One of the better travelling matte processes (available to black and white films only) was the RED screen technique, which utilized orthographic film. This type of film is similar to what you use in a red lit darkroom. The film will not be exposed by red light, but other points along the spectrum will. So, by photographing your actors or models against a red screen, you create both a beauty shot, and (in printing) you can create a duplicate in high contrast to create perfect matte/ countermattes.

One of the better examples of this would be Disney's "The Nutty Professor" Many of the "flying model T" shots were done with miniatures shot with red screen.

"[The audiance] will populate the darkness with more horrors than all the horror writers in Hollywood could think of. If you make the screen dark enough, the mind's eye will read anything into it you want! We're great ones for the dark patches." -VAL LEWTON