The Epics - LAND OF THE PHARAOHS and THE PRODIGAL matte shots - part eleven in an ongoing series

Every time I feel the 'epics' have run their course I find more old matte shots in my files that I just can't skip, so although I was planning a new topic today I feel the urge to still upload more great old styled epic mattes, with today's effects shots from the studios of Warner Bros, Paramount and MGM respectively.

First up is a film unjustly relegated to camp status, Howard Hawk's 1955 LAND OF THE PHARAOHS which actually isn't all that bad.  Sure it has the larger than life characterisations mandatory to the genre, and all of the ingredients that go along with it - plenty of flagellation, slaves eaten by hungry crocs, psychotic femme fatale in the shapely shape of a young Joan Collins, and some really nice Lou Litchtenfield matte paintings - some of which I illustrated earlier in my special tribute to Warner Brothers blog a while back.

An ever so slight exaggeration, but a hell of a piece of ad art if ever there was one.

Boy do I love old time title cards, and the fonts here are just sensational.  Where, oh where are the decent titles nowadays

An impressive pan introduced to Lou Litchtenfield's painted city walls.  Lou wasn't screen credited on this show.

Real estate salesman of ancient times.  Now would you buy a used pyramid from this guy?

The Pharaoh's tomb, by way of an entire pyramid years in the building was just a tad excessive I'd reckon.

"The slaves were entitled to one hot meal a day - a bowl of steam"      (with apologies to Woody Allen)

A split screen matte with painted stonework and third element of workers atop of painting.

Jack Hawkin's intended tomb in the making - and it's only taken a record fifteen years to get this far.  Some forward planning really is essential on your average Pharaoh's wall planner.

A stunner of a matte composite - and one of my favourites from this genre. It was great to finally see this in CinemaScope after so many old 'flat' 4x3 video versions.

The final matte just as the end title dissolves in.

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Next up are the Oscar nominated, though surprisingly few in number, effects shots from Cecil B.DeMille's SAMSON AND DELILAH (1949).  The film has a few Jan Domela matte shots but the key effects sequence which lead to the Academy nomination was the astonishing set piece where Victor Mature's Samson destroys the columns propping up the temple and the whole lot comes crashing down.  A terrific sequence that still looks great all these years on.  Notable for what may be the first use of an early prototype of motion control to faciliate an exact duplication of a mechanised camera move, thus permitting a perfect marry up of miniature and separately shot extras in front of a black screen with a downward tilt camera move.

At least two Hollywood studios came up with similar devices around the same time - MGM's camera effects department under Warren Newcombe and Paramount under Gordon Jennings.  As best I can gather, the Jennings department was first off the block with this device, having utilised it successfully on a picture  titled THE BIG CLOCK (1948), one full year prior to MGM's unveiling for EASTER PARADE (1949).  Oddly though, I can barely note down more than a couple of Paramount films in which I've seen such repeater moves.  The studio was pretty conservative in such matters, especially under the reign of Jenning's successor John Fulton.  There were some tilt matte composites in  the VistaVision film WE'RE NO ANGELS in the mid fifties but that was a rare and to my observations uncommon occurance.

Brothers Gordon and Dev Jennings had very long careers with Paramount, with both men dying suddenly one year apart.

Two Jan Domela painted mattes in a film rather unusually  rather scarce on matte shots.

The G.L Stancliffe Motion Repeater in action (though these frames don't demonstrate the effectiveness particularly well).  The extras were filmed in front of a black backing by effects cameraman Wallace Kelly, with the footage optically combined by optical cinematographer Paul Lerpae who utilised roto mattes to gradually envelope the crowd in falling masonry.  The people in the galleries watching in horror were all puppets articulated for certain degrees of movement. Optical effects man Spencer Gill explained the actual technical process to me as thus; "... they were filmed against black and the composites were helped with soft-edged, animated, rotoscoped mattes.  The sequence of four photos show (upper left) the approximate size of the live action element, then (upper right) the miniature and live action split screen with some "motion control" match moves (very slight) that tie it all together. As the model crumbles the debris line "wipes off" (via the soft-edged roto mattes ) the live action and you then see revealed the small dummies flopping about. There is a foreground of folks matted in via black-backing and density mattes. There is smoke and debris matted over everything and as the dust flies up everything gets a diffusion pass. All pretty clever. The bouncing, "chattery" roto around some of the folks and the miniature debris not withstanding"..

Visual effects supervisor Gordon Jennings posing in Ivyl Burks miniature temple set.

