The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956) in '50s Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

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The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956)

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Bill Warren		#161	[-]
Nov 10 10 9:56 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Aupperle wrote: If you still have the photo and can make a scan of it I would love to see it sometime. I cut out from newspapers lots of swell photos when I was a little kid, then noticed that over time, they faded badly. So I decided to preserve them forever and ever and ever: I covered all the best ones, on both sides, with Scotch Tape (tm). Boy was I fooled ha ha ha. The Scotch Tape (tm) didn't fade--but gradually turned amber, so that now my best photos--including this one--are just about invisible. But yes, I still have it. The dinosaur in the photo doesn't really look like the Beast of Hollow Mountain all that much, and really does seem to be a life-size (or larger than) prop, but probably that's a trick of perspective. Last Edited By: Bill Warren Jan 31 11 6:20 PM. Edited 1 times.
Aupperle		#162	[-]
Nov 12 10 9:37 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm going to run a copy of my recent post that I made under Kong-8th Wonder of the World > Status of the original O'Brien Armatures? because we picked up on the subject of THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN when Gaira1966 posted some questions about Willis O'Brien's connection with the project. Tim Smyth has also posted some excellent armature photos there that you might care to check. Hope it's OK to make this double post but I wanted to draw the BEAST fans attention to some fun stuff they might otherwise overlook. Willis O'Brien wrote the original story treatment for BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN and also did a set of storyboards. The storyboards were sold at an auction a few years ago but I did get a chance to see them before they were sold. As far as I know O'Brien didn't work on the stop motion for the film. There was a large armatured allosaurus for the close shots and this was animated by Edward Nassour, the producer of the film, who also did animation for THE LOST CONTINENT (1951). Many people have speculated that the Beast puppet might have been based on Willis O'Brien's Gwangi puppet but Jim Danforth saw the Beast in person and said it did not look like any of O'Brien's other known work. The wide shots of the Beast were done a replacement series created by sculptor Henry Lion. Henry Lion also worked on the replacement animation for the unreleased Nassour feature film called EMILLIO AND HIS MAGIC BULL which was based on an earlier screenplay called RING AROUND SATURN. O'Brien is credited on the SATURN screenplay for original story. EMILLIO is an all animated film while back in the RING AROUND SATURN stage it was intended as a mixture of live action and stop motion like BEAST. I saw EMILLIO in a theater in Hollywood where it played for one night a number of years ago. It's interesting for an animation fan but not a good film. I recently saw some of the EMILLIO animation again on video and I'm sorry to report that it hasn't improved with age. The Nassours had a large collection of stop motion puppets, including many of the George Pal Puppetoons, which have been coming up at auctions in recent years. Marcel Delgado said that the Nassours had the stop motion horses from MIGHTY JOE YOUNG but as far as I know these have not yet turned up. Here is a photo of one of the Beast replacement puppets created by Henry Lion. Years ago I saw Lion's stop motion demo reel that included test footage of the bull from EMILLIO and a very nice replacement series Brontosaurus along with several commercials and a short puppet film with centaurs. The Allosaurus in EMILLIO looks very much like the Beast but it is different and both series of puppets exist. I'm about 99% sure that the Henry Lion who did the sculpture below is the same Lion (Lyon) who did the replacement puppets for BEAST and EMILLIO. If I'm correct then Lion also wrote a book called "Sculpture for Beginners" published by Walter T. Foster. I'm also going to double post this art from RING AROUND SATURN. Though they credit it to another artist it looks like Willis O'Brien's work to me. If you go to the last page of > Kong - 8th Wonder of the World > Original King Kong Biplane and concept art auction you'll see comparisons with other O'Brien art from KONG, the Irwin Allen remake of THE LOST WORLD and O'Brien's original unfinished Gwangi project. There's also a painting there by Charles R. Knight that inspired much of O'Brien's work RING AROUND SATURN was a forerunner of BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN. best wishes to all Jim Aupperle Last Edited By: Aupperle Nov 12 10 6:01 PM. Edited 3 times.
horrorfilmx		#163	[-]
Nov 12 10 10:42 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Some of the replacement animation in Beast is incredible. There's a certain amount of "jiggling" since it's impossible to match something as detailed as the allosaurs exactly in each puppet, but the running cycle is more lifelike than any other running dinosaur I've ever seen. It makes Nassour's stop motion look even more lame. That said, I still love this movie. Better than Gwangi.
