Ellenshaw sets sail - Treasure Island, Horatio Hornblower and Swiss Family Robinson matte shots

Blog update:  I've added several new pictures and made some corrections to a few captions from the past.  Of note are some wonderful John P.Fulton effects shots from the totally insane Olson and Johnson 1941 farce HELLZAPOPPIN.  Among the many gags are a unique bit where the boys come across a Russell Lawsen painting (as an actual piece of art), pick it up and gawk at it while the live action element materialises within the painting and helps to explain the plot!!!  The bizarre, indescribable nature of this film - arguably years ahead of it's time - makes such a joke seem quite at home.  Also from HELLZAPOPPIN I've posted a number of terrific Fulton frames from another off the wall set piece whereby our heroes lose the upper and lower halves of their respective bodies and decide to join forces by reforming as 'one' man - though with the lower half being the wrong way around(!!!)  Virtuoso optical work in a lengthy and absolutely brilliant SFX sequence where huge amounts of work would undoubtedly have been required by Universal's resident optical maestros Ross Hoffman and Millie Winebrenner to pull these scenes off.  There are also some new pics of John with miniature airplanes and an amazingly rare original Technicolor lab order requisition for WONDER MAN effects elements signed by Fulton himself.  From all reports Fulton was impossible to work with, but my admiration for his incredible achievements just goes on and on.  To see those shots, click here.

Additionally I've added some rare pics of the actual miniature rowboat complete with puppets of Gregory Peck and crew from MOBY DICK - still a great film with equally great effects work. Click here for this.

My recent Illusion Arts blog has had several 'lost' pictures reinstated too which nicely illustrate the working methods of Robert Stromberg and Syd Dutton.  

My popular War Films Effects blog has a few additions too.  Several wonderful mattes and miniatures from the Pinewood effects unit headed by Bill Warrington and Bryan Langley for the heroic Douglas Bader true story REACH FOR THE SKY (1956).  The multiplane matte of Colditz castle may have been done by either Cliff Culley or perhaps Les Bowie who may possibly have still been on staff.  Click here for this blog article.  Lastly, I have two nice before and after mattes by Leigh Took from the 1991 Disney tv film SPIES and the television series REILLY ACE OF SPIES.  Those are here on Leigh's page.

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ELLENSHAW SETS SAIL -  
The mattes from Treasure Island,  Captain Horatio Hornblower and Swiss Family Robinson.

Anyone familiar with my blog will know how much I admire the cinematic career and fine art of Peter Ellenshaw.  For a good background on Peter I have previously penned several articles on some of his best matte shows, which may be read here, here, here and here with even more in the works which will appear soon.
Today's blog is one with a maritime theme, which is quite befitting a fine artist whose body of gallery work has included several dozen marine paintings of angry seascapes and elegant tall ships on the high seas.

Denham Studios matte department.

I've got three of Peter's matte shows here today - the first being the 1950 Byron Haskin version of TREASURE ISLAND which was Peter's first voyage into the welcoming creative world of master visionary Walt Disney, in a move which would see Ellenshaw establish a comfortable and rewarding career in matte art and art direction for the remainder of his working life.

Peter and daughter Lynda with seascape

Walt with Peter at Denham studios.

TREASURE ISLAND was the opportunity of a lifetime for Peter, for once Walt saw what this formally unknown and quietly unassuming English painter could conjure up with mere brushes and oil paint Disney saw immediate gains that could be made by the art of the glass shot in not only telling classic stories on film, but in opening them up to previously unavailable scale.  I'm pretty sure TREASURE ISLAND was the first Disney picture to include matte art of any sort, though not the first to utilise photographic effects.  Several earlier productions such as SONG OF THE SOUTH were ahead of their time with cartoon-live action combination opticals, supervised by the legendary Ub Iwerks with back up by long time Disney optical men Bob Broughton and Art Cruikshank.  To the best of my knowledge all of the TREASURE ISLAND mattes were painted at the Denham Film Studios outside of London, in what used to be the old Pop Day matte department where Peter had worked alongside his mentor from the late thirties up until WWII.  By the time of this Disney picture Day had relocated to Shepperton Studios with Wally Veevers, Albert Julion, Joseph Natanson and Judy Jordan.  It's quite likely that future DOP Wilkie Cooper may have photographed Peter's mattes as he was at Denham in that capacity around that time.

CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER (1950) and SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON (1959) are also great examples of Peter's maritime work and are here for your enjoyment, with some nice on set before photos of Ellenshaw painting SFR glass shots.     HORNBLOWER was a US/UK joint production released by Warner Bros with a mostly British crew and a near half and half effects unit with all of the miniatures and mattes being  shot at Denham Studios, United Kingdom.                                      Enjoy.   :)

Peter Ellenshaw painting on glass directly on the set for a high quality in camera matte effect.

Disney's first live action feature film, and largely a big gamble as animation was their stock in trade.

The opening shot - and one I'm sure is largely Peter's handiwork.

The matte which sold Walt on the magic of the Ellenshaw paintbrush, and one which would start a trend in period adventures - a whole series of which would be made in Britain by the UK arm of Disney over the next five years.

Before and after matte work by Peter which adds significantly to the inner harbour and adds flawlessly many tall ships.

Two Ellenshaw matte shots adding both foreground (a PE specialty) and background detail.

More Ellenshaw than actual setting.

Classic example of before and after shots from TREASURE ISLAND.  In later years Peter cringed when pointing out "that strange looking tree on the left"

Ellenshaw's first love, artistically speaking at that period was the sea and maritime vessels and I personally find his Irish seascapes to be so inspirational.  Above frame is all paint except the water.

I'm not certain whether Peter did this show or QUO VADIS first.  Both films were made around the same time though I suspect the big MGM epic came first, and boy was that a showcase of Peter's talents (see elsewhere on my blog for QV)

Again, a beautiful matte which I think is a full painting, probably photographed by Wilkie Cooper.

Before and after Ellenshaw matte with invisible result.

Three painted skies and some additional land mass from three shots at end of the film. With the completion of TREASURE ISLAND Peter never looked back and was welcomed into the Disney family.

The 1950 British made swashbuckler epic directed by Raoul Walsh again utilised the uncredited services of Ellenshaw.

The glorious opening shot by Peter Ellenshaw.  Interestingly, Byron Haskin who had directed TREASURE ISLAND had been head of special effects at Warner Bros for years prior to taking on prestige jobs, and was uncredited visual effects consultant here, which leads me to presume Haskin was responsible for bringing Ellenshaw on board, so to speak.

The classic 'top up' matte so prevalent throughout the golden era to finish off sets.

If there were ever a single phenomena which sells an Ellenshaw shot and is always identifiable it would have to be Peter's wonderful cloud filled skies in backlight.  So many of his mattes have the 'signature' skies, from DAVY CROCKETT,  SUMMER MAGIC to ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR all of which will be covered here sometime soon.

Again, just one real ship and all the rest pure Ellenshaw.

A curious shot this one, with either all or most of the ship painted in and a clear demarkation on the deck area where the actors have been matted in. It looks like a partial set on a stage with the majority added by Ellenshaw and this in turn matted onto an ocean plate.   Quite a bold trick shot.

What appears to be a full matte painting with the only live action element being the fluttering flag.

Possibly a genuine location, though I'll include it here as there may be some Ellenshaw augmentation to the tower?

The conclusion of the film has this shot with a painted in foreground wharf and possibly two of the ships as well.

As I love old time miniatures I'll include this as well as the film does have excellent model action supervised by Warner fx veteran Harry Barndollar in conjunction with British model specialist George Blackwell.  All of the miniatures were shot in a purpose built 300x200 foot tank constructed at Denham Studios, and according to effects man Cliff Richardson the model ships were around 30 feet in length and motorised each with it's own three man crew below decks and out of camera range.  Excellent work here.

Yep, a screen credit for Peter!

Peter's on location glass shot set up in use as he paints in additional sailing ship to complete a shot.

In addition to subtle matte work Ellenshaw supervised the excellent miniatures for the opening stormy sea voyage.

Very convincing model sequence before the cameras in the effects tank.  British effects veterans Bill Warrington and Les Bowie also worked on SFR in what was a not entirely harmonious Anglo/US blended crew.

Frames from the final sequence.

A close up of Peter carefully painting the pirate ship onto a large sheet of glass for in camera compositing as evident in the first generation final effect seen below.

All of the SWISS FAMILY mattes were executed as in camera glass shots and were painted on location in Jamaica.

A second glass shot of the pirate junk and nice detail of Ellenshaw's handiwork.

The foreground junk is real but the distant British gunship as well as the two islands are Peter's artwork.

The final glass shot with the British ship at anchor off the headland.

