OT: The ultimate action sequence stunts?

[blue2blue]

I hadn't seen it since college and I wasn't even sitting down to watch it -- it was just on running from DVR box onto disc with the sound off (it's a silent flick, anyhow) -- but when the last half hour or so of Harold Lloyd's Safety Last came on, I found my eyes glued to the idiot box...

 

Oh my blinkin' heavens!

 

For those of you who haven't seen it, there's an extended sequence where Lloyd goes out a window (about the 3rd or 4th floor) and ends up climbing up the side of an old masonry building (to what looks like the 8th or 10th floor roof) through all kinds of unpredictable sight gags and completely outrageous physical stunts -- all done without matte work or process shots and, apparently, all or mostly without safety ropes and harnesses. At one point -- probably the most well known image -- he ends up hanging from the hands of a large display clock, his legs swinging in the air above gawking crowds below.

 

 

The lack of matte and process shots is most evident in the different camera set ups.

 

While those of us who grew up on movies are used to the typical "tells" of special effects -- halos, mismatched background parallax/perspective issues, continuity problems -- these shots are notable because the backdrop of the street below is clearly a very real part of each shot... when the camera angle changes to catch Lloyd's frantic dance at the edge of a sloping outcropping (a mouse has crawled up his pants leg) the angle and perspective of the street below has clearly changed, giving it a very real sense of what an incredible feat you're watching.

 

For someone like me -- with raging acrophobia -- it's a very mixed bag... I'm laughing even as I can smell the fight/flight sweat breaking out on me...

 

 

Amazing stuff.

 

Absolutely amazing. It makes the current crop of "action heroes" look like the pampered pussycats they are...

 

 

 

PS... Not only did Lloyd famously do all his own stunts -- he did some of them with special prosthetic gloves covering disfigured fingers on one hand, which it's said he was very self-conscious about.

[philbo]

I had terrible fear of heights for quite a while after I had fallen 65 feet and broke my back, my skull and my left wrist about 35 years ago. I'm pretty much over it, but this photo sort of brings it all back again - my throat sank into my stomach when I saw it. (The crazy bastard!!)

[blue2blue]

You might have a problem with the movie.

 

I found myself telling myself: "He survived. He lived to be almost 80."

 

But there's a scene where a bull dog lunges at him from inside a room. The dog's on a leash -- and there's plainly a second safety rope backing that up. He lunges out onto the ledge and then seems to realize where he is and kind does a double take before he goes on to snap at Lloyd... all the while I'm thinking, the dog has a safety rope... meanwhile Lloyd is dangling out over the street, hanging in more than a few scenes by his fingers. In once scene he goes off the ledge and catches himself on the lip.

 

 

Apparently, not only were there no doubles or matte/process shots -- there were apparently no safety nets. At least that's the claim in a number of places.

 

Now that is terrifying.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

I had terrible fear of heights for quite a while after I had fallen 65 feet and broke my back, my skull and my left wrist about 35 years ago. I'm pretty much over it, but this photo sort of brings it all back again - my throat sank into my stomach when I saw it. (The crazy bastard!!)

 

 

Are you freakin' serious? OUCH!!!! Dang, it's a miracle you lived through that!!!! How did that happen? What'd you land on?

[boosh]

Loyd was actually hanging from a small building that was made upon a large one. It was slightly placed to the back so if He would fall he'd fall only a few feet. So,... it's a stage on a big building.

[blue2blue]

 

Loyd was actually hanging from a small building that was made upon a large one. It was slightly placed to the back so if He would fall he'd fall only a few feet. So,... it's a stage on a big building.

 

 

I dunno, Booshy, there are some long shots that show the building (and Lloyd climbing up the masonry) pretty clearly.

 

But there are some places (up near the top) where a ledge is almost sidewalk-width (maybe that's the architectural feature you're talking about?) and I wouldn't be surprised if the crazier stuff wasn't shot just above there. I mean, the place where he flips off the edge and catches himself by his fingers -- surely that would not have been done with a deadly drop beneath it!

 

And, also, I'm not absolutely sure I completely believe the "no safety nets" descriptions... but I have read that a number of times in a number of places.

[boosh]

I have seen the behind the scenes footage,... it's a small building on top of a large one.

 

I remember everything clearly. They even explained he had a hard time holding on sometimes because he missed oone finger on one of his hands.

 

There were no nets.

[blue2blue]

I have seen the behind the scenes footage,... it's a small building on top of a large one. I remember everything clearly. They even explained he had a hard time holding on sometimes because he missed oone finger on one of his hands. There were no nets.

 

Love to see that!

 

I think it was actually a couple fingers from my reading yesterday. (I actually read a bio of him before I'd even seen any of his movies back in high school. That was back in the good old days when info was dear and you'd read anything just 'cause it was in the library and you hadn't read it yet -- our HS was one of those schools that tried to carefully control what its young adults could and couldn't read.

 

For instance, you wouldn't want them reading a known rascal like Mark Twain who, after all, made fun of religion, politics, and racism... don't want the kiddies thinking about that kind of stuff on the edge of adulthood...

