Leigh Took: matte painter - a portrait of one of Cliff's boys

BLOG UPDATE:  My good lady wife complains that I spend far too much time on this matteshot project, and use up far too much bandwidth on "silly little movie things" (!)  Please forgive her, as she knows not what she says!  If it ends up in the divorce courts it'll be the world's first case where the "third party" is a sheet of glass covered in oil paint!  

Just before commencing this blog on British matte painter and visual effects designer Leigh Took I'll just take a moment to mention a few new add ons to other blogs here.  I've uploaded a wonderfully detailed view of one of Ray Caple's paintings of the ancient tower in the Scottish Highlands from the film HIGHLANDER.  I've also added several more interesting images to my (popular) War films blog, including the Ray Kellogg mattes from HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON, some great miniatures by Dennis Lowe from THE AMERICAN WAY and a couple more Ivyl Burks-Farciot Edouart shots from SO PROUDLY WE HAIL.  There's also what purports to be the original Jack Cosgrove matte painting of the iconic mountain and desert from the opening scene of DUEL IN THE SUN in my blog on that film, though personally I don't think it is the matte, and more likely the final painted sketch for Cosgrove's proposed matte, as it's far too loose to be a matte from that period.  There's also an interesting before and after matte shot in the Warner Bros page from BROADWAY MELODY OF 1936.

I'm happy to have had a subscriber send me good quality DVD images of the mattes from Cosgrove's JOAN OF ARC, which as of this writing I've not uploaded, but will do so soon.  I'm always extremely interested in any matte shots that anyone out there might have and want's to see 'published' as even baring in mind my vast stockpile of shots, the pickings at this end of the earth are pretty slim when it comes to tracking down this sort of material, so I'll welcome contributions of matte art.  

There were other additions too, but I can't for the life of me recall what they were - probably due to the summer sun and the great news that THE HOBBIT will be made entirely here in NZ after all despite some  underhanded petty squabbles orchestrated by socialist, left wing, underarm bowling Australian  trade unionists determined to sabotage the production in this country at ALL costs.  So screw you Simon Whip and the horse you rode in on...... and three cheers to Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Richard Taylor.

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LEIGH TOOK - matte painter

 

 I must express my deep gratitude to Dennis Lowe first and foremost, for taking it upon himself to document on HD video the careers of several key Brit special effects exponents, and for sharing  with me so many rare and utterly wonderful photographs documenting the careers of so many of these gentlemen, starting with Les Bowie, Kit West, Brian Johnson and many of Dennis' former effects associates connected with the ever terrific Ridley Scott picture ALIEN.  The following article is largely extrapolated from Dennis's interview with Leigh in October 2010 and to a smaller extent from my own files and screen grabs.  

I cannot recommend  Dennis' in depth documentaries enough, with the concise "tell it like it was" approach being, each a special effects tutorial in it's own right.  Honest, clear and sometimes utterly hilarious (especially his Bowie tribute which is a gem)  Fresh off the avid is the excellent 72 minute conversation with the subject of today's blog, Leigh Took.     So check it out!     http://www.zen171398.zen.co.uk/index.html

It's always been something of an undeclared mission for me - to promote the long and proud history of the British special effects man.  maybe  that has something to do with New Zealand's long affinity with her former 'mother and sovereign' - England.  Well maybe that, but also I've felt that the British effects man has forever been hard done by - as too had the great British cinematographers, editors and art directors of days gone by.

  I can appreciate it to an extent as, much like us here in NZ, your average Englishman doesn't go all out trying to find the limelight.  It's more a matter of just rolling up your shirt sleeves and getting on with the job at hand. There's always been a sort of "well, let's give this a try and see if it works" type attitude, and this has shown itself often in the careers of visual effects exponents such as Les Bowie, Brian Johnson, Kit West and Cliff Culley.

I've been aware of Leigh Took for some years now , though he's always been one of those special effects enigmas who's work has been for the most part undocumented, and sin of sins, uncredited.  Leigh's life had always been one immersed in the arts.  From an early age Leigh was adept with the tools of the artist - pencils, paints, brushes and one of those enviable dispositions whereby complicated things such as perspective and spacial depth came naturally. 

