The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) User Reviews

Rhedosaurus rampage as Harryhausen genius starts to work.

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 30 April 2008]

Nuclear testing out in the arctic rouses a prehistoric Rhedosaurs from its icy incarcerated sleep. It promptly lays waste to everything that gets in its path, and its next stop is New York City.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms stands as one of the most important of the 50s sci-fi/creature feature films that filled the screens during that particular decade. Notable for being the first picture where Ray Harryhausen had total control over the effects {and thus setting his career on an upward route}, it is also one of two pictures from 1953 that would be the first adaptations of the gifted writings of Ray Bradbury (the other being It Came from Outer Space).

Watching it now you can see just what a template movie it was to be for the genre, the perils of nuclear testing a vivid jolt of paranoia, the rugged alpha male, the svelt sexy strong lady, and of course the creature to terrify all who come into contact with it, yep it's safe to say that this picture has all the trademarks. The Rhedosaurus {completely made up name} is a wonderful creation from Harryhausen, a giant stalking lizard who sinks ships for fun, pulls down lighthouses, and has no problems about feasting on local police officers, it's safe to say that since being woken from his sleep he is in a very bad mood!. The ending is wonderful, as the giant beast finds himself cloaked in a roller-coaster with mankind fighting the good fight, a perfect finish to a hugely enjoyable picture. 8/10

This Was First

[LeonLouisRicci · 8/10 · 2 June 2013]

Influential in many ways. Seminal to say the least. This is the first Monster to be unleashed by the awakening awesomeness of the Atomic Bomb. This is Ray Harryhausen's first solo outing (he was Willis O'Brien's (King Kong) assistant on Mighty Joe Young (1949).

It has a crisp Black and White look and is a sharply defined matte of Monster and surroundings. From the early sets on the frozen tundra, to the depths of the Ocean, to the New York City Streets, to the Amusement Park finale, this is a beautiful low-budget Film.

There are some stiff Performances and some that are lively. It pulls few punches in its depressing display of Radioactive Paranoia. Some unforgettable Highlights include the eerie Lighthouse encounter, the viciously impressive looking Dinosaur wreaking havoc between Skyscrapers, and the Roller Coaster imprisonment and execution.

Note: Will all Godzilla and Toho fans please nod, bow, and applaud.

Still brings a tear to my eye

[shugaron316 · 8/10 · 2 October 2005]

When I was a kid,I would cry every time I saw the ending of this movie.I couldn't help feeling sorry for the monster,dying alone in a world he never knew. Ray Harryhausen was at his best when he designed the Rhedosaurus. This was a monster with a personality,and dare I say it,charm? Every little movement of the beast almost made you think you were watching an actual living creature,and not some stop motion puppet,like the awful Giant Behemoth. My favorites: the beast sniffing at the lighthouse before he knocks it down;the way he playfully bats at the wrecked car he stepped on,when he turns his back and lashes his tail at the shotgun toting cops,even the way it squints its eyes in the sun.The death scene was well done,and the music,as the flaming roller coaster collapses behind the beast's dead body,still sends a chill up my spine. The worst part of the movie was the casting,especially the male and female leads. Paul Christian's accent is almost impossible to understand at times,and his acting is wooden.Paula Raymond may seem pretty by '50's standards,but I think she has a pronounced overbite and adenoids,the way her mouth is always hanging open! Her acting was also pretty limp.Cecil Kelloway was a delight,as usual,and Ken Tobey was unusually restrained,not trying to hit on Raymond,as he seemed to do in most of his movies. The funniest line in the movie was Kelloway asking Tobey:"What makes you think there are no flying saucers?"(A dig at Tobey's role in The Thing.)Still in all,this is timeless sci-fi classic that holds up well,even today.

THE BEST DINOSAUR MOVIE EVER MADE

[sferber · 8 August 2002]

"The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" is, quite simply, the best dinosaur-on-the-loose movie ever made. I would say "best monster-on-the-loose movie ever made" if it weren't for that King Kong guy (need we even say which version?). I loved "The Beast" when I was a little kid, and today--some 40 years later--the movie still knocks me out. Forty years ago I loved the fact that, unlike a lot of similar movies that followed in its wake, you don't have to wait a long time for the Beast to make its appearance. It shows up in the first 10 minutes of the film and makes regular appearances thereafter. The look of the creature is very realistic; one of Ray Harryhausen's greatest creations. There are so many terrific set pieces in this film that one doesn't know where to begin, but the attack on the lighthouse, beautifully done in silhouette; the initial sighting of the Beast from the bathysphere; the Beast's attack on lower Manhattan; and the grand finale at the Coney Island roller coaster are certainly all standouts. Music, acting and photography are all first rate, and the script is intelligent and moves along briskly and with purpose. But the main attraction of the movie is the Beasty himself, and every moment that he is on screen is riveting. This picture is a true classic; the inspiration for Godzilla and all the other thawed-out creatures that followed. I have seen this one over 50 times and never seem to get tired o f it. I have seen it several times on the big screen, at one of NYC's many revival theatres, and it is always greeted with cheers whenever the Beast theme begins during the opening whirlpool credits. The movie is well loved and remembered for good reason: It's the best in its class! By the way, it took me many, many years to figure out, but the Professor's last word in the diving bell is "cantileveric." 10/10

