Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California. It is named after philosopher George Berkeley, it borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County follows the ridge of the Berkeley Hills; the 2010 census recorded a population of 112,580. Berkeley is home to the oldest campus in the University of California system, the University of California and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, managed and operated by the University, it has the Graduate Theological Union, one of the largest religious studies institutions in the world. Berkeley is considered one of the most liberal cities in the United States; the site of today's City of Berkeley was the territory of the Chochenyo/Huchiun band of the Ohlone people when the first Europeans arrived. Evidence of their existence in the area include pits in rock formations, which they used to grind acorns, a shellmound, now leveled and covered up, along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay at the mouth of Strawberry Creek.
Other artifacts were discovered in the 1950s in the downtown area during remodeling of a commercial building, near the upper course of the creek. The first people of European descent arrived with the De Anza Expedition in 1776. Today, this is noted by signage on Interstate 80, which runs along the San Francisco Bay shoreline of Berkeley; the De Anza Expedition led to establishment of the Spanish Presidio of San Francisco at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. Luis Peralta was among the soldiers at the Presidio. For his services to the King of Spain, he was granted a vast stretch of land on the east shore of San Francisco Bay for a ranch, including that portion that now comprises the City of Berkeley. Luis Peralta named his holding "Rancho San Antonio"; the primary activity of the ranch was raising cattle for meat and hides, but hunting and farming were pursued. Peralta gave portions of the ranch to each of his four sons. What is now Berkeley lies in the portion that went to Peralta's son Domingo, with a little in the portion that went to another son, Vicente.
No artifact survives of the Domingo or Vicente ranches, but their names survive in Berkeley street names. However, legal title to all land in the City of Berkeley remains based on the original Peralta land grant; the Peraltas' Rancho San Antonio continued after Alta California passed from Spanish to Mexican sovereignty after the Mexican War of Independence. However, the advent of U. S. sovereignty after the Mexican–American War, the Gold Rush, saw the Peraltas' lands encroached on by squatters and diminished by dubious legal proceedings. The lands of the brothers Domingo and Vicente were reduced to reservations close to their respective ranch homes; the rest of the land was parceled out to various American claimants. Politically, the area that became Berkeley was part of a vast Contra Costa County. On March 25, 1853, Alameda County was created from a division of Contra Costa County, as well as from a small portion of Santa Clara County; the area that became Berkeley was the northern part of the "Oakland Township" subdivision of Alameda County.
During this period, "Berkeley" was a mix of open land and ranches, with a small, though busy, wharf by the bay. In 1866, Oakland's private College of California looked for a new site, it settled on a location north of Oakland along the foot of the Contra Costa Range astride Strawberry Creek, at an elevation about 500 feet above the bay, commanding a view of the Bay Area and the Pacific Ocean through the Golden Gate. According to the Centennial Record of the University of California, "In 1866…at Founders' Rock, a group of College of California men watched two ships standing out to sea through the Golden Gate. One of them, Frederick Billings, thought of the lines of the Anglo-Irish Anglican Bishop George Berkeley,'westward the course of empire takes its way,' and suggested that the town and college site be named for the eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish philosopher." The philosopher's name is pronounced BARK-lee, but the city's name, to accommodate American English, is pronounced BERK-lee. The College of California's College Homestead Association planned to raise funds for the new campus by selling off adjacent parcels of land.
To this end, they laid out a plat and street grid that became the basis of Berkeley's modern street plan. Their plans fell far short of their desires, they began a collaboration with the State of California that culminated in 1868 with the creation of the public University of California; as construction began on the new site, more residences were constructed in the vicinity of the new campus. At the same time, a settlement of residences and various industries grew around the wharf area called "Ocean View". A horsecar ran from Temescal in Oakland to the university campus along; the first post office opened in 1872. By the 1870s, the Transcontinental Railroad reached its terminus in Oakland. In 1876, a branch line of the Central Pacific Railroad, the Berkeley Branch Railroad, was laid from a junction with the mainline called Shellmound into what is now downtown Berkeley; that same year, the mainline of the transcontinental railroad into Oakland was re-routed, putting the right-of-way along the bay shore through Ocean View.
