Ulysses 1954

This Italian made film, starring Kirk Douglas features a miniature Greek galley in a storm and narrowly dodging a large rock thrown at it.

The special photographic effects are credited to Eugen Shuftan who was known for his Shuftan process which was a method of combining a miniature with live action through the use of a mirror. Generally the miniature was built to one side of the stage and reflected into the lens via the mirror placed in front of the camera. The live action portion of the shot was placed at the back of the stage and photographed at the same time through the mirror where a section of the silver had been carefully removed. Depending on the effect required variations were used where the positions of miniature and live action were reversed or the miniature was replaced with painted artwork.

Crest of a Wave AKA Seagulls over Sorrento 1954

This movie, made in England, was released everywhere as Seagulls over Sorrento from the title of the play on which it was based but re-titled as Crest of a Wave for release in USA and Canada.

It concerns the development of torpedoes for use in midget submarines and their prevalence for exploding in the tube upon firing.

There are a couple of  miniature shots of a target vessel being towed for testing purposes.

The special effects are credited to Tom Howard who was most associated with optical effects. In the late sixties, he went on to be one of the visual effects supervisors on 2001 a Space Odyssey.

Captain Horatio Hornblower 1951

This was one of my favorite movies as a kid watching it on TV in the sixties and seventies.  The really excellent miniature work captured my youthful imagination in much the same way as Jason and the Argonauts. The film stands as a textbook on how to stage model ship action with really good scenes under sail and particularly under cannon fire with some really fine destructive splintering of spars and hulls.

The sequence with the miniature French fortifications is particularly noteworthy.

Shot in England, 4 special effects personnel are credited, Harry Barndollar, and Arthur Rhoades, both American and George Blackwell and Cliff Richardson, well known British special effects men. George Blackwell was the miniatures specialist of the group.

According to IMDB Peter Ellenshaw is uncredited for the matte paintings.