Portrait of Jennie: Clarence Slifer takes home the Oscar

David O'Selznick's self indulgent 1948 star vehicle wrapped around his infatuation for his stunningly attractive engenue Jennifer Jones was a beautifully photographed (by Joseph August who tragically died before filming was completed) though not entirely successful ghost story of sorts which cost a fortune and sank at the box office.  The timeless notion of pathological romantic obsession is one that many have tackled, with Alfred Hitchcock's hitting pay dirt with VERTIGO being one prominent and popular example.  PORTRAIT OF JENNIE was one of several purpose made vehicles Selznick tailored, almost obsessively, for Jones around that period such as DUEL IN THE SUN.  The William Dieterle directed film is entertaining enough, despite it's obvious heavy handed meddling by producer Selznick - a trait all of Selznick's directors would be forced to clench their teeth and put up with as David insisted on being involved in ALL aspects of pre, shoot and post production - no more so than where his precious love, Jennifer Jones was involved.  David was a prodigious memo writer and dictator of lengthy notes to all key members of the creative team with endless critiques of each and every shot with Jones in it.

 

Effects wise, PORTRAIT OF JENNIE is a great looking film, with many invisible trick shots throughout which were good enough to win the visual effects Oscar of 1948.  Long time Selznick Studio photographic effects man, Clarence W.D Slifer was by this time running the effects unit, with former head Jack Cosgrove by this time over at Warner Brothers as well as engaging in solo effects jobs for Walter Wanger on films such as JOAN OF ARC and others.  Slifer started with Selznick as far back as 1935 as matte cameraman and optical effects man shooting Cosgrove's beautiful matte paintings on classics such as THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, THE GARDEN OF ALLAH,  INTERMEZZO,  REBECCA, TOM SAWYER and most notably, the gargantuan epic GONE WITH THE WIND.  For those interested, I have covered all of these films previously on my blog and have many wonderful frames demonstrating the Cosgrove/Slifer teamwork at it's best.

An original Selznick effects dept. matte painting.

The Selznick effects department was a small one of around 8 technicians whose phenomenal output, both in terms of quantity and quality easily matched that produced at the larger studios with their substantial special effects departments such as Warners' whose effects team numbered between 40 and 100 throughout the 1940's.  Visual effects designer and art director J.MacMillan Johnson also figured as a career Selznick man, and whose watercolour sketches had formed the basis for many of the great Cosgrove shots featured in GONE WITH THE WIND.  

Although not an effects cameraman or matte painter per se, Johnson would be among the six recipients of the 1948 special effects Oscar for PORTRAIT OF JENNIE in a joint visual and audio effects category.  Johnson would go on to enjoy a long career in visual effects design, largely over at MGM and would continue to collaborate with long time associate Slifer on films such as ICE STATION ZEBRA and POINT BLANK.  Pictured at left are camera operator Harold Grigg and effects supervisor Clarence Slifer during the shoot of DUEL IN THE SUN, made the year before POJ.

Matte artist Hans Ledeboer

At the time the Slifer unit had three matte artists on staff: Hans Ledeboer - a true veteran whose career began in the silent era with backdrop work and who would be the mentor to Paramount's Jan Domela in the late twenties.  Also painting at Selznick were Jack Shaw who had painted on PRISONER OF ZENDA and GONE WITH THE WIND.  Shaw would move over to Warner Brothers for the rest of his career before his untimely death by suicide in 1956 after finishing Irwin Allen's ANIMAL WORLD.  Spencer Bagtatopolis was one of Slifer's favourite painters, having joined the studio to help out with the many mattes on SINCE YOU WENT AWAY and subsequently painted significant mattes for films such as THE PARADINE CASE and DUEL IN THE SUN.

The Selznick photographic effects unit - 1947

Veteran effects cinematographer Paul Eagler was signed on to shoot the miniatures in the exciting climactic storm sequence.  Eagler's career stretched way back to 1914 silent shorts at Inceville and would include such notable later examples as the outstanding Hitchcock thriller FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT.  The film POJ was experimental in it's release version whereby selected 35mm prints were mixed in stereophonic sound and a new twist added where the storm sequence would be significantly enlarged during theatre projection via a Magnascope lens system onto a far bigger screen than normal.

I must take a moment here to express my gratitude to Rick Starstairs for sharing with me the many wonderful and exciting old Selznick-Cosgrove matte images from his collection as well as snippets of other amazing cinematic archival finds too.  I'll showcase more in upcoming articles and hope to receive higher quality images from Rick when he finds them.