There was a strong prohibition movement in Berkel
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, or Emmy, is an American award that recognizes excellence in the television industry, is the equivalent of an Academy Award, the Tony Award, the Grammy Award. Because Emmys are given in various sectors of the American television industry, they are presented in different annual ceremonies held throughout the year; the two events that receive the most media coverage are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards, which recognize outstanding work in American primetime and daytime entertainment programming, respectively. Other notable Emmy Award ceremonies are those honoring national sports programming, national news and documentary shows, national business and financial reporting, technological and engineering achievements in television, including the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards. Regional Emmy Awards are presented throughout the country at various times through the year, recognizing excellence in local and statewide television. In addition, International Emmys are awarded for excellence in TV programming produced and aired outside the United States.
Three related but separate organizations present the Emmy Awards: the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Each is responsible for administering a particular set of Emmy ceremonies; the Los Angeles–based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences established the Emmy Award as part of an image-building and public relations opportunity. The first Emmy Awards ceremony took place on January 25, 1949, at the Hollywood Athletic Club, but to honor shows produced and aired locally in the Los Angeles area. Shirley Dinsdale has the distinction of receiving the first Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, during that first awards ceremony; the term "Emmy" is a French alteration of the television crew slang term "Immy", the nickname for an "image orthicon", a camera tube used in TV production. In the 1950s, the ATAS expanded the Emmys into a national event, presenting the awards to shows aired nationwide on broadcast television.
In 1955, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences was formed in New York City as a sister organization to serve members on the East Coast, help to supervise the Emmys. The NATAS established regional chapters throughout the United States, with each one developing their own local Emmy awards show for local programming; the ATAS still however maintained its separate regional ceremony honoring local programming in the Los Angeles Area. There was only one Emmy Awards ceremony held per year to honor shows nationally broadcast in the United States. In 1974, the first Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony was held to honor achievement in national daytime programming. Other area-specific Emmy Awards ceremonies soon followed; the International Emmy Awards, honoring television programs produced and aired outside the U. S. was established in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, all Emmys awarded prior to the emergence of these separate, area-specific ceremonies are listed along with the Primetime Emmy Awards in the ATAS's official records.
In 1977, due to various conflicts, the ATAS and the NATAS agreed to split ties. However, they agreed to share ownership of the Emmy statue and trademark, with each responsible for administering a specific set of award ceremonies. There was an exception regarding the Engineering Awards: the NATAS continues to administer the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards, while the ATAS holds the separate Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards. With the rise of cable television in the 1980s, cable programs first became eligible for the Primetime Emmys in 1988 and the Daytime Emmys in 1989. In 2011, the ABC Television Network cancelled the soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live and sold the two shows' licensing rights to the production company Prospect Park so they could be continued on web television; the ATAS began accepting original online-only web television programs in 2013. The Emmy statuette, depicting a winged woman holding an atom, was designed by television engineer Louis McManus, who used his wife as the model.
The TV Academy rejected forty-seven proposals before settling on McManus's design in 1948. The statuette "has since become the symbol of the TV Academy's goal of supporting and uplifting the art and science of television: The wings represent the muse of art. However, "Ike" was the popular nickname of World War II hero and future U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Academy members wanted something unique. Television engineer and the third academy president Harry Lubcke suggested the name "Immy", a term used for the image orthicon tube used in the early cameras. After "Immy" was chosen, it was feminized to Emmy to match their female statuette; each Primetime Emmy statuette weighs six pounds, twelve-and-a-half ounces, is made of copper, nickel and gold. The statue stands 15.5 inches tall with weight of 88 oz. The Regional Emmy Award statuette is 11.5 inches tall with a base diameter of 5.5 inches and weight of 48 oz. Each takes five and a half hours to
The Haunting (1999 film)
The Haunting is a 1999 American supernatural horror film directed by Jan de Bont. The film is a remake of the British psychological horror film of the same name. Both of them are based on The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson; the Haunting stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor. It was released in the United States on July 23, 1999. Eleanor "Nell" Vance, an insomniac, has cared for her invalid mother for 11 years. After her mother dies, her sister Jane and Jane's husband Lou inherit the house, they eject Nell so they can sell it, Nell faces homelessness. Nell receives a phone call about an insomnia study directed by Dr. David Marrow at Hill House, a secluded manor in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, she agrees to enter the clinical study. At the house, she meets a strange pair of caretakers. Two other participants arrive, Luke Sanderson and Theodora, along with Dr. Marrow and his two research assistants. Unknown to the participants, Dr. Marrow's true purpose is to study the psychological response to fear, intending to expose his subjects to increasing amounts of terror.