Cliff Culley, now retired, was one of the UK film industry's foremost matte painters, having trained under Les Bowie in Joan Sutties' matte department with Albert Whitlock and Peter Melrose back in Rank's pre-Pinewood era of the late 1940's.  The David Lean 1947 masterpiece OLIVER TWIST was one such film where Bowie's talents shone, and I'm fairly sure that Cliff and Albert would have had a hand in the matte work too. An entire blog is really overdue for Cliff, although I have touched upon some of his grand work in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE and KHARTOUM previously.

In 1978 a young lad by the name of Leigh Took was fortunate enough to be taken on as a sort of work experience lacky by Cliff, who was known for taking on young, keen prospective crew members in his busy Pinewood studio's matte department.  Around this era other luminaries in the effects field were also taken under Cliff's wing - future stop motion animator Steven Archer, trainee matte artist Terry Adlam, future effects supervisor Steve Begg among them.  Leigh, by his own admission, did his utmost to "impress the guv'nor" by demonstrating his artistic talents in the department.  It didn't take long for Culley to see and appreciate the potential in Leigh, whereby the youngster was gradually moved from drafting in simple lay ins and perspective lines on matte glasses and given painting assignments of his own.  

Motion control matte set up at Meddings Magic Camera Co.

The output from Cliff's shop was extensive, with a number of films coming through the doors at this period in the late seventies.  Among those films were the low budget  though thoroughly entertaining John Dark adventures with Doug McClure such as WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS (1978) with it's wonderfully fanciful undersea kingdom painted mattes and the stark landscapes painted for the Christopher Lee Thief of Baghdad show ARABIAN ADVENTURE.  Cliff and Leigh worked side by side on these and many other films providing not only glass shots but also miniatures - often integrating both into the one effects shot.  

Wonderfully flavoured fantasy matte art for WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS (1978)

The excellent Bob Clark Sherlock Holmes film, MURDER BY DECREE (1979) featured  turn of the century painted matte extensions to backlot sets adding St Pauls Cathedral and elaborate miniature set ups of The Houses of Parliament with small animated horse and carriage crossing the Westminster Bridge and an amazing opening multiplane pan across Victorian London rooftops which, based on the director's commentary, absolutely thrilled Bob Clark.

Square jawed leading man of 70's fantasy cinema, Doug McClure leading the group in WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS

Robert Powell clings on for dear life in the third incarnation of the same story, Don Sharp's THE 39 STEPS (1978)

Leigh's first fully fledged glass paintings were for a couple of shots of Big Ben for the thrilling climax in the terrific Robert Powell remake of the famous Hitchcock classic THE 39 STEPS (1978).  Under Culley's guidence Leigh's confidence grew and more and more projects came his way, from the big effects challenges of Ray Harryhausen's (superior) CLASH OF THE TITANS (1979) through to epic mini series such as THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII made sometime later at Cliff's own visual effects company Westbury Design and Optical.

Victorian London cut out and foreground miniature from Bob Clark's MURDER BY DECREE  (1979)

A matte painted St Pauls Cathedral graces the period set for MURDER BY DECREE

Peter Sellers' THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR FU MANCHU

Much of the work through this era consisted of television miniseries, often contracted by American, German or other overseas production companies, many of which I have illustrated below.  In the mid eighties Leigh went solo and worked freelance for a time on several high profile pictures, with equally high profile visual effects supervisors such as the great Derek Meddings.  Tim Burton's 1989 BATMAN was an extensive matte show, with Leigh joining Meddings' Magic Camera Company (as it was then known) for a period as one of  four glass artists on the show.  British born, (though trained by Disney artist Harrison Ellenshaw) matte artist J.P Trevor painted some of the distant, expansive views of Gotham City while veterans Doug Ferris and Ray Caple handled several shots apiece, with Took having the responsibility of probably the biggest slice of the cake with renderings of The Bat Cave and the jaw dropping street view of Gotham City which in itself is a masterpiece.  Mark Gardiner handled matte camera duties along with Ray Caple who tended to photograph all his own glass shots.

As with most all UK effects practitioners, Derek Meddings was "the guv'nor" - and his influence spilled over into the careers and methods of so many technicians then, and probably still to this day, some 15 years after his untimely death (not to mention fans such as yours truly).  Leigh would have the opportunity to work under his idol again a few years later on NEVER ENDING STORY 2  - a chance that would also bring another vital inspiration into Leigh's sphere - that being the legendary Albert Whitlock, whom Leigh had learned so much about from his days with Culley.  

