MATTE & EFFECTS FILMS CELEBRATED: Part Six

 

Hello again friends and olde timey matte and trick shot enthusiasts.  It's that time again for a trip through the cinematic museum of movie wizardry and creativity from the pre-computer era.  I call this my mid-winter blockbuster, as it is that particular season right now where I am, and what better time than to dust off a multitude of visual effects wonders to feast your eyes upon. Seriously.

Well, what have we got?  An overlooked disaster epic from long ago;  A CinemaScope lightweight medieval costumer; A pair of eighties flicks about teens with special abilities; A long forgotten football hero melodrama; Not one, but two (count 'em, 2) movies about salty old whale hunters; A tribute piece to matte artist Alan Maley; Some more dazzling and extremely rare Matthew Yuricich painted mattes that have never been seen before; Another example of fascinating Whitlock trickery; Some Abbott & Costello craziness; An All Time Hall-of-Fame Matte from 90 years ago, and more!!!

As usual, there are a couple of shows that may be fairly well known, but as is my pattern, a whole bunch of films and shots most will never have seen. I try my damndest to search, seek out and discover gems of movie magic from across the spectrum and range of genres.  There is truly nothing more satisfying than discovering forgotten or lost examples of this wonderful artform.

 Do try to view this extensive blog on a proper screen, and not some godammed phone or silly 'toy' device.  I will hunt you down and flog you if I discover anyone enjoying my blog on anything less than a 15" screen (minimum).   ;)

Well, here the journey begins.......

Enjoy

Peter

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***This vast and utterly exhaustive post, and all 184 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 One

Anybody who doesn't recognise this mighty shot should excuse themselves and exit this blog with great haste and never look back!  Probably my all time favourite film, and best vfx film of all time - confirmed yet again by a repeat viewing a few days ago, for what must have been the 40th time?  KING KONG (1933) and the forboding Skull Island - made all the more forboding by Max Steiner's career best music score which goes along with my mantra, "the music maketh the matte".  This rare test frame shows a bit more on the sides of the frame than the final release prints, which is commonly the case with raw camera footage prior to dupe negs being struck.

The final shot from the release print, with Orville Goldner's wonderful stop motion birds doubled in.  The matte was painted either by Mario Larrinaga or Byron Crabbe.  *As an aside, both talented artists may be seen above on my 'blog header', working on a large dual plane glass of New York City for the same film.

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FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR:

One of the mystery paintings found in the collection of Matt Yuricich's family was this curious one.  It turned out to be a Jim Danforth matte of the Mexican locale that was rendered for the very depressing John Huston drama UNDER THE VOLCANO (1984), though the shot never made the final cut.  One or two other shots in the final film were painted by Al Whitlock.

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A VINTAGE MYSTERY MATTE NOW SOLVED:

Earlier this year I published a whole package of mostly unidentified 35mm matte shot trims from the family of old time Paramount matte painter Jan Domela.  As I enjoy old movies I knew I'd come across some of these scenes sooner or later.  The recreation of romantic Venice was an extensive matte extension above the tank on the Paramount lot for THIS IS THE NIGHT (1932)

Domela's Venice, created without leaving the studio backlot.

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A PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN:  WHITLOCK'S ICEBERGS.

Some time ago one of my long time readers, Mark Wolf sent me a file of fascinating images that his friend Dave Boston had taken while on a sort of summer internship at Universal in Al Whitlock's department in 1974.  They were knee deep in THE HINDENBURG (1975) at the time, and Dave was able to observe the process (lucky, lucky Dave I say!!!)

Sadly, out of all of the rolls of Ektachrome colour transparenies, the majority had deteriorated over time (I can't recall whether it was water damage or what?  Oh, the humanity!), so only a handful remain usable.  Here we see Al busy at work on a pair of glasses in his matte studio for key shots in THE HINDENBURG.  Interestingly, at the time, the only actual daylight available for Albert was via that small high window, though I understand a few years later he had them build a full room level window with plenty of natural light.  The photo at left with the icebergs is elaborated upon below.  The other of the airship is most likely a photo cut-out, mounted on glass and hand retouched, which Whitlock resorted to for many of the different angles and perspective views of the craft as a time saver.

Al blocking in the mass with the aid of a rag and a clump of pigment.  According to Leigh Took, Leigh's mentor Cliff Culley used to often speak of Whitlock's 'rag-work' technique from the days when they painted together at Rank-Pinewood back in the early fifties in the UK.

The final shot where not only has Al matted in the icebergs 'drifting' under the airship, but he has also painted separately on another glass the mass of the zeppelin itself immediately surrounding the actors, one of whom is the excellent William Atherton... terrific actor, though I digress...

A rare squeezed anamorphic unfinished test frame from the collection of Larry Shuler.

A wider view, with dual paintings:  iceberg mass, and almost all of the actual airship rendered on separate glasses.  The passing cloud and mist is yet another element, often comprising of up to 3 'smoke' elements tri-packed through the matte camera for certain shots to lend a layered depth to the phenomenen.  

Matted set extension of the actual fabric covered airship that nobody noticed.  One of 77 mattes created by Whitlock and Dutton for the Oscar winning film - and Al personally acknowleged each and every one of his team at the awards ceremony.

"...and they sailed off into the sunset and they all lived happily ever after?"

