The Epics: Part 8

The huge Rank film based on the George Bernard Shaw play was for me a major disappointment. I loved PYGMALION, made by the same producers five or six years earlier – wonderfully witty and a total delight all the way. I just can’t get my head around Bernard Shaw meets Ben Hur…. it just didn’t work, period. Apparently a hugely expensive film with such bizarre cost over runs as bringing a better looking and quality sand to Egypt (yes you read that right) “to ensure the right colour”! The money however is up there on the screen with mighty sets and decor – so good in fact that I find it damned hard to distinguish the real from the matte in many situations, so some of these frames are really a best guess on my part.

The special photographic effects were carried out be the doyen of British painted mattes, Walter Percy Day, or ‘Pop’ Day to industry insiders. Day was the originator of the matte process in England and France and stood, rightfully so, as the father of the matte shot process for decades. As most people know Day was also the mentor (and hard taskmaster by all accounts) to a young fledgling matte artist named Peter Ellenshaw who himself would assume the mantle of matte master following day’s retirement in the early fifties…

…Read the Full Article @ Matte Shot
A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX

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