American Cinematographer - August 1987 - 98

A Toast to

Fantasy
In the
were

more

stars were

who

saw

days when movies

of a family affair, animal
almost worshipped. Anyone
the killer-horse, Rex, can

forget his wild beauty. Ill-tem¬
pered and dangerous, the black Morgan
stallion seemed to epitomize freedom
for millions of schoolkids and job
slaves. Most of the popular Western
stars had horses almost as brainy as
themselves, i.e., Silver (Buck Jones),
Tarzan (Ken Maynard), Tony (Tom Mix),
Topper (William Boyd), White Flash
(Tex Ritter), Champion (Gene Autry),
Duke (John Wayne), Starlight (Jack Per¬
rin), Silver Chief (Fred Thomson), and
Fritz (William S. Hart).
Most popular were the dogs:
Rin Tin Tin, Strongheart, Lassie, Asta,
Daisy, Peter the Great, Kazan, and oth¬
never

ers.

ite
Benji

The kids are getting a break this sum¬
mer. All us kids, that is. Some of the
movies are just plain entertaining. They
aren't significant and they don't have

especially pointed messages, but they
seem reasonably endowed with good
cheer, funny lines and pleasant endings.
All this may be a little too
sugarcoated for hardbitten picturephiles
looking for psychosomatic underwear
beneath the pretty visuals, but for just
plain kids, there's Benji, Harry and the
Hendersons, re-release of Snow White
Adventures in

and the Seven.

.

.

,

Babysitting, Ishtar, Spacebaiis, innerspace. Amazing Grace and Chuck,
Boxanne and many more, we are sure.

Admittedly,

96

some are more

Jack L. Warner once said his favor¬
actor was Rin Tin Tin, whose

starring pictures at Warner Bros, in the
late Twenties kept the company solvent.
This amazing German Shepherd was a
war dog,
brought back from the
trenches of World War I by trainer Lee
Duncan, who made and spent a fortune
via Rinty's uncanny ability to express
emotions for the camera. His last pic¬
ture was a

Mascot serial in 1931, The

Lightning Warrior, with George Brent
and Frankie Darro in support. Partly
lame from a war wound, Rinty leaped
into his master's arms shortly after the
serial was completed - and died. He
was

14 and the nation mourned.
It's difficult to find a dog

who
the way Rin Tin
Tin did
but little Benji fills the bill. He
couldn't whip up on a pack of wolves, a
can

play to the

camera

-

child-like than others and some are
billed as adult fare when they are really
more child-like than others, but the
facts remain: there are some flicks
around this summer to which Mom can

marauding condor or a gang
the way Rinty did, but he
remarkable screen presence.

send youngsters
few hours' relief.

of these films qualify only dimly
acclaim. However, to the eye and

American

for

a

Cinematographer

matinee and

a

of heavies
is quite

a

a child of any age, this is
largely critical balderdash and makes
very little difference to a parent who
buys tickets if the product is entertain¬
ing. So some are labeled innocuous,
sugary, silly, superfluous. It is true that
underlying meanings are in the eye of
the beholder, but mosly these films are
fantasy and fluff and fun. All of which is
pretty difficult to find in the daily news¬
paper or on the six o'clock news.
Don Reddy of Dallas was di¬
rector of photography for Benji, and a
find job it is, keeping a camera on a
dog's eye level and seeing the world
from the standpoint of a baby cougar.
Vittorio Storaro adds a good deal of
class to ishtar with inspired cin¬
ematography. The show is funny, the
images crisp and comedic.

Allen

for
the

Daviau, ASC, trans¬

ports the forests of Washington state
into the theater in such a fashion as to
make the big hairy Harry quite believ¬
able even as he makes the transition to
a civilized, middle class home. Ric
Waite, ASC, runs an enthusiastic cam¬
era through the Adventures in Babysit¬
ting epic. The work of these
cinematographers lends quality to each
production and will undoubtedly be less
noticed than the work in large and sig¬
nificant bodies of legend. However,
sometimes going unnoticed is the high¬
est compliment of all in a business
where flamboyance is almost
mandatory.
Hooray for the baby boom.
There are a lot of us who enjoy the
fringe benefits of a new audience
whose numbers have not been signifi¬
cant enough in the past few years to be
recognized. Children are back. Chil¬

dren's movies

In the syntax of those more
erudite and sophisticated critics, many

August 1987

mind of

be

are

back. Both may even

popular again!
-J.T.
American Cinematographer - August 1987

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