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THE MAN FROM COLORADO:  An exciting addition to my previous fx coverage

I did an article on the 1948 Columbia western, THE MAN FROM COLORADO, back in January this year, and as often happens, vital material comes to my attention after the fact, though is absolutely worthy of inclusion.  Here is an excellent before and after set of frames which radically alter the landscape of the gold mining town.

Columbia's resident photographic effects chief Lawrence Butler supervised, with long time matte cameraman Donald Glouner shooting the matte and composite.  It's quite likely Juan Larrinaga may have been the matte artist, and the work in this film is very good.

The final Technicolor scene.  A terrific movie in fact, with what I feel was Glenn Ford's best - and nastiest - performance.

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A TRIBUTE TO MATTE PAINTER ALAN MALEY:

"Alan Maley had worked with me on In Search of the Castaways, back in England.  I thought he was very talented, and in 1965 he came over from England to work with me at Disney Studios.  Alan was given a room across the hall from mine, and there he would spend his days honing his skills until he quickly became very good at matte painting.  His room - actually more like a den - soon became very cluttered.  He seemed happiest when he had made a kind of nest of reference books, paints, boxes and old magazines.  Over in the corner would be Alan, out of sight, hidden by a large easel, on which he would be matte painting".

                            Peter Ellenshaw:  ELLENSHAW UNDER GLASS

I always like to expand upon the careers of painters and technicians from the past, as often not enough has been forthcoming about so many unsung heroes of the special photographic effects arena.  One such gentleman would be British matte painter and fine artist, Alan Maley.  *note:  the above photo was a deliberate 'gag' snapshot taken while Alan was heading the ILM matte department in the early 80's.  Apparently Alan was always bemused by pics of matte artists with what he called "impossibly small brushes", and as one trained in the 'big brush style', posing here with a mammoth DRAGONSLAYER painting and a ridiculous pin-head fine brush just for a laugh.

Alan began his film career when a young man as a backing painter at Denham Studios, UK, in the early 1950's.  Like many backing and scenic artist boys did, Alan branched out into matte and glass shots, as did fellow British exponents such as Cliff Culley, Albert Whitlock, Peter Melrose and Les Bowie among many others. A considerable number of Alan's relatives were already in, or would soon be in, the British studio, largely in fields such as sign writing and scenic work.

Alan moved between various studios where the work was, with a few years in Wally Veevers' photographic effects unit at Shepperton with fellow well established artists such as George Samuels and Bob Cuff.  One noteworthy assignment that Alan proved his skills was the magnificent Peter O'Toole-Richard Burton historic drama BECKET (1964), where Alan provided several stunning mattes such as this beautiful and expansive vista of London during the era of King Henry II.  An almost full painting with just a tiny sliver of live action upper left as the horseman gallops away up the hill.  Smoke is also added to some chimney pots.

Another sprawling vista from BECKET which is shown here in this rare original full painting.  The final sequence was optically reduced and scanned down from the castle and across the valley.  A horse and rider would be optically added going down the hillside.  Note, the rising smoke was entirely painted 'as is'.

Maley cathedral set extension also from the excellent film BECKET (1964)

One of the most famous and iconic sequences of all time was the penultimate nuclear bomb drop on the USSR in Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece DR STRANGELOVE: OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964).

The great Slim Pickens takes the ride of his life.  Alan painted a highly detailed massive 12 foot wide Soviet landscape with missile battery into which effects cameraman Peter Harman simulated a dramatic 'fall' and Wally Veevers added a blue screened bomb and actor to brilliant effect.

Alan also worked for a time for the opposition, Pinewood Studios, where he joined Cliff Culley's matte department, under the overall supervision of Peter Ellenshaw who came across from the States to oversee the enormous Disney visual effects showcase IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS (1962) - one of Disney's best matte shot films in my opinion, with composite work seemingly yards ahead of the comps being done back in California for some reason.  Beautiful mattes a-plenty, and all so well assembled.  Alan painted miniature backings and helped with the many mattes, as did Culley.

IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS matte.  I saw it as a kid and it completely 'had me' as far as old school adventure went.  Incidentally, I did a substantial effects blog a number of years back on this under-appreciated FX film, which can be found HERE

The IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS Pinewood matte dept jokesters all lined up as villains that only a mother could love, and made this set of mug-shots and prints etc for supervisor Peter Ellenshaw.  That's Alan at far right.  Cliff Culley is second from left and matte cameraman Martin Shorthall is next to Maley.

Accompanying the nasty row of 'mug shots' was this amusing CASTAWAYS certificate from the 'Department of Special Defects', and loaded with excuses, much to Ellenshaw's amusement.  *Thanks to my pal Harrison Ellenshaw for this little gem.

Recalling Alan's excellent work on CASTAWAYS, Ellenshaw a few years later secured Maley stateside for a permanent role in the Disney matte department when artist Jim Fetherolf left.  This Maley matte is from THE ONE AND ONLY, GENUINE, ORIGINAL, FAMILY BAND (1968).

A large number of mattes were needed for Disney's THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE (1968).

Disney had some massive effects shows around that time, with the ever popular THE LOVE BUG (1969) requiring many mattes and other trick shots.  Alan was chief matte artist around this time and headed up the department.  Peter Ellenshaw still put some time in but was mainly doing production design.  Constantine 'Deno' Ganakes was also on board and had also been in the department for several years.

