The Epics - Big Mattes from Smaller Productions - the final chapter

I'll make this my final posting in the series dedicated to epic films, as I have so many other topics I wish to  cover.   I have terrific mattes from a number of Disney pictures, a pictorial on mattes and miniatures for Hollywood War Pictures, a look at RKO's Visual Effects Department, an in depth retrospective on the Shepperton Studios Matte Department and more still on the back burner. 

This edition of my 'epic' coverage takes a look at some sensational matte painted effects from mostly lesser known films that fall way outside of the typical big budgeted Hollywood extravaganzas we usually associate with this particular genre.  Today's posting is somewhat of a mixed bag, in as much as the first two films aren't really films at all - they were both made for television miniseries, although one did receive theatrical release in Europe under a different title.  The first two 'films' in today's lineup are superb showcases of the artistry of Albert Whitlock and his tight knit team at Universal Studios.

Also on show here is a small sample of the work of Whitlock's former Disney mentor Peter Ellenshaw and another of Pop Day's former trainees, Ivor Beddoes. For more on Beddoes' astonishing matte work in THE RED SHOES, click here.  Finally, I have some mysterious uncredited mattes from two big Anthony Mann historical shows, filmed in Spain and almost certainly painted by Spanish or Italian based effects artists, which are certainly worth a look.  I've also somewhat belatedly added some great silent era matte effects by Paul Detlefsen, Paul Grimm and Ferdinand Pinney Earle in an effort to cover as many bases as possible.

MASADA  (aka THE ANTAGONISTS)  (1982)

MASADA was a five hour miniseries made by Universal in 1982 and shot on location in Israel.  Outside of the United States this marathon show was re-cut down to a two hour feature and retitled THE ANTAGONISTS, which if you've seen the very long television version would indeed be a welcomed alternative (and a much more descriptive title).  There are a considerable number of fine Whitlock matte shots in MASADA on which Al's long time assistant Syd Dutton shared all painting duties, with some paintings having the brushwork of both artists.

Whitlock's long time cameraman Bill Taylor composited the shots, some of which were elaborate pan and tilt moves from live action across to glass painted cityscapes with additional fire elements added.

An extraordinary matte composite revealed on screen with a complicated not to mention impressive camera move

The inferno blazes - entirely created on the matte stand in Whitlock's department with extensive painted city detail, artificially manufactured flame and smoke effect overlays and actors on a blue screen stage.

There are many mattes of differing views of the desert encampment and the gradual stages of construction of the huge ramp which will eventually reach the summit of the mountain though I have only included some key examples here.

The view at right is a wide panning shot with massed army - in part costumed extras while the rest are painted.

Upper left - a terrific Albert Whitlock night painting of Rome with, interestingly, a very Ellenshaw-esque looking sky - the likes of which may be seen frequently in so many Disney shows such as DAVY CROCKETT and THE ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR - both of which Whitlock worked on alongside Ellenshaw.

  

A.D   (ADDIS DOMINI)  (1985)

I've not managed to see this television film unfortunately, partly due to the near impossible availability of the film in any official format, thus I most grateful to Thomas Thiemeyer for these very rare frames from what appears to be outstanding Whitlock matte work.  The tele-film is noteworthy for being the recipient of Best Special Visual Effects Emmy 1985 - a nice swansong for Whitlock who would officially retire from Universal shortly thereafter although he kept active for the next eight or so years as far as his health would permit, providing consultation and hands on brush work for a number of Illusion Arts films such as COMING TO AMERICA, NEVER ENDING STORY 2, THE GATE and GREMLINS 2 to name a few.  It was gratifying to see not only Whitlock receive the Emmy, but also most of his unit as well: Bill Taylor, Syd Dutton, Dennis Glouner, Lynn Ledgerwood, Larry Schuler and Mark Whitlock

Photo real matte shots of ancient Rome.... who says oils on glass aren't as convincing as a CG recreation?

More sensational Emmy award winning matte shots from A.D (ADDIS DOMINI)

SPARTACUS  (1960)

 I realised almost too late that I had previously omitted one of the greatest single epic movie matte shots of all time... Peter Ellenshaw's magnificent glass shot of Rome from Stanley Kubrick's SPARTACUS (1960).  Now, the fascinating thing here is that both Ellenshaw and Whitlock had a hand in creating this wonderful matte as some sort of very unusual Disney rescue mission.  At that time Disney didn't provide services to other studios, so just how this single shot came about I'm unsure.  According to Craig Barron, "Whitlock started this painting but for whatever reason was unable to finish it - whereby Ellenshaw took it over and completed it. It certainly has an Ellenshaw look and feel to it". The common opinion is that despite the colourful history it is in fact Peter's painting.  Whitlock himself was quoted as saying that it was common at Disney for Ellenshaw to rework or improve upon the paintings of the other artists. 

When interviewed for the book The Invisible Art Ellenshaw told Barron of being badgered repeatedly  by Kubrick with his nightly 3.00am phone calls just to see how the Rome painting was coming along!  Many years later Kubrick wrote to Ellenshaw on another matter and specifically made mention of Peter's SPARTACUS painting and just how delighted he had been with it.

Contrary to popular belief, SPARTACUS had more than just the one matte shown here - in fact  there are around a dozen other matte shots in it, though none as spectacular as Peter's solitary contribution, completed by Russell Lawsen, Universal's resident matte painter. Most of Lawsen's SPARTACUS mattes may be seen in my retrospective tribute to the artist here.  