Decent and Historically Important

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 9 April 2016]

A ferocious dinosaur awakened by an Arctic atomic test terrorizes the North Atlantic and, ultimately, New York City.

When producers Dietz and Chester were negotiating with Bradbury to rewrite their screenplay, he reminded them that both works shared a similar theme of a prehistoric sea monster and a lighthouse being destroyed. The producers, who wished to share Bradbury's reputation and popularity, promptly bought the rights to his story and changed the film's title.

The film is worth watching because of the involvement of Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen, as well as having a supporting role from Lee Van Cleef. It may not be amazing, but the effects are rather good and it is a piece of 1950s science cheese that can be enjoyed if you just suspend disbelief for an hour.

Most interesting is the alleged influence this movie had on "Godzilla". This film is semi-forgotten, or at least not widely seen. But it had a dinosaur rise following an atomic blast and then destroy a city, trampling the army and electricity in its path. Sounds like Godzilla! And indeed, this was a primary influence on the Japanese monster film, which has since become one of the most culturally important films in horror / monster history. So maybe "Beast" needs to be respected just a little bit more.

Superior F/X Sets This One Apart...

[bsmith5552 · 7/10 · 9 September 2001]

"The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" is one of many "nuclear explosion thaws out the pre-historic monster" movies popular in the 1950's. What sets this film apart from other similarly themed films, are the superior special effects created by the legendary Ray Harryhausen.

His dinosaur is as good as you will see in any sci-fi movie. It moves without that jerky motion common in so many stop-motion monsters (i.e. King Kong). The "monster destroys the city" sequence is outstanding. There is also an excellent fight between an octopus and a shark that is very exciting. The best sequence takes place at the end of the film when the monster is cornered in an amusement park.

As in all such movies, the human actors are incidental to the plot. The German/Swiss actor Paul Christian (aka Hubschmid) plays the requisite scientist, Paula Raymond and Cecil Kellaway are the "dinosaur experts" and Kenneth Tobey and Donald Woods play the sceptical military types. There are also a number of recognizable "B" movie faces from the period such as Lee Van Cleef, Steve Brodie, Jack Pennick and James Best.

One of the best atomic monster movies from the 50s.

A solid collaboration between the two Rays.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 1 July 2014]

Messrs. Harryhausen and Bradbury serve up a thoroughly enjoyable dinosaur epic with a reasonable amount of thrills and typically excellent effects work by Harryhausen. It's rather heavy on plot and dialogue for a while, so the less patient of viewers may get a little restless waiting for the next good bit of dinosaur action. However, whatever pacing issues there may be are compensated for with some wonderfully iconic shots & scenes. The lighthouse sequence in particular is a gem.

Based on the Saturday Evening Post short story "The Fog Horn" by Bradbury, this tells of an atomic test in the Arctic that unleashes a ferocious rhedosaurus from its icy tomb. It goes about doing just what you'd expect any monster to do in this type of tale, making its way to NYC for the grand finale. Nuclear physicist Tom Nesbitt (Paul Hubschmid), one of the first to glimpse the monster, must convince paleontologist Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) that he wasn't hallucinating, and also enlists the services of Jack Evans (Kenneth Tobey) in hunting down and destroying this beast.

The acting is engaging across the board, with Hubschmid very likable in the lead; Paula Raymond plays his leading lady (fortunately, hints of romance that might slow down the action further are kept to a bare minimum). Intrepid Tobey is once again terrific as the kind of hero you need in such a story, and Kellaway is delightful as the old pro who is willing to put vacation plans on hold in order to participate in a historic expedition. Donald Woods, Lee Van Cleef, Jack Pennick, Frank Ferguson, King Donovan, and an uncredited James Best can be seen among the top notch supporting cast.

The exciting amusement park finale is of course the best part, with expert marksman Van Cleef and Hubschmid taking on the beast from atop a roller coaster.

Good fun overall.

Seven out of 10.