Alan's wide vista of San Francisco opens THE LOVE BUG.  A small model car was pulled along in an unpainted slot toward the house.  Not a shot anybody would expect to be a trick shot at all.

Among the multitude of mattes and gags in THE LOVE BUG, this dramatic closing shot was another invisible Maley matte.  The shot starts on a crowded park and pulls back over the city before dissolving into a second vast aerial matte of San Francisco.  Interesting story here:  I was asking Harrison Ellenshaw about this matte and he mentioned that the painting had mysteriously vanished from the Disney lot many years ago, and nobody knew whatever became of it......  See below!

... and hey-presto, there it is!  The surviving matte glass, decades after the fact, mounted on the wall of one of Alan's family members.  Note the fx camera slate beside it from the 007 film THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977), on which Alan was matte and optical artist (see more later...)  

There were some beautifully atmospheric matte shots from Alan in another Disney picture, NEVER A DULL MOMENT (1968), with wonderfully rendered night time views of New York City.

Alan received an Academy Award for special visual effects - shared with Danny Lee and Eustace Lycette - for BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS (1971)

Here's one of Alan's original matte paintings still in pristine condition at Disney.

The BEDKNOBS matte art in the special storage area at Disney, along with scores of other carefully conserved paintings on glass.  I'd like to take a look through those some day.

Another delightful Oscar winning matte from BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS (1971).  By this time Alan would have an apprentice in the department by the name of Harrison (P.S) Ellenshaw.  Harrison told me how he learned everything from Alan, even though his own father was master matte artist, the celebrated Peter Ellenshaw.

Post Oscar celebration time 1971 as Peter toasts Alan on his Academy Award win.

A pair of Disney matte exponents in good cheer.

Among the numerous films that Alan painted on during those busy Disney years was the slapstick SNOWBALL EXPRESS (1972).

HERBIE RIDES AGAIN (1974) would be one of several clones of the original LOVE BUG, and like the former, required substantial matte work from Alan, assisted by a young P.S Ellenshaw - before he changed his name to 'Harrison' to avoid confusion with his father.  Harrison told me some great stories in my career piece I did with him:  "Alan actually banned my father from coming into the matte department for a few months.  He was very protective of me and just didn't want my father to interfere.  We both laughed about it later on".

Exotic locales courtesy of Maley for THE WORLD'S GREATEST ATHLETE (1973).  Harrison told me more about Alan: "He was more than an artist, he was a superb technician, a great photographer and a film maker.  He not only taught me about painting, he taught me how to be a visual storyteller. He loved films and knew everything about films.  Alan pushed me to study reference photos and learn about architecture and nature - all sorts of things.  To Alan, if you are going to paint a street in London in the 17th Century, you'd better know all about the details of the architecture and why the buildings were built the way they were".

Probably the biggest VFX show Disney ever produced was the highly entertaining ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD (1974).  A film with a staggering number of effects shots, from mattes to models to countless travelling matte composites.  This is one of Alan's mattes, whereby an extensive painting has a rear projected live action plate of the ground crew filmed at the Golden Oak Ranch with VistaVision equipment; a photo cut-out of the miniature airship - mounted on a separate sheet of glass and animated a frame at a time - and a light bulb burnt in to simulate the brilliance of the sunrise.

A partial photograph of Alan's painting.  I did a comprehensive blog piece on this film's visual effects years ago, with a lot of background info, lengthy and detailed interview and behind the scenes material courtesy of Harrison, and that article may be read right HERE.

Before and after ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD, with painting combined with actors on a set through sodium process matting, which Disney used extensively.

One of Alan's iconic ISLAND shots, where his surprisingly loose brushwork and paint application is near impressionistic, yet worked. Harrison told me that he learned so much from watching Alan paint, who just made simple shots seem more magical.

A tremendous shot here, and probably my favourite Maley painting from the film.  Interestingly, ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD was submitted to The Academy that year for best visual effects consideration, though the committee rejected it.  Actually, EARTHQUAKE won that year.

Another of the 93 painted mattes in ISLAND, with a soundstage set extension required here.  Alan was another advocate of the 'big brush' technique, as was Peter Ellenshaw.

..."Nobody does it better"

Alan left Disney in the mid seventies to pursue a career in fine art - especially art with a Victorian and Edwardian era theme - though he was coaxed back from film retirement by his cousin, Peter Lamont, who was art director under production designer Ken Adam on many James Bond pictures.  THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977) - one of the very best in my book (with O.H.M.S.S being a close runner up) - was a huge special effects project with Maley hired on by Eon Productions to furnish several spectacular mattes and split screen composites.  This view of The Kremlin in Moscow, I've always been of the opinion was a painted matte (though I stand to be corrected if anyone can confirm otherwise).  

Alan is shown here at work on one of his SPY WHO LOVED ME Egypt trick shots.  For a shot of Bond approaching a night show of The Sphinx, Maley painted in the entire scene - even the audience - and matted in Roger Moore walking across the sand behind.

Maley's final composite as put together by effects cinematographer Robin Browne.  The painted crowd were brought to 'life' through the age old method of scraping away bits of paint from the glass and introducing a rotating device in back of the glass to give the illusion of 'movement'.  An ancient gag used as far back as the 1930's, especially by MGM.

