Great Film overall

best movie i've ever seen.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Faith Domergue had a cold beauty that made her suitable as female scientist Professor Leslie Joyce. The stereotype of the cold, hard scientist whose intellect does not allow itself to be swayed by mere sentiment and feeling was especially prevalent in the old science fiction movies, and thus a beautiful female scientist constituted a special challenge for a macho man, used to having his way with ordinary women. In this movie, said macho man is Commander Pete Mathews.A lot of old movies are sexist by twenty-first century standards, but science fiction movies from the 1950s, with their inevitable beautiful female scientists, often have a feminist theme in them, pushing back against that sexism. But the message tends to be mixed, with the movie expressing a sexist attitude one minute and a feminist attitude the next. No more is this so than in "It Came from Beneath the Sea."Joyce's colleague is Dr. John Carter. They have both been called in to investigate a hunk of mysterious substance that got caught in the diving plane of Mathews' submarine. When Joyce definitively determines the nature of the substance, a piece of giant octopus, Carter kisses her on the cheek, and then she nestles in his arms as Mathews calls Naval Intelligence. If they were actually involved romantically, this would not be so strange. But they are not. As a result, we get that strange mixture of feminism and sexism: on the one hand, she is the expert in her field and has found the solution; on the other hand, she is a pretty girl that men just naturally kiss and hold in their arms, even when that man is a colleague in a professional setting.On their last night in Pearl Harbor, they all decide to have dinner together at a restaurant. After Mathews and Joyce dance for a while, we think that Mathews is going to try to kiss her, but she moves her head forward and kisses him instead and then puts her arms around him. So, contrary to appearances, she is a sexually aggressive woman. Then they return to the table and have their meal. When Mathews realizes that Joyce still intends to go to Cairo to study the Red Sea with Carter, he is shocked. Presumably, he thought that since they kissed, she was going to give up all this foolishness about a career, marry him, and have babies. He leaves in a huff.Their plans to go to Cairo, however, are foiled by the disappearance of a tramp steamer. In order to get the facts, a doctor examines the survivors. After the first survivor tells his story, the doctor decides he needs the care of a psychiatrist. The other three survivors, not wanting to be committed to a mental institution, deny having seen anything. They are given lie-detector tests, which show that they are lying about not seeing anything. And then the first survivor recants his story so that he can be released from the infirmary. Mathews and the other officers are exasperated and just don't understand why they can't get the truth out of these guys.Professor Joyce rises to the occasion. Removing her coat so as to expose a little more of her soft, warm flesh, she tells the officers she will talk to the first survivor when he is released, and then contrives to be alone with him in a room. Using her womanly wiles—giving him sexy looks, touching his hand, showing a little leg—she gets the man to admit he saw the sea monster, which the officers hear through the intercom. So, you see, that's why we need female scientists, because they have special ways of getting to the truth.Mathews and Joyce decide to investigate reports of poor fishing along the northwest coast, because it may be that the octopus has been eating all the fish. They spot what might be called an octopus footprint on the beach and they send for Carter. When Carter arrives with the deputy sheriff, Mathews asks Carter to help him persuade Joyce to leave and let the Navy take over the job. When Carter asks what Joyce has to say about that, Mathews responds, "What's the difference what she says?" At that point, Carter proceeds to lecture Mathews about women: "There's a whole new breed who feel they're just as smart and just as courageous as men. And they are. They don't like to be overprotected. They don't like to have their initiative taken away from them."Joyce picks up the argument: "A, you'd want me to miss the opportunity to see this specimen, one that may never come again. B, you'd be making up my mind for me. And C, I not only don't like being pushed around, but you underestimate my ability to help in a crisis." Carter says that he is entirely on her side, as she nestles into the arm her puts around her. Mathews concedes to having lost the argument.Suddenly, the octopus appears and kills the deputy, causing Joyce to scream like a girl.The octopus starts wreaking havoc on San Francisco, Mathews and Carter take turns saving each other's lives, during which Joyce screams again, finding solace first in Carter's arms and then Mathews', until at last the octopus is killed.They have dinner again. Mathews, saying that women can change, says he wants Joyce to marry him and start a family. She says she hasn't time for that and offers to collaborate with him on a book, "How to Catch a Sea Beast." Mathews tells Carter he is right about this new breed of women.

