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World of Westfahl |
Encyclopedia Introduction |
All Entries |
Acknowledgements
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(1903–1991). French designer and director.
Art direction: Confessions of an Opium Eater
(also produced) (Albert ZUGSMITH 1962); The Strangler (Burt Topper
1964); Death Takes a Holiday (Robert Butler 1971); Kung Fu (tv
movie) (Jerry Thorpe 1972); The Time Travelers (tv movie) (Alex Singer
1976).
Production designer: Crack in the World
(and special effects) (Andrew Marton 1965).
He earns the attention of this volume primarily for his activities
during the 1950s, when he directed four worthwhile, and of course
stylish, films. While I have elsewhere argued that the George Worthing
YATES-scripted Them! set the pattern
for 1950s science fiction films, one could plausibly say the same
thing about The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms; certainly, its effective
scenes of a dinosaur rampaging through New York City proved a powerful
influence on films ranging from Inoshiro HONDA's
masterful Godzilla, King of the Monsters to Roland EMMERICH's
inept Godzilla, and its dull and awkwardly staged expository
scenes preceding that rampage were also widely imitated. Lourie was
not as successful when he scripted another monster movie, The Giant
Behemoth, which I vaguely recall as slow-moving and laden with
incongruous biblical quotations; but Gorgo was a delight, its
now-traditional tale of a giant dinosaur attacking a city reinvigorated
by the theme of mother love—the big dinosaur is only attacking London
in order to rescue its baby, the little dinosaur—and the story is
imbued with just the slightest hint of ironic amusement.
Still, none of these films quite compare to The
Colossus of New York, a 1950s science fiction film like no other, featuring
Ross MARTIN as a scientist and loving father unhappily transformed into a
clunky robot and accompanied by a blaring, completely inappropriate score that
somehow helps to make the whole situation seem overpoweringly bizarre and
haunting. And, despite his later dismissive comments, one has to imagine that,
for once, Lourie's own sense of being a stranger in a strange land evocatively
nuanced the production of the film.
After the golden age of monster movies ended, Lourie drifted back
into subordinate assignments in art direction and production design
and, by the 1970s, was working exclusively in television; his only
other credit of note would be the Irwin ALLEN-directed
and Rod SERLING-scripted television movie
The Time Travelers, where his art direction was probably the
best feature of this otherwise unmemorable film. If he never quite
managed to become a Colossus of Hollywood, he nonetheless merits some
recognition as one of its most interesting foot soldiers.
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