MATTE & EFFECTS FILMS CELEBRATED: Part Thirteen

 

Greetings fellow enthusiasts of traditional era movie magic.  It would seem, against my better judgement, that it is probably 'that time' once again.  It's been a while and to tell the truth, I've been of two minds as to whether to bother with putting together another epic tome of matte magnificence as there seems to be relatively little interest 'out there' for this sort of thing, judging by the falling readership, bringing me to seriously question the continuation of the whole endeavour. It'll be a pretty much wait and see kind of deal.  I've still got a considerable stock of matte shots and associated trick work, but does anyone really have an interest in celebrating such old stuff?  

Anyway, as far as todays edition goes, I have a quite vast selection of mattes and effects from across the spectrum.  All of the genres, all eras and all manner of creativity.  From the economic right through to the 'money is no object' end of the scale.  We've got three westerns, five classic British comedies, a couple of war pictures, two musicals, not one but two desert actioners, a frigid fun filled flolic from Disney; a contagion thriller, and to top it all off, a positively dreadful big budget jungle fantasy!  We got it all folks, but no sci-fi as that genre is on the back burner for it's own gigantic tribute piece... if and when I feel so motivated to put in the effort.

Three more reasons why NZ Pete really loves traditional matte painted shots.

A word of some importance for readers here.  All of this blog and all the preceeding 190-odd bloggings are 'pure NZ Pete' - straight from the heart, or the gut, as it were.  Absolutely none of that goddammed Chat GPT bullshit or AI fake fabricated crap anywhere to be found.  Like it or loathe it, it's all 100% 'human' endeavour, all real 'sweat & tears'.

Oh, and, as best I try to delve into films and trick work that may be little known to the average or casual viewer, there may be the odd film previously examined sometime back that I've forgotten about.  Sometimes revised tributes benefit for high def or bluray images, whereas none were available 'back in the day'.  Also, my memory these days ain't what it used to be.....  :(

Well, let us board the rollercoaster of motion picture wizardry (I rather like that) and be thrilled, delighted, mesmerised and baffled in equal measure.

Enjoy, as it may (or may not?) be the last?  :(

NZ Pete          Matte Painting & Traditional Special Effects Devotee

"The only thing better than a classic matte shot, is to be in a classic matte shot".

***This vast and utterly exhaustive post, and all 191 previous blog posts known as 'Matte Shot', were originally created by Peter Cook for nzpetesmatteshot, with all content, layout and text originally published at http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/ 

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NZ PETE'S HALL OF FAME MATTE SHOT:  Part Eight

I absolutely love classic matte painted skyscapes, and would rate this magnificently romantic scene of the fabled Bali-Hai from 20th Century Fox's epic musical SOUTH PACIFIC (1958) as probably my all time favourite sky.  Veteran matte artist Emil Kosa jnr was almost certainly behind the brushes on this masterpiece, being chief matte artist at Fox for several decades, initially under fellow Czech effects artist Fred Sersen and later on under Ray Kellogg and L.B Abbott. Further on in todays blog I cover the entire film and the dazzling mattes.

Art director John DeCuir (left) actually began his Hollywood career as a matte painter himself, working for several years under Russell Lawson at Universal Studios from the late 1930's.

John DeCuir's original concept painting of Bali-Hai as a guide for Emil Kosa's matte art.  For more on SOUTH PACIFIC, see further on down in this very NZ Pete blog post.

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HEAVENS ABOVE (1963) - Top notch matte effects compliment one of Peter Sellers' best roles.

The late Peter Sellers was an incredibly talented, yet sadly under-rated actor.  An extremely insecure man who mourned for the early days of his career, both with THE GOON SHOW radio series and his earliest film roles, often for the Boulting brothers, and more often than not with close actor friends among the cast.  In HEAVENS ABOVE (1963), Sellers' kind hearted village vicar rates as among his most controlled, warm hearted characterisations.  Of course Peter's magnum opus was his masterpiece BEING THERE (1980) which without question I'd rank as his best though sadly saw him robbed of the Academy Award that year by the critic's darling Dustin Hoffman.

The brothers, John and Roy Boulting, made some of the most memorable British comedies of the fifties and sixties, two of which are featured in todays blog.  This one had a 'who's who' of UK comedic talent, such as Eric Sykes, Ian Carmichael, Roy Kinnear and the always delightful Irene Handl.  I'm sure I even spotted a young and uncredited Ronnie Corbett there too!

The Boultings were masters at satire, as this hilarious piece of important signage suggests.  The film was surprisingly adult at times for 1963, both in coarse language and sneaky innuendo.

The Despard Corporation - a key part of the narrative. I suspect this shot to be a miniature with a painted sky moving behind.

One of Despard's most popular products.

Sellers' village church as storm rolls in.  Again a possible miniature shot with matte painted moving sky and lightning doubled in.  Oddly enough, although a Shepperton Studio production, there was no screen credit for visual effects.  Wally Veevers ran the effects department for many years so would have supervised the film and was normally given credit.  In an interview with former studio matte artist Doug Ferris, Doug explained that HEAVENS ABOVE was his first assignment at the studio as a beginning effects artist, assisting master matte painter Bob Cuff with certain shots.

The dodgy Despard outfit expand their operation to an isolated island into space travel(!)  This is one of Bob Cuff's mattes.  The department was a large one and employed several artists, cameramen, grips and modellers under Wally Veevers control.  George Samuels had long been chief matte artist but his untimely death would result in Bob being senior artist.

