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!

Willis O'Brien vents natures' fury for THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII

Among effects master Willis H.O'Brien's more atypical film credits would have to be the big Merian C.Cooper Roman-disaster epic LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1935).  Whereas O'Bie was the specialist in stop motion animation as witnessed in a number of classic films, most notably KING KONG his skills in special visual effects were less often utilised elsewhere, with LAST DAYS OF POMPEII being a prime example.

I get the impression from all of the articles I've read on O'Bie that he never reached the degree of fulfillment in the field of special effects that he'd have desired - with often considerable gaps between assignments and many projects which never got off the ground such as GWANGI (pictured here with O'Bie posing with a Jack Shaw pre-production oil painting).  As if his stuttering film career wasn't impediment enough, the numerous personal tragedies that befell O'Bie were enough to sink the strongest of men.

Vernon Walker and Linwood Dunn

POMPEII is a fascinating film on a number of levels.  It's a film that tries hard to give the big studio look to an apparently modest budget film from a minor studio at the time.  It's pretty well written and well paced with several set pieces that shine through.  Of course it's the climactic eruption of Mt Vesuvius that was the selling point for the movie, and even though we have to wait until the last reel to see it there is enough drama and spectacle throughout to not leave one wanting.

Naturally to achieve such a setting as ancient Rome and Jeruselem photographic effects were required, and these are for the most part plentiful and well executed.  O'Bie surrounded himself with many of his tried and true crew from the two KONG films, and some even from THE LOST WORLD - all names familiar I'm sure to anyone who reads this blog - Byron Crabbe, Vernon Walker, Clarence Slifer, Harry Redmond, Marcel Delgado and Linwood Dunn to name but a few.  Many of these key figures also worked on the excellent SHE (which is covered elsewhere in detail in a previous blog here), with both films coming out in 1935 the workload at RKO must have been considerable indeed.

As this blog is primarily dedicated to glass shots I've assembled all of these here but not at the cost of overlooking the many miniatures and travelling matte composites, so these are here too.   Sadly I'm unable to locate an old magazine article I have from the thirties about this film which has photos showing before and after of some of Crabbe's glass shots.  If it turns up I'll add to shots to this blog. *(it did show up and it's now added just down this page 28/8/10)

I must say that the Warner Home Video DVD is up to there usual high standards and looks superb indeed.  Some of the matte shots are extremely grainy but that isn't due to the visual effect necessarily - more so down to the fact that many of those key narrative glass paintings occur during dissolves, which in themselves are optical dupes.  This isn't an uncommon irritation, for many older films had awful optical dissolves employed during matte painted shots, thus almost destroying the integrity of the visual effect that the matte artist and cameraman were trying to achieve.  I remember matte artist Rocco Gioffre once telling me of his utter annoyance at this exact phenomena, as the carefully painted and composited rooftop to an existing castle he had done for the movie ROB ROY being ruined by excess optical tampering to add a dissolve to the shot in the final film - an effect he said he could have facilitated quite easily at his end while making the composite, thus saving the image quality.  Of course this sort of 'wrecking' of such shots was dominant throughout the 30's and up until the early 60's where the optical transition such as the fade in or dissolve was orchestrated on separate elements altogether and spliced into the printing negative, with always obvious and distracting results - change of colour hue, grain and the rest of it.

Anyway, on with the show....

Director of Special Effects  Willis H.O'Brien

Matte Artist  Byron L.Crabbe

Production Illustrator  Mario Larrinaga

Photographic Effects  Vernon L.Walker

Miniature Process Projection  Carroll Shepphird

Model Makers Marcel Delgado and W.G 'Gus' White

Matte Cameraman  Clarence W.D Slifer

Optical Effects  Linwood G.Dunn

Mechanical Effects  Harry Redmond, jnr

The opening effects shot - a Byron Crabbe glass painting with separate smoke and sea elements, with studio mock up boat and people added via travelling matte, presumably the Frank Williams modified blue screen method.

As with all of the film, it was a soundstage shoot with extensive use of glass shots to open up the scenes.

A closer view of the same setting, presumably with a separate glass painting.

Nice subtle use of matte art to realistically extend a confined set.

More of the same with Byron Crabbe matte art.

A particularly nice matte composite.  Matte cameraman was the great Clarence Slifer who's career in effects cinematography would extend from the original KING KONG and GONE WITH THE WIND right up to BEN HUR, NORTH BY NORTHWEST and THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD and many other films.

Iconic image of glass painted Jeruselem.

A large miniature palace and a painted backing with separate volcanic smoke elements and water.

Possibly a painted backing in this shot?

I suspect a process plate of a miniature as in a later sequence it all collapses.

'she's ready to pop her cork'

'thar she blows' - Some Harry Redmond pyrotechnics at play.

What appears to be a miniature split screened into a stage set.

The aforementioned process miniature, now collapsing onto extras.

Lot's of fireballs and pyro elements added to production shots.

Willis O'Brien seen here on the miniatures stage shooting the lava flow scenes.

Very steady matte comp with actors split screened into lava flow miniature set.

Pompeii in flames - probably a miniature set due to camera movement.

One of the numerous blue backing matte sequences, with frequent bleed or show through of the background plate, particularly on the outside edges of the frame where horses appear translucent briefly and wagon wheels are invisible.

Collapsing senate building with travelling matte for foreground extras, and optical overlays of flames and smoke etc.

The giant statue collapses onto the running crowds in an optical composite.

Extras run from approaching river of lava by means of another blue screen optical composite, presumably using the updated Williams technique developed and improved upon during the making of KING KONG.

The arena in a view never properly shown to it's best advantage in the film, with matte artist Byron Crabbe seen here painting the glass shot for the stadium and crowds - which again is not well used in the final edit unfortunately.

A terrific studio promotional paste up that caught my eye when I was a 9 or 10 year old in a book and had me utterly transfixed.  Sadly no shot such as the grandeur or wonder of this ad-man's retouched still exists in the movie, which disappointed me no end!!

Creator of visual effects Willis H.O'Brien seen here with a MIGHTY JOE YOUNG puppet, and matte artist Byron L.Crabbe.

Upper picture - Crabbe and O'Bie looking over the very large model palace, and lower picture of the model as depicted in the film.