Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1400113
9 6 P E R S P E C T I V E | J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 2 1 RESHOOTS B Y N I K K I R U D L O F F, A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R S E L E C T I O N S F R O M T H E A D G A R C H I V E S A The Boston Strangler is a 1968 American crime film loosely based on the true story and the book by Gerold Frank. Boston is terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders of women. The film follows the investigators' path through several leads before introducing The Strangler as a character. This illustration is credited to Benjamin Resella who starting working in the motion picture business in the Philippines and eventually found his way to Hollywood. Along the way, having a tragic and fascinating life. Benjamin Abelardo Resella was born in 1917 in the Tondo District of Manila, Philippines. Ben started as an apprentice to his grandfather at the age of eleven at Manila's Grand Opera House. He then worked with his uncle as an Assistant Art Director and special effects artist. Ben introduced the Philippine movies to the trick shot, matte shot, glass shot and background projection, utilizing a unique interlocking system of his own, and other special photographic effects. A. ILLUSTRATION BY BENJAMIN RESELLA. DRAWING DEPICTS AN ALLEY BETWEEN A GROUP OF BUILDINGS. FIRE ESCAPES LINE THE BUILDING. COURTESY OF THE ART DIRECTORS GUILD ARCHIVES. His career was put on hold with the beginning of WWII. Ben enlisted in the Phillipine army and was taken prisoner, forced to walk the Bataan Death March of 1942 and survived life in a Japanese concentration camp. Ben married and started his family before the war. In 1963, following great success in the post-war Philippine film industry, he moved his wife and seven children to the US. He worked as a scenic at the San Francisco Opera House until his talent was recognized and he relocated to Hollywood. Boston Strangler was his third Hollywood credit, Hello Dolly being his first. He then became scenic supervisor for J.C. Backings. Other unforgettable movies he worked on were: Towering Inferno (1973), King Kong (1976), Ghostbusters (1984), Poltergeist (1984), Gremlins (1984), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Spaceballs (1987), and Home Alone (1990)