Creation (1931 film)
Encyclopedia
Creation is an unfinished
1931 feature film
, and a project of stop motion
animator
Willis O'Brien
. It was about modern men encountering dinosaur
s and other prehistoric animals on an island
. The picture was scrapped by RKO studio head David O. Selznick
on the grounds of expense, and Merian C. Cooper
, the studio worker who recommended the film's cancellation, considered the storyline to be boring, due to lack of action. The completed footage ran twenty minutes in length, although approximately four minutes of footage
is all that survives today. Cooper later used some of the miniatures and dinosaur armatures and O'Brien's stop-motion animation techniques for King Kong
.
A tempest forms, threatening to destroy the ship. Luckily, a Chilean submarine surfaces and encourage the crew of the Titan to board. The yacht is destroyed just as the submarine dives. The submarines' crew see strange underwater creatures, then surface on a tropical island. The crew soon discover that dinosaurs exist on the island and promptly escape from a stampede. Later, the Chilean Navy are attacked by a prehistoric rhinoceros
-like mammal known as an Arsinotherium. The Arsinotherium gores many of the sailors to death, before knocking the fleeing sailors from a log bridge, while one runs to the other side, only to be suffocated to death by a Woolly Mammoth
.
The survivors, assuming that they will never see civilization again, build a shelter to live in. After Ned Hallet shoots a Brontosaurus
(now Apatosaurus
), the sauropod retaliates by destroying the shelter. Ned Hallet leaves the camp in anger after being scolded and takes his frustration out on a baby Triceratops
. The mother rushes to the aid of the infant and kills Hallet.
While the camp are exploring ancient ruins, a block gives way, causing Elaine to fall. Elaine is attacked by a Pteranodon
which is driven off by Steve. Shortly afterwards, the crew are chased into a temple by an aggressive Stegosaurus
. The crew is trapped between the Stegosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus
. Rather than kill the crew, the two dinosaurs fight one another. In the end, the Tyrannosaurus kills the Stegosaurus and feeds it to its infant as the crew escapes.
After searching the temple, the crew discover a type of metal needed to get their radio to work. The crew try to send out an S.O.S., but the volcano begins to erupt, causing mass hysteria among the dinosaurs. A Pteranodon destroys the tower used to conduct the signal, leaving the crew stranded to be killed by the volcano. Facing death, Elaine and Steve finally confess their love for one another. As Billy faints from heat exhaustion, a rescue plane arrives and saves the crew from certain doom.
Aboard a rescue ship, Thorton Armitage boasts of his adventures. He is mocked, when suddenly a Pteranodon flies aboard the ship, proving his story to be true. The film ends with Steve and Elaine sharing a laugh as they look forward to their new life together.
s in the completed footage impressed Cooper and inspired him to hire O'Brien to create the effects in Cooper's 1933 film King Kong
. Some of the dinosaur scenes planned for Creation were even rewritten and inserted into the King Kong script, and most of the dinosaur models O'Brien used in Kong had originally been made for Creation. The shipwreck sequence in Kongs companion production, The Most Dangerous Game
, was reportedly salvaged from this movie.
In the 2-disc 2005 DVD release of King Kong, the surviving footage from Creation is shown. Also, a dramatization of how the entire film might have been if completed is also presented, using a combination of the existing footage, along with production sketches, test stills, and a voiceover narrator. From this dramatization, it appears that much of the plot was taken from the Edgar Rice Burroughs
story The Land That Time Forgot
.
In the remaining footage, two infant Triceratops play tug of war with a vine before their mother separates the two. The loser of the conflict wanders off into the jungle where it views a chimpanzee
, a jaguar
, and eventually an armed sailor
identified by the script as Ned Hallet. Hallet stumbles upon the infant Triceratops and shoots it through the eye. The dying infant screams out to its mother who charges to the rescue, chasing Hallet through the jungle. The final scene in which Ned Hallet is gored to death by the vengeful mother is lost. Merian C. Cooper
intended to use the footage in King Kong, but felt that it didn't fit in with the rest. An altered Triceratops scene does appear in the 1932 Kong screenplay and the film-novelization.
Parts of the remaining footage can also be seen in the computer game "Dinosaur Museum" by Perspective Visuals and the educational video "More Dinosaurs".
Highlights included a dinosaur stampede, an attack from an Arsinoitherium
, an attack from a Pteranodon
, a battle between a Tyrannosaurus
and Stegosaurus
, and a volcanic eruption.
Some of the other creatures planned for the movie were an Agathaumas
and a Styracosaurus
.
Shelved
In politics, the term can be used for policy drafts, that have never been officially brought into legislation.In the film industry, a film is considered shelved if it is not released for public viewing after filming has started, or even completed....
1931 feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
, and a project of stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
animator
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
Willis O'Brien
Willis O'Brien
Willis Harold O'Brien was an Irish American pioneering motion picture special effects artist who perfected and specialized in stop-motion animation. He was affectionately known to his family and close friends as "Obie"....
