Movies and the posters by Ray Harryhausen
The most famous special effects artist in movie history, Ray Harryhausen was born'Raymond Frederick Harryhausen' in Los Angeles, California on June 29th, 1920.
He became infatuated with the art of stop-motion effects after seeing King Kong(1933) 100 times at the cinema.
His first job was at Paramount studios, working on George Pal's series of Puppetoon shorts.
His big break came when Willis O'Brien, the effects master behind King Kong, hired Ray to help him on the movie Mighty Joe Young (1949).
In 1956 a feature-length documentary titled The Animal World was produced by Irwin Allen and released to theaters. Ray Harryhausen worked on a 10 minute sequence featuring dinosaurs. The documentary has been rarely seen since it's initial release, but clips of Harryhausen's dinosaurs have appeared in various TV episodes, films and documentaries.
Sci-fi author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) was one of his closest friends, they were both born the same year.
Ray received 'The Gordon E. Sawyer Award' for his work in fantasy cinema at the 1992 Academy Awards. It was presented to him by Tom Hanks who was a big fan and had lobbied the Academy to give him a special Oscar.
A major documentary "Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan" was directed by Gilles Penso and released in 2011.
Ray Harryhausen died in London on May 7th, 2013, he was 92.
"Ray, your inspiration goes with us forever." Steven Spielberg
Mighty Joe Young (1949) Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack. 94mins.
Terry Moore - Jill Young
Ben Johnson - Gregg
Robert Armstrong - Max O'Hara
Also starring Frank McHugh, Douglas Fowley, Nestor Paiva and Regis Toomey.
Music by Roy Webb.
Featured Creature - Joe Young (a large ape),
King Kong's stop-motion animator Willis O'Brien had seen some of Harryhausen's stop-motion home movies and his work on George Pal's puppetoons, hiring him to help animate Mighty Joe Young. It was Harryhausen's first movie and a chance to work with his idol.
Harryhausen did about 85% of the animation on the film which won an Academy Award for Best Special Effects, the award was presented to Willis O'Brien.
Cost $1.8m
Tagline - Striking! Startling! Staggering!
IMDB rating 6.9
(Remake - Mighty Joe Young (1998) directed by Ron Underwood, starring Charlize Theron and Bill Paxton)
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) Directed by Eugene Lourie. 80mins.
Paul Christian - Tom Nesbitt
Paula Raymond - Lee Hunter
Cecil Kellaway - Prof. Thurgood Elson
Also starring Kenneth Tobey, Donald Woods and Lee Van Cleef.
Music by David Buttolph.
Featured Creature - Rhedosaurus.
A 100 million year old dinosaur is released from it's icy tomb after atomic testing in the Arctic.
Loosely based on the short story"The Foghorn" by Ray Bradbury, first published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1951.
The success of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms gave Japanese filmmakers the idea to create their own atomic bomb-awakened sea monster - Godzilla (1954)
Hugo Award nomination for Best Dramatic Presentation.
Cost $210,000 - Box Office $5m
Tagline - They couldn't believe their eyes! They couldn't escape the terror! And neither will you!
IMDB rating 6.6
It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) Directed by Robert Gordon. 79mins
Kenneth Tobey - Cmdr. Pete Mathews
Faith Domergue - Prof. Lesley Joyce
Also starring Donald Curtis, Ian Keith, Dean Maddox Jr. and Chuck Griffiths.
Music by Mischa Bakaleinikoff.
Featured Creature - a Giant Octopus.
Harryhausen's first team up with producer Charles H. Schneer (1920-2009) the two would work together on 12 films.
To keep costs down Harryhausen's stop-motion octopus lost 2 tentacles, becoming a sextopus. It wasn't noticable on screen because the monster was shown partly submerged.
Cost $150,000 - Box Office $1.7m (US)
Tagline - Out of primordial depths to destroy the world!
IMDB rating 5.8
Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1956)Directed by Fred F. Sears. 83mins.
Hugh Marlowe - Dr. Russell Marvin
Joan Taylor - Carol Marvin
Also starring Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum, John Zaremba and Thomas Browne Henry.
Music by Mischa Bakaleinikoff.
Featured Creature - Alien Spaceships.
Suggested by the non-fiction book"Flying Saucers from Outer Space"by Donald Keyhoe, published in 1953.
