Bonus Monster Movie of the Week: The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953)

Director: Eugene Lourie
Genre: Monster on the loose, proto-daikaiju movie.

THE MOVIE:

You may not have seen The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms but it is without a doubt one of the most influential genre movies of the 1950’s and beyond. If it seems like a fairly typical 1950’s monster movie (A giant prehistoric creature is awakened by atomic testing at a remote location while bland characters try to find a way to stop it as it wreaks havoc on the nearest big city) that is because it was copied over and over again. It also has an interesting but under-developed subplot about the dinosaur carrying a virulent disease.

Typical alarmist Liberal Media.

Lourie’s was later followed by such movies as Them! (1954) and It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955.) The Beast actually resembles another seminal monster movie: Gojira, or Godzilla: King of the Monsters, (1954) as the Americanized version of the original film was known. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is actually the midpoint between King Kong and the original Godzilla series. Like King Kong it uses stop-motion technology to bring the story of a monster terrorizing New York to life. Like Gojira the monster is saurian and is the result of atomic testing.

One could actually make the case that the American Godzilla (1998) was in fact more of a remake of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms than Gojira. Its creature is far more like the Rhedosaur in nature than Toho’s Godzilla. And the American Godzilla’s landing in New York is almost identical the Rhedosaur’s arrival in The Beast. There are several other shots in the Godzilla remake that seem to intentionally pay homage to The Beast from 20000 Fathoms. Maybe they should have just remade that movie instead.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:

The Rhedosaurus effects are accomplished though some very nice stop motion courtesy of the great Ray Harryhousen and some truly crappy hand puppet work for close ups. I was really surprised by how good the creature looked in most of his shots. Its nice to see that in the twenty years since the original King Kong the stop motion techniques were refined to a kind of high art form. The Rhedosaur has a wonderful three dimensionality and texture under the lights and is well integrated into the backgrounds.

New York is a great city...for me to poop on!!

This particular dinosaur is not your usual T-Rex or Allosaurus clone but an invented quadrupedal carnivorous creature. It resembles the animals that Naomi Watts stumbles upon in Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005) which later chase her into a rotting log before getting munched on by a bigger dino. The Rhedosaur is ike that, but much bigger.

MONSTERS FEATURED:

The Rhedosaurus and some stock footage ocean life.

The Rhedosaur, terrorizing Ralph Kramden's apartment building.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:

There are actually quite a few, from the famous attack on the lighthouse to the creature’s entrapment in a Coney Island roller coaster.

DVD AVAILABILITY:

It is available on it’s own with a nice little documentary featuring an interview with Harryhousen and some trailers or in a two-pack with Them!

SEQUELS:

None.

"Where Brooklyn at?"

THE TRAILER:



SEE ALSO

Gojira (1954), King Kong (1933), Godzilla (1998)