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That is how physicist Thomas Nesbitt (Paul Christian) sums up another scientist skeptical reaction to the alleged appearance of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, a prehistoric dinosaur awakened by a nuclear bomb test. The film follows Nesbitt's attempts to alert everybody after his first encounter with the beast in the Arctic. An encounter that everybody dismisses as a moment of delirium.
And there is a good deal of that skepticism, as Nesbitt goes around from his military friends to fellow scientists. He is eventually joined by Dr. Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) and his young assistant Lee (Paula Raymond), but the film takes almost an hour to finally confirm the existence of the beast to the higher uppers, when it is already too late.
But regardless of the scientific push-and-pull from the story, this is a film about a giant lizard wreaking havoc, and in that aspect, the film delivers. The special effects and stop-motion animation of the beast are quite impressive and wonderful to look at. One notable example is the moment when the beast destroys a lighthouse, which results in a very visually striking moment (hence my inclusion of it here), but the scenes in the city halfway through, or the closing ones in Coney Island are just as good.
The toxic blood in the last act was a nice twist, but I don't think the way it was executed and eventually solved was that effective. Still, at 80 minutes, the film doesn't overstay its welcome and offers enough destruction and solid special effects for any fans of the genre.
Grade:
THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS
(1953, Lourié)
(1953, Lourié)
"A prehistoric animal would be presumptuous to be alive today and upset your neatly cataloged theories."
That is how physicist Thomas Nesbitt (Paul Christian) sums up another scientist skeptical reaction to the alleged appearance of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, a prehistoric dinosaur awakened by a nuclear bomb test. The film follows Nesbitt's attempts to alert everybody after his first encounter with the beast in the Arctic. An encounter that everybody dismisses as a moment of delirium.
And there is a good deal of that skepticism, as Nesbitt goes around from his military friends to fellow scientists. He is eventually joined by Dr. Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) and his young assistant Lee (Paula Raymond), but the film takes almost an hour to finally confirm the existence of the beast to the higher uppers, when it is already too late.
But regardless of the scientific push-and-pull from the story, this is a film about a giant lizard wreaking havoc, and in that aspect, the film delivers. The special effects and stop-motion animation of the beast are quite impressive and wonderful to look at. One notable example is the moment when the beast destroys a lighthouse, which results in a very visually striking moment (hence my inclusion of it here), but the scenes in the city halfway through, or the closing ones in Coney Island are just as good.
The toxic blood in the last act was a nice twist, but I don't think the way it was executed and eventually solved was that effective. Still, at 80 minutes, the film doesn't overstay its welcome and offers enough destruction and solid special effects for any fans of the genre.
Grade: