Painting Supervisor - Emil Kosa, jnr

Matte Artists - Menrad von Muldorfer, Cliff Silsby and Gilbert Riswold

Process Projection - Sol Halperin

Miniatures - Herb Cheek

Mechanical Special Effects - Frank O'Connor

Special Photographic Effects Consultant - Fred Sersen

A beautifully atmospheric matte featured early on in the film which Bernard Herrmann's score really sold.

After years of only seeing awful pan and scan tv versions it was great to finally witness the effects in CinemaScope.

More widescreen spectacle - though the trail of dust does pass under the matte line.

The sunlight beam shows the group the secret passage - painting with animated light effect.

Vertigo inducing painted cliff face.

Beautiful CinemaScope wide view that is all but lost on televison.

The underground sea(!) - terrific art direction and a great painting marred by excessive grain from the duping process.

Danger lurks in this underground oasis - real beach with painted cliffs.

The beasts appear.  Real iguana with pasted on fins split screened to sea.  Cliff overhang is a glass painting.

A terrific split screen: miniature set, painting and actors at beach location.

My favourite matte shot in the film. 

This may be Lyle Wheeler's set all the way, or maybe a painted upper third added later?

A painted view up the volcano 'vent', from which our group make their non-regulation escape.

Thar she blows  -  probably painted volcano with opticals of fire, smoke and debris - split screened to Sersen tank lake.

A sensational painting and flawless matte photography to combine the elements. The actors in the raft are  in the Sersen tank at the Fox ranch at Malibu against a backing with, I strongly believe, to be a carefully laid out soft matte to blend the plain painted outdoor backing with the glass matte in the effects department.  Bravo Bill!