Classic Film : It Came from Beneath the Sea

Re: Ymir

I know you didn't ask me, but The Valley of Gwangi is awesome. It doesn't get much cooler than cowboys vs. dinosaurs. I put it 4th after my personal "holy trinity" that I mentioned above.

http://jmoneyyourhoney.filmaf.com/owned

Re: Ymir

Are you saying that it's good in a cult way (like, 'so bad, it's good) or that it's actually good. My little brother and I were cracking up watching it, but in a good way. We were properly entertained by the sheer cheeseiness of it!

Gwangi

I'd say it's actually good, at least as far as the Harryhausen universe goes.

How is it any cheesier than First Men in the Moon or One Million Years B.C.? I think it's a thrilling premise with some cool creatures (Gwangi's blue exterior notwithstanding) and exciting sequences (the lassoing sequence is technically one of the best things Harryhausen has done.)

http://jmoneyyourhoney.filmaf.com/owned

Re: Gwangi

Yeah I would tend to agree with you. My brother got a fit of the giggles when he saw the monsters and it just set me off then...you know how it goes!😹

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea

ethomas, since you're interested in Harryhausen and animation, let me suggest you start at the beginning and watch the films of Harryhausen's mentor, Willis O'Brien. I assume or hope you've seen the original 1933 King Kong, but if not, it's an absolute must. In my opinion its animation is still unsurpassed, even 84 years later. Not even Ray Harryhausen, at his most sublime, did anything better or more convincing than Obie did with Kong.

But you should also see O'Brien's landmark film, The Lost World (1925). This silent adaptation of the oft-filmed novel is still the best, and the special effects are astonishing for their day -- they even hold up quite well now, 92 years later. The Lost World is frequently called a precursor to King Kong in that it served as something of a dry run for the more complex work in the latter. You should also make sure to see O'Brien's The Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young, and for a non-monster film, his work in The Last Days of Pompeii.

Harryhausen always said that when saw Kong as a 13-year-old boy he knew what he wanted to do. He later got his father to arrange a visit with O'Brien, who looked at his rudimentary models and sketches and advised him what to study in order to become an animator. After they left, Mrs. O'Brien told her husband, "You've just met your successor." After the war Obie brought Harryhausen onto Mighty Joe Young and from there Harryhausen eclipsed his mentor.

O'Brien had a very sad and troubled life. Both his sons committed suicide and he became an alcoholic. In his last years he took underpaid work on such films as The Animal World (with Ray), The Black Scorpion and The Giant Behemoth, all the while suffering professionally from tiny budgets and personally from chronic illnesses and crippling physical conditions. Yet even his weakest films have flashes of that innate brilliance that overcame his poor physical health and lack of resources.

Like most filmmakers he had his disappointments, including unfulfilled projects ("War Eagles" as well as "The Valley of Gwangi"), but he was also cheated out of better work. He was supposed to animate monsters for Irwin Allen's remake of The Lost World in 1960, but the studio pulled the plug in favor of cheaper -- and cheap-looking -- lizards instead, though O'Brien was still listed as effects supervisor. That was his last credit. Around this time he was shopping the idea of a movie pitting King Kong against the new guy from Japan, Godzilla. No one was interested until a producer at Universal said he liked the idea. O'Brien trusted him, but the guy then stabbed him in the back and made a separate deal with Toho, helping them obtain the rights to the character of Kong and make the film themselves (Kingu Kongu tai Gojira/King Kong vs. Godzilla, of course). Everyone involved made money except the man whose idea it was, Willis O'Brien. He died in 1962, before the film came out.

If you want to see how Ray Harryhausen became what he was and how his career took off, it's useful to see the films of Willis O'Brien and learn about their relationship. But Obie's films are worth seeing for themselves and he himself is worth knowing about in his own right.

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea


Both his sons committed suicide


Wrong: it was far more tragic than that. His ex-wife and one of his sons contracted tuberculosis (William going blind from it), and her behaviour became increasingly erratic after she was diagnosed with cancer. Around the time of Son of Kong, she shot and killed both their sons and turned the gun on herself - only for the botched suicide attempt to drain her lungs and extend her life.