Each night, the caretakers chain the gate outside Hill House, preventing anyone from getting in or out until morning. During their first night, Dr. Marrow relates the story of Hill House; the house was built by Hugh Crain — a 19th-century textile tycoon. Crain built the house for his wife. Crain's wife Renee killed herself before Crain became a recluse; when Marrow's assistant declares that she does not believe the story, she is wounded in a freak accident, both research assistants leave for the hospital. As the four people stay in the house, supernatural events begin happening. A mysterious force tries to open the door to Theo and Nell's bedroom, there are banging noises against the walls, there are temperature drops in rooms and hallways. Nell starts seeing the ghosts of children in curtains and sheets, a large portrait of Hugh Crain morphs into a skeletal face and is vandalized with the words "Welcome Home Eleanor" written in blood. During a heated argument and Luke deny any involvement in these events.
They accuse Nell of being an attention seeker. Nell becomes determined to prove, she finds Crain's hidden office and learns that Crain used extensive child labor in his cotton mills. He took several orphans into his home and killed them, burned their bodies in the fireplace, their ghosts are trapped in the house, providing Crain with an "eternal family". Nell learns that Crain had a second wife named Carolyn, from whom she is descended. Dr. Marrow is skeptical of Eleanor's claims, soon reveals his true psychological fear study to the group. After a statue tries to drown him in a pool of water in a greenhouse, Marrow realizes Hill House is haunted after all and a danger to everyone. After several more terrifying events, Nell insists that she cannot leave the ghosts to suffer for eternity at Crain's hands. Theo offers to let Nell move in with her, but Nell reveals that she is related to Carolyn Crain and claims she must help the children to "move on" to the afterlife. Dr. Marrow demands that everyone leave Hill House, but as they attempt to flee, Hugh Crain's ghost seals the house, trapping them inside.
Luke defaces a portrait of Hugh Crain. Crain's enraged spirit drags Luke to the fireplace. Dr. Marrow and Theo flee the house. Realizing that Crain thrived on the fear he created in children, Nell declares she is not afraid of Crain any longer. Nell's declaration weakens Crain's ghost, he is pulled into a decorative bronze door. Crain tries to drag Nell with him; as Nell dies, an image of her, posing as a motherly figure, is left in the bronze door, surrounded by many happy children. The Dudleys approach at dawn. Dr. Marrow and Theo silently walk away from Hill House. Lili Taylor as Eleanor "Nell" Vance Liam Neeson as Doctor David Marrow Catherine Zeta-Jones as Theodora "Theo" Owen Wilson as Luke Sanderson Marian Seldes as Mrs. Dudley Bruce Dern as Mr. Dudley Alix Koromzay as Mary Lambetta Todd Field as Todd Hackett Virginia Madsen as Jane Vance Tom Irwin as Lou Charles Gunning as Hugh Crain Wes Craven was at one point developing a remake of The Haunting, but dropped out in favor of Scream. Steven Spielberg, uncredited executive producer of The Haunting, talked to Stephen King about doing a haunted house movie, the two agreed that Robert Wise's 1963 film "The Haunting" was a benchmark of cinematic house horror, but after they started writing, the two had creative differences.
Spielberg agreed with King's idea to use the real-life Winchester Mystery House, in San Jose, California, as a source of inspiration but wanted the characters to be heroic. King wanted the characters to be terrified. King instead wrote the teleplay for Rose Red, a television miniseries that shares many elements with Jackson's source novel, The Haunting of Hill House, the Winchester Mystery House. Argentine production designer Eugenio Zanetti designed the interiors. Sets were built in just eight weeks, with a team of more than 40 sculptors, 200 scenic painters, 400 carpenters working in three shifts. Visual effects were done by Industrial Light and Magic. Principal photography began on November 30, 1998, ended April 9, 1999. Harlaxton Manor, in England, was used as the exterior of Hill House; the billiard room scen
Walker (Star Wars)
Walkers are vehicles from the Star Wars universe that traverse the landscape on mechanical legs. They are used by the Old Republic, the Galactic Empire, the First Order for ground assault or transport. Throughout the saga walkers have played a pivotal role in the fate of characters and the outcome of battles. Industrial Light and Magic is responsible for their animation and design using models, stop-motion animation, relevant matte paintings to depict their presence in the films. There are a variety of walkers: The Empire Strikes Back introduces the All Terrain Armored Transport and All Terrain Scout Transport. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith introduced earlier models of walkers, such as the AT-TE, the Star Wars expanded universe features numerous others. Walker variants have been featured in popular culture; the All Terrain Armored Transport, or AT-AT walker, is a quadruped mechanized infantry combat vehicle used by the Imperial ground forces.
Standing over 20 metres tall with blast-impervious armour plating, these massive constructs are used as much for psychological effect as they are for tactical advantage. The AT-AT was first introduced in The Empire Strikes Back and appears in Return of the Jedi; the AT-AT appears in a destroyed form in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Joe Johnston's original design for the Empire's war machines was a multi-wheeled vehicle. Johnston said Lucas wanted the walkers to look like anthropomorphic walking tanks to make them frightening. For The Empire Strikes Back, the final design was a four-legged walker. Inspiration for the AT-AT came from Paraceratherium, an extinct genus of rhinoceros and the largest land mammal in history. George Lucas dismissed claims that the AT-AT design was inspired by container cranes at the Port of Oakland, calling it a "myth". ILM created models ranging from six to fifty centimetres in height. ILM filmed the AT-ATs using stop-motion animation against matte paintings created by Michael Pangrazio because attempts at compositing miniature footage against live-action background footage yielded mediocre results.
Additionally, ILM studied elephants to determine the best way to animate the four-legged AT-ATs. Although the stop-motion animation style gave the AT-ATs a jerky, "staccato-like" effect on film, ILM found this movement acceptable because of the AT-ATs' mechanical nature; the sound of the AT-AT walking was created by Sound Designer Ben Burtt, by using the sound of an industrial sheet metal stamper. Dialog in National Public Radio's adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back says that AT-ATs "look like animals"; the AT-AT, designed to favor "fear over function", can carry up to five speeder bikes and 40 Imperial stormtroopers. The head/cockpit armament consists of two side-mounted medium blaster cannons and two chin-mounted heavy laser cannons, it is manned by two AT-AT Drivers, which are combat drivers specialized in operating the Imperial Army's AT-AT walkers, wore distinct battle armour, similar in design to that of a modified basic Stormtrooper. The drivers operated the walker's movement and firing controls, are overseen by a commander who sits behind them in the cockpit.
Manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards, Expanded Universe sources describe the AT-AT as being either 15 metres or 22.5 metres tall. The AT-AT's rate of stride is not fast, but this fact is mitigated by the immense height of its legs, they can outrun opponents that underestimate AT-AT walking speed, while their neck can pivot enough to bring their heavy weaponry to bear against fast-moving craft like snowspeeders. Their blasters and laser cannons do not have a high rate of fire, but the shots are powerful enough to destroy most small targets in one to two shots, their armor is resistant to most standard blaster weapons. The AT-AT is the primary assault vehicle during the Battle of Hoth, first depicted in The Empire Strikes Back. In the film, the AT-ATs are responsible for destroying the shield generator protecting the Rebel headquarters, taking out soldiers, artillery batteries, snowspeeders in the process. Luke Skywalker, realizing that the walkers are all but impervious to artillery and snowspeeder blaster fire, orders his squadron's snowspeeders to entangle their legs with tow cables, a trick he remembered using on Tatooine to rein in hard-to-control farm animals.
Wedge Antilles and his gunner Wes Janson bring down an AT-AT using the tow cable, shortly after the snowspeeder lands a direct hit on the fallen AT-AT's neck which causes a huge explosion. Skywalker, after being shot down and narrowly escaping his stricken snowspeeder before it is crushed beneath the AT-AT's leg, used his hoist cable to latch upon that AT-AT's underside, with a slash of his Lightsaber cutting away a panel so he can toss a thermal detonator inside, causing a series of internal explosions cumulating with the cockpit and the walker toppling over. In the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back, General Veers' AT-AT is destroyed when its cockpit is rammed by a snowspeeder piloted by Derek "Hobbie" Klivian, however this
Dennis Muren
Dennis Muren, A. S. C is an American film special effects artist and supervisor, most notable for his work on the films of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and George Lucas, he has won nine Oscars in total: eight for Best Visual Effects and a Technical Achievement Academy Award. Muren was born in Glendale, the son of Charline Louise and Elmer Ernest Muren, he developed an interest in special effects from an early age. While studying business at Pasadena City College, Muren spent $6500 to make Equinox, a short science fiction film. Tonylyn Productions, a small film company, liked the film enough to distribute it. Tonylyn hired film editor Jack Woods to direct additional footage in order to make Equinox into a feature-length movie; when the feature-length Equinox was released in October 1970, Muren was credited as a producer in spite of having directed much of the film and creating the special effects himself. Despite mixed to poor reviews the movie made enough money for Muren to recoup his $8000 investment, in the years since it has become a minor cult classic.
After earning his associate's degree, Muren began working as a visual effects artist full-time. In 1976, Muren was hired at Industrial Light & Magic an upstart visual effects studio founded by George Lucas. Lucas' and ILM's first film, Star Wars, was released in 1977 to wide critical and public acclaim and was the highest-grossing film of all time up until that point. In 1985 he worked on the visual effects of the Disney theme park’s Captain EO the American 3D/4D science fiction film starring Michael Jackson, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and the executive producer was George Lucas. Muren has been an important voice for pioneering new technologies in special effects. Muren spearheaded ILM's move from models and miniatures to CGI for the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Muren, along with Steve Williams and Mark A. Z. Dippé, helped to usher in a new age of computer generated imagery with the CG dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg had intended to use go-motion for the dinosaurs, but changed his mind when shown a test of a CG T. rex.
Jurassic Park was the breakthrough that convinced George Lucas that technology had advanced enough to make the Star Wars prequels. Director Peter Jackson was inspired by Jurassic Park's technical breakthrough to begin planning and pre-production on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong. Muren contributed effects work on three Jurassic Park sequels: The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. In June 1999, Muren was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the first visual effects artist to be so recognized, he has been a recipient of nine Academy Awards for Best Achievement in Visual Effects and a Technical Achievement Academy Award, the most of any living movie-maker. Muren continues to work as Senior Visual Effects Supervisor and Creative Director of Industrial Light & Magic, he consults for Pixar. He has a non-speaking role in Raiders of the Lost Ark.. Due to their similarity in facial appearance, this character is mistaken for Major Toht, the film's primary antagonist, but it has been confirmed that they are not the same.
Muren has a cameo in the theme park attraction, Star Tours. Muren is married to British documentary filmmaker and landscape architect Zara Muren, they have two children together, they live in California. †The award was a Special Achievement Award instead of a competitive award. Dennis Muren on IMDb Starwars.com. Dennis Muren. Retrieved 3 July 2005. Hollywood.com. Dennis Muren. Retrieved 3 July 2005. Tome, Chris for 3dvfx.net. The Dennis Muren Interview. Retrieved 3 July 2005. Erickson, Hal for Allmovie. Equinox entry at Allmovie. Retrieved 3 July 2005
Piranha (1978 film)
Piranha is a 1978 American horror film directed and co-edited by Joe Dante, starring Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn, Barbara Steele and Dick Miller. The film tells the story of a river being infested by lethal, genetically altered piranha fish, threatening the lives of the local inhabitants and the visitors to a nearby summer resort. Produced by Roger Corman, Piranha was one of a series of low-budget B movies inspired by the film Jaws, a major success for Universal Studios and director Steven Spielberg. Universal Studios had considered obtaining an injunction to prevent Piranha being released as they had released Jaws 2 the same summer, but the lawsuit was cancelled after Spielberg himself gave the film a positive comment in advance. Released on August 3, 1978, the film was a commercial success and achieved a cult following. Piranha was followed by a sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning, two remakes, one in 1995 and another in 2010, which spawned its own sequel in 2012.