"You know, being considered crazy has been quite the experience".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 21 March 2016]

I saw this movie virtually back to back with "The Giant Behemoth" and I can't get over how much better this one was considering it came out six years earlier and both had the same director, Eugene Lourie. That's probably in large part due to Ray Harryhausen's animation work on this picture. One notable comparison to make is when the rhedosaurus here comes in contact with motor vehicles they actually look like real ones instead of the toy props trampled by the paleosaurus in the later picture. Very well done.

Actually the picture hooked me early on when in an opening sequence the scientists made reference to 'azimuth 63 degrees' during the atomic bomb blasts. Any sci-fi flick using the word azimuth automatically earns bonus points with me. The dinosaur didn't waste any time showing up either, that was a plus as well since many monster films try to whet your appetite with an extended build up and then tease it's appearance with quick shots or shadowy parts before the grand entrance. This beast was fully on display for a good part of the picture, which made it easy to notice that he had a singular dorsal instead of a bilateral, and you couldn't miss that cantilevric clavicle suspension. Yeah right.

You know what else was pretty cool? The film makers did a nice job of putting New York City on display with some great street scenes. Pepsi Cola was the beverage of choice on the Times Square billboard, while Clark Gable was appearing in 'Across the Wide Missouri" at one of the local theaters. Then just down the street Kirk Douglas was starring in "Detective Story" while Judy Garland was appearing in person at an All Star Show a couple of doors down. Kind of makes you wish you were around when this picture came out.

And so who do they get to bring down the prehistoric rhedosaurus? I never caught his character's name during the show but it was pretty cool to see Lee Van Cleef draw down on the monster and fire that radioactive isotope gizmo to stop him in his tracks. If you think about it though, the beast from twenty thousand fathoms went down fairly easily after taking out the roller coaster. I thought he'd at least get a crack at the Tilt a Whirl.

Maybe the Best

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 20 April 1999]

I know my reviews are often based on my seeing these films for the first time in the fifties. Nevertheless, I was watching an old Charlton Heston flick based on Leinengin vs. the Ants. As the theater went dark, I saw the preview for "Beast." It was so exciting. The head of the giant rhedosaurus coming around the skyscrapers of New York, sent a chill down my nine year old spine. I couldn't wait to see this. I was not disappointed. The pacing is wonderful. The monster is not overexposed. His threatening presence is there throughout; we keep waiting for his head to break the water or push through ice. The scene at the lighthouse is part of the Bradbury story. It is a wonderful mix of awe. It sets the standard for the crowd running down the city streets screaming. Occasionally, if you look closely, you can see the smiles on the faces of the extra. Then there is that New York cop with his little pistol, challenging this thing that is a thousand times his size, giving his life to stupidity. I also like the bit where there is a witness whom everyone thinks is crazy. The amusement park conclusion is a terrific place to confront the creature. I watch this film about once a year and it still captivates me, like "Them" and "Tarantula." See it!

A decent monster movie.

[13Funbags · 6/10 · 9 May 2017]

Once again, atomic bomb testing has awakened an ancient monster.That's an extremely over used plot device but considering that this came out in 1953, there's a good possibility that this was the first movie to do it.Of course Ray Harryhausen's special effects are awesome.The beast is a rather generic looking lizard but the stop motion animation is top notch.My only problem with this movie is that the entire first half is just the first guy who saw the beast trying to convince other people that it really exists.But as soon he convinces the elderly scientist, you know what that old man is going to do.You should watch this and all Ray Harryhausen movies.

The monster is great--but he's hardly in the movie!

[preppy-3 · 5/10 · 12 March 2010]

An atomic blast in the arctic awakens a prehistoric dinosaur. It makes it's way underwater down to the East Coast and attacks New York city. Prof. Tom Nesbitt (played by Swedish film actor Paul Christian), his obligatory love interest (Paula Raymond) and Prof. Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) try to figure out how to destroy it.

The first of the "giant creature awakened by an atom bomb" movie of the 1950s. It was a big hit but doesn't look too good today. The special effects are still impressive but the monster itself is hardly in the movie. Out of the 80 minute running time he's in maybe a grand total of 20! Still it isn't a total washout. I do like the fact that it's made clear that the monster is radioactive and that a drop of its blood could kill a human (this was totally ignored in later pictures). All the acting is good--Raymond plays a very strong intelligent woman (unusual for an 1950s film), old pro Kellaway gives his small role depth and Swedish actor Christian is tall, handsome and dynamic in his role (although I admit his accent was a little distracting). Also the monster itself is just great--one of the first jobs by the legendary Ray Harryhausen. Harryhausen somehow gave the monster a personality and I felt a little sad when the big guy got killed at the end (I really don't think that's a big plot spoiler). Still there's a LOT of time wasting dialogue that no actor could make interesting. I can only give this a 5. Look for a then unknown Lee Van Cleef and Kenneth Tobey (from "The Thing").

