Review of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) by Alan — 23 Aug 2008

Ray Harryhausen's first solo film. After working for Willis O'Brien on Mighty Joe Young and doing about 90% of the animation he kept waiting for Obie's next project which never came. He finally told Obie he was going to have to go out on his own and that he did.

O'Brien had always insisted stop motion be used only in high budget films whereas Harryhausen knew if he was to survive he had to do it quickly and inexpensively. Harryhausen had both a brilliant and practical mind for his style of filmaking and knew he had to come up with a solution to negate the expensive miniatures and lab work involved in Obie's style of films.

When offered the effects contract for the beast he accepted but was still unsure if he could do it. His one solution for that film lasted and essentially made his whole career. He came up with what is now called his â?? reality sandwich â?? where he would take his preshot footage, matte out portions of those scenes and insert his animated character into the center of those scenes by a means of front and rear projection.

He would then advance the preshot footage one frame at a time, manipulate his puppet one frame at a time and film them. This was all done in camera, no expensive lab work, very few miniatures, stunning visuals for a fraction of the cost.

This practical solution of his also pretty much put his mentor Obie out of business. Part of Harryhausen's reason for moving to England in 1960 was to free up the American market for his idol and mentor O'brien but Obie never would again achieve the glory of his 1933 Kong and was finally relagated to low budget work when he could find it.

When Obie passed way in the 60's, Harryhausen gave his widow the use of his Pacific Palisades home and made sure she was taken care of till she passed in the 80's.