Culley -Took painted landscape from ARABIAN ADVENTURE

Terry Gilliam is a name, for me at least, forever associated with MONTY PYTHON's big foot flattening some poor chap.  His films are very much an acquired taste, with BRAZIL being about the only digestible picture.  The epic, overblown, over the top, near disasterous ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN was another outlet for Leigh's talents - although if you've read the Cinefex double issue on the film you'll not find any mention of Leigh  - not unusual as the usually excellent digest did the same gross whitewash on RETURN TO OZ by stating that American Bob Scifo painted all the mattes in the USA when in fact English matte painter, and former Culley apprentice, Charles Stoneham painted many of them in Britain, yet never recieved a mention in the article... this demonstrates how Brit fx people get the short shrift... any how, I digress...

WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS  matte shot

BARON MUNCHAUSEN had a number of mattes, with Bob Cuff, Doug Ferris, Leigh and long time matte cinematographer John Grant establishing an ad hock matte effects studio set up at Grant's house  at Walton-on-Thames, near London. I think for memory this film may have received an Oscar nomination in visual effects.

A period of freelance work followed with Leigh tackling numerous music videos, television commercials, tv series and feature film work.  One thing about Leigh's work that I find admirable is his sensibilities toward the old, basic glass painting methods where the shot is painted and photographed right there and then on set, latent image for optimal effect.  Leigh used this technique as often as he could, even up until relativeley recently on various shows.  The fact that his specialist company Mattes and Miniatures still has a dedicated matte room  next to the shooting stage with Bell and Howell camera, front projection beam splitter and matte stand still set up says alot about the man and his inate ability to revert to a solid, tried and true technique if the individual shot would benefit from it. 

 

ARABIAN ADVENTURE  (1979)

For a time based at Shepperton Studios, Leigh would eventually establish his own effects company, Mattes and Miniatures at Bray.  From this base of operations projects such as LOST IN SPACE,  THE MUTANT CHRONICLES and the two DA VINCI CODE movies were part of the line up.  It seems there's no stopping Leigh Took.

Below is a collection of matte shots, glass paintings and miniature set ups from Leigh's career, both with Cliff Culley at Pinewood and later at Westbury Design and Optical through to Leigh's independent operations culminating in his own premises Mattes and Miniatures, situated at Bray.  So let's take a walk, or, if you like, a 'Took's Tour' (I thought that was pretty funny) through the world of glass, oils, models and photochemical magic...

The miniature set built by Cliff Culley's crew for Ray Harryhausen's CLASH OF THE TITANS (1980) with final comp involving blue screened in extras put together by Frank Van Der Veer seen at lower right.  The cameraman visible in upper right picture is Cliff's son Neil Culley who worked on matte and model shoots for years with his father. After spending days setting up this action shot and finally shooting it at high speed Cliff was dumbfounded at dailies the following morning to see a Twix wrapper (a chocolate bar) floating through the Roman pillars.  It turned out that the fellow who rigged the dump tanks would take a sleep up in the empty tank while  no one noticed, and left behind his snack wrappers and so forth.  The result being that no one saw this during the ferocity of the deluge during the take, with the upshot being a total rebuild of the set and reshoot days later!

One of the many Culley miniature-matte combination set ups for CLASH OF THE TITANS.

Harryhausen was never especially enthusiastic about using matte art and far preferred to utilise miniatures for his exotic landscapes whenever possible, as this wonderful frame demonstrates from CLASH OF THE TITANS

Culley and Took's miniature combined with matted in tidal wave element and fleeing extras.

Victorian London as seen via layered painted cut outs in MURDER BY DECREE (1979)

A great film from 1982, DAS BOOT (THE BOAT) which until now I never knew even had any matte work attached to it.  This beautiful sun and cloudscape by Leigh was matted atop the miniature submarine tank element and looks sensational.

Glass painted landscape from ARABIAN ADVENTURE

One of Leigh's earlier solo glass painting assignments was for the dismal Jack Palance show HAWK THE SLAYER (1980)

The youthful matte painter working on the HAWK THE SLAYER matte.

A miniature castle set built for HAWK THE SLAYER

HAWK THE SLAYER - By Leigh's own admission, all the production had pretty much was a doorway built out on the backlot, from which it was expected he and Cliff create the rest on glass. 

One of Leigh's glass paintings from HAWK THE SLAYER  (1980)

Among the many television series worked on by Leigh while with Cliff at Pinewood was the popular Sam Neill period espionage series REILLY, ACE OF SPIES  (1983) with what could be a painted Florence or Rome?

