Movie Magic

by John Brosnan

1974 St.Martins Press

Paperback

First published October 1, 1974

About the author

* Pen names:
Harry Adam Knight, Simon Ian Childer, James Blackstone, John Raymond

John Raymond Brosnan was an Australian writer of both fiction and non-fiction works based around the fantasy and science fiction genres. He was born in Perth, Western Australia, and died in South Harrow, London, from acute pancreatitis. He sometimes published under the pseudonyms Harry Adam Knight, Simon Ian Childer (both sometimes used together with Leroy Kettle), James Blackstone (used together with John Baxter), and John Raymond. Three not very successful movies were based on his novels–Beyond Bedlam (aka Nightscare), Proteus (based on Slimer), and Carnosaur. In addition to science fiction, he also wrote a number of books about cinema and was a regular columnist with the popular UK magazine Starburst.

Reviews

[Craven Lovelace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book may seem somewhat cursory to today's special fx aficionado, but it was revelatory when I first read it, and it remains an excellent introduction to the subject.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this detailed look at "movie magic" from the earliest special effects to the 70s and its spate of disaster-themed films. Most interesting to me was the detailed, even tedious use of glass, mattes, and painting in the earliest days. It was also fascinating to read of the trickery based on pointing cameras at each other, re-running film through a machine, process shots, etc. This is a fun read with a lot of film set mishaps and triumphs related from participants through interviews.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a film buff and you want to find out more about special effects, then this is the perfect book for you.
If you want to know how the leeches that cover Bogart in that famous scene in The African Queen (John Huston, 1951) were made to look so real, then you will find the answer in John Brosnan's Movie Magic: The Story of Special Effects in the Cinema. He writes, 'At first they had real leeches which were supposed to be stuck on the back of a stunt man, but they wouldn't stick. They even arranged for a nurse to puncture his back in the hope that the blood would interest the leeches but that failed too. So I made a plasticine model of one of the leeches and from that a plaster mould was made. We cast the "leeches" in rubber and inserted a small blood sac into each one. To stick them onto Bogart I used a waterproof adhesive. They had a hell of a job pulling them off but they worked like a charm.'
The book is packed with a wealth of details on stunts in epic movies, and is easy for the lay person to understand. It does not take away the magic but adds to the intrigue.