 

[boosh]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014429/trivia

[the stranger]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freefall

 

People surviving free fall JAT stewardess Vesna Vulovi? survived a fall of 15,000 feet (over 5,000 meters) on January 26, 1972 when she was thrown from JAT Flight 364 by a terrorist bomb. She broke several bones and was in a coma for 27 days. In World War II there were several reports of aircrew surviving long falls; Nick Alkemade, Alan Magee, and I.M. Chisov all fell at least 6,000 meters and survived. It was reported that two of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing survived for a brief period after hitting the ground, but died from their injuries before help arrived.[1]

 

This thread made me think of this guy: (click the pic)

 

 

Record free fall As part of Project Excelsior on 16 August 1960, Joseph Kittinger achieved the record for the longest free-fall jump of 4 minutes and 36 seconds and the fastest maximum speed of 614 mph (982 km/h), before opening his parachute at around 18,000 feet (5,500 m).[2] Kittinger started the jump from a specially constructed balloon at an altitude of 102,800 feet (31,300 m), which also qualified him for the highest balloon ascent and highest parachute jump. Some contend that Kittinger's jump wasn't true free-fall as he used a drogue chute for stability.[citation needed] According to the Guinness book of records, Eugene Andreev (USSR) holds the official FAI record for the longest free-fall parachute jump after falling for 80,380 ft (24,500 m) from an altitude of 83,523 ft (25,457 m) near the city of Saratov, Russia on November 1, 1962. Andreev did not use a drogue chute during his jump.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excelsior

[blue2blue]

Thanks, man!

 

Kinda hope the part about the double in the mouse sequence isn't true (though I suppose maybe it is)... it's a great sequence.

 

 

The image of Lloyd afraid to watch the human fly (because he, Lloyd, wasn't in control) rings true. And is pretty funny, to boot!

[boosh]

http://safety_last.totallyexplained.com/

 

Here's another piece about LLoyd and his stunt.

 

I don't know where to get the footage ,..I saw that on TV when I was a kid.

[blue2blue]

Great info!

 

Well, I'm heartened that the long shots were the double -- and that they were real! Even if it wasn't Lloyd.

 

The more I read on this, the more I think back to seeing the film in a class in college back in the early or mid 70s. The class was out of the Speech Department because the head of the department (it was a rotating chair so that's not really pertinent, maybe) was a HUGE silent movie buff and was annoyed that the dinky film offerings out of what was then the Radio TV department at Long Beach State gave very short shrift to the silents and particularly his main man, Carl Theodor Dryer. (Perhaps that's why, among today's film makers, LB State quasi-alum Stephen Speilberg's sense of film history seems to begin with the color era.)

 

Anyhow, this prof knew everything about old movies... we saw the cream of the silent era, both dramas (which he insisted on showing at the slow speed so as to avoid the Keystone Cops affect... it made the shelling of the city in Battleship Potempkin almost meditative).

 

 

PS... the bit in the first article (I think) about the test drop of a dummy onto a stunt mattress only to have the dummy bounce off and go many stories down to the street below is pretty good, too.

[Tedster]

I remember reading the true story of a tailgunner on an Avro Lancaster bomber in WWII. The plane was shot...and in flames. Flames were at the tailgunner's position...and he had two choices...burn, or jump. Apparently, and I can't remember why, perhaps it had something to do with constricted spaces (those bombers weren't that big), or perhaps his parachute was damaged...but he chose to jump to his death...18,000 feet over enemy territory.

 

Whatever happened on that night...the stars lined up. He fell against a stand of snow covered trees...deflecting the angle of his fall down an embankment covered with deep snow into a stand of bushes. Battered, broken boned...but alive.

 

He was picked up by a German patrol and spent the remainder of the war in a German POW camp.

[the stranger]

Rock and Roll! That's awesome.

[rasputin1963]

Yeah, that Harold Lloyd scene is brilliant.... incredibly funny, too, with the girl and the dog, etc., etc.

 

Hmm... action stunts. They're mainly film edits , at the end of the day, aren't they? One that I've always been impressed by is in the movie SWEET DREAMS, the Patsy Cline story, starring Jessica Lange. The scene where she is driving along in her car half-buzzed and crashes her car violently (and is badly injured)... there are a series of camera cuts that lead the viewer perfectly into into this crash... The viewer can almost feel the impact. Just the way it's done has always struck me as amazing timing and intercutting on the part of the editor.

 

Or the way Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker is ripped to shreds by a posse of machine guns in BONNIE & CLYDE. Honestly, Dunaway must have had many, many blood and bullet squibs attached to every part of her body and clothing to have the end result look as realistic as it did. Commitment to one's art!

 

But then for sheer Grand Guignol, it's appalling to watch the (real live) death of actor Vic Morrow in the deb

[blue2blue]

 

I remember reading the true story of a tailgunner on an Avro Lancaster bomber in WWII. The plane was shot...and in flames. Flames were at the tailgunner's position...and he had two choices...burn, or jump. Apparently, and I can't remember why, perhaps it had something to do with constricted spaces (those bombers weren't that big), or perhaps his parachute was damaged...but he chose to jump to his death...18,000 feet over enemy territory. Whatever happened on that night...the stars lined up. He fell against a stand of snow covered trees...deflecting the angle of his fall down an embankment covered with deep snow into a stand of bushes. Battered, broken boned...but alive. He was picked up by a German patrol and spent the remainder of the war in a German POW camp.

 

Yeah... as I recall the story the tail gun position in the particular plane was just way too cramped to have a parachute on or even nearby.

 

 

And let's not forget Peggy from King of the Hill -- she survived a parachute not opening by falling into mud... oh wait... she's a cartoon character. Still, she was in a wheelchair for a number of episodes... so you can see how serious it is -- even for a cartoon character.