In 1953 Harryhausen was offered the opportunity to be in full charge of the visual effects for a project being produced by Jack Dietz for Warner Brothers.
The project had the working title of "Monster From the Sea" but was renamed...
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
Directed by Eugène Lourié, Screenplay by
Fred Freiberger, Eugène Lourié, Louis Morheim, Robert Smith, Based on "The Fog Horn" by Ray Bradbury, Produced by Jack Dietz, Hal E. Chester, Music by David Buttolph, Cinematography by John L. Russell, Edited by Bernard W. Burton, Special Effects created by Ray Harryhausen,
Starring Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey & Narrated by William Woodson.
Near the Arctic Circle researchers detonate a nuclear device and unwittingly thaw a prehistoric beast (The Rhedosaurus) frozen for millions of years. The monster leaves a path of destruction across eastern North America as it heads straight for New York City. When heavy artillery proves ineffective against the towering creature, scientist Tom Nesbitt concocts a radioactive formula to neutralise the beast and marksman Corporal Stone will deliver it by grenade.
Ray with the Rhedosaurus
"The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" was the debut of Harryhausen being in full charge of the special effects in a full length feature film and it was the first time Ray used his "Dynamation" technique which was a major part of what made him a legend.
"Dynamation" was Ray's baby... the scene was shot on location with actors acting and reacting to nothing. The film was developed and loaded into a projector that projected onto a rear projection screen creating the back drop to the work area, Ray's animation model or models are in front of that back drop then there was a pain of glass with a foreground image painted on it that would be an extension of the ground in the shot being projected then a camera filming the whole thing.
So Ray would move the model a little bit, advance the film being projected on the rear projector by one frame then photograph that one frame with the camera. Hopefully that explains it but here is an illustration of the process
What was great about Ray's process is it allowed him to look through the viewfinder of the camera and see how the model and the image on the projector screen were interacting before committing to taking his shot add to that Ray's ability to animate models giving them weight, kinetic motion and that spark that makes them believable as living creatures the "Dynamation" technique really set Harryhausen apart from anyone else doing anything similar at the time.
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms was a major international box-office success for Warner Brothers and was Harryhausen's big break he was 33 years old.
**I need to do a side bar here**
I said Harryhausen's quality of work set him apart from anyone else doing a similar thing... When "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" wrapped Ray was approached to head up the special effects team on a movie called "The Giant Claw" about a giant monster bird but a producer of a rival project saw "Fathoms" and snapped up Ray for his skills.
If there is any doubt in your mind about the genius of Harryhausen and you may think...
"come on! all these old stop-motion creatures movies are all the same"
Just take a look at the bird in "The Giant Claw" and compare it to the Rhedosaurus in "Fathoms"... "The Rhedosaurus" is like Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" where "The Giant Claw" is like a four year old kids finger painting. Check out the trailers below.
It was the film producer Charles H. Schneer who spotted Harryhausen's talent and hired him to work on his next project "It Came from Beneath the Sea" (1955).
Schneer totally believed in Ray's talent and vision and fought hard to get Harryhausen the opportunities he deserved, rescuing him from ever being relegated back to his home studio again. Harryhausen and Schneer enjoyed a fruitful working relationship from this point in Ray's career until Ray decided to stop making films. I think its safe to say due to penny pinching film executives only too keen to put people in dorky rubber suits rather than pay for "Dynamation" Ray needed someone like Charles H. Schneer in his corner.
Charles H. Schneer in 1974.
It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
Directed by Robert Gordon, Written by Hal Smith, George, Worthing Yates, Produced by Charles H. Schneer, Music by Mischa Bakaleinikoff, Cinematography by Henry Freulich, Edited by Jerome Thoms, Starring Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis & Narrated by William Woodson.
While on a routine mission, Commander Pete Mathew runs into trouble when his submarine is nearly destroyed by an unknown creature. Back at base in Pearl Harbour, Dr. John Carter and Professor Lesley Joyce identify the beast as a giant octopus from the nether reaches of Mindanao Deep, which has been awakened by nearby nuclear testing. Radioactive and monstrously huge, the rampaging leviathan is heading toward the North American Pacific Coast.