Doug Ferris described how Cuff was relentless in applying fine detail work to all of his mattes, and seemingly never giving up with his small brush until Veevers demanded that they simply had to shoot the matte!

Ferris recalled working on blending the ocean plate with Cuff's painted vista and augmenting with subtle animation to tie it all together.  In addition to becoming a first class matte artist, fellow Shepperton matte painter Gerald Larn told me that "Doug specialised in problematic matte shots requiring difficult blend fixes and optical work on many films, often requiring hours spent in the optical camera room in darkness making shots work."

Another impressive effects shot begins up in the storm clouds and tilts down over the factory, complete with drifting painted clouds and animated bolts of lightning. Assuming the factory to be a miniature - due to focal plane shift when the camera moves in on signage - the resident model builder in the Veevers department was Bill Jarrett, for whom Gerald Larn had endless praise for on numerous assignments, be they model castles, remote controlled WWII tanks, ships or even Dalek spaceships!

The film ends with a vast tilt upward from Sellers' village church, on through the clouds and beyond.  A very impressive FX shot with many elements combined.

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BRAVE WARRIOR (1952) - Cowboys & Indians on a Columbia 2nd feature budget.

The 'woke' crowd would probably incinerate the negative if they could, but as far as a lower-ranked second feature on the proverbial 'double bill' goes, it's an okay entertainment.

This 1952 western was short and sweet and was exactly the kind of fodda I would have rushed to see on a Saturday matinee at my local (The Crystal Palace in Mount Eden, Auckland) movie house as a kid... and the cinema would almost always be packed... and those delicious pre-frozen choc-dipped vanilla ice cream cones were so damned tasty, I'm almost getting a boner just thinking of 'em!  Those were the days.  None of this 'multi-plex' crap... a proper movie house built back in the 20's or 30's.... Cost 25 cents (or maybe 30c?) to see a double bill. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  ;)

Anyway, I still really like westerns, so I'll check out any I can.  Here's a neat shot with our hero, Jon Hall - who made his mark staring in scores of 'Arabian Nights' type flicks over at Universal - chased across a rope bridge.  Almost all matte art here.  No effects credit, though as discussed in earlier bloggings, it was possibly supervised by Lawrence W. Butler and fx cameraman Donald Glouner.  Juan Larrinaga was a matte painter for Columbia for many years so may have had involvement.

'Ka-Pow...'

Subsequent scene of destruction.  The broken bridge almost looks like a miniature??

Upper half all painted in - rocks and distant town matted.

Later scene shows entire town go up in flames.  An impressive vfx composite with live action foreground left, painted rocks, right half of ground scrub plus tree and sky, as well as an excellently shot and scaled conflagration in the distance.  Presumably a revision of the previous matte with a meticulous and broad 'slot gag' thing going on to introduce previously shot fire elements to be either projected in or composited on the printer.  Very well done indeed.

The aftermath.  Too bad the fire insurance ran out on Tuesday!  :(

Character actor Michael Ansara - always recognisable by his baritone voice - in front of process projected matte art with drifting smoke.  Ansara did some cool shows, and a guilty fave of mine being the outlandishly insane William Girdler horror/monster flick THE MANITOU (1978) alongside Tony Curtis and an all star cast .... a film ya' just gotta see to believe.... and even then you probably won't believe it!!!

Interesting side note:  star Jon Hall, if I recall correctly, much later on shifted careers and worked in Albert Whitlock's matte department as a camera assistant on THE BIRDS.

Now, NZ Pete has got to be your one-stop-shop for fascinating tidbits of info.  This matte is from a different Columbia western LAST OF THE COMMANCHES, also made in 1952.  The matte art is virtually identical aside from modifications to left and right foreground structures, so which film used it first is anyones guess.  Still a great shot.

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THE SATAN BUG (1965) - An outstanding suspense chase that literally goes viral.

I well remember being riveted to my chair when I first saw THE SATAN BUG (1965) on New Zealand tv back in the seventies. Tense as hell, a thrill a minute chase to save mankind, director John Sturges hit all the marks here.

Aside from some rear projection shots, THE SATAN BUG almost appeared to be devoid of any visual effects trickery, but after years of only ever seeing it on inferior formats like VHS etc, the bluray edition revealed a surprise matte sequence I'd never spotted before.  The down views from the helicopter during the climactic sequence showing all the LA freeway at a complete standstill was in fact a substantial matte painting, panned across slowly as a POV.

I love these sorts of race-against-time thrillers.  Others of note were PANIC IN THE STREETS (1950) with Jack Palance, the British movie SEVEN DAYS TO NOON (1950) among numerous others.

That's one bad-assed traffic jam.

No idea who did the special photographic effects.  It was a United Artists release so maybe Linwood Dunn's Film Effects of Hollywood perhaps?

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THREE MEN IN A BOAT (1956) - Star studded misadventures on the canal.

Another popular British comedy, with a period flavour.  THREE MEN IN A BOAT (1956) only had a couple of matte shots, courtesy of Shepperton Studios.  Pretty funny.

Celebrated matte artist Bob Cuff rendered this Edwardian (or was it Victorian?) view of London.  The matte runs mid-frame all the way across from the top of the yellow car at right, up and over the cricket scoreboard and along the balcony of the clubhouse.

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GREEN MANSIONS (1959) - High concept fizzer that was never going to work!

Apparently based upon a well read book, the movie GREEN MANSIONS (1959) was an embaressing misfire of epic proportions.  Expensive, lavish and all on the big CinemaScope screen... but one sad turkey indeed.

