Mask of the Avenger (1951)

 Once again I bring a film by Columbia Pictures.  Mask of the avenger (1951, Phil Karlson) And also once again no FX credit.  Since the early forties Lawrence Butler was head of photographic effects at Columbia until the sixties. Probably the matte camera was Donald Glouner, a long time associated to Butler at Columbia and later on his own FX company.

Like in some other films by Columbia, the matte paintings on that show are uneven in quality.  Most of the paintings prove to have a good composition, lightening and perspective.

Some of them are pretty convincing and well executed like that painted chasm under the bridge.

But then the weakness on the paintings come in form of a fleet of ships.  It looks like it was another artist painting the far away ships that doesn’t  fit very well.

Any way, for the better or the worse, these matte paintings remained uncredited and the artist unknown.