Alan and the matte crew.  Incidentally, judging by the camera slate for SPY pictured earlier in this article, more than 20 mattes were made by Alan for this show, though I've only ever spotted half that number?

The big money shot in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was this incredible pull back from a live action helicopter and crew, a tilt up, and a slow zoom in onto arch villain Stromberg on a railing!  All done as a continuous effects shot, though quite how, I don't know?  I understand Alan used front projection for some matte combinations, so maybe it was applied here?  Nice lens flare added too!  Great stuff.

Higher rez frame #1

Higher rez frame #2

Higher rez frame #3

Higher rez frame #4

Higher rez frame #5

Higher rez frame #6.  Following SPY WHO LOVED ME, Alan briefly was brought on board the next Bond film, MOONRAKER by his cousin, art director Peter Lamont, whereby Lamont took Alan, Derek Meddings and Robin Browne to NASA for a special guided tour of the Space Shuttle, though I don't know whether he provided any effects shots in the final film, if so, without screen credit. 

 A year or two later ILM sought out Alan to take over the matte department from his former apprentice, Harrison Ellenshaw, who though a founding ILM staffer left to take on Disney's gargantuan THE BLACK HOLE (1979).  Alan supervised the numerous mattes for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), as shown above, which won the Academy Award for the VFX work.

Alan's composite from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

The truck full of Nazi's goes off the cliff in a completely fabricated matte and animation sequence from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981).  That's Alan once again joking around with his impossibly tiny brush on a massive piece of artwork!

The final project that Alan would work on before quitting the movie business for good and retreating to his true love of gallery fine art was another ILM show, DRAGONSLAYER (1982).  The two fresh young trainees now under Maley - Michael Pangrazio and Christopher Evans - would remark how much they respected Alan and learned from him.

"Sadly, Alan Maley would pass away at the relatively young age of just 64 in 1995.  I miss him terribly.  He was my mentor and a very good friend".

                               Harrison Ellenshaw

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THE KING'S THIEF:  Skullduggery and Swordplay

A fairly mediocre costume epic from MGM, with all ill-cast Roger Moore in Restoration period action.

This 1955 CinemaScope epic has a few good Newcombe matte shots, including a pair of beautiful Matthew Yuricich paintings, which have recently been shared with me by Dirk Yuricich, to whom I'm most grateful.

Strictly run-of-the-mill, but the mattes are nice.

Before and after 17th Century London matte art by Matthew Yuricich.

Matthew rescued this and a number of other of his old MGM era mattes from the studio during that terrible time when Kirkorian was on a rampage bulldozing the vast back lots and selling off all the props and artifacts dating back many decades, with the old Newcombe matte building being such a casualty, and a thousand mattes were either junked or 'lifted' by opportunists.  Luckily, a great many survived in private hands and have since shown up at various movie auctions etc.

Close up detail.

You want detail....Pete gives you detail!  I'm talkin' to you Stix!

Classic MGM draftsmanship, under the supervision of the eccentric Warren Newcombe.

Typically, Newcombe would have his artists work with goache and fine pastel crayons to render their mattes, and although that doesn't sound ideal, the results were very effective, with MGM's style of soft matte blends being among the best in the business, with matte lines rarely ever visible.

Matthew had fond memories of the pair of mattes he rendered for THE KING'S THIEF (1955)

Now, this is an interesting shot.  In fact, it's a stolen shot taken from an earlier Paramount picture FRENCHMAN'S CREEK (1944).  The original Paramount footage has been optically altered to fit the CinemaScope wide-screen format for the MGM film.  The two lower frames are from the original 1944 movie.  See below for more info...

A wonderful on set behind the scenes photo demonstrates the set up for the original FRENCHMAN'S CREEK gag.  The whole deal was a foreground miniature, with the large 3-Strip Technicolor camera mounted on a nodal head for a broad pan across the landscape onto the supposed chateau.  Interesting backstory here:  The man in the white shirt is visual effects cinematographer Irmin Roberts.  Irmin worked for around 40 years at Paramount though never liked to talk about his work.  On barely three or four rare occasions Irmin invited his family to a set to see what he did, and this was one of those ultra rare days.  That's Irmin's family up on the rostrum, and the young boy on the stool found this incredibly exciting and 'magical'.  I know, because a few years ago he told me so and sent me this photo.

Another interesting little story:  When the Paramount head office in New York heard that the production had 'constructed' an elaborate French Chateau expressly for FRENCHMAN'S CREEK, they hit the friggen' roof!  Screamed blue murder at possible cost over runs, until they were told the real story!  Though, as usual, I digress..........

A dapper, sword twirling young pre-007 Roger Moore clambers out of the bell tower and climbs down a rope.  See below.......

An absolutely magnificent painted matte by the multi-talented Matthew Yuricich.  As an avowed devotee of extreme perspective matte shots, this one's an all out winner for NZ Pete.

Detail

I know Matthew was especially happy with his work on this difficult shot.

Beautiful detail work and sense of light.

Thanks to Matt's son, Dirk, for sending me these wonderful photos.

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MEXICAN HAYRIDE:  Hilarity South of the Border.

I like the old time comedy acts such as W.C Fields, Wheeler & Woolsey, Laurel and Hardy, Jack Benny, Hope & Crosby, Olson & Johnson and most especially The Marx Brothers.  This Abbott & Costello vehicle is typical and good for more than a few chuckles.