Audrey was hopelessly miscast in an unfilmable role, with her husband, Mel Ferrer helming the whole silly affair.  She was so good in THE NUN'S STORY and later WAIT UNTIL DARK but this is one I'd bet she regretted.  As for Perkins, well, aside from PSYCHO, for which he was born to play, I've never really cared for the actor personally, with seemingly every role being arguably 'Norman Bates-esque' no matter the script.

Completely shot in the studio and surrounding locales, with doubles for the cast used exclusively for 2nd unit South American long shots and process plates.  The film did have some impressive matte shots by Lee LeBlanc, huge process screen composites by Buddy Gillespie and a large number of blue screen shots to 'drop' the principal actors into the jungle scenery done by optical cinematographer Robert Hoag.

The divine Audrey Hepburn, who plays, get this, 'Rima, The Bird Girl' (no, I'm not kidding) - a curiously seductive tease of a semi-mute jungle waif with magical powers and a sort of Dr Doolittle skill when it comes to communicating with the wildlife(!!)  The casting was as bizarre as the plotline, with Lee J. Cobb shamelessly chewing every inch of scenery each and every moment he's on camera. So good in ON THE WATERFRONT and 12 ANGRY MEN, but here, a dreadful performance!  One of my favourite character actors and perennial screen villain Henry Silva was - as one would expect - the nemesis here, as he was always so good at.  The guy must have made 200 movies, and never played a nice guy... tons of gangsters, outlaws and killers in not only American films but a slew of Italian crime flicks too.  Best film appearence of Silva in a truly frightening role was the excellent Burt Reynolds cop thriller SHARKEY'S MACHINE (1982).... I do ponder who played more screen villains, Henry or old time screen tough guy, the legendary, mean-as bad guy Marc Lawrence??? Though as happens with my blogs, I digress when it comes to character actors.... most of whom I'd bet my readership have never heard of.... poor bastards... though, as usual, I digress  :)

Veteran matte artist Lee LeBlanc had a fairly long career in the field, firstly at Fox in the miniatures department in 1941 and then with the Fred Sersen unit as matte painter (far left photo) - one of many.  Lee was the first of three key staffers to quit Fox and move across to MGM in 1956 whereby he took over the headship of the former Newcombe department after Warren took early retirement. Shortly afterward artist Matthew Yuricich followed LeBlanc to MGM as did effects cameraman Clarence Slifer. LeBlanc supervised the mattes on a number of high profile MGM shows such as BEN HUR, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, NORTH BY NORTHWEST and KING OF KINGS before leaving the business for good in the early sixties to pursue gallery wildlife art (middle pic).

Several mattes were employed to enhance and expand soundstage sets and backlot shots.  This one involved an extensive tilt-up from Anthony Perkins to the jungle canopy.  Veteran visual effects cameraman Clarence Slifer would have composited this camera move on his aerial image matte shot optical set up.  See below for matte art...

One of several surviving LeBlanc painted mattes which are on display at the gallery in his name.

detail of foliage

Clarence W. Slifer and his assistant Dick Worsfold with the aerial image optical printer and matte stand specially designed and built by Slifer at MGM for matte shot composites.  Clarence was one of the greats in the field, with extensive technical knowledge and experience going back to the late 1920's.  Among the landmark films he worked on were all of the Selznick productions such as GONE WITH THE WIND and DUEL IN THE SUN, as well as KING KONG among many others.  Although forgotten today, the WWII Samuel Goldwyn picture THE NORTH STAR (1943) was absolutely jam-packed with a myriad of amazing special photographic effects and saw Clarence Oscar nominated for the work.

Frames from one of the quite effective process projection scenes as supervised by Arnold Gillespie.  Likely utilising MGM's patented 'laced projection system' where two or even three projectors were linked to provide a complete widescreen image of high quality.

Two more examples of the actors never having to leave the MGM lot.  The rapids sequence was process projection, and quite effectively done, while the mountain scene was blue screen travelling matte work, as were almost all of the 'exteriors' with the stars.

Matte painted distant mountain range and sky with doubled in smoke rising, matted into 2nd unit forest and plains.

Another broad pan-across from a stage set onto a large process projection shot.

Rina, the Bird Girl(!) discovers the lost ruins.  An impressive matte shot comprising almost all of the CinemaScope frame.  LeBlanc was assisted by Matthew Yuricich on some of the GREEN MANSIONS matte paintings, as they would co-paint on many MGM films around that time.  When Lee retired from matte work in 1963, Matthew expected to be promoted to head of the matte department though this wasn't to be.  Joseph McMillan 'Mac' Johnson would assume the overall leadership role covering all facets of special visual effects at MGM, including spheres controlled for many decades by similarly retired old time maestro A.Arnold 'Buddy' Gillespie.  Mac Johnson wasn't a matte artist, but was an excellent effects conceptual artist with important contributions as far back as designs for Cosgrove shots on GONE WITH THE WIND.

Audrey wanders along the MGM backlot with impressive ancient structures matted in later.  Did I say that this flick was directed by Audrey's husband, Mel Ferrer?  Could be grounds for divorce says I.

The bizarre 'is-she-really-dead-or-not?' finale has a perplexed Perkins on one of the admittedly excellent soundstage jungle sets supplemented by a Clarence Slifer aerial image tilt up to painted canopy.

Norman Bates meets 'Jane of the Jungle'.  Nice matte art.

Another surviving original Lee LeBlanc matte painting which I find quite exquisite.  A couple of years later efforts were made to coax Lee back to the studio to oversee the massive matte workload on George Stevens' THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, but Lee refused, and by that time had had enough of 'movie painting' and wished to concentrate on his own personal art.

