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Whiskey galore 1949
This Alexander Mackendrick Ealing comedy has a few shots of a miniature ship and what looks to be a glass shot of the stranded ship stuck on the rocks. The first shot of the bow of the ship suffers...
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The Maggie AKA High and Dry 1954
Another Alexander Mackendrick Ealing comedy, this time concerning a Clyde Puffer. Seen in miniature form in a couple of shots.
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Killer Fish 1978
I saw this film at a drive-in as a teenager still in high school. As I remember, I thought it mostly pretty dull but then it totally redeemed itself by the really extensive and well staged miniature...
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Assault on a Queen 1966
Some pretty decent miniature work here supervised by Lawrence Butler, although it suffers occasionally from being able to see the tank wall. Also a common deficiency in most submarine films is too...
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Batman the Movie 1966
Batman the Movie was released in the same year as the previous post entry Assault on a Queen, and as suggested by the http://www.moon-city-garbage.agency website, used the same submarine miniature,...
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Hell Boats 1970
Hell Boats Japanese lobby card with the miniatures in action. A film I had never heard of until suggested by a reader Simon. It has some pretty extensive miniature sequences concerning Motor Torpedo...
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Sailor of the King 1953
Produced by 20th Century Fox in Britain, this odd little film has apparently two different endings, I saw the one with the happy ending. I can find no information on the visual effects or the miniature...
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Raise the Titanic 1980
I saw this film in the cinema with my Dad on a free double pass that I won as a teenager. I remember feeling at the time that it was fairly lackluster in execution… except for the sequence of the...
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Run Silent Run Deep 1958
Some state of the art for 1958 miniature effects here, not surprising given the miniatures were supervised by Howard Lydecker and photographed by Clifford Stein. A Arnold Gillespie also gets a credit,...
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The Guns of Navarone 1961
This film won an Oscar for visual effects for its miniatures supervisor Bill Warrington and rightly so as it has a terrific model Greek fishing boat in a storm sequence as well as climaxing with an...
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Fitzcarraldo 1982
Despite the director Werner Herzog maintaining that everything in the film was shot for real there are a couple of model ship shots in the film and they are very well done. There must have been a...
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Against All Flags 1952
The technicolour is turned up to eleven particularly in the matte painted shots which also suffer from some very apparent bounce in the ocean plate. It’s also interesting to note that traveling mattes...
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Tomorrow Never Dies 1997
Uniformly excellent miniature work on display here supervised by John Richardson. The model workshop was supervised by Brian Smithies and Rick Thomson with miniature photography by Paul Wilson. Along...
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Book Review, The Wizard of MGM the memoir of A. Arnold Gillespie.
This book was originally written in 1965 by A Arnold Gillespie who was the the head of Special Effects at MGM studios from 1924 to 1965. It was only published in 2013 and co-edited by Philip J. Riley...
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Stand By For Action 1943
Nominated for best special effects in the 16th Academy awards in 1944. A. Arnold Gillespie MGM’s chief of special effects and his miniatures supervisor Donald Jahraus bring their considerable expertise...
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Green Dolphin Street 1947
Won the Academy award for best visual effects in 1948. Along with a model sailing cutter and the ports it visits this film has an earthquake sequence with a miniature New Zealand Kauri forest used as a...
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All the Brothers Were Valiant 1953
Supervised by A. Arnold Gillespie with matte paintings by supervised by Warren Newcombe, this movie features a whaling vessel the Nathan Ross, built at 1/6 scale and a whale hunt with miniature whales...
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The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya 1942
AKA Hawai Mare Okikaisen Received an award for visual effects from the Japan Motion Picture Cinematographers Association. Eiji Tsubaraya was predominantly known in the west for the visual effects of...
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The Spanish main 1945
Some classically shot Technicolor model ship work in this film only let down by some unconvincing scenic art in the background. The last sunset sky backing is particularly lacking. Special effects by...
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The Sino Japanese War At Sea 1894 – 2012
aka – Jia Wu Da Hai Zhan This Chinese film holds the distinction of being the most recent example of model ships in the cinema, being made in 2011 and screened in 2012. According to Wikipedia the naval...
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