MEXICAN HAYRIDE (1948), with Special Photography by veteran David Stanley Horsley.

From an old edition of American Cinematographer

The film has a handful of rather nice mattes by Russell Lawson as well as some cleverly executed optical gags by Millie Winebrenner and Ross Hoffman.  In this shot, more than half the frame has been added in by the matte department.

A dual plane matte shot, with all architecture above the heads of the extras being painted in, as well as a separate 'moving' plane of artwork with the sky.

As with the former shot, this too is a multi-plane affair, with live action foreground, painted bullfight arena and a separate painted sky with drifting clouds.

The main comedy set piece involves Lou Costello having it out with an enraged bull.  Sounds pretty straight forward but a good deal of optical wizardry was needed.  The bull has been meticulously added to otherwise safe footage of Lou through hand drawn rotoscope mattes.  Horsley was an expert at this sort of thing - following in the footsteps of his father Stanley Horsley and moreso, his mentor and former boss, the legendary John P. Fulton, to whom such optical puzzles were like 'bread & butter'.

Fairly long cuts of the comedy action must have required days (or weeks) worth of careful rotoscope work by Universal's Millie Winebrenner, with the bull charging to and fro, in front and behind Lou.  Millie was a long time veteran in the effects department, having worked with Fulton on the INVISIBLE MAN pictures, Clifford Stine on THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, Hitchcock on THE BIRDS and with Al Whitlock on countless films such as DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER and EARTHQUAKE.

"So, who's on first?"  

Note the shadow under the bull, also roto'd in, but oddly facing the wrong way(?).  I did a massive two part blog a while back on Comedy Film VFX, where many mind boggling examples can be seen from other classic Abbott & Costello flicks such as A&C MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN and many others, where not just matte art but complicated optical gags are demonstrated - and they are still very impressive.  Click HERE and HERE to read the 2 parter.

Neat bit where Lou crosses his eyes and the bull does the exact same, with the aid of Winebrenner's cel animation gag.  Interestingly, Horsley had a celebrated career at Universal, with important VFX work on things like the amazing BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935), and important work on all of the sci-fi and monster shows the studio pumped out.  His career came off the rails midway through THIS ISLAND EARTH (1955) when, as a result of studio politics, David was 'let go', as the Hollywood saying goes.  His former boss and mentor Fulton got him a job on the massive TEN COMMANDMENTS over at Paramount shortly after, photographing the elaborate titles.  Not much else was forthcoming until he got a gig doing blue screen shots for Fox's THE LONGEST DAY (1962) and was D.o.P on the fantasy flick JACK THE GIANT KILLER the same year.  David's last job was as miniatures consultant on THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY (1976).

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THE DEVIL AT 4 O'CLOCK:  All Hell Breaks Loose

Great poster art of the type never seen anymore, sadly.

A big budget, all out disaster epic with an A-list cast of pro's, THE DEVIL AT 4 O'CLOCK (1961) might have been a bit of an overly histrionic affair, but many of the effects still stand up today.

What do you get when you mix a devout, two-fisted, boozing Catholic priest, a horde of cute leper kids, a trio of stranded death row bandito's, a blind promiscuous native gal and a simmering volcano ready to pop it's cork??? (no, this isn't a joke...)

From the trailer

The film is packed with effects shots of variable quality, though for the most part, pretty good.  Some in fact are remarkably well done.  This shot has a (very, very large) miniature volcano soft matted onto the location set.

The huge effects roster for the film were the work of veterans Lawrence W. Butler, Donald Glouner and Willis Cook - none of whom were screen credited.  Shame on Columbia for not putting up a single credit for effects!  Pricks!

The massive 'miniature' of the volcano and surrounding landscape was constructed on Larry Butler's rural ranch.  The set proved a dual purpose.  Apparently Larry wanted to have a big artificial lake dug out for his property, so the excavations were perfect to build up the DEVIL volcano.

Miniature added via blue screen.

A look inside the gaping throat of the steaming, lava filled beast.

The flick has a number of matte paintings too, of varying quality, with some being excellent and others far less so.  Everything here painted except a portion atop the (painted) bridge for the truck to proceed.

Matte shot clapper board of Butler-Glouner

The best matte in DEVIL AT 4 O'CLOCK has always made me possibly suspect Albert Whitlock's hand as he did a fair bit of work over those years for Butler-Glouner.  As an aside, Al would later hire Donald Glouner's son Dennis as matte and optical cameraman for quite a few years at Universal and later at Illusion Arts with Bill and Syd.

Matted area with very well blended in slice of live action truck journey up to the leper colony.  That sky and receding light really has a Whitlock feel about it to me.

The chief benefits of building a bloody great big model volcano, and shooting it out doors in natural light.

The pyrotechnics scale very nicely, and the lava flow is spot on too.  How could Butler and Co. not get a damned screen credit here?  Unbelievable!

Volcano model matted in very well indeed, and aided further by introducing optical 'shake' on Glouner's printer.

Now folks, this sequence is a gem.  Our pissed off man of the cloth, Spencer Tracy, persuades pilot to fly a plane over the volcano and through the dust, ash and all of that volcanic shit, in search of survivors from the leper colony.  Brilliantly staged and photographed - you can see the plane there in these frames mid flight, and I assume it was a real one filmed at quite some distance for safety, with the pyro clear of the air flight danger zone.

