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Peter Ellenshaw
William Samuel Cook "Peter" Ellenshaw (24 May 1913 – 12 February 2007) was an English matte designer and special effects creator who worked on many Disney features. Born in London, he moved to America in 1953. Career & Life He first worked in matte painting for producer Alexander Korda on such films as '' Things to Come'' (1936), and later on such Powell and Pressburger productions as ''Black Narcissus'' (1947) assisting his mentor W. (Walter) Percy Day. A few years later, while still based in Europe, he began to work for Hollywood studios. He worked for MGM on ''Quo Vadis'' (1951), but his most extensive association was with Walt Disney Studios beginning with their first completely live action feature film, ''Treasure Island'' (1950). He went on to work on ''20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'' (1954) and ''Mary Poppins'' (1964), for which he won an Academy Award. He retired after his work on ''The Black Hole'' (1979), but contributed matte paintings for ''Dick Tracy'' (1990). Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as '' Londinium'' and retains its medieval boundaries.See also: Independent city § National capitals The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London, governed by the Greater London Authority.The Greater London Authority consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The London Mayor is distinguished fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Black Hole
''The Black Hole'' is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Gary Nelson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. The film stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins and Ernest Borgnine, while the voices of the main robot characters are provided by Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens (both uncredited). The music for the film was composed by John Barry. With a production budget of $20 million, plus another $6 million for advertising, it was at the time the most expensive picture ever produced by Disney. In the early 1970s, the film was initially conceived as a space-themed disaster film. However, the script went through numerous iterations from various screenwriters. Additionally, Disney's effects department used computerized camera technology to create the visual effects. The film was released on December 18, 1979, in the United Kingdom and on December 21, 1979, in the United States. It was the first film from Walt Disney Pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swiss Family Robinson
''The Swiss Family Robinson'' (German: ''Der Schweizerische Robinson'') is a novel by Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family of immigrants whose ship en route to Port Jackson, Australia, goes off course and is shipwrecked in the East Indies. The ship's crew is lost, but the family and several domestic animals survive. They make their way to shore, where they build a settlement, undergoing several adventures before being rescued; some refuse rescue and remain on the island. The book is the most successful of a large number of "castaway novels" that were written in response to the success of Defoe's ''Robinson Crusoe'' (1719). It has gone through a large number of versions and adaptations. History Written by Swiss writer, Johann David Wyss, edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss, and illustrated by another son, Johann Emmanuel Wyss, the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good farming, and the uses of the natural world and self- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pollyanna (1960 Film)
''Pollyanna'' is a 1960 American comedy-drama film starring child actress Hayley Mills, Jane Wyman, Karl Malden, and Richard Egan in a story about a cheerful orphan changing the outlook of a small town. The film was written and directed by David Swift, based on the 1913 novel ''Pollyanna'' by Eleanor H. Porter. The film won Hayley Mills an Academy Juvenile Award. It was the last film of actor Adolphe Menjou. ''Pollyanna'' was Hayley Mills' first of six films for Disney, and the directorial debut of David Swift. Plot Pollyanna, a 12-year-old orphaned daughter of missionaries, arrives in the small town of Harrington to live with her rich and strict aunt Polly Harrington in the 1910s. Pollyanna is a very cheerful, talkative, and radically optimistic youngster who focuses on the goodness of life and always finds something to be glad about, no matter what the situation is. In doing so, Pollyanna's positive outlook on everything results in her making a wide variety of friends in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darby O'Gill And The Little People
''Darby O'Gill and the Little People'' is a 1959 American fantasy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions, adapted from the ''Darby O'Gill'' stories of Herminie Templeton Kavanagh. Directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Lawrence Edward Watkin, the film stars Albert Sharpe as O'Gill alongside Janet Munro, Sean Connery, and Jimmy O'Dea. Plot Darby O'Gill and his daughter, Katie, live in Rathcullen, a small Irish town, where Darby is the caretaker for Lord Fitzpatrick's estate. Darby continually tries to catch a tribe of leprechauns, particularly their king, Brian Connors. Lord Fitzpatrick retires Darby, replacing him with a young Dubliner named Michael McBride. Darby begs Michael not to tell Katie he has been replaced, and he reluctantly agrees. While chasing Fitzpatrick's horse, Cleopatra, which is actually a '' pooka'', Darby is captured by Brian and the leprechauns and taken to their mountain lair, Knocknasheega. Brian has brought Darby there to prevent Katie fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Tremain
''Johnny Tremain'' is a work of historical fiction written in 1943 by Esther Forbes that is set in Boston prior to and during the outbreak of the American Revolution. Intended for teen-aged readers, the novel's themes include apprenticeship, courtship, sacrifice, human rights, and the growing tension between Patriots and Loyalists as conflict nears. Events depicted in the novel include the Boston Tea Party, the British blockade of the Port of Boston, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The book won the 1944 Newbery Medal and was believed to be "among the 20 best-selling children's books of the 20th century." It was estimated to be the 16th-bestselling children's paperback book as of the year 2001 in the United States, according to ''Publishers Weekly''. In 1957, Walt Disney Pictures released a film adaptation, also called ''Johnny Tremain''. Plot summary Johnny Tremain is a promising but prideful 14-year-old apprentice at the Boston si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Yeller (film)