To be fair, he wasn't exactly husband of the year material in his first marriage: apparently (no sick pun intended) it was a shotgun wedding and he was far from a faithful spouse while it lasted.


"Security - release the badgers."

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea

That's right, I'd gotten mixed up about the actual details. Unfortunately what happened was worse. Thanks for the correction, Trevor.

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea

Hey hobnob53; first of all, thanks for your post, it was very edifying. You really know your stuff. I have indeed seen King Kong (1933) many many times but look forward to checking out the other pics that you recommended. 'Mighty Joe Young' sounds very like 'King Kong', but not as good. The personal stuff was a real downer, but, such is life!

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea

ANother vote in favor of "Gwangi". What turned some people off...the genre mixing..is one of the things I liked about it.

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea

It seems more like a guilty pleasure cult film, more than anything

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea

Well, GWANGI was an idea originally conceived by Willis O'Brien who combined his two passions - dinosaurs and cowboys, which O'Brien was at one time in his life. Obie wanted to make this movie at RKO in 1941, and have it star two of their contract players, Anne Shirley and James Craig. Unfortunately, this project, like many others Obie potentials, fell through.

Years later, Ray Harryhausen found the old GWANGI script in his garage, and he and Charles Schneer decided to make this one and the end result was THE VALLEY OF GWANGI, which I think is a rather underrated Harryhausen flick, with a terrific score by Jerome Morass (reminiscent of his music for THE BIG COUNTRY). But like KING KONG, this movie gets you thinking of who is really the main antagonist? The monster, or the people that brought him to this so-called civilization?

And I am glad that both Hobnob and TrevorAclea have talked Willis O'Brien, an unsung hero in motion pictures. He brought one of the most iconic film characters to life, in one of the most influential movies of all time - KING KONG, AND was a mentor to Ray Harryhausen, and yet, with the exception of film and stop-motion buffs, his name is now largely forgotten. Good news is that Obie's movies will continue onward and now, one of his early silent films, THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN (1919), has been restored and put on a legit DVD for the first time ever, thanks to the good folks at The Dinosaur Museum:

http://dinosaur-museum.org/

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea

Thanks, ethomas. Glad you've seen Kong.

Mighty Joe Young is a lighter film -- the gorilla isn't as big, he's basically friendly though he can be dangerous, and while it has drama and pathos it certainly lacks the tragic aspects of Kong. All of which was deliberate, of course. Nevertheless, it's well-made and exciting, made by the same crew that did Kong and with the same star, Robert Armstrong, back 16 years later in a role reminiscent of Carl Denham from King Kong and The Son of Kong, but here too, lighter, even slightly comic. I've always liked MJY since I first saw it as a kid in the 60s but I actually like it better now. (It's infinitely better than the lame 1998 remake, which is almost of interest only in that Ray Harryhausen has a cameo.)

Also look into the other O'Brien films I mentioned, both before and after Kong. Even his late work, while flawed and not up to his earlier standards, is worth seeing.

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea

I like all of Harryhausen's work.
I like these the most:
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
Jason and the Argonauts
One Million Years B.C.
Earth vs. the Flying saucers
20 Million Miles to Earth

I like these the least:
Clash of the Titans
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

The others fall inbetween.

"Dr. Pretorius. He's a very queer looking old gentleman."

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea

No one on this thread seems to like (or has really mentioned) 'Clash of the Titans', despite the fact that it's well known. One of my friends from school introduced me to it, and Laurence Olivier!!

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea

"Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" suffered from miscasting of Sinbad. Patrick Wayne had none of the charisma that his father had.

Re: It Came from Beneath the Sea

Didn't know the Duke had an actor son. He's not well known or I surely would've heard of him?!