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 Whereas LAND OF THE PHARAOHS was lumbered with the camp classic moniker I'd be more inclined to say that this next picture deserved that label.   THE PRODIGAL made the same year as the Warners film (1955) had several terrific matte painted composites, some with optical moves, though the film itself was an often laughable affair.  Photographic effects were under the control of MGM veteran Warren Newcombe, whom we've discussed here several times previously.  Director of effects photography was long time MGM effects cinematographer Mark H. Davis, who according to Rolf Giesen's book Special Effects Artists assembled approximately 3000 matte shots in some 470 feature films throughout his career, mostly with Metro.  Apparently davis was also an accomplished matte painter as well and left the studio in 1956 to seek independant effects work after more than 26 years in the Metro camera effects department.

Yes, it really is that tacky.

Subtle set extension via matte art that remains totally credible and low key.

A beautiful vista from one of Newcombe's matte painters, and the optical pan across to Lana Turner's boudoir below.

I like these shots for there subtlty  -with added rooftop skyline above and clouds added on lower frame.

The Roman guards dump Ed Purdom's not-as-dead-as-they-think body into the vulture pit.

I was quite surprised with this matte as it's quite below par for a Newcombe departmental job with serious colour matching issues and a glarying obvious matte line stretching across the frame.

The Epics - THE ROBE and DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS matte shots - part ten of an ongoing series

Twentieth Century Fox hit paydirt in September 1953 with the much ballyhooed exhibition of the first ever CinemaScope widescreen presentation THE ROBE.  The culmination of years of development by French scientist Professor Henri Chretien, Hollywood mogul Darryl F.Zanuck recognised a great gimmick when he saw it and wisely took an option on the process and applying the trade name 'CinemaScope'.

CinemaScope was a means of optically squeezing an image vertically in camera during the original photography by shooting through a specially engineered elongated anamorphic lens and presenting that same  processed and edited 'squeezed' footage later in cinemas by projecting that same squeezed footage back through, in essence the same lens, though this time orientated to horizontally unsqueeze the compressed image to a considerable width, generally two and a half times the width of standard 'flat' 35mm exhibition (2.35:1).

Though fraught with problems, notably related to distortion, excessive compression around the sides of the frame and focusing limitations - not to mention the sheer size of the actual Bausch and Lomb manufactured lens, which was an enormous hunk of glass, the process was a huge hit. The 'fine print' in this new sensation for exhibitors was the reality that tens of thousands of cinemas worldwide were required to spend considerable amounts in refitting new super sized screens - which given that the existing proscenium of the majority of cinemas built prior to 1953 were strictly intended to showcase a standard sized screen of approximately 1.66:1 ratio (at best) - and tiny little screens they were at that!  

I know of several instances of cinemas here in New Zealand where a cut price version of CinemaScope was adopted by cheapskate exhibitors whereby the new scope footage was indeed projected through the sparkling new anamorphic lenses onto the crummy old 'flat' screens, with some two thirds of the image deliberately cropped off in the projection window with cardboard.  I myself saw IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD and FREEBIE AND THE BEAN on a bizarre double feature at the long deceased Classic Cinema, Auckland (definitely a cheapskate outfit  whereby the cinema mensroom door was actually on the corner of the screen, so every time some guy went to the can this little rectangle at the left edge of the screen would open and a bizarrely illuminated patron visible for all to see, and scoff at!).  True story folks.

THE ROBE was an okay show I suppose - certainly yards better than the awful, utterly forgettable sequel  DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS that just screams out 'quick cash in' all the way to the box office..  THE ROBE was a tad overly theatrical for my tastes with Jay Robinson chewing the scenery like an out of control grizzly bear. I half expected to learn of a lion tamer popping in between takes with a chair and a whip to quell Robinson and throw him some some tasty treats!  As an effects show it's interesting, though I've yet to see a decent transfer of it.  Both this and it's diabolical sequel DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS are on shabby dvd transfers filled with grain and colour shift. The resulting matte composites look very messy indeed, as dupes to begin with you're dealing with the devil, so with poor transfers of duped effects shots, often duped again as part of the interminable lap dissolves that directors of this genre were fond of, you don't see the painted mattes at their best by any means.

The 20th Century Fox matte department around 1953 while still under the control of long time head Fred Sersen (seen at right).  The matte painters pictured here are, from left, Ray Kellogg, Lee LeBlanc, Cliff Silsby, Emil Kosa jr and lastly Max DeVega right down the far end.  A wonderfully revealing photograph of matte artists at work in one of the busiest effects departments in Hollywood.

