Main Cast: Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis, Ian Keith, Dean Maddox, Jr.
Release Year: 1955
Country: US
Run Time: 78 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
It Came From Beneath the Sea was the first of several fruitful collaborations between producer Charles H. Schneer and special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen. "It" is a giant, six-tentacled octopus, which is galvanized into action by an H-bomb test. Worse still, the monster is highly radioactive, rendering useless the normal means of defense against it. Scientists Donald Curtis and Faith Domergue team with atomic-submarine commander Kenneth Tobey to halt the creature's progress before it begins to attack major coastal cities. Alas, the monster manages to reach San Francisco, wreaking havoc on the Golden Gate Bridge, the Ferry Building, and Market Street before Tobey figures out a way to destroy it. The stop-motion animation utilized by Harryhausen in It Came From Beneath Sea is convincingly frightening, but before long he'd top this achievement with such superb projects as Earth vs. Flying Saucers and Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
It's easy to underestimate It Came From Beneath The Sea 50 years after its release. Not only have there been lots of monster-on-the-loose thrillers since, butits own creators, special effects designer Ray Harryhausen and producer Charles H. Schneer, have done much more obivously impressive work together during the ensuing 25 years. What's more, Harryhausen's earlier Beast From 20,000 Fathoms had a more haunting set of images scattered throughout its length. It Came From Beneath The Sea, however, had its own virtues that aren't entirely lost today, if you take the trouble to spot them. As a sci-fi film, it also utilized elements of the documentary, with a narration that makes the first half of the movie seem almost like a newsreel, which gives the action a greater immediacy than could be communicated by any plot summary. The script, by George Worthing Yates and Hal Smith, also drew from the best available model of its era, following the lead of Gordon Douglas's Them! (1954) by interweaving elements of mystery in the movie's first half-hour. And the film contained an extremely potent topical element -- the first 12 minutes of the movie are a realistic depiction of an atomic submarine on maneuvers, in a time when nuclear submarines were the scientific marvel of the moment. This is all presented in a cool, clipped realistic manner, with a strong but convincingly stated macho tone (which will figure prominently in the interaction of two of the key characters later in the movie); indeed, It Came From Beneath The Sea may well have been the earliest screen depiction of a nuclear sub in action, at a time when ships like the submarine Nautilus were making headlines and history around the world. It all served to make the first quarter hour of the film almost irresistably suspenseful, and gave Harryhausen one of the best lead-ins that one could ask for, for his effects -- luckily, the latter lived up to the anticipation and the movie ended up packing a powerful visual punch in its time, especially the scenes of the destruction of well known pieces of San Francisco real estate. What's more, the screenplay engaged in some interesting (though partly unfulfilled) sex-role by-play between the Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, and Donald Curtis characters, and also included an interesting subtext about the nature of bureaucracy -- the manner in which the survivors of the first shipwreck are treated nearly short-circuits the investigation before it begins, and the depiction of the inability of bureaucrats to deal with answers they don't expect or want are all strangely honest and disquieting, almost subversive elements to turn up in a mid-1950's mainstream movie. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Harry Lauter - Bill Nash; Del Courtney - Robert Chase; Tol Avery - Navy Intern; Ray Storey - Reporter; Rudy Puteska - Hall; Jack Littlefield - Aston; Jules Irving - King; Eddie Fisher - McLoed; Lt. C. Griffiths - Graff; Captain R. Peterson - Capt. Stacy
Credit
Paul Palmentola - Art Director, Leonard Katzman - First Assistant Director, Robert Gordon - Director, Jerome Thoms - Editor, Sam Katzman - Executive Producer, Mischa Bakaleinikoff - Composer (Music Score), Mischa Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Henry Freulich - Cinematographer, Charles H. Schneer - Producer, Sidney Clifford - Set Designer, Ray Harryhausen - Special Effects, Jack Erickson - Special Effects, Josh Westmoreland - Sound/Sound Designer, Hal Smith - Screenwriter, George Worthing Yates - Screenwriter