Peter Ellenshaw's great SPARTACUS shot being admired by it's proud creator, with pictures of painted detail, live action plate with the same group of extras duplicated twice to fill out the crowd and the finished composite.

Former ILM staffers, matte artist Chris Evans and cameraman Craig Barron reflect on Ellenshaw's masterful handling of paint and light in the great SPARTACUS glass shot during a special evening at the A.M.P.A.S

THE LONGSHIPS   (1964)

Ivor Beddoes was an interesting fellow - a former ballet dancer turned sketch artist turned matte painter turned conceptual artist.  Beddoes was taught the intricacies of matte painting by British master Walter Percy Day and painted on two Michael Powell pictures BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) and THE RED SHOES (1948) and thereafter one of Wally Veevers painters at Shepperton in the fifties. Beddoes left to do freelance matte and illustration work on films such as ATTILA THE HUN and the first two SUPERMAN films.  Beddoes passed away just a few years ago

These matte shots are really very convincing with beautiful matching of light and hue.

THE LONGSHIPS - directed by noted British lighting cameraman Jack Cardiff with mattes painted by Ivor Beddoes.

FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE   (1964)

The Sophia Loren - Samuel L.Bronston epic  featured this uncredited though well executed tilt down matte shot.

EL CID   (1961)

Another uncredited matte painted ceiling, this being from the Charlton Heston picture EL CID.    Both this FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE and EL CID were directed by Anthony Mann and shot in Europe suggesting fx work completed there.

DANCER OF THE NILE  (1923)

I've written a little previously on my silent era BEN HUR posting about pioneering matte painter and epic visionary Ferdinand Pinney Earle and his contributions to what we know as matte painting.  Earle was without a doubt one of the two guiding lights in the development of this process - the other light being Earle's industry compeditor Norman Dawn.  The two were, by all accounts arch rivals in seeking ownership of the glass painting process and fought many a battle in the courtrooms in an effort to decide one way or the other.

These examples are from one of Earle's big biblical productions, directed and produced as far as I'm aware, by Earle himself.  To the best of my knowledge, DANCER OF THE NILE is one of those many 'lost' films from Hollywood's infancy, with just still images surviving.  In my extensive Tribute to Warner Bros Stage 5 effects unit blog I covered the work of Paul Detlefsen, one of the industry's most experienced matte painters.  To recap, Detlefsen got his start in matte art through Earle on another lost film THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM (also 1923) and continued his apprenticeship on this film, DANCER OF THE NILE and continued on with a long and illustrious career both in matte work and later in popular fine art.

A scene from DANCER OF THE NILE with the entire scene a Detlefsen painting except the 'wedge' of live action.

Once again, a beautiful full frame Paul Detlefsen glass painting with minimal live action.

DANCER OF THE NILE extensive Detlefsen  matte art.

An extremely rare photograph of the actual Detlefsen glass painting with the assistant director and a cast member posing up front.  I am quite surprised at the sheer size of this matte as most of that era were very small, which makes me wonder if it was indeed a painting intended as an in camera glass shot as opposed to a composite matte shot?

Visionary matte artist and film maker Ferdinand Pinney Earle preparing one of the dozens of matte paintings for his film THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM (1923)

 NOAH'S ARK  (1929)

I briefly touched upon NOAH'S ARK in my Warner Bros tribute, though have included another rare frame here.  I've not seen the film, though would love to if the matte shots and the odd old clip are anything to go by. Paul Grimm was matte painter on this and many other silent era films, having started in the industry like so many others as scenic backing painter as early as 1919.  Although he lived until 1974 Grimm had had enough of the moving picture industry and retired  just a few years after sound came in, leaving for good in 1932 to pursue a living as a fine artist who's works still fetch good prices.

Classic use of the age old in camera glass shot to add tops to partially constructed sets.

An iconic image from the silent era of grand, hopelessly over expensive productions and screen magic.

Another terrific Paul Grimm glass painting from Michael Curtiz' NOAH'S ARK (1929)

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS  (1923)


I don't have any photographic effects shots from the first TEN COMMANDMENTS - only these old articles from Popular Mechanics magazine from 1923 which spell out the processes used to part the Red Sea the first time around.  Roy Pomeroy was photographic effects chief on this show with Fred Moran as his assistant.  The numerous travelling matte composites were supervised and carried out by Frank Williams - the leader in such technology at the time - in fact the only avenue for composite photography as far as I'm aware.  For more on Williams, visit my blog on the silent film SUNRISE.

Sorry about the quality - it's all I have.  I'm told that the final result resembled two enormous mounds of quivering jelly.

UPDATE!... some frames from the original Roy Pomeroy orchestrated Red Sea set piece from the old film!  Actually, upon viewing the sequence clip I can say that I was very impressed with the manner of execution.

RICHARD THE LION HEARTED  (1927)

The final silent era glass shot, and in fact the last entry for the Epic films series, is this terrific uncredited glass painting from the silent Douglas Fairbanks adventure RICHARD THE LION HEARTED.

I have no information as to who did this shot - possibly Ferdinand Earle, Paul Grimm, Paul Detlefsen or Conrad Tritchler - all of whom painted during the silent era.  No idea really, but enjoy it anyway.

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.