It Came from Beneath the Sea

Rating:
Summary: Great effects from Harryhausen in a rather bland film.
Review: "It Came from beneath the Sea" marks the second time special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen would head up the effects on a feature film. (He made his solo debut on "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and had previously worked with Willis O'Brien on "Mighty Joe Young.") It also marked Harryhausen's first collaboration with producer Charles H. Schneer, with whom he would form a long-lasting partnership through many classic fantasy and adventure films such as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" and "Clash of the Titans." Schneer conceived the idea for this film: a giant octopus attacks San Francisco. He thought that the image of a huge mollusk tearing down parts of the Golden Gate Bridge would thrill audiences, and Harryhausen told him he could pull it off.

And he did! Harryhausen's capabilities got better with each film, and in this 1950s rampaging radioactive monster flick, he managed some stunning effects sequences with his stop-motion octopus. Actually, the octopus only has six arms (a 'sextopus' I guess), a budget-saving move Harryhausen incorporated so there would be less action to animate. It's almost impossible to notice this slight-of-hand because the monster is usual half-submerged, and the constantly moving tentacles are partially hidden behind its body. It works fantastically; the tentacles seem independent creatures as they break through concrete, rip apart towers, and slither after and crush fleeing tourists on the Embarcadero. The shots of the semi-octopus towering over the wharf are still stunning even today; Harryhausen's optical work is fantastic. The attack on the Golden Gate Bridge is justly famous, and was done without the city fathers' permission! (The crew had to sneak shots out of truck driving back and forth over the bridge to get the required background plates for the special effects.) Harryhausen developed a special screw device that unfurled the tentacles and pushed them up through the simulated concrete on the model of the bridge. The final result still has magic.

But perhaps the best effects sequence in the film is the thrilling battle between the army soldiers armed with flame-throwers trying to push the octopus's flailing tentacles off the streets and back into the water. The reality of the scene is amazing: you really will suspend disbelief and enjoy watching the army battle street to street with the groping tentacles.

All this great effects work aside, "It Came from beneath the Sea" is a lesser film in the Harryhausen/Schneer body of work. Away from Harryhausen's magic, the film is remarkably flat, wooden, and shows too obviously its tight budget. The stars, Kenneth Tobey and Faith Domergue, are nearly stick-figures with little in the way of character or energy, and the romance between them is so boring you'll be praying for the octopus to show up and smash something. Director-for-hire Robert Gordon does little with the human scenes aside from letting them play out in front of a static camera, and most of the dialogue scenes are loaded with stodgy clichés no different than any other science fiction film of the period. The dull documentary narrator explaining the many shots of stock footage doesn't help much either. With their next two films, "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" and "20 Million Miles to Earth," Harryhausen and Schneer would find more interesting actors and more creative directors to give the story some help.

"It Came from beneath the Sea" is a must-have for Harryhausen fans of course, and anyone with a love for the handmade visual effects of the good old days (before computers) will enjoy immensely the creative work that Harryhausen pulled off here. It might be a bit rough for non-Harryhausen veterans to make it through the human scenes, however. I would advise them to start with "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" or "20 Million Miles to Earth" before beholding the destruction of San Francisco by a six armed Octopus.

The DVD comes with the full documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles," which can be found on most of Columbia's Ray Harryhausen collection discs. The DVD also preserves the film in its original widescreen format (most people probably had no idea it was show in widescreen!).

Rating:
Summary: A Giant Octupus and Faith Domergue, too!
Review: 'It Came From Beneath the Sea' is one of the most enjoyable of the giant monster films that dominated the science-fiction palette of the 50s. Instead of the usual animal enlarged by radiation scenario, this one concerns a giant octopus that has been disturbed in its environment deep in the Pacific Ocean by nuclear testing. It seems our cephalopod has ingested too much radiation and has changed its appetite . . . for the worse, as it has acquired a taste for humans.

Enter Our Hero ' Kenneth Tobey ' commander of a nuclear sub that has been molested by the monster. With the help of marine biologists Donald Curtis and Faith Domergue, he is able to identify the beast and go after it, leading to many scenes of Faith in a bathing suit that absolutely boggled my mind when I first saw this as a kid ' and still has that effect today. If I could have been assured that I would meet someone like her in the field, I would have devoted my life to marine biology.

Our intrepid team finally tracks the monster to San Francisco, where it tries to come ashore at Fisherman's Wharf. Driven back by flame throwers, it takes its anger out on the Golden Gate Bridge, a scene that must have thrilled the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. (They later complained.) Finally, Tobey and Curtis dispatch the monster with the help of Tobey's nuclear sub, as if we thought we'd never see the sub again.

Sure, we know the octopus has only six arms ' this fact is solidly enmeshed in film lore. And, Who Cares? The movie moves along nicely and has several chilling moments. The acting is first-rate and Harryhausen makes the octopus so effective that we hardly notice its lack of the proper amount of arms. Sam Katzman was the producer, and Sam was notoriously cut-rate; the sort of producer a studio loves as he never goes over whatever miniscule budget he is given. In earlier years Sam produced the East Side Kids movies and the Lugosi horror series for Monogram. Just be pleasantly surprised that Kaufman had enough money in the budget to afford a Harryhausen. In his later movie, 'The Giant Claw,' he didn't have the funds and so had to go to Mexico for cheaper special effects. Anyone who saw that movie still has aching ribs from laughing at the title monster.

