Long before the elaborate CGI effects of today's films, Ray Harryhausen provided spectacular and beautifully crafted animated sequences in a number of science fiction and fantasy films. Although often working on a low budget, his skill and dedication always ensured top-notch effects. Who could forget such wonderful sequences as the flying saucer attack on Washington D.C.(Earth vs the Flying Saucers), Jason battling an army of skeletons (Jason and the Argonauts), Raquel Welch being snatched into the air by a pterodactyl (One Million Years B.C.), cowboys roping and capturing an allosaurus (The Valley of Gwangi), or Koura (played by Tom Baker in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad) bringing the six-armed statue of Kali to life. His animated creations were always a total delight.
Inspired by the work of animator Willis O'Brien in King Kong, Harryhausen's body of work spans over four decades: from animation work in WWII government films, George Pal's Puppetoons, Mighty Joe Young (in which he was able to work with Willis O'Brien), sci-fi films of the fifties, the Sinbad films, to his last film 1981's Clash of the Titans.
In 1992, Harryhausen was awarded a much deserved Oscar, the Gorden Sawyer Award (the closest thing the technical community had to a life time achievement award).
Ray Harryhausen Films:
"Mighty Joe Young" (1949), Harryhausen animated around 85% of the film
"The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
"It Came From Beneath the Sea" (1955)
"Earth vs the Flyinf Saucers" (1956)
"20 Million Miles to Earth" (1957)
"The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958)
"The Three Worlds of Gulliver" (1960)
"Mysterious Island" (1961)
"Jason and the Argonauts" (1963)
"The First Men in the Moon" (1964)
"One Million Years B.C." (1966)
"The Valley of Gwangi" (1969)
"The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" (1973)
"Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" (1977)
"Clash of the Titans" (1981)
My favorite Harryhausen films are Mysterious Island and Valley of Gwangi.
Mysterious Island is a worthy follow up to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The Nautilus is actually quite similar in both. The Bernard Hermann music is terrific, especially in the scene where the prehistoric bird attacks...a Phoracos, not a giant chicken as some reviewers have described it! The scenes where the young couple are trapped in the beecomb was well done too. The puppet for the bee looked very realistic.
Valley of Gwangi has always been one of my favorite movies since the first time I saw as a kid on the 'CBS Late Night Movie' back in the late seventies. In addition to the dinosaurs, it also showed a prehistoric Eohippus. Who else back then would bring such critters as a Phoracos and Eohippus to life on the screen? Only nowadays with CGI animation on such channels as Discovery are we able to see such things. Back then, it was such a rare treat to see them brought to life...and beautifully animated at that!
I really loved the fight between Gwangi and the elephant. As a kid, I was hoping the friendly elephant would come out on top somehow...I guess it really wasn't much of a question of which one would win (earlier, the styracasaurus managed to hold Gwangi off).
The scene where the pterodactyl snatches the boy off the horse was dramatic too. A nice touch was that the boy was too heavy and forced it to the ground. That scene was included in a collection of dinosaur film clips shown at the dinosaur and fossil section of the Musueum of Natural History (part of the Smithsonian) in Washington.
Personal fave: "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers" MEGA-COOL!
War of the Worlds and Earth vs the Flying Saucers are two of the most spectacular 'invasion' movies of the fifties. "Earth vs the Flying Saucers" does have the added benefit that no wires supporting the saucers are visible (but it's also in black and white: a minus). The stop-motion technique used also led to some interesting shots. Some shots of the saucers almost resemble the motion control effects of later 70s and 80s movies. Stop-motion animation allowed for some dynamic movement of the saucers!
Earth vs the Flying Saucers is an action packed treat. One nit: During the attack on Washington, a saucer fires at the Post Office Tower. The resulting explosion is actually a quick cut away to a shot from War of the Worlds (of Los Angeles City Hall expolding).
Harryhausen's effects influenced many later film makers. A good example is Tim Burton. His love for stop-motion animation led him to make "The Nightmare Before Christmas". In "Mars Attacks", he patterned the CGI effects after the look of stop-motion animation. Of course, one scene in the film is directly inspired by Earth vs the Flying Saucers. The scene where a flying saucer 'plays' with the Washington Monument before knocking it over on some Boy Scouts was a spoof of a scene in the 50's film.
Also Spy Kids 2, had a long sequence with a battle between the kids and a bunch of skeletons that was inspired by Jason and the Argonaughts. Rodriguez even took the motion blur (that the computer normally adds to add realism) out so that it would look like stop motion.
The skeleton fight in Jason in the Argonauts (and The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad)was the inspiration for other films too. Example; the animated skeleton fight in "Nightmare on Elm Street" and an episode of Hercules (where Jason again fights an army of skeletons).
James Cameron states; "The creation's in my movies are really Ray's illegitimate grandchildren. The Terminator owes its roots to the skeleton fight in Jason and the Argonauts..."
That's one of the quotes from the wonderful new book "Ray Harryhausen, An Animated Life". The 2004 release from Billboard Books is lavishly illustrated with props and behind the scene pics from all of Ray's films. It's a beautiful book: a "must have" for all Ray Harryhausen fans!
There are some real babes in some of the Harryhausen flicks. Raquel Welch, Caroline Munroe, and a TOPLESS Jane Seymour in Sinbad and the Eye of The Tiger!
While Jane was topless, it was from a distance (and preserved her modesty).
Clash of the Titans featured a scene with a topless woman breast-feeding a baby Perseus: it was all very innocent.
The "Medusa" sequence in Clash of the Titans was great. The Medusa was an intriguing combination of snake and woman. Her slithering movements added to the tension (the lighting and music for these scenes were great too).