A great before and after glass shot from the same tv show, with a friend of mine now the proud owner of this matte glass.

Detail from the above REILLY matte painting.

One of several unusual assignments for Leigh - the 'Bollywood' film phenomena, with this from a film called STAR (1980)

Painted upper architecture and rooftops for THE TALE OF SWEENEY TODD (1997).

The final composites from THE TALE OF SWEENEY TODD  (1997)

Another unusual assignment - painting a huge futuristic city for a Canadian produced IMAX ultra hi-rez short film.

Now I love this.. an utterly sensational glass painting Leigh now has hanging in his home from the 1992 Kevin Connor picture SPIES.  Every bit as good as the very best that matte art has to offer, be it Whitlock or any other matte artist.

The big mid nineties miniseries remake of LAST DAYS OF POMPEII had many extraordinary matte shots, most of which were latent image in camera glass shots, no better illustrated than as shown above where we can see at upper left Cliff Culley manning the camera, and in the right photo Cliff is touching up the painted volcano on a huge sized sheet of glass.  The two lower pictures wonderfully demonstrate the 'line up' process for the live shoot.

Some more of the numerous LAST DAYS OF POMPEII matte shots.

An alternate master shot from LAST DAYS OF POMPEII consisting almost exclusively of painted glass by Took.

A young and seemingly tireless Leigh at work on one of his POMPEII glasses.  The in camera method was employed, with Took spending some 6 weeks in a small purpose built hut atop a 70 foot scaffold preparing this mammoth shot whilst the construction crew erected the limited set below, just next to the famed 007 Stage at Pinewood.

Close up detail of the paint in progress.

One of Cliff Culley's Westbury matte assignments with Leigh - the 1982 tv version of the timeless classic THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

Tim Burton's BATMAN  (1989) with this jaw dropping painting by Leigh of the cluttered Gotham City streets.

More of Leigh's considerable set extending matte art from BATMAN

Leigh's matte of the famous Bat Cave from BATMAN.  Painting duties on the film were shared with Ray Caple, J.P Trevor and Doug Ferris who painted several other shots to tie the action together in various key scenes.

A before and after of Leigh's cathedral matte as photographed by Mark Gardiner for BATMAN  (1989)

Leigh painting on an unidentified film.

I think this is one of Leigh's THE NEVER ENDING STORY 2 mattes, with the majority being painted by Syd Dutton and Albert Whitlock in the United States.

Another matte from THE NEVER ENDING STORY 2  (1990) which I think could be one of Leighs?

One of the thirty glass mattes from the big shot in Russia mini series PETER THE GREAT (1992).  I've never seen the show though have been familiar with this particular matte painting for a few years and never tire of viewing it.

The excellent John Malkovich show RKO 281dramatising the production of Welle's CITIZEN KANE,  featured some of Leigh's facsimile CITIZEN KANE glass paintings in this scene set in Orson Welles' office.

While ensconsed at Meddings Magic Camera Company under maestro Derek Meddings, Leigh created this elaborate multi-plane matte shot with foreground cut out for CHICAGO JOE AND THE SHOWGIRL (1992)

Another photo of Took setting up the perspective layers for the shot.

Another American miniseries, ELLIS ISLAND made in the mid nineties demonstrates the artist at work.

Leigh seemed to be burdened with many remakes of other shows - with this being a nineties version of the classic Tyrone Power - Charles Laughton masterpiece, Billy Wilder's WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION.  Oddly I have seen this exact ceiling I'm sure in another Cliff Culley show WOMAN OF STRAW I think??

A beautiful matte painted dock and cityscape from the 1997 film AMY FOSTER

One of Leigh's surviving oil paintings from Terry Gilliam's misfire ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN (1989)

... and here's the painting as composited by matte cameraman John Grant.

Composite and original painting from BARON MUNCHAUSEN

Another of Leigh's mattes from BARON MUNCHAUSEN

Leigh in the matte room at his company Mattes and Miniatures demonstrating the still viable paint on glass combined with a beam splitter technique he often employed.

A relatively recent glass painting prepared for a UK tv commercial where Took had to simulate the destruction of a portion of a row of council houses via matte art, to the accompaniment of the tagline "it's a taste explosion".  The painting was traditional though the shot was comped digitally.

