Myths, Legends, & Fairy Tales[ Book Contents]

JL: Ray, I know you don’t like the term “monster.”

RH: I don’t like the term “monster,” because that’s not what we do. All our creatures are misunderstood creatures, because they usually come from another world.

JL: So what does the word “monster” mean to you?

RH: I associate the word “monster” with some sort of insane creature that growls and is physically distorted. I don’t like to use the word. It has to do with things like Frankenstein and Dracula and horrible people who do horrible things.

JL: Well, some of your creatures do horrible things.

RH: They don’t do horrible things. They’re just out of their element!

JL: Hmm.

RH: (Laughs.)

JL: Doesn’t Medusa do horrible things?

RH: Well, that’s her nature! She’s a snake woman! (Laughs.)

JL: All right, let me think about it…

RH: She was cursed by Hera (queen of the Greek gods).

JL: What about the Cyclops?

RH: I don’t know about the Cyclops…

JL: The Cyclops in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad[Nathan H. Juran, 1958]. The Cyclops tries to eat people!

RH: (Laughs) But that’s his nature! He’s not a monster!

Ray animating the dragon from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad[1958] on a miniature set.

JL: Are there creatures in other people’s movies that you are particularly fond of?

RH: Not that I’m fondof…

JL: I know what you’re fond of: King Kong!

RH: Oh yes, but he was neither man, nor beast, as they said in the script. He was a throwback of some sort. Most gorillas have straight eyebrows, so I slanted Mighty Joe Young’s eyebrows so that he would look a little different than a normal gorilla.

JL: I had a problem with Peter Jackson’s King Kong[2005]. Peter just made him a big gorilla, not at all a mythical beast, just a very big gorilla. Do you like fantasy films in general?

RH: Oh, I love them. They stretch the imagination.

JL: What are some of your favorites… that you didn’t make?

RH: (Laughs) Well I thought Jurassic Park[Steven Spielberg, 1993] was fascinating.

JL: And you wouldn’t call them monsters, just dinosaurs.

RH: Dinosaurs are not monsters; they’re just a product of their time!

JL: It’s just that when they’re out of their time, they are forced to behave badly.

RH: They behave badly because they don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t normally live in this world.

JL: That’s a good answer. What about something like in One Million Years B.C.[Don Chaffey, 1966], where you have dinosaurs living with humans?

RH: Well, we don’t make these pictures for paleontologists. If you just have a bunch of dinosaurs running around barking at each other, there’s no drama. You have to include humans!

JL: What about the movie Creation? The Willis O’Brien project that was never realized. Wasn’t that just dinosaurs?

RH: Well, I think they had more than dinosaurs. They had people in it, too.

JL: What was the Irwin Allen movie you worked on?

RH: That was The Animal World[1956].

JL: That had drama in it, and no people.

RH: Well, it was a brief sequence. (The BBC-TV series) Walking With Dinosaursdoesn’t have any people in it. It’s more realistic, but they tried to make dinosaurs that would be acceptable for paleontologists, and we’re making movies just to entertain! You can’t entertain with a dinosaur just chewing on another dinosaur!

JL: Do you think you’re more interested in fantastic beings, or in beings that have a basis in reality?

RH: I think the whole point of any fantasy film is to stretch the imagination, because when one lives in a dream world like me, it’s always “what if this could happen?”

JL: Do you think that creatures can be manifestations of people’s fantasies or fears?

RH: Sometimes, but Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydewas more about the dual personalities that we all have.

JL: What about Dr. Moreau, with his genetic experiments? Would you call him a monster?

RH: Dr. Moreau was an early one in genetic experiments and now they are coming to pass. Lord knows what they will create—I don’t know!

JL: I know King Kong[Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933] is the movie that inspired you.

RH: Oh it did. It was an inspiration because it was so different than any other movie.

JL: Do you remember when you saw it?

RH: I was 13. A few marbles have lost their way… maybe they rolled under the davenport...

JL: No, seriously, I know you know. Tell me when you saw it.

RH: I saw it back in 1933, when it first came out. At Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. In Los Angeles, where I grew up.

JL: Was there a live show before the movie?

RH: There was a stage show. Sid Grauman was a great showman at that time. Sid had this great prolog with live actors, and then Kong came on.

JL: Kong himself came on?!

RH: No John. The movie! Although they did have a big bust in the lobby. The prolog got you in the mood to accept the fantasy, which was, at the time, very extreme.

JL: Really? There had been The Lost World[Harry O. Hoyt, 1925], the silent picture, and that had been a tremendous hit.

RH: There was, but most people didn’t remember it. And Max Steiner’s great music made King Kongmuch more impressive than The Lost World, which probably had only a piano accompaniment.

JL: How important is music to movies?

RH: I think music is very important to fantasy films, particularly movies that don’t rely on very profound dialog. Our fantasies are mostly action pictures, and music enhances them. It makes everything bigger than life, which is the function of good film music.

JL: When you were planning scenes, did you think of the music? When you worked with Bernard Herrmann, did you talk about the score beforehand?

RH: No, no, no, no. You have to leave it to somebody like Bernard Herrmann. Different people write different kinds of music. Herrmann specialized in rousing action music while a composer like Miklos Rozsa wrote romantic music.

JL: You’ve done movies based on books by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. Who is your favorite fantasy author?

RH: I couldn’t choose a favorite. I like Wells; he was very profound. I liked his book, The Island of Dr. Moreau. Did you ever see the picture that Charles Laughton starred in?

JL: Yes, Island of Lost Souls[Erle C. Kenton, 1932] is great. That movie had wonderful make-up.

RH: Oh, very good make-up. I don’t know who did the score, but it wasn’t a complete score.

JL: I don’t remember the music. I just remember the monsters! Béla Lugosi was one of them, “The Sayer of the Law!” Do you have a particular favorite of your creatures?

RH: I can’t have, because the others get jealous (laughs). I like the complicated ones. They’re much more interesting to animate. Like the Hydra in Jason and the Argonauts[Don Chaffey, 1963], and Medusa in Clash of the Titans[Desmond Davis, 1981]. The sword fight with the Seven Skeletons in Jason and the Argonautsas well.

JL: How long did the Seven Skeletons sword fight take you to animate?

RH: It took about four and a half months to put it together. I was the only animator on it. I had to time all the swords, so that when an actor brought his sword down and stopped, a skeleton’s blade would be there to meet it.

JL: What are some of the fantasy films, other than King Kongand Island of Lost Souls, that had a big impact on you?

RH: Jurassic Park[Steven Spielberg, 1993] was very impressive. Phil Tippett and Dennis Muren did wonderful work on that. And I liked Close Encounters of the Third Kind, too [Steven Spielberg, 1977]. There’s a space monster I particularly love in Forbidden Planet[Fred M. Wilcox, 1956]. A great movie!