Model ships stored at 20th Century Fox Ranch

I have been contacted by the historian at the 20th Century Fox Ranch who has a photograph of some interest to readers of this site.

He writes;

    In this photo, you can see that the studio is storing some of their boat models in a barn and they are covered in dust. Despite that, what should be a black hull looks much lighter. I believe this is the ship from Titanic - 1953 (and the other films you found), but would appreciate your expert opinion and that of your followers.

Photo credit: Eugene Hilchey / Bison Archives.

It certainly looks to me like the modified Titanic model as used in Gentlemen prefer Blondes (the only time in colour), followed by Dangerous Crossing and finally Blueprint for Murder all released in 1953.

For these three films the model had the four tall titanic funnels removed and replaced with three shorter fatter ones to make it look a bit more like a modern ocean liner circa the 1950s.
You can read the original post here Titanic 1953

 

Also visible in the photo on the right is an aircraft carrier and on the left possibly a liberty/merchant ship. Sneaking in on the bottom right corner is the bow of a submarine with the torpedo tube channels.

The hand written text on the photograph reads;  Century Ranch - Fox - Malibu + Miniature Ocean Liner - Calif

If any body has any definitive observations to make about the model/s shown please comment below.

The Key 1958

 This British film concerns the rescue and salvage tug boat service operating in the Atlantic during World War two. Most of the film has full size tug boats and a submarine in action but for a few shots the action is depicted using some very creditable miniatures. Most of the miniature work is cargo ships on fire. There is one sequence where the tug boat rams the submarine and an air attack early on featuring a Junkers aircraft.