Leigh's epic wide view of Camelot from the Sean Connery picture FIRST KNIGHT  (1995) - a film with a myriad of matte artists working on various shots from near and far - from Doug Ferris to American Rocco Gioffre who was called in to furnish one last shot, the night view of Camelot to meet the deadline.  This beautiful painting now hangs in Dennis Lowe's office.

One of the many Europe based productions that Leigh was recruited to provide matte effects for - with this being LILI MARLENE from the early nineties.

At first I thought this might have been from the tv film ORPHANS (1992) though on reflection I feel it's probably not.

One of the many in camera latent image glass shots Leigh enjoyed so much - from an unknown production.

A sensational period matte painting, plus some detailed views, from yet another re-make, this one being the 1997 Richard Dreyfuss version of OLIVER TWIST, made by Britain's Sky TV.    Stunning and such inspirational artwork.

The 2000 miniseries THE 10th KINGDOM with this painted village added to a location plate. Storyboard artist Nicholas Pelham told me recently "I worked with Leigh on ' The 10th Kingdom ' , I was the storyboard artist on that production for about 9 months and got to know everyone. Leigh was a fab guy, always had time for a chat, he had a tiny office near the post production rooms ... and I mean real small !! which he shared with his two assistants, one guy called Alex, I'm sorry I can't remember the other fella's name. Alex was the assistant matte artist and he still painted on card then scanned them in ... I loved that .. actual physical paintings prepared".

Although I try to avoid the digital variations of matte art here I'll include this one matte shot Leigh did for the utterly abysmal movie incarnation of LOST IN SPACE (1995)

The art of invisibility according to Fulton and Horsley

I've always been intrigued with the wonderful transformations and invisibility effects produced by John P.Fulton and his assistant David Stanley Horsley during their combined and respective independent era's at Universal.  Anyone familiar with my blog will know how I feel about Fulton's expertise in the competitive arena of special photographic effects.  I'm of the opinion that Fulton, despite his abrasive personal quirks was a genius in the field, and one who's tireless quest to reach his own 'holy grail' in special effects work was regrettably cut short by his untimely death at only 63.  I've already written extensively about John and his many great effects moments, which for the uninitiated, may be found here.  

As regular readers will know, this is primarily, though not exclusively a matte painting tribute blog.  Though in saying that I will say that I love all old time special effects methods - miniatures, optical effects and both stop motion and effects cell animation .  Naturally the films covered here are heavy in optical work as well as wire gags and there are even a few matte paintings as well. Today's blog is really an encapsulation of some of the choice moments from the five INVISIBLE MAN films as well as Horsley's later ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN.

Pretty much the same effects crew worked on all of these films, with John Fulton certainly in charge of all of the five official films in the series.  Fulton's long time assistant David Stanley Horsley also worked on almost all of these films as far as I know, coming on board with John around 1934, Horsley also supervised the effects on the  1951 ABBOTT AND COSTELLO film as he had assumed headship of Universal's effects unit by then, in fact since the mid forties.  Optical effects cameraman Roswell A.Hoffman was certainly involved intimately on all of these films, and as I've written previously, was tied in with that studio's visual effects up until 1974 with EARTHQUAKE being his retirement project. Rotoscope effects artist Millie Winebrenner was also a key player in the Universal photo effects unit and worked on all of these films extensively as head rotoscoper, with several roto girls under her.  Winebrenner too had a huge career at Universal and worked well into the late seventies in Al Whitlock's matte department.  The first film in the series had Jerome Ash and Bill Heckler working with Fulton on the effects shots, as well as Fulton's mentor, optical effects pioneer Frank Williams processing the optical process shots at his own specialty effects laboratory. Matte painting duties in the first film were carried out by Russell Lawsen and Jack Cosgrove, with Lawsen working as sole painter for subsequent films.  Miniatures were the domain of Charlie Cleon Baker - another veteran Universal employee with Donald Jahraus who would soon become MGM's number one models expert and Oscar winner. John Joseph Mescall photographed the miniature scenes.  Special mechanical gags and rigs were handled by Al Johnson and Bob Laszlo.

Two matte painted scenes from the first INVISIBLE MAN picture by Russell Lawson and Jack Cosgrove.

There is a wonderful article penned by Fulton himself in the June 1934 issue of American Cinematographer, which thankfully was reprinted by George Turner for the essential ASC Treasury of Visual Effects book in 1983.  Fulton was often keen to give interviews and speak about his effects work even though, paradoxically, he was never especially proud of his many achievements.  I'll use a few of Fulton's quotes in the following tribute as well as some very useful technical details of the processes involved provided to me by former Universal effects cameraman Bill Taylor who, in addition to being a first rate effects cameraman has a great insight into the working methods at Universal studios over the years.

