The Ray Harryhuasen Thread

[lhb412]

For those who missed out Twilight Time's releases: an Australian Blu-Ray set containing all three Sinbad films and Jason and the Argonauts was just released and (according to a Blu-Ray.com poster called RalphoR) despite being labeled as Region B it plays on Region A players.

[mr.negativity]

[Gwangi]

[Rody]

Heads up, everyone: Twilight Time is reissuing The Mysterious Island on Blu-ray!

[lhb412]

^Awesome! I'm already quite happy with my copy from the first run... though if the new commentary was by Harryhausen himself I woulda considered double dipping. It's one of his best films, so I hope anyone who doesn't have it already gets it now.

[DannyBeane]

Hell yeah! I never got the original run. This was one of my favorite films of his as a kid. The scene with the giant bees was oddly claustrophobic for me as a kid.

[lhb412]

I know I've got the new Blu-Rays of Mighty Joe and 20,000 Fathoms* along with a paperback copy of 'The Art of Ray Harryhausen' underneath the Christmas tree.

Pretty excited about it. Anyone else have a copy of that book?

[lhb412]

^Well, I just finished reading The Art of Ray Harryhausen and it's a fantastic book! It's basically a collection of his preproduction art (including the famous, dramatic drawings he'd create to essentially sell the movie), storyboards, photos of the existing models (in 2004, most aren't in good shape), and the bronze sculptures Ray made in his last few decades to better capture the forms of his creatures in a medium that would last. It's an art book, but there's a ton of text from Ray, too. Some stuff I learned:

- I now have a better sense of the chronology of Ray developing his various skills. He was already an artistic kid before the lightning bolt of King Kong in '33 (which is where most stories of Ray begin)
- While working on Mighty Joe Young and collaborating with Willis O'Brien was in certain respects a dream come true, it was also a wake-up call that made Ray realize he'd have to figure out a more cost-effective way of making these types of films, because the time and expense of Obie's methods just wouldn't be feasible or result in a decent career in doing what he wanted to do.
- Tons of unrealized movies, many of which involve dinosaurs. Indeed, Ray seemed to try to sneak dinosaurs into any story: a movie about the yeti, who live in a lost valley with dinosaurs; a lost valley ruled by ancient aliens, and there are dinosaurs there; basically what became Golden Voyage of Sinbad, but that island also had dinosaurs on it; etc. etc.
- Lots of ideas for scenes and creatures that didn't make their way into the final films. The mooncalves in First Men in the Moon were supposed to metamorphose into butterflies, the gryphon in Golden Voyage was supposed to be a statue in front on the Fountain of Destiny that would come to life (Ray especially hated that being cut out, as it was much more dramatic then the gryphon simply showing up).
- Ray knows Eye of the Tiger sucks, and he was especially dissapointed after Golden Voyage came together so well. Most of his positive reminisces of it are about Trog.

[lhb412]

It's Ray Harryhausen's birthday! Celebrate with this nifty new piece with Harry Hamlin reminiscing about Clash of the Titans:

http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/06/28/ ... the-titans

[lhb412]

I appreciated The 3 Worlds of Gulliver a lot more in my latest viewing, via Twilight Time's new release (btw: get 'em while you can!).

Kino releases One Million Years B.C. on Blu-Ray in February, which'll leave Gwangi as the one Harryhausen film unreleased on the format. Come on WB! How neat would it be to spring a Warner Archive release on the same release date as B.C.? I know it sounds like wishful thinking, but the folks in charge of the Archive are nerds like us, so I wouldn't rule it out. I imagine the only thing stopping such a release is if Warner Home Video still considers it for a retail release, and they move like molasses while the Archive is more nimble.

[DannyBeane]

[william newell]

Speaking of Gwangi, did anyone else have any issues with the synching of the dialogue track on the Warner's DVD? I know mine is noticeably off and it's rather distracting...

[lhb412]

^Haven't noticed anything when I watched mine (it's the more recent DVD-R version from the Warner Archive). I know some of the characters are dubbed, most obviously leading lady Gila Golan, 'cause of her Israeli accent.

[mr.negativity]

HARRYHAUSEN: THE LOST MOVIES