Eye of the Tiger

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger has the reputation of being the weakest of Harryhausen's Sinbad films, though it's not nearly as bad as many make out: the story is decent enough and there's a fairly impressive cast of creatures. What constantly lets it down is Sam Wanamaker's lethargic and uninterested direction that draws weak performances out of some of the cast and shoots much of the film in the least visually interesting ways possible even when given enough resources to come up with something more striking. Some very clumsy editing doesn't help, though it's all too easy to believe that Roy Watts was hindered by simply not having the footage he needed because Wanamaker couldn't be bothered to shoot it. Even Roy Budd's score takes its lead from Wanamaker's leaden pacing with a surprisingly dreary and colourless approach to much of the film, barely developing much in the way of themes in a film that really needs a score with some panache to give it a lift.

It didn't help that the film was rushed into production after the surprise success of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, with shooting started before the film was even cast, leading to a couple of continuity gaffes with the stand-ins on location and some very poor green screen work once the real actors were hired. The script is a bit of a hotchpotch of discarded ideas from the Golden Voyage (the idea of a prince being transformed into a baboon) and the Merian C.Cooper version of She (which featured a frozen sabre toothed tiger that was originally intended to come to life courtesy of Harryhausen's mentor Willis O. Brien): serviceable enough in more inspired hands, but aside from the beautifully characterised baboon – who gets the best moment sadly reacting to his transformed self in a mirror - and a friendly troglodyte never really finding much for Harryhausen's creations to do. The biggest disappointment is the Minoton, a mechanical man with the head of a bull that is the film's most potentially memorable creation but who, after a big build-up, does little more than row the villain's ship for her and is accidentally killed long before it can face off against Sinbad or any of the other creatures.

All of which is a shame, because there's enough here for a rattling good fantasy adventure even if it doesn't have the makings of a true classic. Although oft-criticised and a definite step down from John Philip Law's Sinbad in The Golden Voyage (Law wanted to do the film but was supposedly unavailable, which turned out to be news to him when he found out about it when sharing a panel with Harryhausen at a fantasy convention), Patrick Wayne certainly doesn't disgrace himself in the lead, Patrick Troughton gets to play a Greek variation on his old Doctor Who role who's primarily there to handle most of the exposition while the rest of the cast – a young Jane Seymour and Tyrone Power's daughter Taryn among them – get to handle the more energetic scenes and there's some novelty in setting so much of an Arabian Nights fantasy in the Arctic. Enough of it does work to make it worthwhile, but it is definitely one of those films that doesn't live up to fond childhood memories, especially for those who saw it on the big screen in packed-to-the-rafters matinee screenings.

"Security - release the badgers."

Re: Eye of the Tiger


What constantly lets it down is Sam Wanamaker's lethargic and uninterested direction that draws weak performances out of some of the cast and shoots much of the film in the least visually interesting ways possible even when given enough resources to come up with something more striking.


In Ray's book, "An Animated Life" he did not speak ill of anyone who worked in the movies he was involved with. However, with regards to Sam Wanamaker, Ray came the closest and stated that knowing what he knew later, Sam was indeed not the right guy to helm this project. Past directors that Ray worked with such as Eugene Lourie and Nathan Juran, was also art directors, and they always had a sense of what Ray was trying to accomplish, whereas Wanamaker was an actor, who brought in a different approach altogether.

Another thing that hindered EYE OF THE TIGER was budget. Columbia Pictures never afforded Ray and Charles Schneer huge budgets to work with. In past movies, they did quite an admirable job to what resources that were allocated to them, but here, it seemed to have reared its ugly head. The part of Zenobia was to be played by none other than Bette Davis, but money, or lack thereof, prevented that from happening. I also heard that the Minoton was to do battle with the Troglodyte, but again, because of finances, that never came to fruition.

And it was stated earlier in this thread that Ray did one too many Sinbad movies. I actually don't blame Ray for going back to Sinbad. Looking at it from a financial point-of-view, from JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS in 1963 to THE VALLEY OF GWANGI in 1969, Ray only had one true money-maker in that span, ONE MILLION YEARS B.C., and a lot of that money went to Hammer. With the release THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, Ray again found good fortunes, so another Sinbad was definitely on its way. It's execution however, prevented it from being another GOLDEN.

Re: Eye of the Tiger

People forget that despite it being considered of the truly great Fantasy films today, "Jason and the Argonauts" did not do well at the box office when it opened in 1963.
Top