Classic 1950s Sci-Fi film

[vtcavuoto · 9/10 · 9 September 2005]

Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is based on a Ray Bradbury story. An atomic explosion unleashes a dinosaur( don't these atomic tests ALWAYS cause something to wake up?) in the Artic. A scientist witnesses the dinosaur but nobody believes him. A professor helps locate the beast and finally the beast is destroyed at Coney Island. I don't want to give too much away in case you want to view it. The acting is very good. Two of my favorite B-movie actors are in this: Kenneth Tobey and Cecil Kelloway. Ray Harryhausen's effects are terrific. Eugene Lourie does a good job directing. The pace of the film keeps the viewer interested. This was the inspiration for Godzilla(1954-Toho Studios). This is a classic B-movie from the 50s that you will enjoy.

Attack of the Rhedosaurus

[clydestuff · 7/10 · 31 July 2004]

If one is in need of a good laugh, there is no better place to start than by watching many of the creature features churned out in the fifties and sixties. Why else do we sit down to watch such perfectly awful schlock like The Giant Gila Monster or The Giant Claw? It is the total ineptitude of the film making process involved in putting those films onto celluloid that makes them endearing to us in their own special way. There were however, a few films of the era that somehow managed to rise above total mediocrity enough so that we can watch them simply because they are decent well made films. This is not to say they are any kind of spectacular cinematic achievement, but in comparison to the usual dreck of that era, they shine like the North Star.

The Beast from 20, 000 Fathoms is a giant dinosaur that has spent the last few million years as a perpetual frozen Popsicle. When some scientists start monkeying around with nuclear testing as they often did in these types of film, the beast does a quick thaw, and wakes up mighty darn hungry. When scientist Tom Nesbitt (Paul Christian) witnesses the creature, and his companion becomes dinosaur fodder, nobody believes him of course, attributing it to delusional traumatic distress, known more commonly in the fifties as hallucinations. Just as Tom is also about to chalk the whole thing up to delirium, he reads about a boat being attacked by a giant sea serpent. It is then that he enlists the aid of Paleontologist Professor Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway), and his assistant Lee (Paula Raymond). The old professor says no dice, it just ain't happening. Lee, however, seems to be hot for Tom's heavy Swiss accent and has him look through some dinosaur mug shots to see if he can identify the beast. After a quick scene in which they let us know that if this film were being made in 2004, Tom and Lee would be looking at the pictures in the bedroom instead of just making eye contact, Tom identifies the beast as a Rhedosaurus. Lest you decide to go looking up what a Rhedosaurus is in the Dinosaur Almanac, I'll save you the trouble by telling you it's a complete figment of the imagination of the writers and animator Ray Harryhausen. From here the chase is on, and eventually the Rhedosaurus decides to homestead in New York City.

There are several reasons why Beast stands out as a cut above normal. Though the script contains the usual inane dialog one expects, the fact that Tom and Lee come up with a decent intelligent plan to prove its existence helps a great deal. There is also the fact that they actually give us a reason as to why the Rhedosaurus is moving down the Atlantic coast instead of making it all seem like random attacks. Foremost, and most importantly, the film works because of the animation of Harryhausen. Forced by a low budget to do all the work on animating the Rhedosaurus by himself, Harryhausen does a terrific job at bringing the beast to life, despite the fact that at times its size changes to fit the scene it happens to be in. After this film, Harryhausen did all of his animations working alone until Clash of the Titans where for the first time he required the help of assistants. It makes one almost regret the use of CGI in films today, as the animations by Harryhausen always had a certain kind of charm to them. Despite continually being saddled with low budgets (the entire budget for Beast was $200,000), Harryhausen could always be counted on to bring a certain amount of class to many of these films that would have otherwise ended up as just another vehicle for Mystery Science Theater. It should also be mentioned that Director Lourie who spent most of his career as an art director and production designer, does a terrific job in the Arctic Scenes, and especially in the New York scenes as soldiers following a trail of Rhedosaurus blood are overcome by radiation sickness.

There are of course the usual bits of silliness that seem to go with the territory. Professor Elson gives a running commentary as he discovers the Rhedosaurus while in a diving bell though he is quite oblivious to the fact that the creature has decided to make him today's appetizer. Likewise a New York policeman uselessly empties sidearm before experiencing his own private version of an esophagus water slide.

