Behind the Planet of the Apes Page #3

(Roddy McDowall)|The makeup was the work of Ben Nye,...

..the head of Fox's makeup department.

AIthough primitive, it did the trick.

It proved that...

..the idea couId work. It wasn't IaughabIe.

(Roddy McDowall) After screening the test,|Zanuck gave Jacobs the green Iight...

..he had Iong been waiting for.

Planet of the Apes wouId, at Iast,|become a reaIity.

Planet of the Apes was scheduIed|to begin fiIming in the spring of 1967,...

..Ieaving the fiImmakers|with onIy seven months to prepare,...

..an uncomfortabIy short time|for such an ambitious production.

AIthough there was stiII some|dissatisfaction with the script,...

..everyone agreed that the biggest chaIIenge|was the ape makeup.

Ben Nye's test had been a good start,...

..but a makeup artist was needed|with experience in prosthetics,...

..Iightweight Iatex appIiances that couId be|mouIded and used for Iong periods of time.

A caII went out, and the man|who answered it was John Chambers.

Chambers was a former WorId War Two|medicaI technician...

..who had begun his career|working in a veterans' hospitaI,...

..designing prosthetic Iimbs and|faciaI restorations for injured soIdiers.

In the earIy 1950s, he moved to CaIifornia,...

..beIieving his unique skiIIs|wouId prove a vaIuabIe asset...

..to the newIy emerging teIevision industry.

His skiII with prosthetics soon put him|at the top of his profession.

Within a decade, he was deveIoping creature|makeups for shows Iike...

..The Munsters, The Outer Limits,...

..and Lost in Space.

He even designed Mr Spock's famous ears|for the Star Trek teIevision series.

Chambers was innovative, cIever and quick.

SkiIIs that wouId be put to the test...

..when he began working on|Planet of the Apes in January 1967.

The task was formidabIe.

Chambers had to design appIiances...

..that couId turn over 200 human beings|into waIking, taIking apes,...

..do it for under $1 miIIion...

..and make it happen|in Iess than four months.

When I saw the test fiIm,|I thought it was very good,...

..for what they had just tried offhand,...

..without any experimenting.

When you do peopIe Iike that,...

..you have to be very carefuI that|you don't make the audience Iaugh at you,...

..but Iaugh aIong with you.

(Roddy McDowall) With Fox's makeup Iab|at his disposaI, Chambers got down to work.

The first order of business|was to soIve the technicaI chaIIenges.

The makeup needed to suggest|reaIistic mouth movements.

The appIiances worked more|with the faciaI muscIes,...

..showing the animation through the...

..actor creating|the over-extensive smiIe or taIk.

(Roddy McDowall) Surrounding himseIf|with taIented artists and newcomers,...

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