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THE MAN BEHIND THE MONSTERS
Ray Harryhausen, the special effects wiz who made tiny models look fearsome in his classic films, is celebrated in a new exhibition
Whether it was a dinosaur on the rampage in New York or Raquel Welch being carried off by a pteranodon in One Million Years BC, Ray Harryhausen knew how to thrill film-goers.
The magical worlds created by this master of special effects had a huge impact.
Steven Spielberg and James Cameron were fans, while Ray treasured a Lord Of The Rings poster given to him by director Peter Jackson. On it he had written, ‘Without you, none of this would have happened! The Lord Of The Rings is a “Son of Harryhausen”!’
Ray’s films were low-budget, but his attention to detail was incredible. His skill was to bring creatures to life and give them personalities. ‘I want people to see Cyclops, not just an actor with one eye glued to his forehead,’ he said.
His creations, like Medusa, the seven-headed Hydra or the Kraken, seemed to soar hundreds of feet high, but the models he made could be held in your hand. His precision was even more remarkable given how big his hands were. ‘My mother used to say they were like bunches of bananas,’ says his daughter Vanessa.
To celebrate the centenary of his birth, Vanessa has written a book to go with an exhibition of his work at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, which, it is hoped, will open later this year. ‘My dad was a hoarder,’ she says. ‘We are preserving the creatures and cataloguing everything – we have 50,000 objects so far. We’ll look in a box and find a sketch, or an arm or leg of some creature.’
Ray was a one-man special effects department. He’d draw sketches and storyboards, then make models from latex and rubber with a metal skeleton allowing the joints to move. Then he’d blend live action with his stop-motion animation. For the scene in Jason And The Argonauts
hero fights skeletons, the actors tackled invisible enemies and Ray added the skeletons later – four minutes of action took four months to make. By the time the film came out in 1963, Ray had moved from the US to London, and there he married Diana, great-grandaughter of explorer David Livingstone. But it had all started for Ray in LA, when he saw King Kong, aged 13, in 1933. He made his own version of the monster aged 14, and in his
20s Willis O’brien, the film’s animator, invited Ray to work with him and became his mentor. In turn, Ray was welcoming to fans. He was the only R. Harryhausen in the phone book, so was easy to find. ‘People would come by our house,’ says Vanessa. ‘Dad would invite them for tea and give them ten minutes of his time.’ Vanessa was allowed to play with his models. ‘I’d take the dinosaur from The Valley Of Gwangi everywhere. Once in Harrods, two old ladies asked to see the dolly in my buggy. They pulled back the covers and got the shock of their lives.’ Diana had to be understanding too. When the oven Ray used to set his latex models broke, he popped them in the kitchen oven. ‘The next roast chicken Mum cooked tasted of rubber,’ laughs Vanessa.
The family would go to locations together and while in Malta filming Clash Of The Titans in 1981, Vanessa found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. ‘On a break Dad said, “Could you stand over there dear... Put your arms up.” Then I was shackled to a rock – he was sizing it up for the shoot after lunch.’
Ray stopped after that film, his 16th. He was later recognised with a special Oscar, a BAFTA tribute, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, opposite the cinema where he first saw King Kong. He was also a delight at conventions, delving into an old suitcase to pull out ‘a few old friends’.
Ray kept his boyish wonder up to his death in 2013, which is no surprise as he’d once said, ‘Most people feel it’s rather childish to have an imagination. I don’t agree. You should go through life and imagine the very best.’ n
Andrew Preston The exhibition and book, Ray Harryhausen: Titan Of Cinema, will be out later this year.