MovieChat Forums > The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945) Discussion > Why no awards for cinematography + speci...

Why no awards for cinematography + special effects?

posted 17 years ago by Gavno
5 replies | jump to latest

The sequence early on showing the performance of the heavenly orchestra... there's a LONG, overhead traveling shot over the entire orchestra. GLORIOUS sweeping camera work!!!

WHERE in the hell did they shoot that thing? Is a sound stage THAT big? It looks like they had to rent a blimp hanger to stage that one sequence!

They must have had to hire 2,000 extras just to populate the set for that one shot!

And of course the coffee pot sequence. SOME of it was clearly done with miniatures... but a LOT of it had to have been done with a full sized model of the pot (Benny falling into the cup, going down the drain tube, and being poured out of the coffee pot spout).

Didn't the Academy give awards for special effects and cinematography back then?

These guys did things that would make today's special effects folks go green with envy!

[–] dan-of-old 16 years ago

That coffee pot/cup was the single most important memory of that whole movie. I cannot say why. I was 7 or 8 years old at the time. I would like to see it again before I pass on.

[–] hunterjlc 16 years ago

It's funny you said that danofth. I was about the same age when I saw it on television for the first time. I have that same memory. Especially when they add the cream and sugar. I hope you get to see it too danofth.

[–] cparritt 16 years ago

watched it last night, taped from TCM.

i was loving the whole thing-it's like a live action cartoon, in a lot of ways-

many of the gags would work in a Bugs or Tom and Jerry.

could just imagine the writing and re-writing that went in to this one...

hooray for jack benny-a real american legend.

[–] scotbpens 15 years ago

WHERE in the hell did they shoot that thing? Is a sound stage THAT big? It looks like they had to rent a blimp hanger to stage that one sequence!

They must have had to hire 2,000 extras just to populate the set for that one shot!

Two thousand extras? I haven't seen the movie in a while, but that scene probably used no more than a couple hundred extras at most. I'd guess that the image was multiplied many times with an optical printer and composited and edited to look like a single, continuous, seamless shot.

All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?

[–] newtype_1 12 years ago

I agree, this movie had great effects. The sweeping heaven sequence was very impressive. I also really like that model planet viewer thing that's on the Chief's desk, and the elevator.