Early Tests and Experiments

 

 

House of Usher

 

This project started during the same time that the test footage for Baron Munchausen was developed late 1940's early 1950's. Ray originally intended to make three Edgar Allen Poe stories. The idea was to produce an eerie feeling with the tales. The only thing that remains from this project was this sketch.

 

The Frog Prince

 

Another story part of the Fairy Tales series, Ray completed a two-part outline of the story in 1947, which related the tale of the princess who promises a frog anything he desires if he retrieves her ball from the pond. She renegades the promise but the creature follows her to the palace and when the princess throws the frog against a wall, it turns into a handsome prince. Apart from the outline Ray only created two drawings.

 

Little Googie

 

 

Little Googie was a character that Ray came up with in 1949/50 and told about this adventures in Vaudeville. He actually built the model with a couple of expression heads for which at the time his mother made the costume. Ray now regrets not shooting any footage of this character as it stands as one of his favorites.

 

War of the Worlds

 

H.G Well's War of the Worlds has been a story that always fascinated Ray, back in 1950 Ray created a scene on 16mm film depicting a Martian emerging from a crashed rocket ship as vividly as was described in the story. He also sketched a couple of key drawings showing his vision of the story, unfortunately this version was never produced.

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