RICHARD FREEMAN: Ray Harryhausen - a tribute

As a boy it seemed to me that that the summer holidays were endless. The way we perceive time changes with age. I love those long summer months with out the distractions of school or the spiteful bane of winter. The summer holidays mean so many things to me, a fortnight in Paington, days of adventure in the country side with friend, staying up late with the summer sun, and then there were the films.

They were general shown in the mornings with an eye to kids on summer holidays, something most TV channels have eschewed in favour of soul destroying daytime TV consisting of cookery shows and programmes on how to buy and sell houses. There were Children’s Film Foundation movies, tired, sad old Disney reruns but there were also the Ray Harryhausen films. What marked these out as something truly special were the well thought out and exciting plots and the amazing stop motion animation monsters.

Ray’s films transported the viewer to ancient Persia or Greece to come face to face with dragons, Cyclops, hydra, gorgons, harpies and a pantheon of fantastic creature that fed the imagination of viewing children.
Who can forget the giant bronze statue Talos creaking into life in Jason and the Argonauts, the dragon killing the Cyclops in the climatic battle in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, the mechanical minotaur in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, the Cthulhu-like giant octopus wrecking the Golden Gate Bridge in It Came from Beneath the Sea or the slithering Medusa (who was actually more creepy than the original legendary description) in Clash of the Titans. Often the scripts deviated wildly from the myths they were based on but who cared when the monsters looked so great.

When he wasn’t taking you back to the ancient world Ray was spinning Science Fiction yarns such as Earth Vs The Flying Saucers that taped in to the paranoia of the 50s America or First Men in The Moon based on H G Wells' classic story.

Ray’s monsters seemed so much more compelling and ‘real’ than today’s CGI creations. His beasts had true personalities. They would often have grand first appearances were in they would loom up like some Victorian stage actor. Similarly there deaths scenes were often dramatic and prolong with the monster once again seeming like an over dramatic human actor. Ray’s monsters also had pathos. More often than not I sided with the monster. In 20 Million Miles to Earth the alien beast the Ymir only become aggressive when humans attack it, which they repeatedly do throughout the film. In Valley of Gwangi, Gwangi himself is captured and put on display in a circus.

Now compare modern day move monster, sure the dinosaurs might be more accurately portrayed in their form but they are somehow less alive. A recent remake of Clash of the Titans seemed flat, dull, charmless and pointless. In the age of CGI we are unlikely to see the like of Ray Harryhausen on the big screen again. Yet he has a legion of followers, our very own Alan Frizwell included. A quick look on YouTube will show dozens of people creating their own stop motion animation including the H P Lovecraft Historic Societies’ amazing amateur film The Call of Cuthlhu wherein the cosmic horror himself is realized in stop motion animation.

Today Ray Harryhausen turns 90. I would like to take this opportunity of whishing the grand old man of monsters a happy birthday and a big thank you for all those summer holiday thrills.