Movie Review: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
Synopsis: While conducting a nuclear weapons test in the Arctic Circle, a team of military scientists wake up and release a Rhedosaurus, a dinosaur that has been extinct for more than 100 million years. Even though Professor Tom Nesbitt witnesses the creature, nobody believes him. At least not until it begins sinking ships and attacks a city.
Who's in it? The movie stars Paul Hubschmid, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey and Donald Woods.
Review: I've come across The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms multiple times but have always been reluctant to watch it because, at least from the description, it sounded like a Godzilla rip-off, even though the movie was released before that monster debuted. However, I finally decided to give it a try this morning and it ended up surprising me.
As far as prehistoric monster movies go, this one turned out to be pretty decent. Yes, it was made 72 years ago, and the special effects are a bit limited as a result. However, if you're able to look past the stop motion dinosaur, the film manages to do quite a bit with very little. I was especially impressed with how the movie added a surprising amount of realism with crushed cars, damaged buildings, etc.
I also liked the twist involving the creature's blood, which contained a contagion that was as deadly as the dinosaur itself. This made it difficult to figure out just how the military would stop the beast since something as simple as blowing it up could result in hundreds or even thousands of deaths. Between that and the creature's ability to move under water as well as it could on land, it was unclear if this film would result in the Rhedosaurus being defeated or if it would end with the dinosaur escaping.
My only real complaint about the movie is it takes this monster film nearly an hour to monster. There are a couple establishing monster scenes early on, but the majority of the film is filler. This includes everything from Nesbitt (Hubschmid) traveling all over Canada to find another witness to an underwater shark-versus-octopus battle. In between, Nesbitt had time to even enter a relationship with Lee Hunter (Raymond), including a date at the ballet.
To be fair, the movie does make up for this with the chaos in the last 30 minutes (including a scene involving a blind man being trampled by a crowd). However, you can never have too much monster destruction and I would have loved to have seen much more of that than Nesbitt being told way too many times he just imagined things.
Final Opinion: I had doubts, but this turned out to be an unexpectedly good movie, even with the special effects limitations. I enjoyed watching it.
My Grade: A
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Here are some reviews of other monster movies from the 1950s:
Movie Review: The Giant Gila Monster (1959)
Movie Review: The Giant Behemoth (1959)
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