Three of these films covered today were nominated for Oscars in the best visual effects category- THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (1940); THE INVISIBLE AGENT (1942) and THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (1941) so it's a shame that at least one of these films couldn't have grabbed that little gold statuette.

 James Whale's 1933 interpretation of what was regarded by many as un-filmable.  The special photographic effects work alone took some four months of post production.

One of the best gags, and one much imitated and later refined by Fulton for later films was the routine of a set of clothes performing  as though an invisible person were wearing them in several scenes with other actors .Basically, aside from initial wire work gags the one main technique chiefly employed by Fulton for the first film was the Frank Williams black backing multiple printing technique.   For these Fulton would shoot the normal action with the other actors first with the movements and so forth carefully timed and worked out in advance.  Fulton would develop the negative and then prepare the set for the trick work.  Said Fulton "we used a completely black set, walled and floored with black velvet to be as non reflective as possible.  Our actor was garbed from head to foot in black velvet tights, with black gloves and a black headpiece rather like a diver's helmet.  Over this he wore whatever clothes might be required.  This gave us the picture of the unsupported clothes moving around on a dead black field.  From this negative we made a print and a dupe negative, which we intensified to serve as mattes for optical printing.  Then with an ordinary printer we proceeded to make our composite:  first we printed from the positive of the background and normal action, using the intensified negative matte to mask off the area where our invisible man's clothing was to move.  Then we printed again, using the positive matte to shield the area already printed and thus printing in the moving clothes from our 'trick' negative. This printing operation made our duplicate, compositive negative to be used in printing the final master prints of the picture."

Said Fulton on being handed the script in 1933..."it bristled with difficult special process scenes, and I wondered if, even with our modern process techniques we could possibly make all the amazing scenes called for".

Many effective wire gags were employed throughout to move objects and furniture, with some of the later films in the series utilising very complex wire rigs for certain very impressive set pieces.  With Fulton's training under optical effects pioneer Frank Williams there was no better technician suited to the task at hand.  Williams optical lab handled much of the trick work for the film.

Miniatures technician Charlie Baker had a very long association with both Universal and Fulton, and according to Fulton's daughter, was one of the few industry people to actually like John.  A sad indictment.  This shot of the railway is one of Baker's flawless miniature sets built in conjunction with Donald Jahraus who would go on to a fruitful career at MGM.  The miniatures were photographed by John J.Mescall.

According to Fulton directing the actor in the invisibility role was problematic. Claude Rains played the lead, but whether he performed all of the tiresome trick work I'm uncertain, though in a memoir I seem to recall Claude's vivid recollections of the sheer joy and wonder of it all as he'd visit the set on his time off and watch in awe as Fulton did his stuff.  The above scene appears to be one of Fulton's 'live' invisibility trick shots which he really indulged in considerably for later INVISIBLE films.  Bill Taylor explained it to me like this:..."The Fulton stuff that really impressed me early on in the latter INVISIBLE MAN/WOMAN films were where only a part of the body must be 'invisible', so there was a removable section of the actual set which allowed the actor actually playing the scene to be on that same set with the other actors.  The 'effects' actor would perform in front of the partial black screen just for that area of the body as required.  With this technique everybody is really there at the same time, so eyelines, line timings and so on are all perfect, and the rotoscope and matte artifacts are limited to just the single invisible area, so there's a far smaller are to work with and to perfect"

In the American Cinematographer interview Fulton stated ..."the two principle difficulties, photographically speaking, were matching up the lighting on the visible parts of any shot with the general lighting used by DOP Arthur Edeson for the normal parts of the picture, and eliminating the various little imperfections such as eyeholes etc which were naturally picked up by the camera.  The latter was done by retouching the film, frame by frame with a brush and opaque dye.  We photographed thousands of feet of film in the many takes of different scenes, and approximately 4000 feet of film recieved individual hand work treatment in some degree, making approximately 64'000 frames which were individually retouched in this manner"

A film that in no way matched the original in my opinion, though it had it's moments and featured many outstanding photographic effects and a bobby-dazzler of a transformation at the end.

A Russ Lawsen matte painting of the prison.