Nicely captured detail of Lee's style of brushwork.

A rare snapshot inside the gallery (I forget where?) displaying a selection of Lee LeBlanc matte paintings as well as a great many private pieces, curated by his family.

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THREE COMRADES (1938) - A classic sentimental tear jerker journey

Another one from MGM, made in 1938 and based upon a popular novel of the day remains a touching and emotional journey some 90 years on.

Perfect casting and direction by Frank Borzage, with luminous cinematography by Joe Ruttenberg.

A multi-character love story that begins in the initial days of post first world war Germany, with the entire cast and narrative portrayed as 'German', which I'd say must have been a hard sell for Louis B. Mayer to greenlight the project, especially as an entirely new 'war to end all wars' was just on the horizon.  

Warren Newcombe's matte department were able to furnish THREE COMRADES with several subtle mattes and scene extensions.

A combination shot involving matte painted vista with ocean front added, process projected behind the actors.

Classic 'golden era' matte work, with a palpable feeling of romance in the rendering that I find so appealing in 1930's matte art and composition.

A grand Newcombe shot utilising a small piece of backlot - probably up as far as the top of the restaurant signage - where significant matte painted extension has created a German town centre.  The Newcombe artists were many, including at the time Rufus Harrington, Oscar Medlock, Hernando Villa, Howard Fisher, Henri Hillinck, Joe Duncan Gleason, Henry Peter McDermott, Ted Withers and Mark Davis (Mark would become chief matte cameraman later) among others.  It was common for mattes to be rendered in pastels (often very fine, sharpened for precise detail) and goache, which was very uncommon in the industry.  The mattes were always rendered on artists card and tended to be relatively small in size compared with other studios, around 2 feet in width, but the quality of the artwork held up remarkably well, as many of the artists had been architectural draftsmen or technical illustrators prior to entering the film industry.  Noteworthy was Newcombe's supervision over the final blend and composite photography which even today when viewed is of exceptional quality.

Newcombe shots were big advocates in applying 'soft blends' to the composites - the join between fact and fiction as I like to term it.

Multi-component effects shot, with soundstage set enhanced with painted in sky and tree tops, as well as two of the now deceased characters gradually merging optically into the scene with the two surviving guys. 

Reverse on the finale sequence with the 'lost' rejoining the 'living'... very potent scene back in the day by all accounts.

A full matte painting with the actors doubled in.  Irving G. Ries was MGM's resident optical cameraman for introducing such visuals.

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THE TRUTH ABOUT WOMEN (1957) - An old fashioned Pommie sex farce.

A fairly minor UK sex comedy, though it had it's moments, and a couple of interesting mattes.

A most inviting Harem indeed as I'm sure they all are.  Mostly matte painted with upper half all added in.  I don't know who did the work, nor the studio.  Maybe Shepperton or Rank, or even British MGM??

A character peers out a window and this full screen matte painting is his POV.

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CROOKS IN CLOISTERS (1963) - Shennanigans a-plenty with mugs in a Monestary!

A quite amusing sixties romp, filled with familiar faces of the era such as Barbara Windsor, Wilfred Brambell, Bernard Cribbens and reliable old character actor of a hundred pictures, Ronald Fraser.

A bunch of con-men seek refuge in the House of God.  Again, a mystery as to who did the matte shots, nor which studio, though I suspect it was Elstree?

If it was an Elstree show then I'd suggest Tom Howard must have been involved with the three or so mattes.

Sanctuary, via matte art.

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BUGLES IN THE AFTERNOON (1952) - Warner Bros. action & mattes out west again.

Warners must have churned out more westerns than any other studio, with the genre reaching its peak in the fifties.  BUGLES IN THE AFTERNOON was a lively adventure (with an amazing one-sheet poster to sell it).  Some interesting applications of the matte process, though uncredited, were likely supervised by FX cinematographer Hans Koenekamp and matte artist Louis Litchtenfield, and possibly Jack Shaw.

Star Ray Milland always gave a solid performance in a variety of film roles.  Memorable indeed for Hitchcock's DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954) and a particularly tough and unforgiving little post-apocalyptic  'B' movie Ray both directed and starred in, PANIC IN YEAR ZERO (1962) which I thought was pretty damned good.

Standard western 'journey shot', with matte painted sky, which I'm certain was lifted from another movie, or two.

Frame #1  Now this is interesting if you take the time to toggle through these 3 or so frames.  For this scene they used the un-matted plate photography that would turn up again at least three more times in the film with different matte art added each time for separate scenes that occur at various points in the story.  Seen as a general movie viewing, the oddity isn't evident, but NZ Pete's keen matte detective skills 'smelled a rat' when watching and collecting the mattes later.  I really need to get out more!!!  ;) 

Frame #2  Same location plate set up but with a large matted in cavalry fort now atop the hill.

Frame #3  Yet another use of the same exterior location grassy plain, now with a completely different matte added - a vast mountain range and an impressively grand hacienda up on the hill.  But wait... there's more!

