Monster of the Day #1196

Updated on August 26, 2015 By Ken Begg 28 Comments

Man, that is gorgeous. Harryhausen lived in the wrong era. Imagine what he could charge Internet millionaires to create private dioramas like this (or his movie monsters) today.

Of course, today he’d have to do his film work on a computer, so never mind.

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  • Flangepart

    Reptiles eating reptiles. Sad, really. And to think the food always tastes the same. Be glad we humans have…spices!
    BTW, Ken. How are things on the Chicago Hot Dog front?

  • Gamera977

    A few years ago when the remake of ‘Clash of the Titans’ came out some drooling moron online reviewer was blathering about how much better the remake was since it had great CGI effects instead of the horrible old ‘claymation’ FX of the original. I am not a violet person but I swear if I could I’d have stuck my hands though the monitor and strangled this clown.

  • bgbear_rnh

    Infidels!

  • Eric Hinkle

    Why bother? If the dolt said something like that everything that could possibly make him a worthwhile and intelligent human being is already dead in him.

    But yeah I felt the same way when I heard some boob confuse Christopher Lee with the Twilight vampires. And when corrected, say that Lee wished he could have been in a vampire movie as good as Twilight. Just — just — ARRGH! C.S. Lewis’ comments about apes in trousers come to mind!

  • bgbear_rnh

    That is an awfully long tail on T-Rex. It is possible he is not hungry but, upset about having brontosaurs stepping on it all the time.

  • Rock Baker

    Now this image is one of the Viewmaster slides. I had forgotten about it, but seeing it again brings back some very vivid memories! A production still, most likely. I wonder if any of these stills were taken in the form of 3-D slides. That might explain why Viewmaster later made use of them.

  • bgbear_rnh

    From what I see on-line, the dinosaur Viewmaster reels were marketed right from the start as a movie tie in. So, like I speculated yesterday, Viewmaster probably worked right along with the filmmakers to create the reels from the get go.

  • Ken_Begg

    Sadly, 89 year-old Maurie Berman passed away a month or two ago. With his wife Flaurie, he founded the iconic Superdawg in 1948. A titan has thus passed the stage.

    His legacy lives on, though, in the beating all-beef heart of Superdawg.

  • Rock Baker

    I wasn’t sure how far back Viewmaster went. To the 60’s, I was sure. Now that I think about it, though, Viewmaster being a 50’s company makes a lot of sense…

  • Ken_Begg

    Well, at least Sir Christopher was in a werewolf movie that was as good as Twilight.

  • bgbear_rnh

    1939, introduced at NY World’s Fair.

    When just a cub I had a set of reels that had various Christmas themed amusement parks. I got a shock when my wife showed me pictures of her at the Santa’s Village in Scotts Valley, CA* when she was wee one. It was the same little Santa Workshop I had seen hundreds of times on the reel( I also discovered I still had the reel) I think it is cute story. Sorry for self indulgence ;-)

    *you can also see it in one of the Rifftrax Christmas specials

  • bgbear_rnh

    Oh, here is another personal Viewmaster experience. In college our anatomy professor had human dissection Viewmaster reels. We looked at them using a Viewmaster projector and polarized glasses.

    Not as graphic as you would think since the “parts” were plasticized. Nicer than than the actually human cadavers we had.

  • Eric Hinkle

    The mere fact that Sir Christopher was in it made it better than Twilight.

  • Gamera977

    Yow, now I’m wondering what happened to my old Viewmaster reels and projector.

  • Gamera977

    I’ve seen Superdawg several times on the Travel Channel, good to know it’s still going strong. I have to make it up there someday, sigh…

  • Rock Baker

    Very cool!

  • Ken_Begg

    We always go before B-Fest. *HINT*

  • Gamera977

    I know, I need to hit B-Fest one year. I’m just too cheap to spring for the plane ticket.

  • Rodford Smith

    Ray Harryhausen on a computer was still a genius. A few years before he died a remastered box set of several of his movies was made. They had both the original black and white and colorized versions. However, Harryhausen was taught how to use the colorization software and did the work himself! Afterwards he said this was how the movies would have looked if he could have afforded color film when he made them.

    These are some of the best colorized movies I have seen. They do, indeed, look as if they were originally shot in color.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Was this the same set that had some documentary on it about the Hollywood Blacklist? I remember wondering what the heck that had to do with Mister Harryhausen and his work.

  • Rodford Smith

    Checking my DVD collection I see that I misremembered. It wasn’t a boxed set, but a series, by Columbia. In 2007 they re-released _Earth vs. the Flying Saucers_, _20 Million Miles to Earth_ and others. Each release had both the original B&W version (remastered) and a colorized version, with many extras. I don’t recall anything about the Blacklist, but I haven’t watched these in a few years.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Thanks. I keep forgetting to get those! I also need to see if _Valley of Gwangi_ is available.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    The only thing I recall about the Hollywood Blacklist regarding Harryhausen was that one of the writers of “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” couldn’t have his name on the film because of the blacklist. I think his name has been added to the credits on the home video releases.

  • Rock Baker

    They must look better than the clips used on the commercial for the collection would imply. There, they look the same as every previous colorized movie: like a lobby card that moves.

  • Rock Baker

    I know they issued a disk for GWANGI, but I think it’s out of print now. Seems like they aren’t hard to find, though.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Thanks, I’ll check around for it on Amazon.

    Oh, also according to Amazon, this September they’ll be releasing a DVD with all the Abbott & Costello meet the Monsters movies on it fr about $14.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Ah. Thanks, that does explain things.

  • Marsden

    I don’t want to be that guy, but I think that’s an Allosaurus and a Diplodocus. And are those eggs? Did the Allosaurus chase the Diplodocus away from her nest?