Certainly the visual effects highlight in THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS.  A sensational, and subtle optical by John Fulton and Ross Hoffman whereby our man is revealed by way of a puff of cigar smoke. Paul Verhoeven would simulate such moments in his entertaining HOLLOW MAN in 2000, yet the new age effects aren't all that noticeably improved over these old Fulton shots.

An example of the black hood against a black portion of set immediately behind the actor, as outlined by Bill Taylor above.  This method, though still evident in some sequences such as this one, saved alot of time for the rotoscope department in matting and chiefly allowed the entire scene to be shot as one with all present at the same time.

A memorable set piece where our man steals clothes from a scarecrow.  I can imagine the difficulties in choreographing such a sequence where such care would be required in preventing the 'invisible' limbs etc from passing in front of the suit during photography.   The sequence stands up extrememly well even all these years on.

Now this sequence is tremendous - and I can for once speak with authority as my recent and somewhat lengthy  former career was in a particular branch of medicine affiliated day to day with such anatomical insights.

The multi stage lap dissolve technique was beatifully handled here.   Absolutely jaw dropping.

Effects wise possibly the weakest entry in the series with more than usual quota of flawed superimpositions and quite poor matte paintings of German airfields (see my Russ Lawsen blog for more), although the Charlie Baker miniatures are pretty good.  Still, an entertaining vehicle which takes a novel approach to the invisibility gag.

A new twist on becoming visible was to have our fellow apply cold cream to his skin - or part therein.  Very effective, with the hollowed out eyes being particularly memorable, and no doubt quite eerie back in 1944.

A nifty little trick this, whereby the invisible man, Jon Hall carries Illona Massey to a waiting German airplane for a hasty escape.  Very impressive optical work here where Massey just bounces across the frame, and is lifted into the doorway.

"..splish splash I was takin' a bath..."

Two fun, though seriously flawed optical sequences where Fulton's process seems very rushed, with much bleed through of the tub scene and the black under-hood clearly visible in the face cream scene.

Pure comedy this time, but not without it's own charm - and some great effects shots.

It must have been huge fun sitting around the table at Universal dreaming up new ways to exploit Fulton's optical printer, and this sequence is a gas.  The lady of the title getting dressed, with audiences of the day no doubt dumbstruck with the sight of stockings being pulled onto invisible legs - great stuff!

A close up of the stocking filler scene shows bleed through in the shadow areas of the limbs.

Possibly a Lawsen matte shot or maybe a Baker miniature with real sky?

Hilarious and technically very smooth sequence from THE INVISIBLE WOMAN - in fact I'd go so far as to say brilliantly accomplished by Fulton, Horsley and Hoffman in my book.

A running gag in all of the pictures was the smoking or drinking effects shots.  These smoking shots work well but most of the drinking shots (shot using the black clad hooded actor against a small partial black backing) tend to give the game away each time as the fluid in the glass always leaves a 'wet spot' on the black hood which shows up in all the final comps.

For my money, an utterly forgettable final film in the series, with even the effects pretty lacklustre.

Either a Charlie Baker miniature set or a Russell Lawsen matte painting - maybe a comp of both?

Yep, we're back in cold cream territory.

A punch up between the visible and the invisible looked pretty effective and was no doubt a problematic shoot.

One of Abbott and Costello's best films - with lots of great David Horsley visual effects.

Great shot where our boy is slowly revealed in the steam.

More than just a simple dissolve hold out - the false teeth are still laughing at Costello!!

An old trick revitalised with great comic timing .  If ever there was the perfect fall guy for these gags it had to be the one and only Lou Costello.

A simple optical gag that gets just the right amount of laughs from our fall guy, Lou.

That old Fulton lap dissolve gag from the second movie is again perfectly executed by David Horsley for this show.

I do like the 'squashed' face of the nurse as invisible Lou Costello plant's one on her!

Never was there a more bizarre special effect for the Universal photo effects department I guarantee you, than the requirement for Lou Costello to become visible but with his legs on backwards - with his crazy new look running off down the hallway in astonishment.  One hell of a trick shot I'm sure, possibly a split screened reassembly of Costello, but just how this was made to 'run' away I don't know.  I'm guessing he was shot on a treadmill in front of a blue screen, with a camera pullback on the effects stage, though how Horsley match moved the two halves of Lou is a mystery? Any takers out there among the real fx guys who read this blog?  Horsley did alot of clever effects tricks on the ABBOTT AND COSTELLO latter series so I might have to do a blog on those one day as I have a stack of them.