THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953)
There's something incredibly enticing about a hyperbolic movie title, but I suppose that's the whole point. It's never just 'Monster from the Sea' or 'Monster from Planet Venus,' there has to be something overly grandiose about it. In this case changing the original title from the short story title The Fog Horn certainly does the trick for me. The film starts as it means to go on when the name comes shooting out of a whirlpool. It's flashy and dramatic, and so is the rest of the feature. It's a sci-fi story without much time being wasted for once, despite the obvious genre tropes being present and correct. In some ways it started a number of these clichés, but it certainly remains one of the best examples of the genre.
No sequence is without some sense of atmosphere, and the more standard dramatic moments are nice and brisk. The story begins in the frozen wastes above the Arctic Circle where a stoic narrator describes the countdown to something called 'H-Day.' There are not prizes for what the H stands for, and soon enough the shots of a plane being prepared for its mission lead to a huge atomic test cloud. Stock footage is rarely used so efficiently. Soon after nuclear physicist Thomas Nesbitt (Paul Christian) heads into a blizzard after checking on the test equipment, only to find one of his colleagues trapped in a ravine. He fell after seeing something come alive in the storm, which Thomas realises too late and becomes trapped in the show.
It's a moody opening and the rest of the story includes a lot of similar scenes. The monster that has been thawed out is the fictional 'Rhedosaurus' which has many great moments. The famous lighthouse attack in particular is shown only in a fantastic silhouette of the dinosaur against the horizon. Glimpses of it through rain battered ship windows are also pretty sinister. Even slower scenes have a lot of tension when an expedition is mounted to find the beast. A simple scene a diving bell being lowered into the ocean looks like a descent into a watery underworld thanks to the art direction. The finale at a burning fair ground might be a bit anti-climatic but it looks great. But I could talk about the production design all day, let's move along.
The human cast isn't anything special but they do avoid several pitfalls. Colonel Evans (Kenneth Tobey) isn't another gruff military protagonist but an aide to his scientist friend. There are hints that palaeontologist Lee Hunter (Paula Raymond) will become the typical love interest, but the story isn't heavy handed about it and so the characters feel more natural. Her boss the eccentric fossil expert Dr. Elson (Cecil Kellaway) adds some lighter moments without ever becoming a parody. Some of their work to find out if Thomas is losing his marbles is led a bit by convenience, but it moves forward at a fair pace. By moving focus away from the typical lead and putting Colonel Evans on the sidelines the remaining trio are far more compelling.
However as you'd expect the star is still the monster. The Rhedosaurus doesn't have a lot of personality but it has a life-like presence, and the brutish pre-alligator style design feels heavy and intimidating. Fortunately the idea to make it breathe fire was scrapped, resulting in a far more grounded villain. If it had radioactive blood this could all be a clever allegory, but unfortunately this isn't the case. The ending even suggests that radiation saves the day which is just odd. The story instead gives the creature a bizarre prehistoric disease that spreads when it becomes injured. Is this their first idea or was the potential for radiation poisoning in a public place considered too real at the time? It feels like a missed opportunity or maybe even an intentional last minute change to the story.
Still, whatever the reason for this secondary threat the beast still gets plenty of screen time as it makes it's way from the Arctic to it's prehistoric home in the Hudson River. The animation is all pretty stellar thanks to plenty of ingenious lighting effects and set pieces. Like with King Kong the violent frenzy through Manhattan is pretty brief but it still manages to be exciting. The dynamic shadows as it moves through the streets are excellent and the sense of chaos is palpable as cars, and people, fall prey to the monster's rampage. Maybe this is saying something about the modern world causing its own demise, with the creature being woken by nuclear weapons and becoming further agitated when it finds not its kin but a world of human technology.
But maybe it is in fact just a monster B-movie with an easy to follow premise. A story so straightforward that the same frozen creature idea is found in numerous other films, whether it's King Kong vs Godzilla or Gamera, The Giant Monster. Perhaps thinking too deeply about it all isn't really warranted. It does start with a bang and end with a literal roller-coaster ride finale after all. It's got characters that are fun where needed and a monster that's big and mean where appropriate. It's often moody and plenty of sequences look great. It might be famous enough to be parodied in a commercial from RoboCop but the films holds up on its own. Many decades later you can see how far its legacy has gone and still get a kick out of watching it.
4/5
BONUS REVIEW
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949)
The technical achievements of Ray Harryhausen can also be found in this alternative tale of a creature being brought to the United States and causing chaos. However Joe isn't a monster in the usual sense, he's simply a gorilla with a larger than life personality and stature. There are some incredible moments as he's composited against real animals and people that shift between projected and animated effects. Live action objects like wine bottles blur the barrier between screen elements in a scene where he gets drunk and escapes captivity. There's even a sequence in which Joe rescues a child from a burning building, and the monochrome photography is given an orange filter to lend it extra spectacle.
But while this is an entertaining story there are many things that fall flat. The story is essential King Kong but without the ferocity of an angry god running amok. There are some savage moments but it's mostly a cornball affair. Joe's only friend Jill (Terry Moore) is often naive in ways that come across as too saccharine until it's too late. She barely changes between the prologue when she's a child and the present day. Maybe it's because the Hayes Code hadn't started to weaken. The result is a more childish affair. There are plenty of moments that lend it pathos as a result, but it's interesting that with Kong viewers feel sad even after he killed dozens of people. Here the story tries too hard to make it all cute and loveable.
It's telling that Robert Armstrong is recast; not as a businessman in the vein of Carl Denham but as a giddy showman. Romantic hero Gregg (Ben Johnson) isn't even the usual caustic male lead. He's a just a cowboy out to see Africa and that's all. There are no major villains despite the way things transpire, and there's no animal rage despite the subject matter. It's still an engaging movie for many reasons but it feels watered down in ways that are tough to ignore. The movie is sometimes just too silly for its own good; in spite of the serious nature of the plot. This sort of comedy can also be found in the Universal
monster sequels so it's probably a sign of the era. Ultimately it's a more innocent adventure that I can take or leave.
3/5