Note the small aircraft dodging the flaming rocks and lava.  Superb sequence worthy of an Oscar nomination at least... but don't get me started on Oscar injustices, let alone fucken' 'screen credit' omissions. 

Now this is how you replicate a volcanic event... as opposed to example pictured below(!!)

Now folks, please keep in mind DEVIL was made some two decades before the atrocious Irwin Allen disaster laugh-fest WHEN TIME RAN OUT (1980) - aka THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED in some countries like here in New Zealand (it bombed, badly!).  Awful vfx work throughout, even from the highly experienced and multi award winning exponent L.B Abbott, who seems to have phoned this one in!  Best asset in the Irwin Allen flick was Jackie Bissett's perfect, figure hugging T-shirt (!!)

One of the cinema greats was Spencer Tracy, though he pretty much mugged his way through this one and chewed more scenery than Godzilla.  Hard to believe he filmed this the same year as the brilliant JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961)

Another matte shot with group of lepers, cons and an angry priest on their trek to safety (or not?)

All painted except tiny slot of live action.

Minor matte fix, as with the old days, just to conceal the top of the stage and the lighting rigs etc.

Another 'top up' matte, with upper rocks and such painted in as a soundstage fix job.

Combination shots, with upper involving painted foreground, live action set and big process screen miniature action.

People coming down through the bush.  Stage set with upper portion painted in, just above the actors .

Full painting augmented with some miniature vegetation in close foreground.

Largely matte painted, with areas of actual set to allow for actors to engage in death defying feats.

A rough demarkation 'between fact and fiction' as I like to call it.

Broken bridge and a lava flow some 500 feet down the canyon.  What could be easier?

At least they didn't write in a couple of retired, elderly, geriatric circus tight-rope walkers (!!) to get across, as Irwin Allen would do with his near identical scenario 20 years later!  No, I'm not making this up.

Multi-part composite involving matte art, live action set and performers in front of a blue screen, and Butler's volcano spewing as background plate.

Fine miniature work here, and well combined with live action.  

DEVIL has a huge number of blue screen shots - even for insignificant jungle trek scenes and such - with some bleed through noticeable at times, with backgrounds 'ghosting' partly through actors.

'Like a bridge over troubled lava.....'

I've written much in the past about Larry Butler.  One of the legends of the trick shot business, and part of a family long line of cinematographers and trick men going way back.  Larry was head of effects at warners for years and turned out some of their best and most memorable vfx work.  Films such as the jaw dropping THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN (1944) being a fine example that still leaves me stunned.  Butler moved over to Columbia and headed up their effects unit for many years, and formed a partnership with cameraman Donald Glouner.  Years later they set up their own independent effects facility and worked on a ton of films until they closed it down in the mid 70's.  I think all of Larry's sons became cinematographers, and notably did amazing aerial camerawork on the still fantastic TORA!, TORA!, TORA (1970).

Poor Bernie Hamilton gets the world's biggest splinter in his belly!  That's just gotta hurt.

Tracy on the left and Sinatra on the right.  Will these two foes come to some amicable arrangement just in the nick of time?  Unlikely.

Poor ole' Spence has one of those "Oh, shit" moments.  Yeah... where is your so-called God now?

Extremely good mechanical effects and staging here, for what I think is one of the all time great eruption effects sequences.  Makes most others pale in comparison.

'Yes...the Earth certainly DID move!'

It's got to be the biggest and most violent eruption since the dawn of time. 

Enormous blast that literally vapourises the entire island(!), engineered by pyro man Willis Cook, and expertly split screened into 2nd unit ocean plate.  Nice subtle 'after glow' added optically.

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KNUTE ROCKNE - ALL AMERICAN:  Bio-pic of a Football Star

Pat O'Brien and a certain Ronald Reagan star in this 1940 Warner Bros classic.

Older readers might well remember or appreciate the film and it's sporting star.

The main character was from Norway, or so the titles stated...

Good matte art starts the film off, with the Warner's back lot transformed into Voss, Norway.

Matte shot of the Westpoint Military Academy, around the 1920's.

Byron Haskin headed up the Warners Stage 5 effects unit at that time and was responsible for assembling an expert staff to create countless trick shots and outright illusions on many of the studio's films.  Haskin was already an experienced cameraman through the silent era before joining First National, which became Warner Bros. around 1930.  Byron would much later go on to direct many notable features - usually with a fantasy or science fiction bent - such as WAR OF THE WORLDS, ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS and one of my all time vfx favourites, THE NAKED JUNGLE.

In his memoir, Byron Haskin spoke highly of his talented crew at Stage 5, Warners, which included chief matte artist Paul Detlefsen, matte cameraman John Crouse, effects cinematographers Hans Koenekamp and Edwin DuPar, and matte painters Mario Larrinaga, Chesley Bonestell, Hans Batholowsky and Jack Shaw.

A montage of frames from a quite remarkable effects sequence where the entire range of seasons gradually change through a single vantage point.  (see below, and toggle through them to see subtle changes).

Frame #1

Frame #2

Frame #3

Frame #4

Frame #5

Frame #6

Frame #7      I presume this was done with a series of glass overlays, with touch up work applied?

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THE BOY WHO COULD FLY:  Matthew and Michele light up the sky.

