3/5 Six Giant Arms of Entertainment!
  by Nutrition Man (Florham Park, NJ)
"It Came From Beneath the Sea" should be taken at face value. It was one of the first of the 1950's "Blame the Atom Bomb for the Giant Monster" films.

Other movies of the time (i.e. "Godzilla" and "Them") were better written, better acted, and much more cautionary in tone, warning us about the dangers of mankind's tampering with the laws of nature.

That said, there are some misconceptions about the plot of "It Came From Beneath the Sea".

The octopus itself was NOT mutated to it's gigantic size by radiation. It was already gigantic. The hydrogen bomb testing in the Pacific Ocean drove away its natual food supply (how much food would a ceature that size need to eat every day?). So the octopus had to stray from its natural habitat (35,000 feet or so under the surface) to find food. Why the scientists (marine biologists) stated that the octopus's food supply have their own "internal Geiger Counter" was never explained, and doesn't make any real scientific sense. The hydrogen bomb tests themselves would have killed off a LOT of marine life from the explosions and massive radiation!

Anyway, the movie itself was / is captivating, as we have the built-in primal fear of gigantic sea monsters that come from the extreme depths of the ocean to eat us humans. ("Jaws" is the perfect example of this). And with eight tentacles (now simply called arms), the creepy-looking octopus made a perfect choice for the most frightening of giant sea monsters.

Looking past the nonsense of the macho navy man woos the attractive female scientist plot, the movie provides some highly entertaining scenes with the giant octopus. 1) Our first glimpse of the monster grabbing a merchant ship and pulling it under the sea. 2) A poor schlub of a sheriff's deputy (armed with a rifle that may as well have been a peashooter) getting crushed on the beach by a giant tentacle. 3) The octopus ripping apart the Golden Gate Bridge (a sci-fi classic scene).
4) The octopus appearing in San Francisco Harbour, crushing a frieght train boxcar, and pulling itself partially out of the water by grabbing onto a tall clocktower. 5) [my personal favorite scene] a team of Army flamethrower-equipped soldiers firing at the weaving tentacle, trying to drive the octopus back under water. 6) [perhaps the most eery scene] when the male marine biologist confronts the octopus's giant eye, firing an explosive-tipped harpoon into the monster's eye, so it will release the ensnared submarine sent to blow up the beast with a flesh-piercing torpedo.

Forget most of the romantic nonsense. We all watch the movie to see the giant creepy-fleshed, multi-tentacled menace (even if it only has six tentacles, due to a lack of money Ray Harryhausen needed to give the monster his natural eight tentacles).

The scenes with the octopus are extremely well done...especially with the lack of money and help Mr. Ray "sci-fi legend" Harryhausen had to work with.

I can only imagine what the classic 1950's "nuclear bomb created / angered giant creatures" monster movies would look like if remade today, with loving attention to detail, good plots / writing / acting and scientific facts (see "Them"...possibly the best of the 1950's "atomic monster movies").

5/5 A GREAT EFFORT, BUT NOT AS GOOD AS 20 MILLION MILES DVD TREATMENT! 4 1/2 STARS!
  by ! MR. KNOW IT ALL ;-b (TRI STATE AREA)
I am a huge fan of FX master Ray Harryhausen and I love all of his films! I've seen all of the films between 50 and 100 times and I was leery of a colorized version of any of his classic black and white movies. The first one I watch was '20 Million Miles To Earth' which I thought was amazing! the color (which was over seen by Harryhausen) only enhanced the film.

This film is also a treat, but the color does show the imperfections of the print more than in the previous picture I mentioned. What's great about this edition is that you get both black and white and color versions and they can be switched back and forth while viewing.

The DVD also has some excellent features including commentary with Ray Harryhausen and a couple of feature-ettes, stills gallery, etc. Some of these feature are carried over from the other new color DVD's, but it's a nice set regardless. It would have been smart if they included the features from the older editions of these film so we could discard them, but those features appear on a number of Harryhausen DVDs, so I guess it's not too big a deal.

There are some who feel these films aren't classics, but please remember that Mr. Harryhausen did all of the effects himself! He created and built the figures, the sets, did the story boards, the lighting, the back plates, the photography and much more.

Yes! what would take a 100 or more people to do in films now, was done by one man and he did it on a very small budget, so small they could only afford a six armed Octopus! Not only that, there was very little known back then about these effects, so Ray had no where or anyone to turn to when presented with a technical problem. He also invented some film processes that are still used today.

Every person who is making or doing effects in films now was inspired by Ray and his fabulous creations! OK, I know Willis O'Brian invented the stop motion technique, but Ray certainly advanced it to another level.