Frame #4  Still milking that same location plain, this time again with the cavalry fort but made all the more dramatic with that incredible, forboding sky, which coincidentally, centres around the Custer stand off at Little Big Horn, just as my previous huge blog did with the Errol Flynn epic THEY DIED WITH THERE BOOTS ON.  Warners did so many great matted skies over the years.  This one is interesting and I have a theory that Jack Cosgrove may have painted the shot.  Jack had a very long matte career, with much of it at Selznick International in the 30's and 40's.  The style here with the 'dripping cloud bank' is very much Cosgrove, with very similar matted clouds in DUEL IN THE SUN and GONE WITH THE WIND - both big Cosgrove projects.  Jack was also in the Warners matte department for a couple of stints, as an effects director supervising miniatures in the mid 40's and later on signed on by his old friend Lou Litchtenfield to work in his matte department in the early1950's.  Alternatively, it's not entirely beyond the realms of possibilities that golden era matte artist Jack Shaw could have painted these shots, as Jack was a staple in the Warners matte department then and had also painted mattes with Cosgrove on GWTW and DUEL IN THE SUN - both notable for their 'cloud' work.

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SAHARA (1984) - A decidedly shabby desert adventure from the Golan-Globus shysters. 

Not for a moment to be confused by a very long shot with the classic Humphrey Bogart picture of the same name, this cheap and nasty Cannon Films programmer, which for reasons that escape me had long established action director of many a quality movie, Andrew V. McLaglen of THE WILD GEESE, THE HELLFIGHTERS, CHISUM and THE SEA WOLVES fame, helm this dire piece of celluloid.  The pay cheque comes to mind I guess?  The young Brooke Shields was kind of cute, but could never hold a candle to the exquisite Phoebe Cates in her own 'desert flick' PARADISE made around the same time.... though, yes, I digress again.  **Oh, and while we're on a roll, do check out the doco ELECTRIC BOOGALOO - THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS which reveals all about the company and the dodgy Israeli 'cousins' who ran it.

A handful of mattes were used to flesh out the Arabian-esque locales, with this one being one of British specialist Cliff Culley's mattes.  Cliff has painted in the ships and the ancient fortress at right to good effect.

Another of Cliff's matte shots, made at his Westbury Design & Optical facility outside London.

Interestingly, while Culley provided the first two shots the remaining pair of mattes were farmed out to American effects people.  This beautiful shot was a joint effort between Jim Danforth and Mark Sullivan, and I think it was completed at Jim's Effects Associates shop. Mark told me that it wasn't uncommon for both artists to contribute to the same matte when the need arose.

This wider establishing matte shot was entirely a Mark Sullivan painting (see below), photographed and composited by Jim Danforth.

Mark's superb matte art looks to me as though it was purposely painted with a slight 'squeeze' for some reason, no doubt to accomodate the anamorphic 2.35:1 final.

Close up of Mark's brushwork.  I conducted a very extensive career interview with Mark some years back, and not only did he prove to be one of the finest matte and all round effects guys of his generation, but he's also a great guy.

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ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE (1958) - A torrid VistaVision romance. 

A very young Sean Connery has a part in this soaper, a Paramount picture shot in the UK by what seemed to be a mostly British crew.  The matte shot remains a mystery.  I don't know if it was executed by an artist in a British studio (likely), or done back in the States by Jan Domela?  Probably the former.

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BANDOLERO (1968) - An all star, violent, action packed western from Andrew V. McLaglen.

The dream cast here, and all assembled under the very capable eye of one of the best directors of the genre, Andrew McLaglen, who just happened to be one of 'The Duke's (that's John Wayne to the ignorant) favourite directors.  I always remember whenever this was shown on tv here back in the seventies, it was usually cut for some of the pretty violent scenes.

One of the longest serving photographic effects experts, L.B Abbott, was an institution at Fox, going right back to the late silent days as a camera assistant before graduating into the Fred Sersen effects department.  Abbott - or Bill as he was known - made the decision once head of department in the late 50's to give screen credit, when applicable, to fellow vfx people such as Emil Kosa jnr.

There was just the one scene in BANDOLERO requiring trickery, though shown in two slightly different cuts.  The town in the valley has been matted in with Emil Kosa's painting.

I first thought it may have been a carefully rigged 'foreground miniature' set up just in front of the actors, or even an old fashioned glass shot, as there was no discernible 'jiggle'.  The sort of trick shot nobody ever notices.

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SOUTH PACIFIC (1958) - Lush, exotic and visually stunning Rodgers & Hammerstein musical.

The massive, expensive 20th Century Fox tropical-opera had decidedly mixed reviews but remains a glorious matte painted excursion, and all in the giant format Todd-AO.  Note, the misleading tag 'intact & uncut' doesn't infer anything 'untoward', perish the thought ... rather the complete original Roadshow version as it was rather common back in the day to re-release big productions later in 'trimmed' versions for regular circuit runs to squeeze in more showings per day.  Cheap bastards.  They did it once to GONE WITH THE WIND and cut it to ribbens, whereby audiences totally 'spat the dummy' and raised merry hell.  I think the prints were withdrawn and never saw the light of a projector again.

As mentioned in my 'Matte Hall of Fame' piece, the photographic effects were supervised by L.B (Lenwood Ballard) Abbott, with the awe inspiring matte shots under Emil Kosa jnr's hand.

An original trade ad for the then new Todd-AO (American Optical) camera system, invented by one of the (many) husbands of Elizabeth Taylor, Mike Todd in the early fifties. The bulky camera was known as 'the bug eye' due to the cumbersome and bulbous lens.  The film stock was 65mm which provided a very high resolution negative, with final edited release prints usually struck in 70mm with magnetic/optical soundtrack in multiple channels.

As singled out at the top of today's blog post, this magnificent matte shot absolutely ranks as one of the greatest of all time in my opinion.  This is the mythical Bali-Hai of the story, and a more romantic and ethereal vision one is never likely to see.  A masterpiece says NZ Pete, and a sky to beat all matte painted skies.  A shot worthy of framing!!!

