Harryhausen was a special effects maestro
I just saw that one of my favorite movies,
”
20 Million Miles to Earth,
”
is being released on DVD July 31. It’s a science fiction film
from 1957 about an alien that crash lands on earth, grows into a
big lizard-type monster and tries to destroy Rome. The movie is not
much different from a lot of other sci-fi movies from the ’50s
except for one major detail – Ray Harryhausen created the special
effects.
Harryhausen was a special effects maestro
I just saw that one of my favorite movies, “20 Million Miles to Earth,” is being released on DVD July 31. It’s a science fiction film from 1957 about an alien that crash lands on earth, grows into a big lizard-type monster and tries to destroy Rome. The movie is not much different from a lot of other sci-fi movies from the ’50s except for one major detail – Ray Harryhausen created the special effects.
For those readers who don’t recognize the name, Ray Harryhausen was the special effects wizard behind some of the greatest fantasy/action movies ever made. Before CGI (computer animated imagery) Harryhausen used stop motion photography to bring dinosaurs, dragons, skeletons and other creatures to life. Stop motion photography involves small miniature models that are moved a frame at a time and then photographed. Once the frames are edited together it looks like the models actually move.
Harryhausen was born in 1920 in Los Angeles. When he was 13, he saw “King Kong” and became obsessed with stop motion photography. He wanted to learn everything about the process and began making his own short films. He sent some shorts to Willis O’Brien, who created the effects for “King Kong,” and was hired to work on “Mighty Joe Young” in 1949.
In 1953 he worked on his own film, “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms,” based on a short story by Ray Bradbury. In the film, a nuclear blast frees a frozen dinosaur who manages to find its way to New York and destroy most of the city. In 1955, he made “It Came From Beneath The Sea,” about a giant octopus menacing San Francisco. In 1956, “Earth vs. The Flying Saucers,” about an alien attack on Washington, D.C., was released.
In 1958 Harryhausen did the effects for what I consider to be his masterpiece, “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad,” directed by Nathan Juran and starring Kerwin Mathews as Sinbad. In this film, he animated a Cyclops, dragon and, in the best sequence of the film, a skeleton who swordfights with Sinbad. The plot has Sinbad traveling to the island of Colossa to help a princess who was shrunken by an evil wizard.
As a kid I watched this movie every time it was on TV. I used to go out in my backyard after school every day and have pretend swordfights with skeletons. I was always Sinbad’s little brother who had been sent along to help him out. One of my favorite Christmas presents was a book my aunt gave me called “From The Land Beyond Beyond” by Jeff Rovin, all about Harryhausen and stop motion photography.
Harryhausen worked steadily throughout the sixties and seventies, but made his last feature film, “Clash Of The Titans,” in 1981. After that the special effects technology had become more sophisticated and stop motion photography too costly.
In 1992, Harryhausen was honored with an academy award for his lifetime achievement in film. According to his Web site, he has been working with Bluewater Productions on a series of comic books.
What makes a Harryhausen movie special is that the creatures seem alive. He gave them character and that’s something that you don’t always see today with computer-generated effects. When you watched one of his movies it was obvious that it was a Harryhausen movie no matter who the director was. Today, unless you are an ultimate movie geek, most people don’t even know who is behind the special effects of current movies.
Anyone who loves fantasy and science fiction films should check out the movies of Ray Harryhausen. I watched some clips of his on www.youtube.com and they brought back great memories for me.
On July 5, Kerwin Mathews passed away in his San Francisco home at the age of 81. Mathews starred in two Harryhausen films – “The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad” and “The Three Worlds Of Gulliver.”
In 1978, Mathews retired from acting and ran an antique store in San Francisco. According to Harryhausen, Mathews was everyone’s favorite Sinbad. I know he was mine.
