TCM Salutes Ray Harryhausen-born 6/29/1920

Ray Harryhausen,special effects wizard,born 100 years ago this day,6/29/1920,is celebrated with five films:
8PM-The 7th Voyage of Sinbad-1958
10PM-Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers-1956
11:30PM-Mysterious Island-1961
1:30AM-Mighty Joe Young-1949
3:30AM-Clash of the Titans(the real one,1981)
Harryhausen was one of those guys who never played down to kids,nor took them as suckers. Saturday Matinees were elevated to Orson Welles levels with his work.

 

Bravo! This stuff fascinated us throughout my childhood! Probably got a lot of us into amateur moviemaking.

Only thing that could be better, is if every feature ran a George Pal Puppetoon for a short.

 

Sinbad, Jack, Jason et al are timeless joys for all ages and ones I revisit often. And I never get tired of them.

 

One of my heroes.

 

I find some of my biggest Cinematic heroes are those that created living breathing characters out of things that were not living and breathing:

Ray Harryhausen
Chuck Jones
Jim Henson

 

Had the great honor of meeting Ray Harryhausen back in the '90's at a science fiction convention in Washington, DC. He was a gracious, kind man who generously made time for even the most fawning fans.

True genius.

 

I was really crushed when my cable co. dropped TCM from our package. I had heard of so many before then saying it had happened to them and then it happened to me. They make it difficult to add anything back without being part of some tier or package.

I can always watch Jason on DVD though...

Georges Méliès
Willis O'Brien
George Pal
Ray Harryhausen

The legendary wizards of celluloid!

 

I met the great man during a film festival years ago. His autograph over the promo card of the cyclops is framed and on my office wall.

 

If all he ever did was the skeleton fight scene, he'd still be a genius in my book

 

An all-time classic scene, sure left an indelible memory

 

Agreed. This is what I knew as movie magic as a kid.

 

An incredible influence in the world of visual FX.

I've got all 16 movies in my DVD collection that he worked on.