The Japanese poster at left far out sells the feeble American version.  The production still at right shows the Hawaiian beach set with a noticeable absence of the Bali-Hai matte painted vista. 

A wider view, beautifully designed, painted and flawlessly composited with coconut palms merged carefully in.  Toggle through these frames...

At a key point, subtle 'sunlight' begins to gradually filter down through the clouds and across Bali-Hai.

Emil Kosa's father was also a matte painter, for a time they both worked at MGM under Warren Newcombe.  Kosa snr actually smuggled Kosa jnr as a child out of Czechoslovakia and into the US in a large potato sack(!)  Emil jnr started at 20th Century Fox in 1933 under the legendary Fred Sersen and shared matte painting duties with other notables such as Ralph Hammeras, Ray Kellogg, Fitch Fulton, Menrad von Mulldorfer, Max DeVega, Joseph Serbaroli and others.

Note the rays on sunlight illuminating the mountain side.  I don't know the methods Kosa may have used in 1958, but the effect is sublime to say the least.  

The island lights up in an ethereal glow, as do the lower clouds.  Do toggle these frames to appreciate.  *Among the show tunes, 'Happy Talk' remains one catchy ear-worm for this viewer.

The visual effect here is astonishingly well done, and I'd imagine seeing it on the big 70mm screen must have been spectacular.  I do wonder whether Fox submitted it for special effects Oscar consideration?

Years ago I was in touch with a guy who was a former staffer of the Fox photographic effects department who apparently owned one of these Bali-Hai Kosa mattes (along with several other Fox matte paintings).  The guy was going to send me photos but, as with so many such assurances, never did. I get so many of those "Yes, I'll email you that shortly", and never see a thing in the inbox.  :(

Now, to some audiences and critics, things turned a bit sour as director Joshua Logan insisted that Abbott and director of photography Leon Shamroy progressively 'filter' the sequence into darker and deeper hues of magenta, supposedly for some 'special dramatic effect'.  

Matthew Yuricich worked under Kosa for several years, and while their relationship could be fraught at times, to say the least, Yuricich stated that he admired Kosa for his speed and ability at tackling a matte as well his highly regarded private portrait paintings.  F.Y.I Matthew had already shifted over to MGM when this picture was made and had his hands full with BEN HUR.

Apparently cinema audiences were confused and complained to the management about 'faulty projection' with these filtered sequences, probably thinking the carbons in the 70mm projectors were burning out and the projectionist was out washing his car!

I'm sure Emil and Bill must have hated these deliberate directorial 'artistic choices'.

There was much bitter studio debate about this deliberate magenta intrusion.

The story goes that even director Joshua Logan eventually saw the error of his ways when the saturation ended up 'too extreme' and wanted to walk it back a few degrees, but by that time the film was locked into a definite Roadshow release date and couldn't be changed.

In his autobiography, director Logan stated he'd wished he could "stand outside theatres playing the film, wearing a sign that said I DIRECTED IT AND I DON'T LIKE THE COLOUR EITHER".  True story.

The stranded GI's are strafed by a Japanese plane.  Ray Kellogg was 2nd unit director on the film, and had previously had vast experience in special effects at Fox dating back to the 1930's.  This scene is a multi-component shot with live action foreground, matte painted mountain headland, with airplane (possibly a model) and explosions doubled in.

Matte shot with coast filled with naval vessels and squadron of fighters overhead.  Visual effects cinematographers in the department at the time included Walter Castle, Harry Dawes, Frank van der Veer and Paul Mohn.

A beautifully rendered matte shot which again gradually re-saturates into exaggerated hues, but not nearly as eye-insulting as those earlier Bali-Hai colour shifts, thank goodness.

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CARLTON BROWNE OF THE F.O (1958) - The Boulting brothers are at it again.

Well, here we have another Boulting brothers vehicle for Peter Sellers, with frequent fellow comic pals, the inimitable Terry-Thomas and John LeMesurier - all staples in classic British comedy. the likes of which we were very well served here as New Zealand was very 'colonial' back then.

For those confused among you, the "F.O" stands for 'Foreign Office'.  The title was too confusing for the American market so it became MAN IN A COCKED HAT for reasons that escape me.  I could do an entire blog on the often bizarre title changes done over the years to make a 'foreign' or UK picture marketable in the US of A.  One that comes to mind was the excellent 90's Ian McKellen fascist re-imagining of Shakespeare's RICHARD III, where executives in Hollywood figured it a hard sell as audiences would want to know where RICHARD I and RICHARD II were????  Well, fuck me!!!!!!!!  :(

The dependable Ian Bannen at left - a superb character actor and support star in such outstanding pictures as Sidney Lumet's electrifying THE OFFENCE (1972) with Sean Connery and Trevor Howard, plays off here against an unrestrained Peter Sellers, giving it his all.

CARLTON BROWNE had just the two matte shots depicting the tiny, forgotten British colonial island with great mineral deposits.  Wally Veevers was in charge, and Bob Cuff described painting at least one of the shots.

A full screen matte painting where opposing factions have laid claim to the little island and it's minerals, thus a massive white line is painted straight across the territory!  Other matte artists with Cuff in Veevers' busy department at Shepperton at this time were senior matte painter George Samuels, Albert Julion and David Hume.

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ESCAPE FROM ZAHRAIN (1961) - Trials and tribulations in another desert escape yarn.

Those were the days friends, when advertising departments really knew how to sell a picture with terrific ad art and totally collectable one-sheets, several thousand of which I still have.