. It was about modern men encountering dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s and other prehistoric animals on an island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
. The picture was scrapped by RKO studio head David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
on the grounds of expense, and Merian C. Cooper
Merian C. Cooper
Merian Caldwell Cooper was an American aviator, United States Air Force and Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, screenwriter, and film director and producer. His most famous film was the 1933 movie King Kong.-Early life:...
, the studio worker who recommended the film's cancellation, considered the storyline to be boring, due to lack of action. The completed footage ran twenty minutes in length, although approximately four minutes of footage
Footage
In filmmaking and video production, footage is the raw, unedited material as it had been originally filmed by movie camera or recorded by a video camera which usually must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or similar completed work...
is all that survives today. Cooper later used some of the miniatures and dinosaur armatures and O'Brien's stop-motion animation techniques for King Kong
King Kong (1933 film)
King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...
.
Plot
The friends and family of American tycoon Thorton Armitage are enjoying a luxury cruise about the yacht The Titan. Steve, the personal tutor and mentor of Thorton Armitage's son Billy, teaches Billy about the theory of evolution. Billy's older sister Elaine flirts with Steve, who mistakenly believes that she is in love with him. Elaine's fiancee watches from a distance as the two kiss. When Steve looks to confess his love for Elaine, she explains that the kiss meant nothing. Embarrassed and enraged, Steve threatens to quit the crew.A tempest forms, threatening to destroy the ship. Luckily, a Chilean submarine surfaces and encourage the crew of the Titan to board. The yacht is destroyed just as the submarine dives. The submarines' crew see strange underwater creatures, then surface on a tropical island. The crew soon discover that dinosaurs exist on the island and promptly escape from a stampede. Later, the Chilean Navy are attacked by a prehistoric rhinoceros
Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....
-like mammal known as an Arsinotherium. The Arsinotherium gores many of the sailors to death, before knocking the fleeing sailors from a log bridge, while one runs to the other side, only to be suffocated to death by a Woolly Mammoth
Woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia...
.
The survivors, assuming that they will never see civilization again, build a shelter to live in. After Ned Hallet shoots a Brontosaurus
Apatosaurus
Apatosaurus , also known by the popular but scientifically deprecated synonym Brontosaurus, is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived from about 154 to 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period . It was one of the largest land animals that ever existed, with an average length of and a...
(now Apatosaurus
Apatosaurus
Apatosaurus , also known by the popular but scientifically deprecated synonym Brontosaurus, is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived from about 154 to 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period . It was one of the largest land animals that ever existed, with an average length of and a...
), the sauropod retaliates by destroying the shelter. Ned Hallet leaves the camp in anger after being scolded and takes his frustration out on a baby Triceratops
Triceratops
Triceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Paleogene...
. The mother rushes to the aid of the infant and kills Hallet.
While the camp are exploring ancient ruins, a block gives way, causing Elaine to fall. Elaine is attacked by a Pteranodon
Pteranodon
Pteranodon , from the Late Cretaceous geological period of North America in present day Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota, was one of the largest pterosaur genera and had a maximum wingspan of over...
which is driven off by Steve. Shortly afterwards, the crew are chased into a temple by an aggressive Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...
. The crew is trapped between the Stegosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...
. Rather than kill the crew, the two dinosaurs fight one another. In the end, the Tyrannosaurus kills the Stegosaurus and feeds it to its infant as the crew escapes.
After searching the temple, the crew discover a type of metal needed to get their radio to work. The crew try to send out an S.O.S., but the volcano begins to erupt, causing mass hysteria among the dinosaurs. A Pteranodon destroys the tower used to conduct the signal, leaving the crew stranded to be killed by the volcano. Facing death, Elaine and Steve finally confess their love for one another. As Billy faints from heat exhaustion, a rescue plane arrives and saves the crew from certain doom.
Aboard a rescue ship, Thorton Armitage boasts of his adventures. He is mocked, when suddenly a Pteranodon flies aboard the ship, proving his story to be true. The film ends with Steve and Elaine sharing a laugh as they look forward to their new life together.
Legacy
Despite his dislike for the film's story, the special effectSpecial effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....
s in the completed footage impressed Cooper and inspired him to hire O'Brien to create the effects in Cooper's 1933 film King Kong
King Kong (1933 film)
King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...
. Some of the dinosaur scenes planned for Creation were even rewritten and inserted into the King Kong script, and most of the dinosaur models O'Brien used in Kong had originally been made for Creation. The shipwreck sequence in Kongs companion production, The Most Dangerous Game
The Most Dangerous Game (film)
The Most Dangerous Game is a 1932 Pre-Code adaptation of the 1924 short story of the same name by Richard Connell, the first film version of that story. The plot concerns a big game hunter on an island who chooses to hunt humans for sport. The film stars Joel McCrea, Leslie Banks, and King Kong...
, was reportedly salvaged from this movie.