The advent of these movies with monsters attacking mankind after being awoken, disturbed, defrosted or mutated due to radioactive atom bomb tests was shaping up to be Harryhausen ticket to the big time! In this movie Ray gives us a truly menacing creature on celluloid with the giant octopus or "the sixtopus" as Harryhausen dubbed it due to having such a limited budget he could only animate six tentacles on the creature.
The iconic Golden Gate Bridge scenes were achieved by filming a miniature of a bridge support that was then composited in post-production over live footage of the real support of the bridge. The local government in San Francisco denied the production permission to shoot on the actual Golden Gate Bridge, so the director hired a bakery truck and installed a movie camera and crew and drove it back-and-forth over the bridge several times to get all the footage they needed.
"It Came from Beneath the Sea" (1955) was also a big hit at the box office.
while researching this I found this amazing 4K trailer for the film so you can see those fluidly moving tentacles for yourself.
Immediately after completing this movie Ray was drafted in to help his hero.
Willis O'Brien had been hired to animate a sequence for a documentary film being made by producer Irwin Allen.
The film was called "The Animal World" and the plan was for the film to begin with an eight minute animated sequence of multiple Dinosaurs... Dinosauring!.
Sounds straight forward but eight minutes of stop motion animation is 11,520 frames and to top it off Allen gave O'Brien an impossibly short production schedule. So O'Brien hired Harryhausen to help and together they delivered the sequence on time.
This was Harryhausen's and O'Brien's first and only collaboration in full-colour.
Check out the sequence in question below.
In 1956 Harryhausen actually took a break from animating creatures and prehistoric beasts.
Ray had designed these bulbous headed reptilian worm type creatures but I can only imagine they opted for performers in suits due to budgetary restraints.
This was an issue that plagued Ray's career. Creatives wanted to work with him on projects but producers and studio executives would just say "It's cheaper using a puppet" or "Put a stunt guy in a suit"
For the Fred F. Sears 1956 film "Earth Versus The Flying Saucers" Ray animated the flying space craft and the carnage they brought. The production team opted to use humans in costumes for the Saucer Men depriving us of some Harryhausen magic.
the final alien costume design used in the film
But Ray's Saucers are iconic influencing thousands of UFO sightings for decades to come as well as being a massive influence on Tim Burton when he made his 1996 film "Mars Attacks!"
"Earth Versus The Flying Saucers" (1956)
"Mars Attacks!" (1996)
"20 Million Miles to Earth" (1957)
Directed by Nathan Juran, Screenplay by
Bob Williams & Christopher Knopf, Story by
Charlott Knight & Ray Harryhausen, Produced by Charles H. Schneer, Music by Mischa Bakaleinikoff, Cinematography by Irving Lippman & Carlo Ventimiglia, Edited by Edwin Bryant, Starring
William Hopper, Joan Taylor, Frank Puglia,
Narrated by William Woodson, Colour process Black & White.
When A manned space flight to Venus returns to Earth it crash lands in the Mediterranean, losing its most precious cargo: reptilian eggs from the planet's surface. They come into the possession of an Italian zoologist, who witnesses one hatching to reveal a rapidly-growing monster. His American granddaughter, Marisa, and returned astronaut Calder must battle with the American and Italian military to corral the creature before it destroys everything in its path.
This film is significant not only for being a great monster movie but it is also the first Hollywood film that Ray had actually had input into the story idea.
The reptilian Venusian creature "The Ymir" is a fantastic Harryhausen creation.
He hatches as a little guy and rapidly grows into a formidable beast.
20 Million Miles to Earth features a wonderful sequence where The Ymir wrestles an Elephant.
When it came to filming the real elephant Harryhausen was expecting a 15 foot tall pachyderm to match his animation. Unfortunately the elephant the producers could source was only 8 feet tall but this issue was resolved by casting a 4' 6" actor as the elephants handler making the transition from the real elephant to the model a lot less jarring.
I don't have any idea how financially successful the film was back in the day but what I do know is the film is wonderful . Yes the script is not great and the acting ranges from over the top to wooden but it is a 1950's monster movie it would be weird if the acting was better.
The "The Ymir" creature is hailed as one of Harryhausen's best creations and was one of his personal favourites. I describe this film as a "Must See".
END OF PART TWO.