Paramount's special effects department was on the verge of being shut down around this time as cost cutting 'suits' in the New York head office were sharpening their axes.  The legendary trick shot exponent, John P. Fulton was still running the show at the studio, but time was running out, as told to me by the daughter of studio matte artist Jan Domela.  Note the credit there for Farciot Edouart who always demanded, non-negotiable, that he have full screen credit on every-bloody-thing.  

ESCAPE FROM ZAHRAIN opens with this typical Islamic city shot - a matte painting by Jan Domela that had been used and re-used in as many as four Paramount pictures.  Things like OMAR KHYYAM and Alfred Hitchcock's THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH - each with minor modifications or small changes.

Some effective action scenes, with these huge industrial oil installations created by Fulton with matte art and optical overlays.

An extensive widescreen matte painted shot of the refinery complex by artist Jan Domela, enhanced with Paul Lerpae's optical 'fire' overlay.

The huge Zahrain oil refinery matte shot as seen in daylight.

The vast desert landscape that the five escapees must traverse, following the oil pipeline.  A full matte painting by Jan Domela.

One matte with three good actors; Yul Brynner, Sal Mineo and Jack Warden... what more could one ask for?

The oil pipeline takes on a character all of its own.

Is it a mirage?  No, but it is a matte painting of the pipeline, the settlement and the hills beyond.

Top:  Real actors.  Bottom: Matted landscape.

The seaside city matte as they make it to freedom.

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THE MOUNTAIN ROAD (1960) - A few very subtle mattes in this forgotten WWII movie.

A fairly low key war drama, with Jimmie Stewart as solid as always.

Great hand lettered title cards here.

Some good tense action all set in China during WWII.  No effects credit and just a few very subtle matte shots, but because of that subtlety I felt they were well employed.  Here, James Stewart blows up a bridge over a ravine, where matte art will be used to complete the illusion.

Examining the shot, the live action 'plate' photography had a pronounced vibration/shake as the pyro went off, yet the central portion with the bridge debris remained steady.  It looked as though the matte painting was already composited onto the locale, dissolved into view as the smoke cleared?

Matted destruction and canyon revealed as smoke cleared.  Of course, readers only glancing at the blog on some fucking cellular phone contraption won't even see the matte work here!

A virtually full frame matte painted shot with just a mid section showing refugees on the ridge.

Another interesting, though subtle effects shot where Jimmie sets off a charge and once again, as the dust clears we see the matte painted collapsed rockface and crevice. 

Destruction by all accounts looks genuine, but its cleverly applied matte art worked in with the actual location setting.

The finale has this matte shot whereby the enemy are now unable to continue the pursuit after Jimmie blew the shit out of the side of the mountain pass.  Nicely done.  I'd be guessing that Larry Butler and Donald Glouner were likely involved with these effects shots as they had a very long connection with Columbia, even after starting up their own Butler/Glouner outfit.

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SWEETHEARTS (1938) - Not a fan of the stars but some dazzling Technicolor visuals here.

I like certain old musicals, but don't at all care for the stylings of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, but I'm adding this film as there were some nice mattes and a stunner of an opener.

MGM knew no bounds when it came to spending dosh on their movies, especially all those family friendly big musicals.

Frame #1  The opening extended sequence was a stunner, and begins on this Broadway view, moving on across the theatrical district and all of the dazzling neons...

Frame #2  Toggle through this set.

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Frame #7  I've always been very fond of old time neon signage in matte and effects work, and no studio was better at it than MGM who excelled in the medium.

Frame #8  This entire uninterrupted sequence was executed with large miniatures and 2D cut-outs.  In his marvellous memoir, The Wizard of MGM, long time effects expert Arnold Gillespie briefly described the methods used here:  "The principal signs were of 'zeon' in SWEETHEARTS.  We used a camera car mounted 7 feet high and run on a track with flanged wheels.  Sign backings were white cloth lighted by open arcs and cellophane with a blue-black blend".  I don't know what "zeon" is, or was.  The best I could find was a reference to some form of high tech polymer(?)  But in 1938, well, maybe a different thing altogether?

Frame #9  Based upon Gillespie's statement I'd presume the model buildings to be at least six to ten feet in height, allowing for photography from a seven foot dolly.  The stage space must have been considerable to lay this whole thing out, and I assume numerous takes were attempted to get one good-to-print final continuous 'travel' through the city.  Also, focus must have been difficult, given Technicolor film stock was very slow, and it would have been near impossible to 'light' the set to get anything resembling a decent depth of field as it's all pretty much a 'night' backlit deal.  Really impressive.

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Frame #12  A similarly complex sequence was accomplished at Warner Bros a year or two later for the James Cagney musical bio-pic YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, where matte paintings, process projection and a massive miniature set were all integrated into a show stopping set piece in a simarlarly uninterrupted long camera move.  Breathtaking it was.

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Frame #28 - the end of the lavish title sequence has the camera dive down the sign onto live action.

The miniature set up ready for photography at MGM.  **From Arnold Gillespie's memoir The Wizard of MGM.

I'd say the upper portion is likely matte art.

Matte painted upper theatre architecture and reviewing the footage it appears some of the crowd are also painted in.

The Grand Hotel and surrounds are a complete matte painting.

The original pastel matte painting as it looks today, and still in pristine condition.  The surprisingly small matte art doesn't even fill the dimensions of the standard Newcombe dept art card, plus the painting was filmed with a slow zoom in.  A matte collector friend of mine in Germany owns this piece.

A closer look...

More detail...