As for the acting, it's nothing terribly outstanding but still much better than what you usually get. Cecil Kellaway was always good in roles such as these and his presence alone will lift any film a notch or two. Some may complain about the woodenness of Christian and his Swiss accent, but I found his acting to be quite adequate and was actually glad of the accent as it seemed to add a little more to the character. As for Raymond, she's fine too but could have used a little help in the wardrobe department as one particular dress she wears is too hideous for any film of any decade. Other than that though, she's quite good.

Best of all, Beast is available on DVD and if you are inclined to revisit these old films this is one definitely worth a purchase. And believe it or not, the DVD also has a few extras on it, including previews of other Harryhausen films, an interview with Harryhausen, and a section where Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury reminisce about the good old days. While it may not seem like much, it is infinitely more than you usually get for these kinds of films.

Beast will never win any kind of the accolades reserved for films of obviously better quality, but for me it's just good enough that one can watch and enjoy simply because it is a step or two up from what you might expect. And if you're a step or two up I have no choice but to give you my grade which for Beast from 20,000 fathoms is a B.

Its OK

[AAdaSC · 5/10 · 1 August 2009]

Professor Nesbitt (Paul Christian) returns from a scientific experiment in the Arctic which has released a dinosaur. Only he has seen it and nobody believes him. Another couple of sightings of the monster at sea help to convince Professor Elson (Cecil Kellaway) to go in search of the pre-historic being with Lee Hunter (Paula Raymond) and Nesbitt as part of his team. The beast is not at all elusive and takes to land where it rampages through New York.......cue Lee van Cleef......

Its an OK film that is a bit boring in parts. The monster is a fake, funny dinosaur that looks like a confused lizard in close-up - almost cute. I don't understand why they had a leading man with a peculiar accent and I found it rather stupid how he identified the monster from a drawing. Imagine trying to pick out a dog from hundreds of drawings of the same breed......they all look the same!!! Not only that, but this drawing of a dinosaur that was identical to hundreds of the other drawings was identified by another man - and this was sufficient to convince a leading expert to go in search of it.....No way...!!!...

Apart from some silliness in the script, it keeps you watching and there is a good fight between a shark and an octopus in the underwater scenes. Its a film about a dinosaur on the rampage - there are better science-fiction films out there.

Lee Van Cleef saves the world!

[Nozze-Foto · 11 February 2002]

This is the movie that introduced me to monster-on-the-loose pictures. Warner Brothers did not pioneer the genre; RKO started it off in 1951 with THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD. But it WAS Warner Brothers who began both the "radiation releases monster" and "radiation creates mutant monster" genre's with this film and THEM! two years later. I had never heard of Ray Harryhausen when I saw this for the first time at the tender age of 7 but I knew a scary monster when I saw it and this movie became an instant fave. Later I discovered Godzilla and could not figure out why that film had so much destruction and this one had so little. Later I learned about stop motion vs man-in-suit special effects. I also learned that Inoshiro Honda was using this film as a blueprint. Fantastic film! The first glimpse of the Beast is terrific! The destruction of the first ship is spellbinding! (That is Jack Pennick from many John Ford westerns as the shocked helmsman.) and the rampaging of The Beast through the streets of New York panicked me as a child. The only scene I did not (and still don't) care for is where the helpless blind man is knocked down and trampled by the fear crazed mob. The climax at Coney Island was amazing. I later found out the marksman in the end scenes is Lee Van Cleef who starred in so many spaghetti westerns. He actually saves the world in this movie. Well, maybe not the world, but New York anyway. I still watch this movie whenever I get a chance. When the film was new they tinted the underwater scenes where Cecil Kellaway is in the diving bell green. They did not restore the tinting to the video print and I think that was a mistake. Maybe when the movie gets to DVD they will do so. Don't miss your chance to discover this film. You will enjoy it.

Forget about Jurassic Park...

[Coventry · 7/10 · 6 August 2003]

To hell with over-budgeted movies like Jurassic Park, Godzilla, Reign of Fire and God knows which others...Sure you can watch those with your mouth wide wide open wondering what great computer specialists are behind this but...where's the LOVE ??? If you're looking for charming monster films, turn back your clock towards the 50's. Without a doubt the greatest decade for movies like this. Tons of movies like this one were made back then but every single title was made with a lot of love. Them! , the Swarm and the Giant Spider Invasion are probably the best known ones. The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms handles about a ... dinosaur !!! A rethosaurus, aged one million years, comes to live again. It got frozen during the change of the eras and now, because of the enormous heat of a nuclear experiment, it's back . The creature ( about as big as a skyscraper ) goes directly into the ocean. He attacks a few boats and the people who claimed to have seen him are called crazy in the beginning...( can you blame them ? ). But, when our dinosaur sets foot in New York, the city faces the biggest terror it ever saw. The Beast is definitely not the best monster movie coming from the 50's, but still. If you admire the older days of cinema more as well, you'll love it a hell of a lot more than then nowadays stuff. The creature is well made, but it shouldn't move too much. The fight shown between the shark and the octopus is really impressive, that must be said. The ants in Them! were a lot more real, but hey, this fella is ten times as big. Lovely B-movie fun

Solid monster film.

