1944 – The Story or Dr. Wassell
First off – YAY! Technicolor! I know that making a color film isn’t a visual effect, but I have no doubt that it offered its own challenges when it came to creating visual effects, since it still wasn’t the standard, widely-used medium. The rear-projection shots in particular must be more difficult in color, since matching lighting, hue, focus, and tone are all integral components of creating a successful rear-projection shot. This movie handled them better than many of the black and white films I have watched from the early 40s.
As a war film-there were some great combat scenes where our heroes are being bombed, and fired upon from Japanese air assaults. These were handled pretty well, and for the most part, bloodlessly. But this movie also had a great action sequence where an allied convoy was trying to cross a bridge in a high-speed race. There were bombs exploding on the road, and even an exploding vehicle in the convoy. One of the trucks was forced off the road and crashed down into the gorge, which was exciting to watch on the screen. And when the bridge was finally hit, it was destroyed in spectacular fashion, with crumbling cement, fire, and smoking debris, all while Dr. Wassell watches from a distance in the foreground of the shot. And they nailed it! It all looked like it was part of the same image!
There were also some great weather effects in one scene where there is a tropical thunder and lightning storm as the wounded Americans are being ferried to a battleship. The shot of the lightning was brief but awesome, like real lightning. It was a dark shot, but we were still able to see the rain, the battleship, the ferry, and the streaking lightning bolts to great effect. It was a beautiful shot!
But the scene that sticks out in my mind was the bombing raid on the hospital. We are never even shown the airplanes, but what we do see are the windows of the recovery ward being blown inward, showering the wounded men and nurses with dust, flying debris, and shards of glass. They had piled hospital beds in front of the windows and when the big bomb hit, the beds were hurled across the room from the concussive force of the blast. And after the dust settled, we find that a stick of wood has gone through one of the beds and into the chest of one of the patients.
I’d never even heard of this movie before, but it was a great film with some pretty remarkable visual effects. I applaud them for their work, and totally consider this to be a worthy contender for the Oscar. Unfortunately, they were up against Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, so they didn’t really stand a chance, despite being in glorious Technicolor. Not even Gary Coopers hair, which could arguably be a visual effect, as it was never messed up, despite all the battle and action sequences, could measure up to that movie.