A reasonably likeable teen fantasy flick, THE BOY WHO COULD FLY (1986) was loaded with visual effects, courtesy of Boss Films' Richard Edlund, with several terrific matte painted shots by Matthew Yuricich and his long time friend and associate, Michele Moen.

Now, until very recently, I had no idea that this regular looking street shot was anything other than a regular street shot..... until I received a vast collection of surviving Yuricich matte art from Matthew's family (see below...)

Here is Matthew's remarkable painting!  

Just look at Matt's sky.... such wonderfully casual brushwork, seemingly applied with abandon, but knowingly handled with the experience and skill of a seasoned pro who knows just what he's doing.

As Whitlock often stated:  "The true special effect is the one that nobody ever notices".  Truer words were never spoken.

Moonlit night brings out the urge to reach for the stars...

Delightful matte painted sky as kid proceeds to flap his arms...

I'm not sure, but I suspect this down view is largely painted, as it would be the easiest and safest option.

Likewise with this angle.  Presumably it's mostly matte art.

..."are you sure about this?"

Multi-element shots with matte painted city in the distance and what I presume to be miniature buildings in the mid-ground to allow for a nice parallax shift.  Kids added via travelling mattes.

A very nice vista of the entire city as the kids fly across.  Nice details such as neon lights flickering and smoke from chimneys.  Matthew Yuricich and Michele Moen had a fair chunk of work to do on this film.

"Ever heard of the Mile High Club, baby?"

A staggeringly beautiful moonlit sky and cityscape.  Very poetic and 'old school' romantic.

The effects in BOY WHO COULD FLY must have looked a million bucks up on the big screen in the mid-eighties.  Matte painted suburb with fireworks doubled in, as kids perform in front of Richard Edlund's blue screen.

I can't help but think how damned awful this could look if done now in the 'everything goes' and 'let's push the computer to the limits' generation, where they just don't know when to quit, what with insane VFX art direction and suchlike.

..."I love the smell of gunpowder in the morning air...it smells like victory". (!!)

Truthfully, I reckon this chick secretly prefers a more, down to Earth kinda guy.

One of the original matte paintings.

"We really must stop meeting like this.  Air Traffic Control are starting to talk!"

Extensive matte art, supplemented with smoke and interactive light elements.

Full painting with cel animated lightning and rain element overlay.

Beautiful sky and other details from Matthew or Michele.

The boy is but a wee speck in the distance as he takes to the matte painted sky.

Totally unrelated to this film, an interesting peek at just how much an experienced matte exponent has to go through in this business (the face says it all).  I mean, this thank you card from Steven Spielberg on the 1941 set has the most atrocious handwriting I've ever seen after my own doctor, and Steven couldn't even spell Matthew's name correctly, for Christ's sake!

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KARATE KID 2:  It sure ain't Enter The Dragon, but it does have matte shots!

I never went for these insipid KARATE KID flicks - especially being a film-goer practically raised on Bruce Lee ('The Man'), Run Run Shaw, Golden Harvest and Jimmy Wang Yu epics.  KARATE KID 2 (1986) was only brought to my attention through my grandson who always sits through the end credits on movies, spotted a 'Matte Paintings' credit for Bill Taylor and Syd Dutton and, knowing my vague curiosity in such matters, relayed this vital info to me.  That's precisely what grandkids are for!

The flick takes place in exotic Japan, though may not have been shot there?  This is an unmatted location which will serve as the first of a handful of matte shots.

Here is a very rare test frame with Syd Dutton's initial, unfinished version of the temple and the sky.

Before and after with Syd's final version of the temple and gently drifting clouds.

By the time production was under way, Bill and Syd had left Universal and opened their own effects house, Illusion Arts, where their operation expanded considerably with the demand upon their services.

A subsequent cut shows the temple at a closer vantage point.

The initial frame from a very impressive bit of effects business where the kids come across the matte painted temple, as shown below...

Three part composite:  Matte painted temple and surrounds, with the pair of excited teens running across the painted composite via carefully deliniated rotoscope mattes courtesy of Catherine Sudolcan at Illusion Arts. 

Matte composite before introduction of the rotoscoped kids.

I was really impressed by this brief scene and had to run the DVD shot back a number of times to examine the thing.

Construction of the basic temple set which will also serve in part as a live action component for a quite spectacular closing shot by Syd and Bill.

The partial temple set masked off for the dramatic finale.

Test shot with slate of Syd's initial painting, much of which will be substantially modified for the final approved matte tilt down.

The first frame from the final matte painted tilt down.

The tilt continues...

Final stage, onto the live action set.

Comparison minus the camera slate in this test version, which incidentally shows far more painted information around the temple.  The final screen version of the tilt is shown below...

Final version.....Just love Syd's sky.

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Two Tales of Two Completely Unrelated Whales...

1.  MOBY DICK:  The old thirties Vitaphone version.

The timeless Herman Melville maritime tale, MOBY DICK (1930) had been made before as a silent (also with the same star), and remade decades later in colour and more grandeur, but this version is pretty good on a number of levels.

While the fifties version may have been a bigger and more exciting production, this thirties one has an entirely more convincing Captain Ahab from John Barrymore, who was ideally suited.  The latter film's Gregory Peck was sorely miscast.