Bill Warren		#164	[-]
Nov 12 10 1:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	EMILIO also played for a week at a theater in Santa Monica. I think GWANGI is far superior to BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN. In replacement-model shots in BEAST, the creature is required to walk around an adobe hut where Madison is hiding; their sculptures were designed for straight-ahead walking, with the result being that when he has to turn, there's some awkwardness with the pivoting motion.
Aupperle		#165	[-]
Nov 12 10 2:04 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Bill Warren wrote: In replacement-model shots in BEAST, the creature is required to walk around an adobe hut where Madison is hiding; their sculptures were designed for straight-ahead walking, with the result being that when he has to turn, there's some awkwardness with the pivoting motion. Also saw that awkward pivoting in the Brontosaurus that Henry Lion had on his old demo reel. Still was a great looking model (or series of models) and had a nice walk as I recall. Jim Aupperle
Edkkakumon		#166	[-]
Nov 13 10 12:08 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It had decent movement, but the flow wasn't so smooth in a few scenes.
moviemonstermuseum		#167	[-]
Dec 16 10 10:04 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I just got this poster in trade for building a website for a collector in Houston TX. I like the art better than the US Dennis
count wimpula		#168	[-]
Jan 10 11 8:53 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	i recently viewed this gem on MGM-HD, what a fun film it is! remember being very scared when i first saw this movie as a child.something about the dinosaur circling the shack,and also attacking the cave entrance really made an impression on me.i dreamt about being chased and trapped in buildings by monsters,or wild animals thu out my childhood! yikes! hurray for quiksand!! until next time, keep posting!
horrorfilmx		#169	[-]
Jan 24 11 9:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Another example of why Wikipedia can't be trusted: http://en.wikipedia.org/w...Beast_of_Hollow_Mountain
Bill Warren		#170	[-]
Jan 24 11 10:02 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Did you correct it?
horrorfilmx		#171	[-]
Jan 24 11 10:59 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I've corrected Wiki entries a couple of times before and both times someone changed them back --- sometimes making them even worse.
Sid Terror		#172	[-]
Jan 25 11 12:09 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	And that is why I've taken to calling it "Wankipedia" "It's better to have accomplishments remarkable enough to be put in question, than to have no accomplishments at all."
Edkkakumon		#173	[-]
Jan 25 11 12:35 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	moviemonstermuseum wrote: I just got this poster in trade for building a website for a collector in Houston TX. I like the art better than the US Dennis Looks like flames coming from the nostrils.
Tim Smyth		#174	[-]
Jan 25 11 12:40 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Bill Warren wrote: In replacement-model shots in BEAST, the creature is required to walk around an adobe hut where Madison is hiding; their sculptures were designed for straight-ahead walking, with the result being that when he has to turn, there's some awkwardness with the pivoting motion. Boy Bill, you are a tough critic. I think the replacement models provide the best animation in the film, and really liked that shot, and liked the running shots even better, which I thought were reminiscent of the Taun tauns from Empire. Unless you mean awkward in that the Allosaur makes a wide circle, but that is due to the animator's choices, not the technique. No stop motion puppet is ever sculpted to make a turn, they all have to pivot, although a four legged one like the Bronto I could see a danger of looking awkward, using that technique without specific sculpted puppets to turn. Also, I think you missed the picture that Jim Aupperle posted on the previous page, it might be the Sheena picture you are talking about, and it is a replacement model from either Beast or Emilio. I am not sure if the answer to this was ever given, but those replacement models for Beast were made of some sort of plaster, not wax, and they are tiny. Tim Last Edited By: Tim Smyth Jan 25 11 12:47 AM. Edited 1 times.
