The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms

The good old days! Years in which atomic experiments could awaken monster very angry. Today it works a little, or at least would be more successful an awake by "global warming" more realistic, more disturbing but far less charming. Such is life and that's what we see in this 1953’s film, in which the ices of Antarctica exlopind (re)ving  life to a hibernate dinosaur.

It must be said that the "break the ice"of "The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms” was also picked in reality, in fact this film has opened and pushed the genre of angry monsters, atomic-destroyers that from 1953 onwards have been raging for several years on the big screen."Them"," Godzilla " "Tarantula" etc.etc.

You could say that before arrived "King Kong", true, and certainly it gave some inspiration to the whole, but the ape of Fray Way was far from the angry-radioactivity of successors.

The explosion then "The Beast ..." was also strong at the box office giving inspiration but also the desire to the French-American director Eugene Lourie to continue to work with atomic monsters.

"The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms" (ie, the monster of 36,575 meters), is an enjoyable sci-fi  that traveling on canvas of characters and story, typical of the era.

They are all carpeted elegance, good manners and a firm "savoir-faire" sometimes well beyond measure. The attendance then is no surprise: there is the hero, not very sharp here, the beautiful scientist with whom the hero has a chaste "flirt", and the wise old scientist destined to a bad end, and all a series of "sacrifices" that begin with the little armed police and military have more to spend. Do not forget the large group of leaders and managers known to be skeptical. Everything runs wonderfully, however, and the result is excellent.

After the usual nuclear test, a dinosaur, "Rhedosaurus", to be exact, returns to the surface starting to spread terror and panic from Antarctica to New York. In the Big Apple then the carnage is devastating and to make matters worse the monster sowing a toxic virus.

On his life investigating Tom Nesbitt, a scientist, Dr. Hunter and the wise old Dr. Elson.

Great use of special effects, well done for the time, created by Ray Harryhausen,who worked with Willis O'Brien the creator of King Kong, who later became very important for the industry. Here goes appreciated the precise and effective work of "Stop Motion".

A monster film, gender can not escape from having a number of curiosities and controversies. These include the fact that the film was advertised as inspired by Ray Bradbury.

The writer wrote a story with a prehistoric monster that destroyed a lighthouse titled "The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms." The producers of the film Dietz and Chester, in the meantime had in hand the screenplay for the film "Monster from Beneath the Sea" which included a similar scene to the story bought the rights to the script, then changing the title of the film in what we know. Bradbury later changed the title of the story in "The Fog Horn,"

Another unusual feature was that the music written by Michel Michelet and then replaced by Warner Bros.,which bought the film rights, with those of David Buttolph that despite being in its Once a substitute for first-Warner, Max Steiner composed a soundtrack more than worthy.

Also in the cast are some curiosities: a young Lee Van Cleef and an equally young James Best. If we must not lose in the first explanation, instead refer to the second TV movie "Duke Of Hazzard" in which Best played the awkward and bad Rosco P. Coltrane.

Paula Raymond is the beautiful scientist Hunter. MGM actress starred with Cary Grant and Dick Powell, a career that seemed on the rise, but then ended up in b-horror movies and television shows, as well as a curious dismissal of a soap opera in 1977 for having broken the ' hip stumbled over a telephone wire.

Cecil Kellaway is the senior and expert Professor Elson. South African actor has been for years in the Australian film actor and director before you try their luck in Hollywood and vain enough to return to Australia.