30 Seconds Over Tokyo

I was of two minds about the timing of this blog, with the devastating Japan earthquake and tsunami still very fresh in our minds, and have held back to some degree out of respect to the Japan based readers of this blog (yes, I do look at the blog stats in trying to figure out just who the hell’s interested in all of this old matte stuff, and to my amazement, people are!) .

Mervyn Leroy’s THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO released in 1944 was one of a large number of, occasionally excellent, mostly Hollywood made war pictures produced to bolster the morale of the allies in the latter days of World War II. Among the memorable war pictures which appeared in the forties that struck a chord with me were the brilliant Raoul Walsh-Errol Flynn OBJECTIVE BURMA (1945) which is a personal favourite of mine, and a real white knuckle ride if ever there were one. James Cagney’s Henry Hathaway helmed edge of the seat wartime thriller 13 RUE MADELEINE (1947) is indeed another top drawer piece of war cinema among numerous others. I’d include the brilliant British entry THE DAMBUSTERS here too, though it came about some 10 years post war…

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A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX

This blog is intended as a tribute to the ingenuity of the traditional matte painter where movie magic was created entirely by hand. Some of the shots will amaze in their grandeur and epic quality while others will surprise in their ‘invisibility’ to even the sophisticated viewer. I hope this collection will serve as an appreciation of the artform and both casual visitors and those with a specialist interest may benefit, enjoy and be amazed at skills largely unknown today

NZPete

This site is over 15 years old and I have gone further back into the archives of Matte Shot – A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX to feature even more articles from this great site, so please, like me, I hope you enjoy this wonderful journey.

PJ Max