In the 2-disc 2005 DVD release of King Kong, the surviving footage from Creation is shown. Also, a dramatization of how the entire film might have been if completed is also presented, using a combination of the existing footage, along with production sketches, test stills, and a voiceover narrator. From this dramatization, it appears that much of the plot was taken from the Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
story The Land That Time Forgot
The Land That Time Forgot (novel)
The Land That Time Forgot is an Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel, the first of his Caspak trilogy. His working title for the story was "The Lost U-Boat." The sequence was first published in Blue Book Magazine as a three-part serial in the issues for September, October and November 1918...
.
In the remaining footage, two infant Triceratops play tug of war with a vine before their mother separates the two. The loser of the conflict wanders off into the jungle where it views a chimpanzee
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
, a jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...
, and eventually an armed sailor
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...
identified by the script as Ned Hallet. Hallet stumbles upon the infant Triceratops and shoots it through the eye. The dying infant screams out to its mother who charges to the rescue, chasing Hallet through the jungle. The final scene in which Ned Hallet is gored to death by the vengeful mother is lost. Merian C. Cooper
Merian C. Cooper
Merian Caldwell Cooper was an American aviator, United States Air Force and Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, screenwriter, and film director and producer. His most famous film was the 1933 movie King Kong.-Early life:...
intended to use the footage in King Kong, but felt that it didn't fit in with the rest. An altered Triceratops scene does appear in the 1932 Kong screenplay and the film-novelization.
Parts of the remaining footage can also be seen in the computer game "Dinosaur Museum" by Perspective Visuals and the educational video "More Dinosaurs".
Highlights included a dinosaur stampede, an attack from an Arsinoitherium
Arsinoitherium
Arsinoitherium is an extinct genus of paenungulate mammal related to elephants, sirenians, hyraxes and the extinct desmostylians, as well as to other extinct embrithopods...
, an attack from a Pteranodon
Pteranodon
Pteranodon , from the Late Cretaceous geological period of North America in present day Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota, was one of the largest pterosaur genera and had a maximum wingspan of over...
, a battle between a Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...
and Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...
, and a volcanic eruption.
Some of the other creatures planned for the movie were an Agathaumas
Agathaumas
Agathaumas is a dubious genus of a large ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in Wyoming during the Late Cretaceous . The name comes from Greek, αγαν - 'much' and θαυμα - 'wonder'...
and a Styracosaurus
Styracosaurus
Styracosaurus was a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period , about 76.5 to 75.0 million years ago...
.
Influence on Kong
- The scene in King Kong in which Kong shakes sailors off of a log bridge was inspired by the scene in Creation in which the Arsinoitherium knocks sailors from a log.
- Ann Darrow's abduction by the Pteranodon was heavily inspired by a scene in Creation in which a Pteranodon attempted to abduct Elaine, Steve's love interest.
- All of the dinosaurDinosaurDinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
models featured in King Kong were originally designed for Creation.
Characters in Creation
- Steve – Billy Armitage's tutor, the story's main protagonist
- Thorton Armitage – an American Tycoon
- Elaine Armitage – Thorton Armitage's socialite daughter
- Billy Armitage – Thorton Armitage's youngest child
- Ned Hallet – Elaine's fiancee (played by Ralf HaroldeRalf HaroldeRalf Harolde was an American character actor. Between 1920 and 1963, he appeared in 99 films, including Jimmy the Gent, Night Nurse, Baby Take a Bow, A Tale of Two Cities, Our Relations, and Murder, My Sweet.Harolde was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and died in Santa Monica,...
, the only known cast member) - Louise – Billy and Elaine's friendly and overweight aunt
- Benny – A Jewish chef
- Chico – Elaine's pet monkeyMonkeyA monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
Dinosaurs
- BrontosaurusApatosaurusApatosaurus , also known by the popular but scientifically deprecated synonym Brontosaurus, is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived from about 154 to 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period . It was one of the largest land animals that ever existed, with an average length of and a...
(now ApatosaurusApatosaurusApatosaurus , also known by the popular but scientifically deprecated synonym Brontosaurus, is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived from about 154 to 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period . It was one of the largest land animals that ever existed, with an average length of and a...
) - TriceratopsTriceratopsTriceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Paleogene...
(with young) - StegosaurusStegosaurusStegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...
- TyrannosaurusTyrannosaurusTyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...
(with youth)
Other prehistoric animals
- ArsinoitheriumArsinoitheriumArsinoitherium is an extinct genus of paenungulate mammal related to elephants, sirenians, hyraxes and the extinct desmostylians, as well as to other extinct embrithopods...
- ElasmosaurusElasmosaurusElasmosaurus + σαυρος sauros 'lizard') is a genus of plesiosaur with an extremely long neck that lived in the Late Cretaceous period , 80.5 million years ago.-Description:...
- PteranodonPteranodonPteranodon , from the Late Cretaceous geological period of North America in present day Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota, was one of the largest pterosaur genera and had a maximum wingspan of over...
- Woolly MammothWoolly mammothThe woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia...
Sources
- Orville Goldner and George E. Turner, The Making of King Kong (New York: Ballantine BooksBallantine BooksBallantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
, 1975) contains information about and stills from this unfinished film. - RKO Production 601: The Making of Kong, The Eighth Wonder of the World (Willis O'Brien and Creation)