''Old Yeller'' is a 1957 American drama western film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney. It stars Dorothy McGuire and Fess Parker, with Tommy Kirk, and Kevin Corcoran. It is about a boy and a stray dog in post-Civil War Texas. The film is based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Fred Gipson. Gipson also co-wrote the screenplay along with William Tunberg. The film's success led to a 1963 sequel, '' Savage Sam'', which was based on a 1962 book by Gipson. In 2019, the film was selected for preservation into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot In the late 1860s, Jim Coates leaves his family – wife Katie, teenage son Travis, and small son Arliss – to collect cattle in Kansas. While Jim is away, Travis sets off to work in the cornfield, where he encounters a Black Mouth Cur he names "Old Yeller", as "yeller" is a dialect pronunciation of "yellow" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Davy Crockett, King Of The Wild Frontier
''Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier'' is a 1955 American Western film produced by Walt Disney Productions. It is an edited and recut compilation of the first three episodes of the '' Davy Crockett'' television miniseries. The episodes used were ''Davy Crockett Indian Fighter'', ''Davy Crockett Goes to Congress'', and ''Davy Crockett at the Alamo''. The film stars Fess Parker as Davy Crockett. Plot Creek Indian Wars Two Tennessee wilderness settlers, Davy Crockett and his best friend George Russell (son of Captain William Russell and Agness H. Mccollough), volunteer to fight with General Andrew Jackson and Major Tobias Norton in the Creek War (1813-1814). They return home after a successful battle, to make sure their families have enough provisions for the winter, rejoining a short time later to find the Americans at a stalemate against the Creeks, with Jackson having gone to New Orleans. Against Norton's orders, Crockett and Russell scout for Creek positions, and Rus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Red Shoes (1948 Film)
''The Red Shoes'' is a 1948 British drama film written, directed, and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It follows Victoria Page (Moira Shearer), a ballerina who joins the world renowned Ballet Lermontov, owned and operated by Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook), who tests her dedication to the ballet by making her choose between her career and her romance with composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring). It marked the feature film debut of Shearer, an established ballerina, and also features Robert Helpmann, Léonide Massine, and Ludmilla Tchérina, other renowned dancers from the ballet world. The plot is based on the 1845 eponymous fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, and features a ballet within it by the same title, also adapted from the Andersen work. ''The Red Shoes'' was filmmaking team Powell and Pressburger's tenth collaboration and follow-up to 1947's ''Black Narcissus''. It had originally been conceived by Powell and producer Alexander Korda in the 1930 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Matter Of Life And Death (film)
''A Matter of Life and Death'' is a 1946 British fantasy film, fantasy-romance film set in England during the Second World War. Written, produced and directed by Powell and Pressburger, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the film stars David Niven, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, Kim Hunter and Marius Goring. The film was originally released in the United States under the title ''Stairway to Heaven'', which derived from the film's most prominent special effects, special effect: a broad escalator linking Earth to the afterlife. In 1999, ''A Matter of Life and Death'' was placed 20th on the British Film Institute's list of BFI Top 100 British films, Best 100 British films. In 2004, a poll by the magazine ''Total Film'' of 25 film critics named ''A Matter of Life and Death'' the second-greatest British film ever made, behind ''Get Carter''. It ranked 90th among critics, and 322nd among directors, in the The Sight & Sound Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time, 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Thief Of Bagdad (1940 Film)
''The Thief of Bagdad'' is a 1940 British Technicolor historical fantasy film, produced by Alexander Korda and directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan, with additional contributions by William Cameron Menzies and Korda brothers Vincent and Zoltán. The film stars teen actor Sabu, Conrad Veidt, John Justin, and June Duprez. It was released in the US and the UK by United Artists. Although produced by Alexander Korda's company London Films in London, the film was completed in California due to the outbreak of World War II. Georges Périnal, credited as George Perinal, won the Academy Award for Cinematography, Vincent Korda for Art Direction, and Lawrence W. Butler and Jack Whitney for Special Effects (marking the first use of the "manual bluescreen technique"). Miklós Rózsa was also nominated for Original Music Score, a first for a British film at the Academy Awards. Although this production is a remake of the 1924 version, the two films have differences, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online, with 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives. First series Hoping to emulate national biographical collections published elsewhere in Europe, such as the '' Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (1875), in 1882 the publisher George Smith (1824–1901), of Smith, Elder & Co., planned a universal dictionary that would include biographical entries on individuals from world history. He approached Leslie Stephen, then editor of the ''Cornhill Magazine'', owned by Smith, to become the editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus only on subjects from the United Kingdom and its present and former colonies. An early working title was the ''Biographia Britannica'', the name of an earlier eightee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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