Another nice touch for viewers is that the transfer is clear and sharp. No tenth-rate print, as is so often the case with the horror-sci-fi genre. Great viewing at a great price. What more need be said, besides the fact Faith Domergue is in it?

Rating:
Summary: 4 and a half.
Review: ...This is a very well made film with Kenneth Tobey as the main human star. (Did you see how fast the octopus grabbed the sheriff and crushed his bones. He takes time on his meals too, which are ships and "you know what".) Enjoy early Ray Harryhausen........ end.

Rating:
Summary: A Giant Octupus and Faith Domergue, too!
Review: ???It Came From Beneath the Sea??? is one of the most enjoyable of the giant monster films that dominated the science-fiction palette of the 50s. Instead of the usual animal enlarged by radiation scenario, this one concerns a giant octopus that has been disturbed in its environment deep in the Pacific Ocean by nuclear testing. It seems our cephalopod has ingested too much radiation and has changed its appetite . . . for the worse, as it has acquired a taste for humans.

Enter Our Hero ??? Kenneth Tobey ??? commander of a nuclear sub that has been molested by the monster. With the help of marine biologists Donald Curtis and Faith Domergue, he is able to identify the beast and go after it, leading to many scenes of Faith in a bathing suit that absolutely boggled my mind when I first saw this as a kid ??? and still has that effect today. If I could have been assured that I would meet someone like her in the field, I would have devoted my life to marine biology.

Our intrepid team finally tracks the monster to San Francisco, where it tries to come ashore at Fisherman???s Wharf. Driven back by flame throwers, it takes its anger out on the Golden Gate Bridge, a scene that must have thrilled the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. (They later complained.) Finally, Tobey and Curtis dispatch the monster with the help of Tobey???s nuclear sub, as if we thought we???d never see the sub again.

Sure, we know the octopus has only six arms ??? this fact is solidly enmeshed in film lore. And, Who Cares? The movie moves along nicely and has several chilling moments. The acting is first-rate and Harryhausen makes the octopus so effective that we hardly notice its lack of the proper amount of arms. Sam Katzman was the producer, and Sam was notoriously cut-rate; the sort of producer a studio loves as he never goes over whatever miniscule budget he is given. In earlier years Sam produced the East Side Kids movies and the Lugosi horror series for Monogram. Just be pleasantly surprised that Kaufman had enough money in the budget to afford a Harryhausen. In his later movie, ???The Giant Claw,??? he didn???t have the funds and so had to go to Mexico for cheaper special effects. Anyone who saw that movie still has aching ribs from laughing at the title monster.

Another nice touch for viewers is that the transfer is clear and sharp. No tenth-rate print, as is so often the case with the horror-sci-fi genre. Great viewing at a great price. What more need be said, besides the fact Faith Domergue is in it?

Rating:
Summary: Lightweight creature feature fun from the fabulous '50s
Review: A classic B-movie horror flick about an icky, tentacled ocean giant who comes to the surface to wreck havoc on the world of man. Brainiac scientists are called in to help the military, but will they figure out how to stop it in time to save the world? Typical, silly 'Fifties drive-in fodder, with some great, vintage Ray Harryhausen stop-motion animation as the beast from below trashes the San Francisco waterfront and the Golden Gate Bridge. Eeeek!!

Rating:
Summary: A passable monster-on-the-loose thriller.
Review: A generally mediocre film which really perks up whenever the giant octopus shows up. Ray Harryhausen's special effects work is superb in every detail, especially considering the rather low budget of this film. Next time you see the Golden Gate Bridge, you may be surprised that it is actually still undamaged. And for a trivia treat, count the number of tentacles the "octopus" has.

Rating:
Summary: It Came From Beneath the Sea
Review: After seeing the movie entitled "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" I was "hooked" by the quality of same and by the special effects themselves-which are worth five stars all by themselves I decided to check out "It Came From Beneath the Sea" adn once more I was hooked. Now this movie is really worth watching over and over again because the acting and the special effects are truly superb. Simply put: Ray Harryhausen truly outdid himself-again.

Rating:
Summary: If you lived in San Francisco.....
Review: and were about 5 years old (as I did and was) when this movie originally came out you never traveled across the S.F. Bay Bridge without holding your breath for as long as you could praying that you'd make it across BEFORE the Beast through it tentacle over the exact spot you were at on the bridge! By today's movie standards, it a simple "B" movie -- very lotech and maybe even cheesy, but way be fore it became fashionable, it had a lot to say about what the nuclear tests and waste products of the day could do to living things --

Rating:
Summary: Harryhausen the special effects wizard of the 1950s
Review: As mentioned in some of the other reviews, Ray Harryhausen's special effects are the real stars of the show. One of my favorite scenes is when the octopus pulls the ship under water. Determined, it tugged and tugged until enough water had flooded the freighter so that it would go under.

The final 20 minutes of the movie are done well and keep you on the edge of your seat as the octopus reaches out from the harbor looking for a quick meal. The people getting crushed under one of the tentacles is very convincing.

A classic sci-fi movie from the 1950s. I have seen and recorded a number of them, and this is among the best. Solid script that doesn't drag along, and great special effects.

Rating:
Summary: Great Sci-Fi
Review: Finally Kenneth Tobey's Sci-Fi movies are coming out on DVD. I'm waiting for the Beast from 20,000 fathoms and The Thing from another World. I would like to see all 3 colorized. I think all three movies are great, especially The Thing from Another World. I would definitely buy them all. The thing is 5 stars and 4 stars for The Beast from 20,000 fathoms. These were 3 of my favorites as a young boy.