A wonderful touch was the "Joan Crawford" lighting (and close-up)on her eyes as her 'gaze' froze her victims. The goo that flows out of her beheaded body seemed a very "80s" touch.
It sure beat the depiction of Medusa on the third season of "Land of the Lost": their Medusa was an actress painted green with a headdress of rubber snakes (of the type one could get at a toy store for 99 cents).
About Clash of the Titans, there's one thing I could never figure out in that movie. The princess Andromeda is going to be sacrificed to the Kraken, but she must be a virgin. If she wants to avoid sacrifice, all she would have to do is lose her virginity. If only everything in life were that easy!
I never could figure out, why the Kraken can only eat virgins. Some picky eater!
The kraken wasn't that picky. It still ate meat ...no new age vegan there!
I have a greater appreciation for Harryhausen's work when I see some of the films that imitated his effects. A good example is "Jack the Giant Killer" a rip-off of "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad". Sinbad's cyclops was imitated with a very shabby looking puppet. Later creatures in "Jack the Giant Killer" are even worse. The film even rehired Sinbad's Kerwin Mathews and Torin Thatcher. To its credit though, "Giant Killer" does feature nice cel animation for its other effects.
The dinosaur in the Old West theme of "Valley of Gwangi" was used in a previous film "The Beast of Hollow Mountain" from the fifties. The stop-motion allosaurus and its animation were very poorly done in the earlier film though. It was a pleasure to see it done right in "Valley of Gwangi". The allosaurus attack in "One Million Years B.C." was great too.
Just a note, Ray Harryhausen received his "Star" on the "Walk of Fame" a year ago or so.
Ray showed up in a cameo appearance in the 1985 comedy "Spies Like Us" (in the tent in the desert). Director John Landis was a fan of Ray, so he added a cameo for him.
In an interview in this weekend's Metro, Harryhausen was asked whether he thought some of the later films which copied ideas from his films were "homage". He responded that he thought they were a "filch". Some filmmakers such as Tim Burton (Mars Attacks) have expressed an admiration for Harryhausen's work. Others seem to merely want to rip off his ideas (Jack the Giant Killer).
It probably depends on one's own viewpoint. Some critics considered Star Wars to be an inspired combination of earlier film ideas. Others thought Lucas didn't have an original idea in his head. Harryhausen had great affection for King Kong (it inspired him to go into stop-motion animation), so he had the allosaurus in Valley of Gwangi rub its face with its paw as a homage to the allosaurus in King Kong. Today, too many film makers seem to want to copy earlier films for profit alone.
TRIVIA: The music for "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers" was composed by Miklos (Ben Hur) Rosza
Earth vs the Flying Saucers used canned music, it would have been nice if an original score had been commisioned. It's easy to see why Harryhausen was so excited when Bernard Hermann wrote an original score for the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. It was magnificent!
The film that influenced Ray to go into the special effects business was also an early inspiration for Peter Jackson: "King Kong". Jackson is currently remaking King Kong, but I really feel if there was one film that didn't need to be remade it was King Kong. It's such a classic and a product of its time. Disney remade Mighty Joe Young in 1998. Though it was technically more accomplished than the 1949 film, it had none of the charm. Jackson's film will be technically brilliant too, but I don't think it will ever capture the charm of the original Kong either.
Earth vs the Flying Saucers used canned music, it would have been nice if an original score had been commisioned. It's easy to see why Ray was so excited when The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad was given an original score by Bernard Hermann. It's magnificent!
The film that influenced Ray to go into the special effects business was also an early inspiration for Peter Jackson: "King Kong". Jackson is currently remaking King Kong, but I really feel if there was one film that didn't need to be remade it was King Kong. It's such a classic and a product of its time. Disney remade Mighty Joe Young in 1998. Though it was technically more accomplished than the 1949 film, it had none of the charm. Jackson's film will be technically brilliant too, but I don't think it will ever capture the charm of the original Kong either.
... Jackson is currently remaking King Kong, but I really feel if there was one film that didn't need to be remade it was King Kong.
Just pretend he's remaking the 1976 version -- anything would be an improvement over that one.
FilmFax has an interesting article on "Earth vs the Flying Saucers" this month. In reading how Harryhausen tried top create visual interest for the saucer, by rotating its center, I was reminded of the spinning saucers from Gerry Anderson's UFO series (1969). Harryhausen's film must have been an inspiration for their spinning (though the delicately balanced motors didn't allow Anderson's craft to bank and tilt). It was also interesting to read that the sound effects for the saucers were taken from machinery in a sewage plant.
I am a huge Ray Harryhausen film fan.In his excellent book RH:An Animated Life,Earth vs the Flying Saucers is actually his least favorite movie.More fun animating creatures he says.I always wondered why he & his great friend,Ray Bradburry,did not collaborate on this picture?The combo of RB's wonderful writing,along with RH's dazzling visuals would have truly elevated this movie to the classic ranks of such 1950's masterpieces as The Day the Earth Stood Still or The Thing from Another World.I wish that they would have employeed RH or the incredible Willis O'Brien on these films.Imagine a stop-motion Gort or Thing? How about the giant ants from Them! The squid from Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.All are sensational movies,but the addition of stop-motion to all of them would have made them that much better!
My favorite RH films are "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms," "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad," "Mysterious Island," & "Jason & the Argonauts." I feel that these movies are a wonderful combination of a strong story as well as incredible stop-motion animation.Ray always does magnificent animation but some of his films can be weak in the scripting department.
I've heard that most of RHs films were pretty much designed around the special effects sequences that he and his team would design and he would often direct himself. The rest of it, script and directing the non-SFX sequences were almost an afterthought that they spent little time on getting a quality script or a quality director.
I've seen a few of the films he worked in.
In the age before CGI, this was the guy you called when you wanted good F/X, IMO.