Long time Fox matte artist and effects man Ray Kellogg supervised on both of these shows and the normal group of effects people were used - senior matte painter Emil Kosa jr, artists Matthew Yuricich and Menrad von Muldorfer, Cliff Silsby and maybe Lee LeBlanc in addition to visual effects cameramen Harry Dawes and L.B Abbott.  So without further ado, we'll take a look at the mattes from both of these pictures.

The mattes unfortunately suffer on the appalling Fox DVD release with excessive grain and bizarre colour shift, not helped at all by the fact that most of the painted effects occur during lap dissolves.  Anyone who's seen any number of fifties technicolour films can vouch for the utterly dreadful quality of the dissolve opticals where suddenly a few seconds preceeding the effect the film stock noticeably changes (for the worse) and all semblance of normal colour goes straight out of the window only to be 'spliced' back to the original print at the close of the optical transition. I pity the cinematographer and effects artist who saw their work reduced to this state time and time again.

I rather like this shot, though once again the colour grading is not befitting of the dvd format and resembles the sort of awful old muddy 16mm television transfers we used to have to put up with.

I'm surprised that this shot even made the final cut.  Again dreadful colour grading and matching of plate to artwork.

I'd be interested in checking out a Blu Ray of this title, even though I personally don't feel that high definition format is here to stay if the ad-hock marketing and piecemeal release calenders are any guideline.

This quite nice, expansive matte was probably painted by Matthew Yuricich.

One of several ROBE matte shots which are recycled for the very poor sequel DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS

Veteran matte artist Matthew Yuricich seen here recently (circa 2007) attending an exhibition of traditional matte art hosted by visual effects supervisor and former ILM matte cinematographer Craig Barron.  The painting seen behind Craig is one of Matthew's wonderful matte paintings from Hitchcock's terrific NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

As previously mentioned, this film has virtually nothing to reccommend it, with dismal performances (did Victor Mature ever present anything of himself other than dismal?) and an air of desperate cheapness that hangs over the entire film.

I have only included the few original mattes used in DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS.  Several of the other shots are just mattes from THE ROBE.  Again I presume Matthew Yuricich would have painted on this show.

An unusual composition for such a matte shot with unnecessary foreground pillars somewhat ruining the shot.

The Epics - ALEXANDER THE GREAT and SOLOMON AND SHEBA matte shots: Part nine in an ongoing series

I was only ever going to do a couple of 'Epic' blogs but upon a couple of recommendations from like minded fans of 'visual effects old school', I have continued this series, as I do after all have a zillion old matte shot frames gathering dust (or whatever they gather in a computer).... so without further ado, on with the first of today's double feature, ALEXANDER THE GREAT (1956).

Not to confused with the convoluted, out of control ego trip that Oliver Stone turned out a few years back, this Robert Rossen version with Richard Burton, although no masterpiece, wasn't too bad and at least got to the point and stayed there.  Of course Dickie Burton was afraid by now of being typecast in this sort of thing as he'd just done the big Fox biblical epic THE ROBE (next installment on the very matte shot blog you are reading at this exact moment) though I think he's good at this type of thing, being principally a stage actor and a Shakespearian one at that, which more than lends itself to this larger than life genre.

Being chiefly a hybrid international production as far as I could ascertain - with an American director, a Welsh star, an Australian lighting cameraman (Robert Krasker), an Italian composer (Mario Nascimbene) and a Russian art director (Andrei Andreiev) it just made sense to employ a British visual effects supervisor (Wally Veevers).

As I've mentioned here several times in the past, Wally ran the effects unit at Shepperton for many years, having had his on the job training as a visual effects cinematographer in the old Percy Day matte department through all those Korda films in the mid thirties.  Wally's specialty, aside from effects camerawork was designing and constructing his own camera equipment and special effects rigging himself at home in his garage while listening, so I'm told, to country and western music (!)  Now, normally I'd not give the time of day to ANYONE who liked 'country and western' music, but Wally is different.  I've admired his work for years and feel agrieved for the man being robbed of his Oscar for 2001.

In fact, alot of the miniature rigging and specialised photographic gear Wally used on 2001 and THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN was knocked together by Veevers himself at home with his fully equipped little workshop.

Veevers (right) on the 2001 set

Shepperton had a good sized matte department in the fifties consisting of chief matte painter George Samuels, artists Bob Cuff, Albert Julion, Joseph Natanson, Judy Jordan and later on Alan Maley, Gerald Larn, Doug Ferris, Peter Melrose and Bryan Evans.  Matte cameramen Geoff Stevenson, Bryan Loftus, John Mackie, Peter Harman and John Grant all featured within Shepperton's hallowed halls at various times and together a great many excellent and sometimes ambitious matte effects were turned out.