Special Photographic Effects - Clarence W.Slifer, ASC

Matte artists - Hans Ledeboer, Spencer Bagtatopolis and Jack Shaw

Special Effects Cinematographer - Paul Eagler, ASC

Assistant Effects Cameraman - Harry Wolf

Visual Effects Design - J.MacMillan Johnson

Special Mechanical Effects - Russell Shearman

Matte Camera Operator - Harold Grigg
Special Camera Effects Engineer - Oscar Jarosch

Although essentially a monochrome film, several instances occur where colour is introduced - notably a green tinted storm sequence, sepia end credits and a closing technicolor shot of the title portrait.

At right is Robert Brackman's portrait executed for 'screen artist' Joseph Cotten to obsess over.

The opening visual effects sequence is a stunningly achieved glide down through the clouds onto a romantically realised view of New York City.  The initial cloud vantage point were practically produced physical effects followed by a soft wipe as the camera then moves in on a matte painted cityscape.

Another stunning effects shot of NYC produced by Clarence Slifer.

Several set pieces commence with optically altered effects to add a canvas texture to complement Joseph Cotten's striving artist characterisation.

The early appearances of the Jennifer Jones character where she purports to be a 14 year old girl are patently ludicrous and one of the serious failings of the narrative.  Above is 'kid' Jones against an atmospheric matte painting of Central Park

Selznick apparently ordered much NYC material to be re-shot back at his studio in LA and be augmented with painted mattes.  I don't know for sure about this one, but I strongly suspect it to be a split screen with a soft blend and doubled in foreground tree possibly combining two separate locations and/or a painted distant view.

A beautifully romanticised storybook view of Central Park - where all muggers, rapists and Scientologists have been matted out and replaced with a delightful painting (!)

A rare find - and an exciting one.  One of the surviving original matte paintings prepared for this film of the view from Cotten's apartment where the matte artist has completely fooled the audience with this trick.

Although the photo is indistinct, this is a similar night view - also entirely painted.

A quickly shown cutaway matte shot of a skyscraper.

Eerie night sky and stars supplied by the matte department.

Another of the apartment POV mattes.

The centrepiece of the film, effects wise, is this gloriously painted and composited matte of a snowy urban landscape with Jennifer Jones matted in skating across the ice as Cotten watches in disbelief.  A wonderful scene which may now be fully appreciated with this extremely rare, never before seen photo of the original painting from a private collection.

A close up photograph of the only surviving portion from another more expansive matte painting.

Yet another stunning and extremely rare PORTRAIT OF JENNIE matte, presumably from a shot ultimately dropped from the final, rather rushed edit.

The penny drops: Jones see's the lighthouse amid Cotten's unsold paintings.  I include this as I love storm shrouded lighthouses, I paint' em too and I suspect maybe Mac Johnson could have painted this for the scene.

The convent painted matte shot, and below, as it later appears as a quite poor process shot.

Very subtle matte addition of docks and sailing ships.

Top - the green tinted extended climax with Cotten sailing over to the lighthouse.  Miniatures shot by Paul Eagler, and in the bottom picture is a subsequent matte painting of the island and lighthouse, presumably for a shot that didn't make the final cut.

The interior of the lighthouse is a series of beautiful painted matte shots which considerably augment a minimal set.

Left - a shoddy composite which looks like a dupe of a dupe whereby Cotten and Jones on a small stage set are matted into a miniature rocky outcrop with huge waves in a tank.  Right - lightning fx animation.

Top - two more matted spiral staircase extensions that look sensational, and below, a regrettably poor quality photo of one of those surviving paintings.

Real time physical effects on set by Russell Shearman where presumably stunt doubled stars are deluged by some expertly engineered tidal wave effects. The sound editors, James G.Stewart and Charles Freeman utilised a novel approach to mixing the effects track here.  Combined recordings of an earthquake, thunder, Niagara Falls and a blow torch were mixed to thunderous and terrifying effect, resulting in an Oscar

Miniatures in a tank photographed by Paul Eagler.

Another original matte painting of the Lands End Lighthouse.

One more surviving lighthouse matte painting and a moody concluding effects shot of the setting after the storm.

Rick and some of his amazing treasure trove of rare, vintage matte paintings - mostly from the Selznick studio.  Shown here are some of those POJ mattes I've included above and it's most interesting as to just how large these are when compared with some other studios of the time.  Also in this collection are several DUEL IN THE SUN mattes, THE PARADINE CASE, SINCE YOU WENT AWAY and a fantastic GWTW matte, which I've included in a previous posting, among others.