[MonsterVision99 · 7/10 · 13 October 2016]

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms its one of the most important films in the sci-fi and horror genres, it inspired a whole generation of monster movies.

The film itself its very watchable, the best part about the film are special effects by Ray Harryhausen, the creature looks great, most of the scenes with the monster are very well made.

Overall, the film its a very fun sit, if you are looking for a fun monster movie, it may be a little slow at times but it gets interesting very quickly, even the scenes without the monster are very good, I will definitely recommend it.

A 'Theseasaurus' visits NY

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 4 December 2011]

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is a real science fiction pleaser in which Ray Harryhausen invents his own creature, a Theseasarus. Say it quickly and it sounds like a reference book. In fact Harryhausen liked this one so much he used it again in a few films. Check some of his future work out and see what I mean. He had many cousins.

Talk about global warming our military is conducting atomic tests in the Arctic Ocean and a hydrogen bomb blast awakens this creature from a long several million year slumber. Theseasaurus wakes up and heads for the only place where his fossils have been found, the Hudson Valley which is probably the Theseasaurus burial ground.

Scientist Paul Hubschmid sees the thing after it wakes up, but nobody believes him at first. As other incidents occur he gains some converts which include paleontologists Cecil Kellaway and Paula Raymond. The military also gets involved in the persons of Kenneth Tobey and Donald Woods.

It won't be easy to bring old Thesee down because when they do wound him contact with his blood is infecting anyone who comes near with some millions of years old germs which have died out and man has no immunity to. But our military is capable.

When I first saw The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms decades ago I was scared out of my wits when Cecil Kellaway and a navy yeoman go down in a diving bell to observe the creature and midst description, the bell is swallowed whole in one gulp. Looking at it now I think how stupid is this, to be absolutely helpless in that bell, why would you do it in the first place. Saying that though it still is one of the most frightening moments I've ever seen in any science fiction film.

Issues like global warming and cryogenic freezing are actually if superficially dealt with in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Even with its mythical dinosaur, the film still is marvelous fright entertainment.

It's a Great Movie but Won't Be for Everyone

[TheRedDeath30 · 7/10 · 23 December 2016]

I love classic horror films. I watch a lot of them, so I have grown an appreciation for them. I can tolerate older styles of acting and film making that I recognize a lot of newer fans will not appreciate. That doesn't make their tastes any better or worse than mine, just different. There are some classic movies that I would recommend to anyone and everyone. A movie like FRANKENSTEIN or THE THING is just so classic and timeless that anyone should love it. There are the bottom end classic horrors, like the Universal sequels that I would acknowledge are really for lovers of the genre only and wouldn't expect Joe Public to like, at all. This movie fits somewhere in the middle of those two categories. It is not going to be loved by everyone. That's okay. On the other hand, there is a lot that's really enjoyable about this movie that makes me believe it is not just for the drive-in junkies either.

Of course, what will always get talked about the most with this movie is the special effects. That may be a good or a bad thing. I cannot imagine my 17-year old nephew, for example, looking at this movie and thinking "those effects kick butt". For those who can appreciate the history of a genre, though. For those who can look at a movie like this and see the landmark effect that it had on things to come, there is a lot to love here.

The movie reminds me a great deal of THE THING at the beginning. A group of scientists at work in the arctic, testing weaponry. The massive explosions that they set off have the undesired effect of unlocking a prehistoric monster from its' frozen hibernation (we'll ask you to ignore what you know of cold-blooded physiology and the fact that the animal would never wake up again. That's not relevant if you suspend belief). Naturally, nobody believes the first person who sees the monster, even after leaves the arctic and sinks a ship. Seems nobody will believe our hero until the giant lizard shows up in the Big Apple ready to destroy some stuff.

The movie definitely shows its' 50sness (yes, I made up a word). We get a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo and scenes of theorizing that attempt to make the plot seem possible for the audience. Seemed every 50s film from CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON to MOLE PEOPLE shares this trait. It's the kind of a movie where military men will suddenly take orders from a random scientist and his involve his secretary girlfriend in their plans for no other reason than because they are the main stars of the movie.

