Old effects work that still holds up

[Jim H]

Older effects based pictures are often the subject of mockery today.  Sometimes deservedly - I don't think The Giant Claw looked good in 1957, and it certainly looks bad now.  Sometimes not - the original King Kong for example.  But some old films had effects work so well done for the time that I feel they'd still be generally appreciated by audiences today.

What do I mean by "old"?  Well, It's hard to think of an exact year, but a general milestone is Star Wars.  While it basically used old techniques (the ships in space were all stop motion based, just EXTREMELY GOOD stop motion) for many it heralds the modern special effects era - there are TONS of films in the 80s that stand up great today.  I tend to agree with this..  So, I'll call "old" as pre-Star Wars, so basically 1976 or earlier.  I think the earlier, the more interesting it is.

I can think of three off the top of my head:

The Exorcist - the makeup effects and other effects work in this are just top notch.  It's hard to think of much of anything that could be improved. 

2001: A Space Odyssey - this pre-figures Star Wars by almost a decade, and its spaceship effects are almost as good and considerably more realistic.  Really good stuff.

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.  As a bonus, it was designed primarily by a woman (Disney animator Millicent Patrick, who also created the Metaluna mutant from This Island Earth), a real rarity today and especially back then. 

What other old films have effects work that would still hold up to a modern audience?

[Flick James]

I'm not sure how far back we're allowed to go, but I'll throw in An American Werewolf in London.

[Leah]

the transformation in The Wolfman.
Godzilla, you can't go wrong with the old B/W versions.

[Doggett]

I aways thought the original War of the Worlds had really cool ships !

[Crystal Pepsi Lite]

Forbidden Planet has extremely good effects for when it was released.

[Silverlady]

I aways thought the original War of the Worlds had really cool ships !

I just love this old movie!  If you watch the dvd on a big screen tv, you can see the wires that suspend the ships! 

[akiratubo]

Yes, War of the Worlds still looks great.

The original gillman suit from the 50s can stand toe-to-toe with any that came after.

[Jim H]

I aways thought the original War of the Worlds had really cool ships !

I just love this old movie!  If you watch the dvd on a big screen tv, you can see the wires that suspend the ships!  

Yeah, I've read that when properly projected on film, they're actually not visible.  I honestly found it pretty distracting, which is too bad as the effects work otherwise is stunning.  I think they should either do some post work on the film to get rid of the wires, or deliberately distort the resolution as it would be when projected to hide the wires.

Another one, I think both the makeup work on the Universal and Hammer Frankenstein films hold up quite well.  And while sadly we only see it for a brief period, Karloff as the mummy looks GREAT.

[Leah]

I aways thought the original War of the Worlds had really cool ships !

I just love this old movie!  If you watch the dvd on a big screen tv, you can see the wires that suspend the ships! 

If you pay attention to where the top of the Ship's pole, you can vaguely see the wires.

[Nathan45]

The original T-Rex vs King Kong scene is still pretty effective, its stop motion, but the energy of the scene helps carry it.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

War Of The Gargantuas from 1966, the sequel to Frankenstein Conquers The World.  

This holds up very well into today for many reasons:

The designs of the creatures were right on spot with their personalities...Sanda, the benevolent, sad-eyed brown Gargantua, and Gaira, the vicious and brutal geeen Gargantua.

Their somewhat realistic emotional displays came from the actors' ability to engage in natural eye and face movement due to the amount of freedom the masks allowed.  

This clip also showcases their somewhat humaized (sorry, humanized) behavior, seen in the many facial expression of Sanda as he looks down upon his brother's actions; observe.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNR_D3PluQs

[Rev. Powell]

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. 

2001 is another great example.

I guess I'll throw in Lon Chaney's makeup.



Never been equaled IMO.  Great monster makeup can't be beaten.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

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.  

2001 is another great example.

I guess I'll throw in Lon Chaney's makeup.



Never been equaled IMO.  Great monster makeup can't be beaten.

Rev, you just shamed us all here in your expose of our forgetting the Man Of A Thousand Faces.  May you personally revoke all of our memberships to the Monster Lovers Club Of America!  How dare we...and you are right, great makeup never goes out of style! This is especially true in Chaney's case because the man literally got into his makeup.

CGI point well taken too: "realism" dosen't always equal better. From movie to some of the games we have today, some measure of care must be taken to assure that we don't wind up putting realism over entertainment, altho I admit that's an age-old battle that's been tackled many times before CGI hit the movie trail.  Great post!  

[diamondwaspvenom]

   The make-up/creature FX for "The Fly" (1986) are still incredible and grotesque even when viewed with modern eyes. Of course, the same thing can be said for John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982).

   

   "The Howling" should be mentioned as well since the werewolve puppets PLUS Eddie's transformation are still friggin' cool to watch.

 
   
   Freddy Krueger's make-up in the Elm Street franchise (From parts 1-3) is still pretty creepy even to this very day. The make-up done for the remake was okay, but it will never replace the classic Freddy look.  

   

[Doggett]

Poltergeist ! Great effects.