A ferocious dinosaur awakened by an Arctic atomic test terrorizes the North Atlantic and, ultimately, New York City.
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is a 1953 American black-and-white science fiction monster film from Warner Bros., produced by Jack Dietz and Hal E. Chester, directed by Eugène Lourié, that stars Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, and Kenneth Tobey. The film's stop-motion animation special effects are by Ray Harryhausen. Its screenplay is based on Ray Bradbury's short story "The Fog Horn", specifically the scene where a lighthouse is destroyed by the title character.
As a result of an arctic nuclear test, a carnivorous dinosaur thaws out and starts making its way down the east coast of North America. Professor Tom Nesbitt, only witness to the beast's existence, is not believed, even when he identifies it as a "rhedosaurus" to paleontologist Thurgood Elson. All doubts disappear, however, when Elson is swallowed whole during an oceanic bathysphere excursion to search for the creature. Soon thereafter the rhedosaurus emerges from the sea and lays waste to Manhattan Island until Nesbitt comes up with a plan to try to stop the seemingly indestructible beast.
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| You'll see it tear a city apart! |
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.
"The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" is, quite simply, the best dinosaur-on-the-loose movie ever made.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.
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| They couldn't believe their eyes! They couldn't escape the terror! And neither will you! |
The cast of characters is exactly what you'd expect. So is the plot. There is a scientist wanting to prove the existence of the monster, a love interest who serves no purpose other than to be a love interest, a few military guys, a paleontologist, and the criticized witnesses to the monster's horrifying destructive nature. The characters get a lot of screen time, even more than the monster, and even though not powerfully developed, serve their purpose on the screen well and we don't feel like they're wasting our time.
Overall, "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" is a very fine monster-on-the-loose movie. It's not what I'd call an epic, or a masterpiece, but it is a milestone in monster movie history, for it really began a huge chain that lead to the popular movie monster icons of today. And in its own way, it's a classic.
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| The Beast doesn't wait in line for the fucking roller coaster. |
Trivia:
This was said to have been one of the inspirations for Tomoyuki Tanaka to go ahead and film Godzilla (1954).
This film (which was inspired by the successful 1952 re-release of King Kong (1933)) was the first film to feature a giant creature awakened or mutated by a Nuclear Bomb.
While visiting his friend Ray Harryhausen on the set, Ray Bradbury was given a copy of the script (which was going under the working title "Monster From the Sea") and was asked if he could possibly do some rewriting on it. After reading the script, Bradbury remarked about a scene in the story (which featured the monster destroying a lighthouse) that seemed very similar to a short story that he had published in "The Saturday Evening Post" several years earlier called "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". Bradbury's story was about a dinosaur that destroys a lighthouse. The next day Bradbury received a telegram offering to buy the film rights to the story. After the sale, the film's title was changed to "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". When Bradbury's story was reprinted years later, he changed its title to "The Fog Horn".
The dinosaur skeleton in the museum sequence is artificial. It was obtained from storage at RKO where it had been constructed for Bringing Up Baby (1938).
Deleted Scene: The 2003 DVD release reveals one shot of the Rhedasaurus that was omitted from the final film. That shot can be found in the trailer for The Black Scorpion (1957) (in special features) about 1/2 through the preview. (Spoiler: The Beast is walking, breast high, toward screen right. The background shows 2 buildings; one of them with fire escapes. Superimposed title card states, "You've thrilled to the terror of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms."
Some film aficionados might recognize Alvin Greenman, the first character to speak after the narrator, and the first to notice the beast on on the radar. Six years earlier he played Alfred, the Macys Janitor in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). TV aficionados though might recognize the second character to speak. Playing the part of Charlie is actor James Best, best remembered for his role as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane from The Dukes of Hazzard (1979).
The Rhedosaurus in this film makes a cameo appearance in Planet of the Dinosaurs (1977). It is subsequently killed by the movie's star, the T-Rex.
Warner Brothers bought the film from producers Hal E. Chester and 'Jack Deitz' for $450,000.
Vera Miles and Paul Picerni appear in the trailer for this film, but not in the film itself.
The "Coney Island Amusement Park" in the film is actually The Long Beach Amusement Park in Long Beach, California. The production was able to film at the park from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Before the film was sold to Warner Brothers, it contained an original music score composed by Michel Michelet. Execs at Warners felt Michelet's score wasn't powerful enough so they replaced it with an original score by David Buttolph.
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| Dude get the fuck up!!! There's a monster up there. |
The film is based on a short story by Ray Bradbury.
During the octopus/shark sequence, some of the footage was obviously shot in an aquarium, because some of the octopus' suckers are gripping the glass.
When the radio announcer is reading the news about the monster's rampage through New York, various shots of the city are shown, mostly with panicked citizens in the street. When the announcer mentions the situation at Times Square, the accompanying footage shows the Palace Theater, whose marquee reads "Judy Garland - Live and in Person."
When the streets are being cleared once the beast comes ashore in NYC, films appearing on various theater marquees are "Detective Story", "Come Fill The Cup" and "Across The Wide Missouri".
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| The seas master beast of the ages- raging up from the bottom of time |
Some of the Arctic footage showing an avalanche triggered by movements of the Beast was "lifted" from the 1935 production of She (1935).
(at around 38 mins) Prof. Elson (Cecil Kellaway) reads an article about a 1797 professor who was fired for claiming that he had seen leprechauns remove a tree. He continues "Today it's monsters instead of leprechauns". Tom Nesbitt (Paul Christian) then enters and asks "How certain are you there were no leprechauns?" Cecil Kellaway played a leprechaun in the 1948 film "The Luck of the Irish".
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| A Thrill-Story Beyond All Imagining |