None of that is important, though, if you can have some imagination. What is really important, here, are the effects. Harryhausen took what he learned from his early age, working on KING KONG, and applied it to created a monster that is far superior to most of what you'll see in 50s monster movies. The monster moves fairly believably. It looks great and it blends in with the background scenery as well as can be expected for its' era. The movie was a monumental impact on the creation of GOJIRA a year later and the entire kaiju genre. For us monster junkies, that in itself, makes this movie legendary.

Special effects classic with a great script

[rosco1947 · 10/10 · 15 January 2001]

For 1953 - are you kidding? Nothing since King Kong in the early 1930`s came close to this one. My Dad took me to the old New York Paramount in Times Square to see this - I was six or seven. Like King Kong, even a seven year old knew that this animal was simply out of his element. A necessary but sad ending. This was a great time for a seven year old as "THEM", "WAR OF THE WORLDS" and "THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS" all came out within, I believe, two years of each other. You`ve got to see all three!!

Monster upstaged by New York City

[bob-790-196018 · 6/10 · 18 November 2010]

I confess that as the beast ran amok in Manhattan I was distracted by the glimpses of the city from 65 years ago, parts of the film having been shot on location. The giant creatures of the 1950s films were more fantasy than science fiction, but to look at Manhattan as it was back then, as if visiting via time-machine--now that's science fiction! Still, it was a fun movie. The big lizard itself was nothing special, but Harryhausen's effects were pretty good. The beast really seemed to be moving around IN the city. The final scene of the creature expiring amid flames among collapsed roller coasters was exciting, and in the end you feel sorry for the big brute, as you often do in creature features.

Also effective was the opening sequence in the Arctic--not the first appearance of the creature so much as the desolate, stormy wasteland and the scientist trapped in the crevice.

The single best composition in the movie was probably the first view of the lonely lighthouse. Maybe I responded more to this because I knew it was inspired by the Ray Bradbury story, a good one.

The characters were nothing much, with the exception of Cecil Kellaway as the professor. He plays a likable old gent with real courage when his duty as a scientist calls for it.

A good picture to watch with a cold beer and some popcorn on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

There Were Giants In Those Days – and Harryhausen was the largest.

[dunmore_ego · 5/10 · 28 July 2005]

His name was synonymous with SPECTACLE.

View any movie from the 50s or 60s with a gigantic, roaring, pseudo-prehistoric, collateral-damaging monster and you were probably watching one of Ray Harryhausen's herky-jerky children of fantastic plastic.

Just as Ed Wood is The King of B-Movie Schlock, as Alfred Hitchcock is The King of Suspense, as Hayden Christensen is The King of Bad Actors, as George Lucas is The King of Nominal Directing, Ray Harryhausen was once The King of Monster Movies.

Though he was minimally responsible for the production side of the movies he worked on (only rarely donning the caps of director, producer, writer or actor) his "stop-motion" visual effects method was so innovative and startling that movie-lovers came to refer to a whole genre of films as "Ray Harryhausen" movies.

And why not? Were it not for the kidnapped Allosaur, Gwangi, or the damsel-devouring Kraken or the blind-man's-bane Harpies, where would those movies have been had the film-makers opted to have some guy in a rubber suit do Ray's dirty work? Harryhausen's creations brought CHARACTER to the movies – in more ways than one. (No he didn't do the seminal stop-motion grand-daddy of them all – his mentor, Willis O' Brien, did King Kong.)

This film, like many of its ilk, has barely any set-up (nuclear tests in the Arctic) before The Beast is unleashed (During the Cold War, it was de rigueur to detonate nuclear devices willy-nilly, irradiating animals into Gigantism causing 45 minutes of cinematic running and screaming...) Then some wooden acting amidst mundane set design until – more unleashing! It seemed to be a staple of "Harryhausen" movies that the directors and screenwriters gleaned SO MUCH QUALITY from Ray's creatures that they were off the hook in providing little more than running, screaming and military stock footage to bridge the gaps between monster scenes.

Though it must be noted that integrating Ray's footage into the body of their movies was masterful, utilizing every trick they knew to retain the illusion of proximity and size of the fictional beasts. This Beast rampages through city streets, eats a diving bell, sinks a ship, topples a lighthouse, looms above the populace, pushes over office buildings - no doubt affecting the Dow-Jones Average egregiously – with nary a doubt that it is really performing these feats.

Though it DOES look goofy by today's standards, there was a certain level of pseudo-realism attained that magnificently satisfied those Pre-CGI audiences and allows even a post-Episode-III audience to appreciate at least the towering aspirations of the state-of-the-art back then.