Two teenagers come upon an abandoned military installation at night. They take advantage of; the teenagers disappear under the water. A determined but somewhat absent-minded skiptracer named Maggie McKeown is dispatched to find the missing teenagers near Lost River Lake, she hires. They come upon the abandoned compound, they discover bizarre specimens in indications of an occupant. Maggie locates the drainage switch for the outside pool and decides to empty it to search the bottom, but the moment she activates it a haggard man appears and tries to stop her until he is subdued by Grogan; the two find a skeleton in the filtration trap of the empty pool, learn it was filled with salt water. The man awakens and steals their jeep, but crashes it due to his disorientation, is taken to Grogan's home where they spend the night, they take Grogan's raft down the river, where the man wakes up and tells them that the pool in the facility was filled with a school of lethal piranha fish, that Maggie has released them into the river.
They are skeptical until they hear a dog barking and they come across the corpse of Grogan's friend Jack, who has bled to death from an attack on a fishing dock. The man reveals himself to be Doctor Robert Hoak, lead scientist of a defunct Vietnam War project, Operation: Razorteeth, tasked with engineering a ravenous and prodigious strain of piranha that could endure the cold water of the North Vietnamese rivers and inhibit Viet Cong movement; the project was shut down when the war ended, but some of the mutant specimens survived, Hoak tended to them to salvage his work. Grogan realizes that if the local dam is opened, the school will have access to the Lost River water park resort, the nearby summer camp where his daughter Suzie is in attendance, they encounter a capsized canoe with a boy. Hoak suffers mortal injuries when the school attacks him. Blood from Hoak's corpse causes the piranha to tear away the raft's lashings, they reach shore. Grogan calls the military. A military team led by Colonel Waxman and former Razorteeth scientist Dr. Mengers feed poison into the upstream section, ignoring the protests that the fish survived the first attempt.
When Grogan discovers that a tributary bypasses the dam and Mengers quarantine them to prevent the agitated pair from alerting the media. After they escape, Waxman alerts law enforcement to capture them; the school attacks the summer camp during a swimming marathon and killing many children and a supervisor. Suzie escapes due to her fear of water, aids her camp mates in escaping; the school continues downriver. Waxman and Mengers arrive at the water park to intercept Grogan and Maggie, but the piranha attack the resort and kill many vacationers and Waxman. Grogan and Maggie commandeer a speedboat and rush to the shuttered smelting plant at the narrowest point of the river. Remembering the empty facility pond, Grogan realizes, he intends hoping the industrial waste will kill the fish. They arrive at the plant ahead of the fish, but the elevated water level has submerged the control office, Grogan must go underwater. Grogan struggles to move the rusted valve wheel when the school attacks him, he manages to open the valves.
Maggie takes Grogan back to the water park. Mengers gives an on-site television interview, providing a sanitized version of events and downplaying the existence of piranha, her voice is heard carrying out over a radio on the shore of a West Coast beach. As she says "there's nothing left to fear", the piranha's characteristic trilling sound drowns out the waves on a beach. Bradford Dillman as Paul Grogan Heather Menzies as Maggie McKeown Kevin McCarthy as Dr. Robert Hoak Keenan Wynn as Jack Barbara Steele as Dr. Mengers Dick Miller as Buck Gardner Belinda Balaski as Betsy Bruce Gordon as Colonel Waxman Paul Bartel as Mr. Dumont Melody Thomas Scott as Laura Dickinson Barry Brown as Trooper Shannon Collins as Suzie Grogan Shawn Nelson as Whitney Richard Deacon as Earl Lyon John Sayles as Sentry The film wa
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is a 1958 Technicolor heroic fantasy adventure film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Charles H. Schneer, directed by Nathan H. Juran, that stars Kerwin Mathews, Torin Thatcher, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer, Alec Mango; this was the first of three Sinbad feature films from Columbia, the two from the'70s being The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. All three Sinbad films were conceptualized by Ray Harryhausen using Dynamation, the full color widescreen stop-motion animation technique that he created. While named, the film does not follow the storyline of the tale "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor" but instead has more in common with the Third and Fifth voyages of Sinbad; the 7th Voyage of Sinbad was selected in 2008 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally or aesthetically significant". Sinbad the Sailor and his ship's crew make landfall on the island of Colossa, where they encounter Sokurah the magician fleeing a giant cyclops.