4/5 Nice Octopus
  by Michael Patrick Boyd (Waukesha, WI)
It Came From Beneath the Sea is one hour and nineteen minutes long and was released July 1955. The film was shot in black and white. Basically an octopus is exposed to hydrogen bombs testing. The octopus goes on a wrecking spree. It is finally killed by an atomic warhead. Since this is a low budget picture, the special effects look cheap and you don't see all eight tentacles. There is some underwater shots when the men are in their wet suits. Generally speaking this a good B+ movie.

4/5 MORE HARRYHAUSEN WIZARDRY
  by Tim Janson (Michigan)
Yet another Ray Harryhausen film from the 1950's has just been released on DVD in a two disc special edition. It Came from Beneath the Sea comes in between The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers. It's probably the least of those three films but I always liked this one even more than "Earth Vs..." This is such a product of the 1950's when the paranoia over nuclear testing was at its highest. The result was a plethora of films featuring all manner of radioactive-spawned giant monsters: spiders, ants, grasshoppers, and other beasties. In this film the threat comes from a giant octopus, driven out of its deep sea home by atomic bombs tested at sea.

The first to encounter the creature is a U.S. Navy nuclear sub, commanded by Pete Matthews (Tobey). The sub doesn't know exactly what they've encountered but a piece of the creature was caught in the Sub's propellers. The hunk of octopus is taken to be analyzed by two marine biologists, Prof. Lesley Joyce (Domergue) and Prof. John Carter (Curtis). They determine that the piece belongs to an octopus but one that has grown to enormous proportions.

The creature soon makes attacks on other vessels, sinking an entire merchant ship, and leaving only a handful of shocked survivors. While the Navy at first dismisses the professor's findings, they soon cannot deny the truth and decide to take action. The film's climax comes with the memorable octopus attack destroying the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Like all of these films, it's the masterful stop-motion effects that are the real star. While the film itself took only a few weeks to shoot, Harryhausen worked on the effects for months afterwards, painstakingly filming the creature's movement's one frame at a time. Yes, perhaps it looks dated next to today's slick CGI effects but there's a certain admiration you have to have for Harryhausen's work. He knew these were low-budget B features but that never stopped him from delivering 100% effort.

It Came from Beneath the Sea is slower than the other films I mentioned. It takes a good 25 minutes or so before we even get a good look at the creature for the first time and the film only runs about 79 minutes. There is a melodramatic love triangle going on between the three leads. Matthews is the tough captain while Carter is the somewhat sheepish scientist. When Professor Joyce tells carter that Matthews kissed her, all he can manage is, "Did you enjoy it?"

That said, I enjoyed the cast. Tobey was a great character actor who made over 300 film and TV appearances in his fifty year career. He was a regular in the 1950's TV show "Whirlybirds" and also appeared in such shows as I Spy, Lassie, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Ironside, and Emergency, usually playing some sort of authority figure. His final role was in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 1994. He was a strong, macho leading man. Domergue's Prof. Joyce was every bit as tough as Matthews. Domergue was no stranger to Sci-Fi roles, seemingly always playing the role of a scientist. She also starred in This Island Earth and Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet.

Extras: The film comes in either the original black & white or new colorized format. This new Chroma-Color process is vastly improved over the old colorizing process of 10 or 20 years ago and while purists might object, Harryhausen himself approves of the look.

The film comes with Audio Commentary with Ray Harryhausen, Arnold Kunert, Randy Cook and John Bruno

Remembering It Came From Beneath the Sea, is Harryhausen's own recollections about making the film and runs 22:00

A Present Day Look at Stop-Motion takes a look at film students learning the art of stop motion. 11:36

Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen. Director Tim Burton interviews Harryhausen as ray discusses how the saucers were made and other interesting tidbits about the film. Great segment but it's almost ruined by Burton who babbles almost incoherently and uses the words "you know" and "amazing" about a hundred times during the 27:09 minute interview.

Original Ad Artwork Producer Arnold Kunert looks at the film's ad materials including rare posters and lobby cards from Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers and other films. 17:30

David Schecter on Film Music's Unsung Hero Is a retrospective on the career of composer Misha Bakaleinikoff 22:32

Sneak Peek of Digital Comic Book Flying Saucers vs. the Earth

Video Photo Galleries.


3/5 More is Lesss
  by D. J. Morgan (Tokyo, Japan)
Well, it's nice to have the color and the HH voiceover but it's really a pretty cheesy movie and can barely hold your attention throughout. This is sophomoric at best. HH can barely remember anything about it as it was so long ago but at least he is given the reverence he is due. So, all in all, an improvement on the original but it has only made the old cheddar slightly more palatable than before. The fact that it sells for such a low price anyway pretty much illustrates the minor target audience of the last gasp purist for HH.