Classic 50's sci-fi but it's Harryhausen's least favourite of his films.
We never do find out where the aliens came from, probably from Mars.
Tagline - Warning! Take Cover! Flying Saucers Invade Our Planet! Washington, London, Paris, Moscow Fight Back!
IMDB rating 6.2
General Edmunds: When an armed and threatening power lands uninvited in our capital, we don't meet him with tea and cookies!
20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)Directed by Nathan Juran. 82mins.
William Hopper - Col. Robert Calder
Joan Taylor - Marisa Leonardo
Also starring Frank Puglia, John Zaremba, Thomas Browne Henryand Bart Braverman.
Music by Mischa Bakaleinikoff.
Featured Creatures - The Ymir from Venus, An Elephant from Rome.
A US rocket returns to Earth from an expedition to Venus and crashes into the sea near Sicily. On board the rocket is an alien egg.
Harryhausen has a cameo in the movie during the sequence where the Ymir battles with an elephant.
Tagline - Out-Of-Space Creature Invades the Earth!
IMDB rating 6.3
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)Directed by Nathan Juran. 88mins.
Kerwin Mathews - Sinbad
Kathryn Grant - Princess Parisa
Torin Thatcher - Sokurah the Magician
Richard Eyer - The Genie
Alec Mango - Caliph
Danny Green - Karim
Music by Bernard Herrmann.
Featured Creatures - One-Horned Cyclops, Serpent Woman, Two-Headed Roc and it's Hatchling, Skeleton, Two-Horned Cyclops and Fire-Breathing Dragon.
The first stop-motion movie to be filmed in colour.
The term 'Dynamation' was first used for this film.
A fan favourite, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was a big hit at cinemas worldwide, Harryhausen would make two more Sinbad films with Charles Schneer.
Selected for Preservation by the National Film Registry in 2008.
Tagline - 8th Wonder of the Screen.
IMDB rating 7.1
Sokurah: From the land beyond beyond... from the world past hope and fear...
I bid you Genie, now appear.
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960)Directed by Jack Sher. 100mins.
Kerwin Mathews - Dr. Lemuel Gulliver
Jo Morrow - Gwendolyn
June Thorburn - Elizabeth
Basil Sydney - Emperor of Lilliput
Also starring Lee Patterson, Grégoire Aslan, Martin Benson, Peter Bull and Sherry Alberoni.
Music by Bernard Herrmann.
Featured Creatures - Crocodile, Squirrel.
Loosely based on 'Gulliver's Travels; by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726.
Tagline - Nothing Less than a Miracle in Motion Pictures.
IMDB rating 6.3
Mysterious Island (1961) Directed by Cy Endfield. 101mins.
Michael Craig - Capt. Cyrus Harding
Joan Greenwood - Lady Mary Fairchild
Michael Callan - Herbert Brown
Herbert Lom - Captain Nemo
Also starring Gary Merrill, Beth Rogan, Percy Herbert and Dan Jackson.
Music by Bernard Herrmann.
Featured Creatures - Giant Crab, Phororhacos (Giant Chicken), Giant Bees, Cephalopod (Giant Squid).
The shell of a real crab was used for the stop-motion model.
Based on Jules Verne's classic novel, published in 1874.
Tagline - A world beyond imagination! Adventure beyond belief!
IMDB rating 6.7
Captain Harding: This was just the beginning. We escaped, but only into the clutches of the greatest storm in American history.
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)Directed by Don Chaffey. 104mins.
Todd Armstrong - Jason
Nancy Kovack - Medea
Gary Raymond - Acastus
Laurence Naismith - Argos
Nigel Green - Hercules
Niall MacGinnis - Zeus
Honor Blackman - Hera
Michael Gwynn - Hermes
Douglas Wilmer - King Pelias
Jack Gwillim - King Aeetes
Patrick Troughton - Phineas
Music by Bernard Herrmann.
Featured Creatures - Talos, the Man of Bronze, Two Harpies, Seven-Headed Hydra, The Children of the Hydra's Teeth (Seven Skeleton Warriors).
Greek Mythology.
Working Title - Jason and the Golden Fleece.
Another fan favourite, Jason and the Argonauts is generally regarded as Ray Harryhausen's best movie, it is also Ray's favourite of his films.