A nuclear submarine on patrol maneuvers in the Pacific Ocean captained by Commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey), comes into contact with something the sonar determines is massive. The boat is disabled but manages to free itself and dock at Pearl Harbor. There it is discovered animal tissue of great proportions has jammed in its propellers. A man-and-woman team of marine biologists, Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) and John Carter (Donald Curtis), is called in, and they identify the tissue as part of a gigantic octopus. Over the following two weeks, as John and Lesley continue their investigation, Pete shows a personal interest in Lesley, who is only anxious to return to her own research. The military authorities scoff at this explanation, but are finally persuaded to investigate upon receiving reports of missing bathers, and ships pulled under the water by some living thing. The scientists conclude the octopus is from the Mindanao Deep and has been forced out of its natural habitat due to hydrogen bomb testing in the area. The testing has rendered the octopus radioactive, and this radioactivity drives off its natural food supply.[2]
John and Lesley speculate that unexplained disappearances of a Japanese fishing fleet and a Siberian seal boat may have been due to the octopus. Pete and the Navy representatives express doubt over this hypothesis, however, and demand further proof. Later, as Pete assists John and Lesley with departure arrangements, a report comes in of an attack on a French shipping boat, from which several men escaped in a raft. John and Lesley are once again pressed into service for the government. The French survivors are questioned by psychiatrists, but when the first sailor's description of an attack by a creature with giant tentacles is met with skepticism, the other sailors refuse to testify. Lesley is able to convince the first sailor to repeat his story for the government officials, who now have the evidence they need to back up the scientists' premise. The government then halts all sea traffic in the North Pacific without revealing the reason to other countries. John flies out to sea to trace a missing ship, while Pete and Lesley follow up a report of three missing people on the coast of Oregon.
The local sheriff, Bill Nash (Harry Lauter), takes them to the site of the attack along the beach, where they find a giant suction imprint in the sand and request that John join them. While waiting, Pete and Lesley fish all day to no avail, and are convinced that the giant creature may be in the vicinity. After John arrives and the imprint is definitively identified as octopus, Pete demands Lesley leave the project, which now threatens to become dangerous, but she steadfastly refuses.
When Bill is attacked along the beach by the creature in front of the scientists, they hastily arrange for the entire Pacific coast waters to be mined before departing for San Francisco and the Navy's central headquarters. An electrified safety net is strung underwater across the entrance to San Francisco Bay to protect the Golden Gate Bridge, which is also wired. John takes a helicopter along the shore and baits the sea with dead sharks in an effort to lure the octopus back inland. Lesley demonstrates to reporters a special jet-propelled atomic torpedo, with which they hope to shoot the creature and then drive it to sea before detonating the device. Later that day, the giant octopus demolishes the net across the Bay and heads toward San Francisco.
The Navy orders the Golden Gate Bridge abandoned, but when John learns that the electric circuit on the bridge remains on, races out to shut it off. The bridge is attacked by the creature, but Pete rescues John before one section collapses. The residents of the city panic and begin a mass exodus down the peninsula, as the Navy struggles to evacuate the Embarcadero and the Ferry Building, which is then battered by the octopus. When several more people are attacked, the Defense Department authorizes Pete to launch his submarine and the atomic warhead. John joins Pete while Lesley remains at the base. Flame throwers push the octopus back into the sea, but when Pete shoots the creature, it grabs the submarine. Using an aqualung, Pete swims out to the octopus and places explosive charges on it before being knocked out by the creature's flailing arms. John then swims out, shoots the octopus in the eye, forcing it to release the ship, and pulls Pete to safety. Back at the base, as the creature turns toward open sea, the torpedo is detonated, destroying the giant octopus. Later, while celebrating, Lesley agrees to continue seeing Pete after she and John finish their next research project.[3]
Trivia
Ever budget-conscious, producer Katzman allowed Ray Harryhausen only enough money to animate six of the octopus' arms and two were cut off. Thus, Harryhausen jokingly dubbed this creature a "hextapus" (Reference: The documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles", which is available on the DVDs of various Harryhausen films). The number of arms is incorrectly described as five in various sources, including A Pictorial History of Science Fiction Films, by Jeff Rovin, p. 63, Citadel Press, Secaucus, New Jersey.[4]