Identifying The Beast was an exercise in Malarky: The Chick gives White Hero a ream of artist's renderings of dinosaurs, to pinpoint what he may have seen during his unnecessary Arctic nuclear tests. From the stack of realistic renderings he pulls the OBVIOUS CARTOONY one (done by a movie studio artist on the quick&cheap) and The Old Paleontologist identifies it with a laughable name as faux as its rendering – a "rhedosaurus" ("rhedo" being Latin for "bogus"?), though I'd be apt to question the Paleo's credentials with the centerpiece of his lab being a Glue-By-Numbers, anatomically-imbecilic sauropod skeleton purchased from Wal-Mart.

Mandatory running and screaming scenes lead to the mandatory military stock footage, to the mandatory big-chested, all-white, square-jawed Hero having unbridled access to all levels of the military and police forces as if HE was in charge – and them obliging his every whim as if he WAS. The top-level brass in both Army and Navy are somehow always just a phone call away and eager beaver to accommodate White Hero simply because he's the tallest and whitest guy they know. (Albeit, this particular Hero has some funky Euro accent sprinkling his American megalomania.)

White Hero (in Harryhausen movies, who knows OR CARES what the stars' names were?) determines a solution to the Beast problem – i.e. how to KILL this wondrous organism. It seems that there's only one paleontologist in the world – and after he becomes brunch for The Beast (in a scene which might have been more tragic were it not so illegitimately verbose, with the Old Paleo, in the throes of scientific discovery, spouting syllogisms like, "the clavicle suspension appears to be cantileveric" – whatever you say, doc! – while the Beast bears down on him), there is no one else to step forward (no zoological organization, no Greenies, no special interest group) to speak for this unique animal's Right-To-Life. So die it must - in another staple of 50s cinema – The Fiery Finale.

In a final sequence so heart-stoppingly boring that test-audiences couldn't answer their survey cards from being ASLEEP, White Hero and a boyish Lee van Cleef (!) ride a roller-coaster to the top of a trellis, to shoot a radioactive isotope into the bloodstream of The Beast (don't ask), while hundreds of troops stand watching like statues. If there was any doubt they resembled statues, the director inserted many, MANY cutaways back to them to remind us that yes, they did indeed resemble statues. While The Beast frolics innocently amidst the roller-coaster trellis, White Hero and van Cleef, dressed as beekeepers, shoot it, then cautiously – read as "tediously" - descend the trellis, whilst the runaway roller-coaster crashes and starts the aforementioned Grand Finale Fire. While the troops stand like statues. Watching. While White Hero and van Cleef climb down. Slowly. While the troops watch. While they climb.

Thankfully, the inanimate humans in the film were overshadowed by the cutaways of a backdrop ablaze with the roller-coaster trellis, silhouetting The Beast roaring its long goodbye.

Troops cheer. White Hero gets The Chick. But the REAL Hero of the film was a man who scared the tit-willow out of those boring humans with a plastic model no more than three feet high – RAY HARRYHAUSEN.

(Movie Maniacs, visit: www.poffysmoviemania.com)

A piece of sci-fi history.

[G.Spider · 10/10 · 15 May 2001]

The first true Harryhausen films, and it's a real landmark film, the first of the atomic age monster movies (and one which led to the creation of a certain Japanese monster).

Atomic tests in the arctic release a prehistoric beast which has been trapped in the ice for millions of years. In no time the mysterious creature is wrecking havoc, but sceptical scientists refuse to believe in the existence of such a thing.

In common with a lot of Harryhausen's creations, the Beast itself has a real character, is a believable animal rather than just a monster. The film is cleverly-written and the characters are well-thought-out. A first-rate tale.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

[skybrick736 · 6/10 · 6 August 2014]

Eugene Lourie's ultra successful monster movie The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is an amazing watch for its time period. The animations for the real life looking dinosaur is incredible right from the start. I was glued in the initial scenes in the North Atlantic and it held my interest throughout the entire film. The characters and acting were solid and the plot was top notch up until the end. The ending seemed to have a throw away subplot and could have been better in my opinion. I don't discount the film that as being innovating for future monster movies and I sure as heck enjoyed it. Definitely watch The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms!

Ray Harryhausen Brings Out the Beast

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 8 July 2011]

Nuclear testing at the North Pole thaws out a live dinosaur they're calling a Rhedosaurus. "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" turns out to be an excellent swimmer, and heads for home. Unfortunately for the population of a major American city, millions of years ago "The Beast" lived in the area we now call New York City. The homecoming turns out to be a disaster for both the monster and frightened citizens... Here, another monster follows in the "King Kong" (1933) footsteps. This is far from the best of the 1950s invasion pictures, but Ray Harryhausen's monster effects make it fun to watch.

***** The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (6/13/53) Eugene Lourie ~ Paul Hubschmid, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey