Rating: 
Summary: I left my tentacles in San Francisco.
Review: Good Grade B '50s sci-fi flick. An atomic size octopus from the deepest realms of the Pacific threatens the world. Seeking adequate levels of food supply, not excluding humans, the creature attacks San Francisco. The real star of this movie is the razzle-dazzle special effects of Ray Harryhausen. The quality of the stop-motion animation exceeds the constraints of the B&W photography and the modest budget. The first part of the film tells of the mysterious ship sinking and other unexplained marine mayhem caused by the great sea beast. Navy Captain Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey) and two expert marine-biologists, John Carter (Donald Curtis) and Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue), work around the clock tracking down clues to identify the source of the mysterious events at sea. The simple plot moves right along and doesn't waste time. As seems obligatory in many '50s sci-fi flicks, the heroes endure the "I'm telling you, there's a monster!" phase followed by the "Yeah, right!" response from the authorities. Happily, that particular cliche is kept to a minimum. Things really start to go snap, crackle, and pop as the monstrous octopus tries to pull itself up on the Golden Gate Bridge. And check out the giant eye that opens as the submarine approaches the submerged creature in the San Francisco harbor. This is solid Saturday afternoon at the movies fun for 12 year-olds of all ages. They really don't make them like this anymore.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Film But More Bland Than Most Harryhausen Films
Review: I had never seen the film until this past week when I picked it up at a local Borders store for $15. To tell you the truth, I had some high hopes for the films, but like most monster films of the era, the monster's time was limited and short. So I wasn't expecting too much.
The film starts out pretty slow with Ken Tobey and his sub crew trying to figure out what they got themselves caught up in (the octopus).
The human parts of the film are like any other monster film where a man falls in love with a beautiful woman and they love each other in the end. The acting is pretty decent but seems to drag on for FAR too long! Plus the monster scenes were much shorter in this one compared to other Harryhausen films which was disappointing.
Overall, the film does deliver and is an enjoyment. But the overdone human drama and very few scenes of the octopus make this movie somewhat dull. A good film, but not one of Harryhausen's best as far as entertainment value.
Rating: 
Summary: YEA, IT CAME FROM BENEATH SOMETHING
Review: I love the work of HARRYHAUSEN but this just wasn't up to par with some of his other films. I didn't really feel the atmosphere this movie was trying to go for. 2 stars just for HARRYHAUSEN.
Rating:
Summary: FUN MOVIE-MUST SEE
Review: IF YOU ARE A "B" FAN YOU WILL LOVE THIS ONE. IT HAS A LITTLE OF EVERY THING. KENNETH AND FAITH. A SELF ABSORBED PROF. AND OF COUSE OUR HERO "OSCER THE OCTOPUS." THERE IS SOME HISTORY, OCEANOGRAPHY, AND INTERPERSONEL MANOVERS. OUR HERO IS DRIVEN FROM HIS DEP SEA HOME BY SOMETHING ATE. LOOKING FOR A FRESH FOOD SUPPLY HE GOES TO JAPAN(NOT HAPPY THERE), HE THEN WENT TO SIBERA. HE WASENT HAPPY THERE. SO HE HEADED FOR SAN FRANSISCO.(HE FOUND TOBEY SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN) THE REST IS HISTORY. HARRYHOUSEN WORKED OVERTIME ON THIS ONE(WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE IS HIS BEST THOUGH). THIS MOVIE BELONGS IN THE "B" HALL OF FAME
Rating:
Summary: Six Arms To Hold You...
Review: IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA is another good Ray Harryhausen monster vehicle. Kenneth Tobey (The Thing From Another World) is a tough submarine commander, thrust into the middle of a nautical mystery when his sub is attacked by some unknown object. It turns out to be a gargantuan six-armed octopus on a rampage of death! Faith Demergue (This Island Earth) is a marine biologist who just happens to be beautiful. She and Tobey soon fall for each other while trying to study the monstrous mollusk. The best part is when it rises from the sea and goes berserk in San Francisco, it's tentacles serpentining through the streets and grabbing the Golden Gate Bridge! Will it destroy the bay area? Will mankind survive it's onslaught? Will Tobey and Demergue's characters marry in a nice little ceremony? Watch and find out...
Rating: 
Summary: UGH!!
Review: It pains me to say it but this movie stinks. This movie has some good actors but their characters are constantly contradicting themselves or acting like jerks because of an asinine script.I understand that the script-writer was trying to get across the message that women should be treated as equals by making Kenneth Tobey a male chauvinist but she ended up falling for the jerk anyway!!I wasnt convinced that he had changed his ways just because of one line thrown in at the end of the picture. The stop-motion is ok but the monster scenes are too few and far between and the octopus has no personality.Thats an odd thing in a Ray Harryhausen movie. Unless your a Ray Harryhausen completest you dont need this movie in your collection.Buy 20Million Miles To Earth or The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms instead.
Rating:
Summary: Out of primordial depths to destroy the world!
Review: Legendary producer Charles H. Schneer, the man behind such films as Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), and Clash of the Titans (1981), and technical effects master Ray Harryhausen (back in the day they were called technical effects, not special effects), the man behind the eye popping effects of all the movies listed above, comes It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955), a rousing tale of scary sea beast from the greatest depths of the ocean floor rising to satisfy its' insatiable hunger on us tasty humans. The film stars Tobey Keith, who many may remember from the quintessential sci-fi thriller The Thing From Another World (1951) and Faith Domergue from This Island Earth (1955) as Cmdr. Pete Mathews and Professor Lesley Joyce, respectively. The movie opens on the maiden voyage, or shake down cruise, of the United States newest, most advanced, and spiffiest atomic submarine, with Cmdr. Pete Mathews in charge. Things seem to be going well, that is, until a large object is appears on the ping ping machine, sonar I think they called it, making a beeline for the sub. What is it? What could it be? If you've seen the front of the DVD case, then you probably know it's a giant octopus, so I don't feel I am giving anything away here. Why does a giant octopus attack the submarine? It's actually explained pretty well further into the movie, so I will leave it to that. After some tactical maneuvering, the submarine gets free with the crew unable to determine what actually happened. Once in port for repairs, a huge piece of organic material is found caught in the flaps or something of the submarine, and some specialists are called in to investigate. Enter Professor Joyce and some other dude (actually, it's Donald Curtis, an actor who appeared in more movie than I care to count throughout the 40's and into the 50's). Commander Pete gets the google eyes for Professor Joyce, but is unsure of her relationship with the other scientist dude, and thus sets up the screwy romantical subplot someone thought needed to be in the film. Finally, after weeks of intensive research, the scientists believe they have identified the organic material to be from a humongous cephalopod (octopus to you and I...yeah, those scientist types have odd names for everything. They need to learn to speak English good like you and me). The military big wigs are skeptical, which infuriates Professor Joyce, but their reaction seemed the right one as not to run around starting a panic and go off half-cocked. Anyway, the octopus starts tearing into shipping lanes, thus confirming the fact that it is real, and the hunt is on. The United States Navy vs. the giant, grabby octopus...get your tickets now, as they are going fast. The special effects by Harryhausen look great, with the octopus attacking a ship for the soft, chewy occupants, dragging itself on to coastal areas to grab a few landlubbers, and ripping up the Golden Gate Bridge. I had read that the octopus only has six arms, as budgetary constraints did not allow for the extra expense of animating all eight limbs, so it was proposed that the two limbs we don't see are always submerged. The action during the scenes with the octopus is pretty fast and intense, so I didn't even notice this minor issue. The acting was pretty good, for the most part, and there is copious amount of stock footage, some of which the quality was pretty poor, making it stand out against the really good-looking picture quality. At least the footage used was relevant and pretty exciting stuff, most dealing with naval ships and depth charges being set off in the water...BOOOOOM!!! The idea of a giant octopus dragging itself on land to feed on the puny humans (the cephalopod was HUGE) seemed pretty 'out there', but allowed for some cool scenes of the creature trashing buildings and such. Maybe next time those civilians will heed the civil defense sirens, those that didn't get all squished or ate up...hee hee...I will admit, the movie was a bit campy at times, but it's a lot of fun, and fairly fast paced at a run time of 79 minutes. The quality of the print is really nice and clean, and presented in wide screen anamorphic. Special features include a trailer for the film and other Harryhausen movies, along with one for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The featurette 'This is Dynamation' is here, along with documentary 'The Harryhausen Chronicles', both of which I've seen on other releases. Cookieman108
Rating:
Summary: Yeh gimmee a QUINTOPUS to go and hold the fast forward?
Review: Modern technology and super low 'Zon pricing combine to make this a welcome addition to your HARRYHAUSEN Chronicles. Yes, the modern technology is the remote with its 'fast forward'feature. You can plow through the interminable talking heads , all the while supplying your own dialog from all the times you saw it on commercial TV (and didn't we SCOUR the TV guides, hoping against hope, in those days?). My favorite shot has to be the poor people pulped by the Giantentacle as they foolishly try to flee along Battery Street! Remember Forry's homage to Ray from 'Famous Monsters of Filmland'-long about Issue #5? He'd recommended the cinemagician to a guy producing a monster flick who gulped, "He charges ten thousand dollars a tentacle!" No wonder "IT" had only five! So buy it already for ten QUID!
Rating:
Summary: ZZZZ...
Review: Most B movies are entertaining if nothing else. Unfortunately this movie fails to do that. Expect a long wait to see the whole "monster" in this one. If your a Ray Harryhausen fan, I suggest you buy "20 Million Miles To Earth" instead.
Rating:
Summary: Great Special Effects; Mediocre Movie
Review: Right at the start you have to wonder how I could rate a mediocre movie 3 stars. Well, it is not for the plot, which is weak at best. Certainly it is not for the acting, which is on the weaker side of B-movie. Setting aside the other various possibilities, we arrive at Ray Harryhausen's stellar special effects.
The plot is classic 50s. A recurring theme in B-science fiction movies was that regardless of how great our technology, the unknown can always spring up and bite you in the behind. If you think about it, that same theme continues on today in movies like Predator and Alien. Anyway, the newest atomic submarine (it seemed atomic something was a staple of 50s science fiction movies) was going through various trials when suddenly the sonar picks up a (gasp) rapidly moving unknown object. The unknown object temporarily impedes the progress of the submarine.
Once back in dock, it turns out there is something organic stuck on the submarine. The organic is part of a creature related to octopi. Of course, it cannot be an octopus because octopi of such great size are unknown. Ah yes, but we are in B-science fiction movie land, where there are giant everything, and even though we know today that squid grow much larger than octopi, the producers picked on the highly intelligent octopus to be the victim of this movie.
Anyway, the various characters meander around the movie, speaking in pseudoscientific terms, occasionally getting a facial expression to at least give a nod to the term acting. What the wonderful prelude is leading up to is the real action with the octopus. When the octopus finally shows up the fun really begins, though the poor acting continues.
The octopus decides mines can be mostly ignored until it reaches the Golden Gate Bridge. The mines drive the octopus up onto Golden Gate Bridge, wreaking havoc on a bridge that in the 50s was still relatively new. The last thing the city of San Francisco wanted was for someone to suggest the Golden Gate Bridge could be destroyed by anything, even something as far fetched as a giant octopus, so they would not give the producer permission to film on the bridge. Thus, the film makers had to film out the back of a truck driving back and forth across the bridge when no one was looking. It matters not, because the scenes of the octopus climbing onto and taking apart Golden Gate Bridge are phenomenal special effects for any era, even with today's digital special effects.
After a while the octopus gets bored with taking about the Golden Gate Bridge and heads for the Embarcadero area. The scenes of the octopus once again make this portion of the movie. The shots of the octopus's legs moving about and doing various things, including crushing the odd pedestrian, are wonderfully detailed. Harryhausen's stop-action photography makes the octopus extremely realistic, down to the texture of the skin and the eyes. There is only one real flaw to the octopus. Due to budget limitations the octopus had to be limited to six legs. Unless you know that it is quite possible that you wouldn't even notice.
Anyway, the octopus is driven back into the bay by flame thrower wielding soldiers. Once again Harryhausen's special effects make these scenes. The octopus flinches in a most convincing way. Once the octopus is back into the bay the inevitable follows and we know who must win in any movie of this type. Actually, I was rooting for the octopus.
This movie is one of the weaker movies in which Harryhausen's special effects appear. The wooden acting and weak script make this film a real snoozer for most of the scenes except for those in which the octopus appears. However, when the octopus appears this movie becomes magic. Perhaps the biggest flaw in this movie is that the octopus appeared in so few scenes.
The interesting thing about this movie is that every time I think about watching it, all I really remember are the scenes with the octopus; if you think about it, maybe that is for the best.
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