Boom. In the first twenty second there is so much American pride and glory to embarrass the entire filmography of John Wayne. Nuclear submarine. Sea. Flags. But the second half of the first minute the phrase "The mind of man had thought of everything...except that which was beyond his comprehension" destroy the whole glittering structure. Boom. Titles that flow from bottom to top.

Then we know that there is a monster that comes from the depths of the sea, there is a great cast, and that there is also the great Ray Harryhausen at special effects. It’s a promising film of 1955 with a clear theme with an angry monster awakened/created by the nuclear tests. A movie that warn about the nuclear risks.

But the initial sprint is lost minute by minute, and brings "It Came From beneath The Sea” in the territories, where the chatter takes the place of action. Plans, projects and so on rolled out by the three classic characters of the genre, the hero, the beautiful and the professor. Words and words, which makes it all a bit 'boring, leaving to the monster moved by Ray Harryhausen the task of waking the viewer.

It must be said with that "It Came From Beneath The Sea" is not a bad movie, because it follows all the dogmas of the genre. The disaster, discovery, countermoves, men sacrifice, desperation and the final solution that takes place as usual at the time, in the last minutes. But as we said, is a boring movie that takes us automatically to an almost embarrassing comparison with the other monsters of the time, especially with the unreachable "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" with which shares Ray Harryhausen, Kenneth Tobey the basic idea, however transposed the other side of the United States, in San Francisco.

An octopus lives quietly in the Mindanao Deep, the third deepest trench in the world, not far from the Philippines. The man ruin its habitat and the nuclear tests make it radioactive and easily to see by its prey, so the octopus looking for other food. Among its tentacles end up several ships, several sailors and part of the city of San Francisco (who did not like much this advertising) with the Golden Gate. To try to remedy this problem there are the smart commander Pete Mathews (the reliable Kenneth Tobey familiar face to monsters) the beautiful biologist Lesley Joyce, played by Faith Domergue and Professor John Carter (Donald Curtis). There is the support of the US navy and US army that provides weapons but also men for the lunch of the monster.

Despite the chaos was generated by nuclear Americans, the film is very strong patriotic and sexist, as we can see by the phrase that we have listed below the title. A phrase that seems to say, that yes, as a genre requires, there must be a beautiful girl, but slowly and above all she must not break the balls.

The film by Robert Gordon saw sixty years later shows all its narrative and ideas limitations and at the same time gives us once again the opportunity to appreciate the great art of Ray Harryhausen. One of the greatest experts in special effects and stop motion that has influenced an endless number of directors; here he worked with a budget that allows him to have a monster with six tentacles instead of eight. With skillful moves he hides the problem and achieves a great job. With this film, among other things he began working with producer Charles Schneer a collaboration ended twenty-six years later.

Title: It Came From Beneath The Sea

Alternative titles: Monster from Beneath the Sea (Alternate), The Sea Beast (Argentina), Paniek in San Francisco, Panique à San Francisco (Belgium), O Monstro do Mar Revolto (Brazil), The Fair Sea (Chile), surgio fund Sea (Spain), Merenpohjan hirviö (Finland), Le monstre vient de la mer (France), To ypovryhion teras, Το Υποβρύχιον Τέρας (Greece), Beneath the Sea (Italy), Het monster van de zeebodem ( Netherlands), To przyszlo z glebin morza (Poland), O Octopus (Portugal), Došlo je iz morskih Dubina (Serbia), The Sea Beast (Venezuela), Das Grauen aus der Tiefe (Germany)

Year: 1955

Country: USA

Director: Robert Gordon

Cast: Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis, Ian Keith, Dean Maddox Jr, Chuck Griffiths, Harry Lauter, Richard W.Peterson

Production Company: Clover Productions