Terrifying Tuesdays: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

From Alchetron

"The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (1953) is loosely based on the Ray Bradbury tale "The Fog Horn" described in yesterday's post.  The movie was already in production under the working title "Monster from the Sea" when the producers found out that Bradbury had just sold his story, which was originally entitled "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms", for publication.  The movie studio bought the rights to the story and changed the name of their movie to that of the short story.  Bradbury later changed the name of his story to differentiate it from the movie.

This film is notable for being the first in which well-known animator Ray Harryhausen had full charge of the technical effects and premiered his signature stop-motion model animation technique known as "Dynamation".  The plot involves the revival from suspended animation of a fictional dinosaur called the Rhedosaurus by the detonation on an atomic bomb in the Arctic Circle.  The creature then makes its way to its ancient spawning grounds off the coast of New York City, leaving a swath of destruction in its wake.  The film was a financial success at the time of its release, and is quite well-done for the atomic bomb monster movie genre, of which it was one of the first to be produced.  You can watch the film here or here.  (Be sure to look for the scene starting at about minute 42:53, which is a fairly close reenactment of the Bradbury short story, although minus the fog horn or any empathy for the beast!)

Gore Guide (0=none to 5=extreme): 0

From Jim Lane's Cinedrome