Though he escapes, Sokurah loses a magic lamp to the creature. Sinbad refuses his desperate pleas to return to Colossa because Parisa, Princess of Chandra, is aboard, their coming marriage is meant to secure peace between her father's realm and Sinbad's homeland, Baghdad. After reaching Baghdad, Sokurah performs magic at the pre-wedding festivities, temporarily turning Parisa's handmaiden into a serpent-like being. Despite his prowess and a dark prophecy about war between Baghdad and Chandra, the Caliph of Baghdad refuses to help the magician return to Colossa; that night, Sokurah secretly shrinks the princess, enraging her father, the Sultan of Chandra, who declares war on Baghdad. Sinbad and the Caliph give in to Sokurah, who explains that the eggshell of a Roc is needed for the potion that will restore Parisa, it can be found only on Colossa. Sokurah provides Sinbad with the plans for a giant crossbow for protection against the island's giant creatures. Sinbad recruits additional crewmen from among the convicts in the Caliph's prisons.
Before they reach Colossa, the cutthroats mutiny and capture Sokurah and his men. During a violent storm, the sounds of keening demons from a nearby island drives the crew nearly mad, endangering the ship. One of the men releases Sinbad so he can save them, after the mutineers' leader falls to his death from the crow's nest. On Colossa, Sinbad and six of his crew enter the valley of the cyclops, followed by Sinbad's loyal aide Harufa. Sinbad and Sokurah split their forces. Sinbad and his men find the cyclops' treasure cave, but are captured by one of the creatures and locked in a wooden cage. Sokurah, in the meantime, retrieves the magic lamp, but is chased by the cyclops, who kills three of the men. With Parisa's aid, Sinbad manages to escape blinds the one-eyed creature and lures it off the edge of a cliff to its death. Sinbad decides to hold on to the lamp. Sokurah leads his starving men to the nesting place of the giant Rocs. Out of hunger, Sinbad's men try to break open a Roc egg, causing it to hatch, but the newborn chick is killed by the men and fire-roasted for food.
While the men are eating, Parisa enters the magic lamp and befriends the childlike Genie inside, who tells her how to summon him in exchange for her promise of his freedom. The parent Roc slays the men. Sinbad tries to summon the genie, but he is grabbed by the Roc, who takes flight, drops him, into its nearby nest. Sokurah abducts the princess, taking her to his underground fortress. Sinbad awakes and rubs the magic lamp, summoning Barani, who takes Sinbad to Sokurah's fortress and helps him evade the chained dragon that stands guard. Sinbad reaches Sokurah, who restores the princess to normal; when Sinbad refuses to hand over the lamp, the magician animates a skeleton warrior, which Sinbad sword-fights and destroys. With the help of the genie and Parisa make their way out of the cave, stopping to destroy the lamp by throwing it into a pool of lava, thus freeing Barani. Leaving the cave, they encounter another cyclops. Sinbad releases the dragon, which fights and kills the creature. Sinbad and Parisa make their escape.
Sinbad heads to the beach, where his men have readied the giant crossbow, they use it to kill the dragon. The dying dragon collapses on Sokurah. Sinbad and the remaining crew depart for Baghdad, they are joined by Barani, who appoints himself as Sinbad's cabin boy and, in a final act of magic, presented Sinbad and Parisa with the treasure from the cyclops' cave as a wedding gift. It took Ray Harryhausen 11 months to complete the full color, widescreen stop-motion animation sequences for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Harryhausen's "Dynamation" label was used for the first time on this film. Harryhausen gave the cyclops a horn, goat legs, cloven hooves, an idea based upon the concept of the Greek god Pan, he lifted much of the creature's design from his concept of the Ymir. He used the same armature for both figures. Harryhausen researched the cobra-woman sequence by watching a belly dancer in Lebanon. During the performance, Harryhausen says, "smoke was coming up my jacket. I thought I was on fire! It turned out the gentleman behind me was smoking a hookah!"
