Old effects work that still holds up

[Allhallowsday]

KING KONG is definitely the first one I thought of.  The uncanny, slightly unreal effect of stop-motion animation really adds to his mythic aura.  The problem with CGI is it assumes "more realistic" always equals "better," which is absolutely not the case...

CGI is getting better, but I'm not sure it's "more realistic".
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG also still looks good.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS4yswi5IBk
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These cheapo effects are great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pElSu_ECJGM&feature=related
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkTz0EvfEiY
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(It's so good...) POSITIVELY NO REFUNDS!!  

KYUKETSUKI GOKEMIDORO (Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell-1968)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMPkFx8RQWo
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9t6NHlPJHA
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[JaseSF]

Certain names come to mind --- Ray Harryhausen, Willis O'Brien, Jack Pierce, Eiji Tsuburaya, Rick Baker, George Pal, Stan Winston, Jim Henson...sure there's others.

[Joe]

if anyone here has seen "Alice in wonderland" from 1933, i think they will agree that the effects work is not only stunning but incredibly remarkable for that time period.

[Newt]

And the films that inspired me to create this thread, The Creature From the Black Lagoon and its two sequels.  The Gillman suit is just REALLY good.  It's the best full body creature suit that I'm aware of until like the late 70s or early 80s..  In fact, I'd say it is in the same ballpark as any creature suits made in the modern era. 

   Inspired by this comment, I subjected introduced my 12 y.o. son to The Creature From the Black Lagoon yesterday.  I told him it was essential to his appreciation of movies that he see the Gillman suit in action.  What particularly amused me was the two or three points where he turned to me and said, "That was CGI, right?"  Um, no honey.  Which lead to a discussion of what techniques were available at the time.  When I mentioned matte paintings he went blank.  So now we are slated to watch Forbidden Planet at the earliest opportunity.   

OH: and he decided that the Gillman was up there with the Alien suit.   

[Trevor]

I've always held the opinion that the carpet monster FX in THE CREEPING TERROR still works today.

[Pilgermann]

I think that the effects in The Invisible Man (1933) are still pretty cool.

Skip to the 5 minute mark if you don't want to watch the whole thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdhXOM159gM
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[Umaril The Unfeathered]

And the films that inspired me to create this thread, The Creature From the Black Lagoon and its two sequels.  The Gillman suit is just REALLY good.  It's the best full body creature suit that I'm aware of until like the late 70s or early 80s..  In fact, I'd say it is in the same ballpark as any creature suits made in the modern era. 

   Inspired by this comment, I subjected introduced my 12 y.o. son to The Creature From the Black Lagoon yesterday.  I told him it was essential to his appreciation of movies that he see the Gillman suit in action.  What particularly amused me was the two or three points where he turned to me and said, "That was CGI, right?"  Um, no honey.  Which lead to a discussion of what techniques were available at the time.  When I mentioned matte paintings he went blank.  So now we are slated to watch Forbidden Planet at the earliest opportunity.   

OH: and he decided that the Gillman was up there with the Alien suit.   

The Gill-Man up there with the Alien suit? How cool, lol   

The boy has a good eye for appreciation.  And I think that we should also mention The Creature's cousin to the south, The Monster From Piedras Blancas. He was pretty cool-looking too!

[voltron]

Kinda obvious, but Dawn Of The Dead ('78) is still tops.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbPwV-lqXg
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[Trekkie313]

Terminator 2
20k Under The Sea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1svSXx2T0c
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[JaseSF]

Quality FX Work goes way back....



Metropolis (1927)



The Work of Georges Méliès

Actually many of the silent era films create remarkably memorable monsters and nightmare imagery quite unlike any other period of film.

[Rev. Powell]

Quality FX Work goes way back....



Metropolis (1927)



The Work of Georges Méliès

Actually many of the silent era films create remarkably memorable monsters and nightmare imagery quite unlike any other period of film.

Great examples Jase, here's another:



1922

[Menard]

My first thoughts too were the original King Kong and Lon Chaney.


Others I thought of:


Topper (1937) - Though certainly the in-camera filming they did makes the ghost effects, what makes it believable is the incredible abilities of Roland Young as Topper.

Nobody has mentioned The Wizard of Oz?

X: the Unknown (1956) - I always thought some of the effects were fairly gruesome and well done for its time.

Star Trek TOS - No matter how corny the sets may be, the transporter effects are always cool.

Giannetto De Rossi - Not a movie, a make-up artist. His work can be summed up by such scenes as the breast ripping scene in Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974), any of many scenes from Zombie (1979) including the throat ripping scenes and splinter in the eye scene, and any of the cannibalism scenes as well the impalement from Cannibal Apocalypse (1980).

Of course, what would any mention of make-up effects and special effects be without mention of Ton Savini, who not only created some of horrordom's most celebrated make-up effects, but perhaps became an unofficial spokesperson for Rice Crispies. 


My two picks, which have never changed over several years, of two movies which will never be equaled in terms of special effects are John Carpenter's The Thing and Blade Runner.


A late mention, and perhaps an odd place one would think to find special effects, but my mention is The Beverly Hillbillies TV Show. During the first season (1962) Max Baer played a second character, Jethro's sister Jethrine. Max Baer played the role, but the voice for Jethrine was provided by Linda Henning, and seamlessly dubbed.

I don't know how far back dubbing someone's voice for someone else's goes, but in Goldfinger, the voice we are used to hearing as Auric Goldfinger was actually dubbed as the actor has a heavy German accent.

[Trevor]

Giannetto De Rossi - Not a movie, a make-up artist. His work can be summed up by such scenes as the breast ripping scene in Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974), any of many scenes from Zombie (1979) including the throat ripping scenes and splinter in the eye scene, and any of the cannibalism scenes as well the impalement from Cannibal Apocalypse (1980).

Didn't he also do the makeup FX for City of The Living Dead? 

[ChocolateChipCharlie]

My two picks, which have never changed over several years, of two movies which will never be equaled in terms of special effects are John Carpenter's The Thing and Blade Runner.

Every time I see Carpenter's The Thing I am amazed that it's as old as I am.  You consider the effects in that movie, and there are a few places where they're not great (Wilford putting his fingers into the POTUS' face in that scene just never looks right to me - what is supposed to be happening there?  And the cut to and from Palmer right when he starts his freakout is pretty rough too - he goes from normal to "face ready to pop" in one really quick camera flicker), but on the whole the creature scenes are absolutely incredible.  If they were to remake that movie today it would look TERRIBLE.  It would probably be done in really crappy CGI, but even if it were done with top-notch CGI, you can still tell it's CGI.  I have yet to see a CGI scene that doesn't look at least a little bit like CGI to me.

And if you wanted to do a live effect without CGI, I doubt there are even any special effects guys left in the business that have any experience with real live effects like the ones in that movie.

CGI has made directors think they can put whatever they want into their movies but they don't realize that if you can't fake it in the real world, it's going to look weird to the viewer because they'll know instinctively that what they're seeing is a BS camera trick.  Movies like The Thing actually make me queasy with how realistic they are - that's the mark of success.

I don't know how far back dubbing someone's voice for someone else's goes, but in Goldfinger, the voice we are used to hearing as Auric Goldfinger was actually dubbed as the actor has a heavy German accent.

Isn't that the same voice guy that did like ALL of the non-Bond voices in the 60s and 70s?  Tanaka from You Only Live Twice, Largo from Thunderball, Dr No, etc.

[Mr. DS]

Ghostbusters, that film holds up immensely special effects wise.