The Lost Movies of Ray Harryhausen – Book Review
The collected works of visual effects titan Ray Harryhausen are coveted amongst his fanbase. His rogues gallery of creatures (never referred to as monsters, Harryhausen insisted that they were just misunderstood) has maintained an ever present army of admirers with icons such as Medusa, The Skeleton Army (Children of the Hydra’s Teeth), The Kraken, Talos – and who could forget Bubo the Owl? The films on which he worked Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts, One Million Years BC and many more have with time, been promoted from the mostly forgotten B-Movie creature-feature-fodder where their rubber suited contemporaries have remained and elevated to become classics with admirers such as Steve Spielberg, Peter Jackson and James Cameron all tracing their love of cinema to the work of Harryhausen.
With such adored work it seems only appropriate that a great deal of excitement should come from the idea that a single lost project should be discovered from the great man, and the book The Lost Movies of Ray Harryhausen by John Walsh covers that area.
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Here’s where the excitement ramps up as it is not just a single or a handful of newly discovered lost movies but nearly 70 movies, scripts, ideas and and other projects in various stages of involvement and development that are placed under the microscope by John Walsh, trustee of the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, an organisation that cares for the work of the animation master. Luckily for the author, Harryhausen was a polymath so his hand is seen in all of the work, from script, through to location test footage, sculpting, armature creation and animation. Equally lucky is the fact that Ray Harryhausen was something of a hoarder, keeping a lot of his work for future generations to enjoy, and to populate books such as this one.
The book itself is a lovely thing to hold, stylishly designed and full of gorgeous illustrations. The writing is clear and once Walsh has established himself and his long standing relationship with the focus of the book and the foundation, engrossing detail is exposed on each of the new discoveries from the archive.
The proposed works will delight those nostalgic for Rays work, seeing sketches from his early days (starting in 1930) and hearing of work that ended up on the cutting room floor such as scripts, completed storyboards and posters from unused parts of One Million Years BC. The book also contains lots of opportunities that Ray passed up on such as the chance to animate on The Empire Strikes Back and to produce and direct The Princess Bride.
This book charts an unusual course. Usually an archive book would celebrate the achievements or a recognisable portion of the body of work of an individual by showing off their most celebrated works. What Walsh has done here is to keep that celebration and really showcase a side of Harryhuasen’s career that has not been explored before. Creatives all know the woes of an unfinished project, but within the pages of this book we are able to gain joy by applying imagination to the “what could have been” side of this great artists career. There are few people who could have a book like this produced based on what they would likely consider as failings.
There are many Harryhausen books on the market, covering everything from process to posters but this one gives us a tremendous insight into the creative mechanism of a man who’s career is adored by animators, filmmakers and VFX artists and delivers a unique angle on what is already a well researched career. The Lost Movies of Ray Harryhausen offers film fans a tantalising hypothetical glimpse into another universe where these marvellous ideas might have ended up on the big screen.