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. 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. It is then that he enlists the aid of Paleontologist Professor Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway), and his assistant Lee (Paula Raymond). [26] Our Culture Mag critic Christopher Stewardson rated the film 3.5 out of 5. 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. In a diving bell search of the undersea Hudson River Canyon, Professor Elson is killed after his bell is swallowed by the beast, which eventually comes ashore in Manhattan. The movie Cloverfield (2008), which also involves a giant monster terrorizing New York City, inserts a frame from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (along with frames from King Kong and Them!) Up From The Depths Reviews | The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) - YouTube. It thrashes about in reaction, causing the roller coaster to spark when falling to the ground, setting the amusement park ablaze. 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. [19], Warner Bros. acquired the film for $800,000[20] (including a large advertising campaign) and released it on June 13, 1953 in New York and Los Angeles. A cowboy named Tuck Kirby seeks fame and fortune by capturing an Allosaurus living in the Forbidden Valley and putting it in a Mexican circus. 2 talking about this. The infection precludes blowing up the Rhedosaurus or even setting it ablaze, lest the contagion spread further. 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. 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. 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. [18], The climactic roller coaster live-action scenes were filmed on location at the Pike in Long Beach, California and featured the Cyclone Racer entrance ramp, ticket booth, loading platform, and beach views of the structure. 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. THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS Mention 1953's "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" and most people familiar with the picture will immediately associate it with stop motion animator Ray Harryhausen. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms Released in 1953, a year before Godzilla, the Beast was the original kaiju. ", Studies in Urban Cultures, p.17, Vol.5, pp.16-29, Urban Culture Research Center, Graduate School of Literature and Human Sciences, William Shaw, 2005, The origin of the species, The Observer, The Guardian, "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953) - Eugène Lourié - Cast and Crew - AllMovie", "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) - Notes - TCM.com", "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) - Articles - TCM.com", "David Buttolph - Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos - AllMovie", "Concept art from 'The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms'. Official page for The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is a film of firsts. Info. 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. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device. A ferocious dinosaur awakened by an Arctic atomic test terrorizes the North Atlantic and, ultimately, New York City. Its screenplay is based on Ray Bradbury's 1951 short story "The Fog Horn", specifically the scene where a lighthouse is destroyed by the title character. But thanks to Harryhausen and Bradbury, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms isn’t just another “so bad its good” piece of 50s cinema, instead it is a well crafted monster movie. 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. What sets this film apart from other similarly themed films, are the superior special effects created by the legendary Ray Harryhausen. The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. 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. Year: 1953. Next ». The story was first published in The Saturday Evening Post on June 23, 1951. Official page for The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms 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. [6], The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms was one of the early atomic monster movies, and it helped inspire a generation of creature features and directly inspired Godzilla (Gojira).[7][8]. Ray Harryhausen had been hoping that his film music hero Max Steiner, under contract at the time with Warner Bros., would write the film score. 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. [11] This story was about a marine-based prehistoric dinosaur that destroys a lighthouse. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms was the first live-action film to feature a giant monster awakened/brought about by an atomic bomb detonation,[30] preceding Godzilla by 16 months. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) - Release Info - IMDb. Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The. The producers, wishing to share in Bradbury's reputation and popularity, promptly bought the rights to his story and changed the film's title to match the story's title. Steiner had written the landmark score for RKO's King Kong in 1933. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Cecil Kellaway was always good in roles such as these and his presence alone will lift any film a notch or two. 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. Bradbury's name was used extensively in the promotional campaign. A similar sequence appeared in the draft script of The Monster from Beneath the Sea. During the production of Godzilla, its pre-published story was very similar to that of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and was titled The Giant Monster from 20,000 Miles Under the Sea (海底二万哩から来た大怪獣 Kaiteinimanmairu kara Kita Daikaijū). When The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms was released in June 1953, it became the biggest sleeper hit of the year, making over $5 million. This 1953 effort was loosely based on a newspaper short story by Ray Bradbury, and it's notable for featuring early work from SFX master Ray Harryhausen. [10], The film was announced in the trades as The Monster from Beneath the Sea. [17], The dinosaur skeleton in the museum sequence is artificial; it was obtained from RKO Pictures prop storage where it had been constructed for its classic comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938). The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) As if America wasn't scared enough by a possible incoming nuclear war, they also had to be scared by fictional giant monsters on their theatre screens. Marine atomic tests cause changes in the ocean's ecosystem resulting in dangerous blobs of radiation and the resurrection of a dormant dinosaur that threatens London. It also had an on-screen credit that read "Suggested by the Saturday Evening Post Story by Ray Bradbury". [13], Some early pre-production conceptual sketches of the Beast showed that, at one point, it was to have a shelled head and later was to have a beak. 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. 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. ad literam Bestia de la 20.000 stânjeni marini) este un film SF american din 1953 regizat de Eugène Lourié. Edit. [24], In his review of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms for The New York Times, A. H. Weiler was not impressed with the story: "And though the sight of the gigantic monster rampaging through such areas as Wall Street and Coney Island sends the comparatively ant-like humans on the screen scurrying away in an understandable tizzy, none of the customers in the theater seemed to be making for the hills. You will need to obtain the relevant third party permissions for any use, including use in programmes, online etc. [15] At one point, there were plans to have the Beast snort flames, but this idea was dropped before production began due to budget restrictions. The explosion awakens a 200-foot (61 m) long carnivorous dinosaur known as a Rhedosaurus,[9] thawing it out of the ice where it had been held in suspended animation for millions of years. [4] The film's stop-motion animation special effects are by Ray Harryhausen. Watch later. [14] Creature effects were assigned to Ray Harryhausen, who had been working for years with Willis O'Brien, the man who created King Kong. The dinosaur begins making its way down the east coast of North America, sinking a fishing ketch off the Grand Banks, destroying another near Marquette, Canada, wrecking a lighthouse in Maine and destroying buildings in Massachusetts. This was the best along with " Them " ," The Giant Behemoth' and the last but not least the awesome "Gorgo". On sober second thought, however, this might have been sensible". And it marked the first time Ray Harryhausen had control over special effects. From Wings to Parasite, here's a look back at all of the Best Picture Oscar winners in the history of the ceremony. (1953). Yet none of the success gave the producer, Jack Dietz, a chance to capitalise on it. [28], The film earned $2.25 million at the North American box office during its first year of release[29] and grossed more than $5 million.[2][3]. ", "Movie review: The Beast from 20 000 Fathoms (1953); 'Beast from 20,000 Fathoms' invades city. The film's stop-motion animation special effects are by Ray Harryhausen. Synopsis: Collection Edit Watch PDF Buy. Nesbitt eventually gains allies in paleontologist Thurgood Elson and his young assistant Lee Hunter after one of the surviving fishermen identifies from a collection of drawings the very same dinosaur that Nesbitt saw. 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. This film was made in the 50s, which was a goldmine era for sci/fi schlock and that meant ample “monster on the rampage” type pictures. În rolurile principale joacă actorii Paul Hubschmid, Paula Raymond și Cecil Kellaway. 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. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is based on a short story of the same name by American fantasy writer Ray Bradbury. Shopping. 39 of 52 people found this review helpful. [25], Hy Hollinger's review in Variety focused more on the impressive special effects: "Producers have created a prehistoric monster that makes Kong seem like a chimpanzee. Special credit should go to Ray Harryhausen for the socko technical effects". 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