Warners-First National had a formidable special effects department, which I have discussed at length on previous blog posts, the unit created many quite amazing illusions through their heyday of the thirties and especially the forties.  At left is founding effects boss Fred Woodruff Jackman, who, along with his son Fred jnr, graduated from the silent era on Hal Roach and Harold Lloyd two-reelers.  The gentleman at right is Warner Bros. mainstay, visual effects cinematographer Hans Koenekamp - a technician that future VFX boss and feature film director Byron Haskin would call "the greatest effects man of them all". Years later Koney would state that he felt his best work was in the Robert Alda-Peter Lorre horror flick THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS(1946).

MOBY DICK had a few matte shots in it, but what impressed me most were the ocean going scenes with whalers risking life and limb.

These whale hunting sequences were very impressive for the day.  Use of miniatures, some sort of mechanised or pupeteered whale and most of all, the stunningly well integrated shots where actual cast are seen in the chase boat with the huge whale ahead diving beneath the waves.  

These scenes are baffling.  The combination shots can't be rear process work as screens at that time were made of sand blasted glass, and illumination would falter badly so big.  Perhaps assembled as Dunning or Williams travelling matte composites, though very clean work it is with no sign of ghosting or bleed through.  Perhaps made with some very carefully devised soft splits matting the two pieces of action as one??  Whatever, the work is very effective for 1930, which is why I wanted to present it in the blog.

Well shot miniature sequence by Hans Koenekamp, known as 'Koney' in the industry.

The big storm sequence was also impressive.  Excellent process projection and live physical effects work with mechanical rocking set.

Now, this is neat.  Massive wave sweeps over the deck.  Look carefully and there is a crewman standing there lower right, who gets obliterated with water!  I'm inclined to think this was a good sized miniature ship deck, and the crewman looks to be a real guy added in as a travelling matte, which is then roto'd to wipe the poor bastard out!  Impressive.

More fine miniature work with both the whale and Ahab puppets articulated.

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2.  DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS:  Grand adventure on the high seas, also with a whale or two.

One of those forgotten movies that cry out for a decent BluRay release.

A terrific grand old time adventure with a sensational cast and outstanding special effects, DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS (1949) credited both Fred Sersen and his long time right hand man, Ray Kellogg for the extensive trick work.

Three of the industry's best visual effects men were Fred Sersen, Ray Kellogg and Ralph Hammeras, all of whom served for the majority of their long careers at 20th Century Fox.  All were matte artists by training though their expertise would expand through to other areas of trick work, with Hammeras excelling in effects camerawork and miniatures as an example.

The Fox backlot and tank set up circa late 1940's before they built a new tank on their ranch at Malibu.

A fine cast:  the always excellent Richard Widmark, the legendary Lionel Barrymore and most impressively, the young Dean Stockwell - one of the biggest talents among child actors in Hollywood. As an aside, Dean, who would appear in scores of films over the decades, culminating in some wacky David Lynch projects, I was most intrigued to learn that he died right here in New Zealand of all places ... though I digress.  As an aside, I reckon Widmark's all time best was the chillingly brilliant British picture THE BEDFORD INCIDENT (1965).  See it today!!!

The film is loaded with matte shots, though I do wish I had a better copy or a BluRay to gather screencaps from.

Fox had a very large matte department at that time, with many talented artists.

Ray Kellogg was Sersen's senior painter, with Emil Kosa jnr being an important figure in the department for many years until his untimely death in 1968.

 

A great shot, though it was actually lifted from an earlier Fox programmer called SLAVE SHIP made some ten years before.

Other artists in the Fox unit that time included Barbara Webster, Charles Hulett, Chris von Scheidau, Cliff Silsby, Max DeVega, Menrad von Muldorfer and Fitch Fulton.

Fox applied the tried and true bi-packing of gently blowing foliage over their mattes such as here.

Effects cameramen at Fox included Ralph Hammeras, Bill Abbott, Til Gabatini, Walter Castle and others.

Excellent whale mechanisms allow for surprising levels of articulation, complete with blow hole.  

Wave scale is excellent too in all of the tank shots, suggesting a number of small fans off to the side lending just the right amount of 'breeze'.

Good process work too, with addition of dump tank deluge upon the actors.

Very exciting sequences and so well orchestrated.  That's Harry Morgan (of M*A*S*H fame and 200 classic Fox westerns) getting crushed with the rapidly tightening line attached to the harpoon.

Just when they think things couldn't possibly get any worse, they come through the fog bank and collide with a damned iceberg.

Miniature detail.

The movie was submitted to The Academy for effects consideration that year, but oddly it was rejected.

The edge of the seat climax sees the ship wedged in the berg, with Widmark and Barrymore forced to take urgent action in literally manhandling the vessell off the ice.  A brilliant sequence as the hull of the ship is constantly swaying and violently 'washing' up against the people in death defying moments of bravery.  Terrific full scale mechanical effects done in the studio tank, and I'd say at some peril to the actors.

Splendid closing shots, possibly model work but I suspect perhaps painted ship on glass against exquisitely rendered painted skies.  Lovely shots here.

One of the original miniature rowboats now in a private collection.  Note the mechanism to simulate the oar action, and likely that of small puppet figures.

A sensational publicity paste up from the Fox marketing dept.

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***This vast and utterly exhaustive post, and all 184 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/ 

Well, that ought to do it for now.  I hope matte and effects fans enjoyed this journey.

Do give me your feedback.

Till next time...

Pete