TERENCE MARSH FILMS

Terence Marsh died recently at 86. Chances are you never heard of him. He was born in London and cut his artistic teeth at the famous Pinewood Studios. He was the best movie set designer who ever lived. He won two Oscars for set decoration. All of his work was accomplished before computer generation made almost any scenario possible. When he was working it had to look real and be designed from scratch. He worked on over 30 movies in his sterling career. These are the best. 
He got his first big break when he was hired as assistant art director for Lawrence Of Arabia (1962). He designed the Red Sea port of Aqaba for a critical battle scene. His work got noticed and soon he was the go-to guy for set design. 
One of his Oscars was for Doctor Zhivago (1965). That realistic looking Moscow scenery is actually a back lot in Spain. And the fabulous ice palace scene is really memorable.  His other Oscar was for the enchanting musical Oliver (1968). All those grimy London street scenes, the dreary orphanage (“Please sir, I want some more”) and the brilliant beautiful scene featuring the fruit and vegetable carts set to music are his creations. Ten thousand cobblestones were hand-laid by his staff to create the realistic ancient streets. 
Many thought he should have won again for the prison in The Shawshank Redemption (1994). But he wasn’t even nominated. Director Frank Darabont speculated that the voters thought he just used a real prison. But ,no, he created one from a defunct Westinghouse plant. 
For the 1977 World War II drama about The Battle Of The Bulge, titled A Bridge Too Far, he had his staff create hundreds of gliders used to carry troops. Since there weren’t enough Sherman tanks, he had his workers create additional ones from Volkswagen cars. In the movie you cannot tell they are not tanks! Mr. Marsh said “If you can see what I’ve done, I haven’t done enough.”  His scenes were so realistic we believed wholeheartedly that what we were seeing was real.
In Havana (1990) Marsh had a go at recreating that formerly magical Cuban capital. Robert Redford plays a professional gambler who falls for closet revolutionary Lena Olin. 
Terrence Marsh was the art designer for The Hunt For Red October (1990) with Sean Connery as a Russian sub skipper who may be headed to the USA to defect or blow up the place. Those aren’t real submarines, but they sure look like it. 
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. Oliver is fine for all ages. The rest are for grown-ups.