Ray Harryhausen on Tuesday Tube

Growing up, the monsters of Ray Harryhausen's movies amazed and astounded me. His stop motion animation created the majestic ape Mighty Joe Young (my mom's favorite ape movie) and the horrors of It Came from Beneath the Sea.



My favorite of all were the magical creatures in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and the later Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977).



Of course, the movie that shaped my imagination the most was Clash of the Titans (1981). After watching Clash of the Titans, around 1983, I began to devour any fantasy novel that I could find.



Today, in the world of CGI monsters and fantasy films, I still love to watch Harryhausen's films. The plots might be cheesy, the acting over-the-top, but the creature effects are wonderful and that's more than we can say for many of the newer films.