I can't tell you how many times I tried to catch this flick over a span of years but was always stymied in the attempt. Chalk it up to bad timing, falling asleep or missing it in the cable listings. I might have blown this one too but thanks to DVR, even nodding off would have had a remedy.The first thing I noticed here was that the black and white transfer I viewed on Turner Classics was phenomenally crisp and offered a first rate viewing experience. Ray Harryhausen's monster effects and the film makers' stop motion wizardry really brought a level of sophistication to this otherwise B grade sci-fi/horror film. Granted, the action isn't what modern day viewers would expect given the prevalence of CGI, but for the mid-Fifties, this was pretty cool.But you know, the picture had it's share of goofs too, and it's the kind of stuff I live for with these old pictures. Remember when the airplane pilot spotted the pair of survivors in the rubber dinghy after the sailors abandoned ship during the first attack? When the scene transitions to the naval hospital, there are four men brought in! Then this next scene, I had to wonder whether it was intentional or not because it was just so ironic. In the lab where the scientists and Commander Pete Matthews (Kenneth Tobey) are working, there's a prominently displayed sign that says 'No Smoking', but the commander spends his entire time taking drags on his cigarette.But the one that really doubled me over was when Commander Matthews and Professor Joyce (Faith Domergue) are on the beach investigating the latest missing person headline, and the professor explains to the Admiral that the potential sea monster probably hasn't gone away from the area. Yet she and the commander are out in the ocean swimming!Well if you can take your sci-fi with a grain of sea salt, this is probably one of the better giant mutant due to atomic radiation flicks you're likely to come up with from the era. The octopus attack on the Golden Gate Bridge was a pretty creative affair, and if you're going to make a stand for humanity, you might as well have the movie heroes blow the monster all to hell with an explosive torpedo. It sure does rule out a sequel though.

The least of all of Ray Harryhausen's monsters simply because of the claustrophobic nature of of the beast itself. It is amazing how much life he was able to animate in such an inanimate creature that basically has only a few real life movements.All of the scenes with "It" are interesting but a bit repetitive. After all one tentacle looks like another (no matter how many there are). This is the one Harryhausen film that the creature scenes look "inserted". The back story is as clunky as it gets and the usually reliable B movie leads are stiffer and less interesting than usual and the military shots are straight and completely without interest, as are all the other side characters and action.Do yourself a favor and save this one for last to complete the essential Ray Harryhausen collection. By the way his best film is...The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1957).

A gigantic radioactive octopus makes a bee-line for San Francisco. Meanwhile, rugged Navy Captain Pete Matthews (well played by the always dependable Kenneth Tobey) has to find some way to stop the beast before it's too late. Director Robert Gordon, working from a compact script by George Worthing Yates, relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, maintains a serious tone throughout, and stages the monster attack scenes with aplomb (the sequence with the big creature destroying the Golden Gate Bridge rates as the definite exciting highlight). The solid acting from the competent cast helps a lot: Tobey does well in one of his customary stalwart hero roles, the lovely Faith Domergue holds her own as the feisty Professor Lesley Joyce, and Donald Curtis contributes a sturdy turn as the esteemed Dr. John Carter. Ray Harryhausen's typically fine and fluid stop-motion animation does an ace job of bringing the slimy behemoth to life. Moreover, there's a surprisingly radical and progressive subtext concerning Professor Joyce, there's an earnest quality to this picture that's impossible to dislike, and the inevitable romance between Matthews and Joyce provides a good deal of sweet charm thanks to the strong chemistry between Tobey and Domergue. Both Henry Freulich's stark black and white cinematography and Mischa Bakaleinikoff's robust'n'rousing score are up to snuff. An immensely entertaining giant monster movie.