It took Harryhausen four and a half months to animate the climactic 'Skeleton Fight', one of the most memorable special effects sequences in movie history.
Tagline - Greatest Odyssey Of The Ages - for the first time on the screen
IMDB rating 7.3
Argos: Pray to the gods, Jason!
Jason: The gods of Greece are cruel. In time all men shall learn to live without them
First Men in the Moon (1964)Directed by Nathan Juran. 103mins.
Edward Judd - Arnold Bedford
Martha Hyer - Kate Callender
Lionel Jeffries - Joseph Cavor
Also starring Miles Malleson, Norman Bird, Erik Chitty and Peter Finch.
Music by Laurie Johnson.
Featured Creatures - Selenite, Moon Cow (Giant Caterpillar), The Grand Lunar (Selenite Leader).
Based on H.G. Wells 'The First Men in the Moon', first published in 1901.
1899 England, Joseph Cavor (Lionel Jeffries) creates a substance which can resist gravity, he calls it cavorite. Teaming up with Arnold Bedford (Edward Judd) and his fiancé Kate Callender (Martha Hyer) they blast off to the moon in a sphere coated with cavorite. There they encounter the Selenites, an insect-like civilisation.
This is the only Harryhausen film to be shot in anamorphic widescreen (2.35 ratio),
Tagline - H.G. Wells' Astounding Adventure in Dynamation!
IMDB rating 6.6
Joseph Cavor: [sees Kate taking a rifle along for the trip] Madam! The chances of bagging an elephant on the Moon are remote.
One Million Years B.C. (1966)Directed by Don Chaffey. 100mins.
Raquel Welch - Loana
John Richardson - Tumak
Also starring Percy Herbert, Robert Brown, Martine Beswick and Jean Wladon.
Music by Mario Nascimbene.
Featured Creatures - Brontosaurus, Archelon (Giant Turtle), Allosaurus, Triceratops vs Ceratosaurus, Pterodactyl vs Rhamphorhynchus, Baby Pterodactyls.
The film also featured a live lizard and spider (both optically enlarged) and hairy ape-like cannibals.
A Hammer Film Production.
A remake of the movie One Million B.C. (1940) produced by Hal Roach Studios and starring Victor Mature as Tumak and Carole Landis as Loana. Magnified lizards and a man in a dinosaur suit were used in that production.
One Million Years B.C. was a worldwide hit and the most successful film in the history of Hammer Films.
The classic movie poster featuring Raquel Welch in a fur bikini became an iconic image of the 1960s.
Tagline - This is the way it was
IMDB rating 5.5
Tumak: Sakana!
The Valley of Gwangi (1969) Directed by Jim O'Connolly. 96mins.
James Franciscus - Tuck
Gila Golan - T.J.
Richard Carlson - Champ
Also starring Laurence Naismith, Freda Jackson, Gustavo Rojo and Curtis Arden.
Music by Jerome Moross.
Featured Creatures - Eohippus (prehistoric horse), Pteranodon, Ornithomimus, Gwangi (an Allosaurus), Styracosaurus, Circus Elephant.
Filmed in Almeria, Spain.
Gwangi means 'Lizard' in one of the Native American languages.
An underrated monster movie featuring some of Harryhausen's best work, notably the roping of Gwangi.
Tagline - Cowboys Battle Monsters in the Lost World of Forbidden Valley.
IMDB rating 6.0
Professor Bromley: Eohippus, if you are one, what are you doing here over 50 million years after you should be extinct?
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) Directed by Gordon Hessler. 105mins.
John Phillip Law - Sinbad
Caroline Munro - Margiana
Tom Baker - Koura
Douglas Wilmer - The Vizier
Also starring Martin Shaw, Kurt Christian and Takis Emmanuel.
Music by Miklos Rozsa.
Featured Creatures - Homunculus, The Ships Figurehead, The Six-Armed Goddess Kali, A One-Eyed Centaur and Griffin.
Christopher Lee was considered for the role of Koura.
Robert Shaw is the uncredited voice of the Oracle.
Winner of 2 Saturn Awards - Best Fantasy Film and Best Special Effects.
Tagline - Sinbad battles the creatures of legend in the miracle of Dynarama!
IMDB rating 6.7
Sinbad: Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel!
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