I fully intend to demonstrate many Shepperton mattes from various productions here on my blog at a later date, with such beautiful showcases as TAMING OF THE SHREW,  DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, THE COLDITZ STORY, VALLEY OF GWANGI, ANNE OF THE 1000 DAYS, THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS and many more,  in addition to profiling Shepperton matte painter Gerald Larn.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT   (1956)

Wow, what a poster!  This magnificent British Quad (the UK version of the US one sheet) is, sadly a thing of the past.

Although Wally Veevers had effects credit I don't know who painted the particular shots, though it's a safe bet that George Samuels and Bob Cuff would have been principally involved.  Sadly Bob passed away earlier this year folks.

Admittedly quite an obvious painting, but I still like it and the fire element looks great.  According to Gerald Larn most, if not all of the matte composite work was done using the colour separation dupe method and none of it as far as he was aware was original negative nor rear projection.  One of the few original negative composites was done for David Lean's DOCTOR ZHIVAGO in 1965.

A wonderful full painting of the army encampment at night with tiny flaming torch effects added.

Although ALEXANDER THE GREAT predated Gerald Larn's tenure as resident matte painter by some eight years, these candid photographs of Larn at work in the mid 60's reveal that very night encampment matte painting ias llustrated above on the wall behind him amid a variety of Shepperton matte paintings from various films.  Where these masterpieces ever ended up was a total mystery to Larn who said that they'd be there one day and gone the next - just where, nobody ever seemed to know, or care.

From conversations I've had with retired Shepperton matte painter Gerald Larn, the glass paintings were generally quite large at Shepperton, measuring six feet by three feet typically - a size long established as ideal by Wally Veevers, especially with the advent of CinemaScope in 1954. Frequently miniature elements were matted within areas of some paintings to lend a three dimensional aspect to suit particular requirements. 

Gerald Larn commented ..."the matte studio was long and narrow and consisted of four identical easels permanently fixed to the floor and the up and down motion of the heavy framed glass paintings was counterbalanced by weights that ran up and down in a boxed in channel, much like the old sash windows"

An old Wally Veevers trick - to simulate ocean going vessels in miniature without the hassle that comes with scale of water and waves Veevers would photograph static models in the studio and matte them into a real ocean plate - a trick he utilised extensively for the 1952 Trevor Howard war film THE GIFT HORSE

One of several painted mattes ruined with the superimposed map overlay.

Same again - damned map!

No, not a matte painting but in fact a scenic backing painted by Spanish matte effects wizard Emilio Ruiz Del Rio.

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SOLOMON AND SHEBA  (1959)

A big United Artists extravaganza, that although it's been 30 yeras since I last saw it I recall it as being a pretty okay sort of a show with the ever watchable Yul Brynner doing his stuff.  Effects wise, it's a bit of a mystery.  The only special effects credit was to Alex Weldon, a mechanical or physical effects specialist on many films.  Photographic effects were not credited, so it's wide open to speculation as to who could have done these matte shots and the few great miniature set pieces as well. From my colleague Domingo Lizcano I'm reliably informed that Spanish miniaturist Francisco Prosper was involved in the model work, and by the look of the high quality effects shots the mattes may well have been in camera glass or foreground shots.

My first guess would be Linwood Dunn's Film Effects of Hollywood, as he often supplied the visual effects work for United Artists product - or maybe Howard A.Anderson's effects house?  There is also the distinct possibility of the matte shots all being completed in Britain with either Shepperton, Pinewood or MGM-Elstree being candidates.  To me the work looks like that of Emilio Ruiz, though I don't believe that's ever been established.

We may never know... so while we ponder that, lets take a look at the impressive mattes and foreground miniatures from SOLOMON AND SHEBA...

Typical of this film are the really impressive paintings and composites such as this.  I'd love to know the origins of these.

The last time I saw this was on tv in an awful pan and scan print which cropped off so much of the matte art.

I'd almost go along with the 'foreground miniature' theory on this one.  The light and shadows are perfectly matched.

A really stunning matte shot with a terrific sense of colour value and matching to the location daylight and time of day.

At left we may see the actual set as built, and at right the carefully placed foreground miniature with a tilt down camera axis.  The clouds tend to look painted to me which makes the shot all the more baffling.  In all likelihood the work of Spanish miniaturist Francisco Prosper.

A Francisco Prosper miniature set where the army blinded by the intense sunlight reflected on the shields all stumble into the abyss.

"oh the humanity"...... the devastation that is mandatory in this genre.  Possibly a matte shot or painted backing?

One of Emilio Ruiz's large painted backings.

Another example of a large Emilio Ruiz painted backing.