Incredibly precise given the size and the medium utilised.

A transition montage with matte painted theatre marquee cross dissolved with numerous live action cuts.

The final matte shot is another full painting of The Palace Hotel.  Many artists were employed in the Newcombe unit at the time, most notably Howard Fisher, Candelario Rivas, Rufus Harrington, Edward 'Ted' Withers among others.

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SNOWBALL EXPRESS (1972) - A frosty frolic filled with fine photographic fakery.

This was a typically enjoyable family oriented film from Disney that I well recall seeing in 1972, most likely at Auckland's great Cinerama theatre - which usually had the Xmas holidays Disney deal - or if luck wasn't on audiences side, maybe at the not-at-all memorable Century theatre just down Queen street.  The Cinerama was really an event.  The biggest screen in New Zealand, and all kitted out for big Roadshow features with 70mm, 6-track stereo sound and so forth.  I love old cinemas, though both of these are long gone to fucken' cockroach property developers, though, yes, Pete digresses.

Disney always guaranteed a good time for an hour and a half, and nobody ever complained.  Two of my faves of the day were THE LOVE BUG and NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU DON'T  - a fabulous spoof on invisibility. Anyway, SNOWBALL EXPRESS is still a decent little time filler all these years on, and deserves a look here as it was packed with excellent matte shots and some ingenious physical effects.

SNOWBALL EXPRESS had a large number of good matte painted shots, supervised and to a large extent painted by British effects artist Alan Maley.  Alan started off in the 1950's at Shepperton studios in Wally Veevers' department, working on films like DR STRANGELOVE and BECKET.  Alan also painted in Cliff Culley's department over at Pinewood and worked on some of the British shot Disney productions such as the massive effects showcase IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS.  

The bluray was mastered in the original 1.33:1 ratio, as per the 35mm release prints, though would have been exhibited in theatres masked to what was then the acceptable 1.85:1 format.  I've cropped this frame for comparison.  Also, worth noting is the very visible 'hot spot' in the snow, presumably a result of Disney's standard rear projection method for combining painted and plate elements on the matte camera stand.  It's not usually this pronounced, but is pretty glaring, especially in the full frame shown above where the snow (presumably real) has 'blown out' considerably.

Dean Jones and family knock on the door of the abandoned ski lodge, causing a great amount of snow to collapse from the roof.  The mid section of the lodge is a practical set, or facade, while all that to the left and right as well as the roof of the middle being matte art.

The snow drift comes down, with portions vanishing through the matted areas, but who the hell ever notices these things?   Me, that's who.  :)

The lodge at twilight.  A full painting.

Dean's POV of the barn out back is also matte art, with real foreground snow and background location plate or a still photo blow up which Disney often did.

I regard this scene as a superb bit of matte trickery, with a flawless integration of a painted ski lodge and out buildings as well as a snow capped mountain added on top of the actual range.  Very impressive painting and composite blending here.

I've taken the trouble (why "thank you so much" says reader) to crop the scene to better illustrate Alan Maley's matte painting. Really one of those trick shots that slip by totally unnoticed.

The grand reopening... all invited!

An exquisite, fully painted shot where the train is stuck in the snow and passengers mill around.  Beautifully rendered with an utterly splendid sense of sunlight and texture.  Definitely has Maley's brush-strokes all over it as he was a remarkably loose painter, much as Peter Ellenshaw.  Love this one!!

A later evening matte shot - a full painting with window illumination added.  

Not sure here, but I think some trickery may have been employed.  Possibly a combination of two separate exteriors?

We could always rely on Disney to keep quality old time character actors in work.  This is Harry Morgan of M*A*S*H fame - a long established actor of well over 100 movies, often westerns or war pictures, mostly at 20th Century Fox.  Notable in THE OX BOW INCIDENT and the excellent YELLOW SKY.

Combination visuals here with Harry Morgan careening down the slope toward the lodge.  Foreground shot via the sodium vapour method and optically composited with what must have been quite a large matte painting to permit the 'zoom in' action.

Long time Disney optical specialists Eustace Lycette and Bob Broughton would have composited the sodium backed live action with Alan's painting.  Disney were absolutely gung-ho on their yellow backing sodium process and used it relentlessly on almost all of their productions up until THE BLACK HOLE (1979) where the travelling mattes had to be produced with blue screen methods as it was an anamorphic show and the special 3-strip sodium camera wasn't compatible with scope.

Live action snowscape with matted in barn.

Along with Alan Maley, the matte department also had long time assistant matte artist Constantine 'Deno' Ganakes who had been with them as far back as POLLYANNA (1960) and MARY POPPINS (1964).  Also present was a young Harrison Ellenshaw, then known as P.S Ellenshaw, who would eventually take over the department in the mid seventies.

As the camera closes in we can begin to see brush marks and dust specs on the matte art.  Incidentally, snowy environs was a bit of a specialty for Maley, with a great many remarkable mattes he painted for ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD (1974).

At the climax we have another nicely done effects sequence.  Dean and Harry out of control again, with Art Cruickshank photographing the sodium camera action for later compositing.  Art had been with Disney since the 1940's, having worked on things like FANTASIA and 20'000 LEAGUES.

The pair head straight toward a large snow bank.  Live action bottom half, matte painted from top edge of the snow drift as well as the large trees to the left and the right of frame.

Turns out the snow bank is hollow...

All's well that ends well......

***This vast and utterly exhaustive post, and all 191 previous blog posts known as 'Matte Shot', were originally created by Peter Cook for nzpetesmatteshot, with all content, layout and text originally published at http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/