Bill Warren		#175	[-]
Jan 25 11 2:26 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Did you think I was condemning the replacement animation when I pointed out that instead of actually turning with its legs and body, the replacement model had to pivot on its feet? I'm far from the only person to point this out. Animation models with posable armatures can be made to execute realistic turns, and usually are. But the replacement models were built for straight-ahead walking; they didn't sculpt poses beyond that. The photo of Sheena is not the one I have in my old scrapbook, whereever it is. (I'd scan the photo if I knew where it was, though I doubt the results would be any good.) It was a large photo (three columns wide, I think) from a Portland newspaper. It seemed to have been shot on a studio lot, with the dino very large, the two people, one of whom was McKenna in Sheena duds, the other a guy in Great White Hunter clothes, were at the lower left, very small, looking "up" at the creature. I think it may be the same pose, maybe even the same image, that Jim posted earlier on this page.
Tim Smyth		#176	[-]
Jan 25 11 4:30 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I see, so it probably has more to do with the body not curving around, that somehow your brain tells you something is up with that shot, or maybe that there are no random moves in the walk cycles, or that the model is just walking and not paying enough attention to the house. As far as jointed stop motion models executing realistic turns, I am sure there is a lot of cheating in those as well, it's just that they more points of movement to cover them up. All handmade animations use shortcuts. Considering the animated shots that come before it, I'm just amazed that the shot of the Allosaur walking around the hut isn't considered a miracle by everyone. The great thing about the replacement process, and I know your not complaining about it, but if you had say 24 replacement model Allosaurs that make up a walk cycle, then you could actually film them all at once on the set and have 24 Allosaurs walking around at the same time, I wonder if they ever tried that in a shot just for fun. Tim Last Edited By: Tim Smyth Jan 25 11 4:48 AM. Edited 2 times.
horrorfilmx		#177	[-]
Jan 25 11 8:27 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tim Smyth wrote: The great thing about the replacement process, and I know your not complaining about it, but if you had say 24 replacement model Allosaurs that make up a walk cycle, then you could actually film them all at once on the set and have 24 Allosaurs walking around at the same time, I wonder if they ever tried that in a shot just for fun. In Karel Zeman's Journey to the Beginning of Time he does exactly that. There are a couple of shots of groups of animals running and they're replacement models being used at the same time.
Tim Smyth		#178	[-]
Jan 26 11 2:51 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I will check that film out again, I think he might have used that trick in another film as well, maybe a Jules Verne film, Jim Aupperle would know, it had a bunch of dinosaurs attacking a castle, or something like that. As far as Beast From Hollow Mountain goes, if I worked on it, I don't think I could have helped myself filming at least one shot with 24 dinos walking around, just to see it. Tim
Tim Smyth		#179	[-]
Jan 30 11 9:28 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Just saw Beast From Hollow Mountain again last night, it's been many years since my last viewing, and I was really surprised how much of the replacement animation was in the film. I didn't do a shot count, but it appeared to be at least 50% of the shots are replacement animation, and maybe 85% of the good shots are replacement shots, and that's being generous to the regular stop motion shots. Actually just did a fast count, and it's more like 2 to one stop motion to replacement animation shots, 45 to 22, give or take a few. Tim Last Edited By: Tim Smyth Jan 30 11 10:05 PM. Edited 2 times.
Bill Warren		#180	[-]
Jan 31 11 1:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tim Smyth wrote: I will check that film out again, I think he might have used that trick in another film as well, maybe a Jules Verne film, Jim Aupperle would know, it had a bunch of dinosaurs attacking a castle, or something like that.. There's a scene of that nature in Zeman's NA KOMETE (1970), aka ON THE COMET, from the Verne novel.

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The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956)