O'Bie - Willis O'Brien documentary

[John Armer]

Super 8 database lists this 600ft Perry's release: does anyone know anything about it? It sounds like it was created by one Mike Hankin, on S8, for Perry's to release in the 1980s, but I have never seen a print for sale, or indeed a review of it anywhere.

S8 film review announced a delay to its release in their issue 25 (the final issue before they were incorporated into Film for the Collector), but promised to review it as soon as it became available. I can't find a review of it... it sounds an excellent project and I hope someone can shed some light on it!

[Douglas Meltzer]

John,

I'm familiar with Mr. Hankin's biographies (3 volumes) of Ray Harryhausen, however I've never heard of this release before your post.

[John Armer]

Well, an interesting update to this, thanks to S8 researcher extraordinaire Mark Williams. Mark remembered an ad for the documentary and found it for me over the weekend (scan attached). He also had doubts that the release ever saw the light of day, having (like me) never seen one on the second hand lists.

Better still, Mark knows the creator of the documentary - Mike Hankin - so got in touch with him for me to try and get the low-down on it. Mike set the record straight:

Ah, O'Bie. No, it never happened. It all fell apart because of the cost of showing clips from the various films, which for a private enterprise were quite astronomical. Ray Harryhausen recorded the narration, along with Ian Fairbairn. In the end I used a lot of the material in a talk I gave on Willis O'Brien at the Museum of the Moving Image in London. I still have the filmed interviews with Bessie Love, Ray Harryhausen (including him animating the Kraken for me), Leslie Halliwell and his Mighty Joe Young figure and many other things. It is a shame it was never completed, but it really it was an over-ambitious project for one person, but it did result in a long friendship with Ray Harryhausen and the Majicks books.

So - no release. What a great shame, it would have been a fantastic thing to have had on Super 8.

[Brian Fretwell]

It would have been a good talk at a BFCC too.

[Mike Newell]

Wouldn’t be surprised if Perrys released it. I got Gertie the Dinosaur stop motion in 1914 and Queen Victoria funeral procession from 1901 from them. They also covered all the Laurel and Hardy films as well including rare ones like Any Old Port, Their 1st Mistake, Come Clean and Night Owls. Their prints were good but tended to be sepia.