CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

utgard14 1950s sci-fi monster movie about a giant octopus attacking ships and submarines. The Navy doesn't like it one bit. Slow-going with the monster octopus not fully showing up until three-quarters into the picture. Far too much focus in the first half on the nauseating romantic drama involving Kenneth Tobey's sub commander and scientists Faith Domergue and Donald Curtis. There is some fun to be had with the clichéd characters and some of their corny lines ("When you're driving that atomic submarine of yours, do you have time for romance?"). All of the octopus scenes are fun and the last quarter of the movie is the most interesting, due to the stop-motion effects from the legendary Ray Harryhausen. I normally love movies like this and would rate it higher, but it's just so talky and the romance makes me want to puke.

disinterested_spectator Faith Domergue had a cold beauty that made her suitable as female scientist Professor Leslie Joyce. The stereotype of the cold, hard scientist whose intellect does not allow itself to be swayed by mere sentiment and feeling was especially prevalent in the old science fiction movies, and thus a beautiful female scientist constituted a special challenge for a macho man, used to having his way with ordinary women. In this movie, said macho man is Commander Pete Mathews.A lot of old movies are sexist by twenty-first century standards, but science fiction movies from the 1950s, with their inevitable beautiful female scientists, often have a feminist theme in them, pushing back against that sexism. But the message tends to be mixed, with the movie expressing a sexist attitude one minute and a feminist attitude the next. No more is this so than in "It Came from Beneath the Sea."Joyce's colleague is Dr. John Carter. They have both been called in to investigate a hunk of mysterious substance that got caught in the diving plane of Mathews' submarine. When Joyce definitively determines the nature of the substance, a piece of giant octopus, Carter kisses her on the cheek, and then she nestles in his arms as Mathews calls Naval Intelligence. If they were actually involved romantically, this would not be so strange. But they are not. As a result, we get that strange mixture of feminism and sexism: on the one hand, she is the expert in her field and has found the solution; on the other hand, she is a pretty girl that men just naturally kiss and hold in their arms, even when that man is a colleague in a professional setting.On their last night in Pearl Harbor, they all decide to have dinner together at a restaurant. After Mathews and Joyce dance for a while, we think that Mathews is going to try to kiss her, but she moves her head forward and kisses him instead and then puts her arms around him. So, contrary to appearances, she is a sexually aggressive woman. Then they return to the table and have their meal. When Mathews realizes that Joyce still intends to go to Cairo to study the Red Sea with Carter, he is shocked. Presumably, he thought that since they kissed, she was going to give up all this foolishness about a career, marry him, and have babies. He leaves in a huff.Their plans to go to Cairo, however, are foiled by the disappearance of a tramp steamer. In order to get the facts, a doctor examines the survivors. After the first survivor tells his story, the doctor decides he needs the care of a psychiatrist. The other three survivors, not wanting to be committed to a mental institution, deny having seen anything. They are given lie-detector tests, which show that they are lying about not seeing anything. And then the first survivor recants his story so that he can be released from the infirmary. Mathews and the other officers are exasperated and just don't understand why they can't get the truth out of these guys.Professor Joyce rises to the occasion. Removing her coat so as to expose a little more of her soft, warm flesh, she tells the officers she will talk to the first survivor when he is released, and then contrives to be alone with him in a room. Using her womanly wiles—giving him sexy looks, touching his hand, showing a little leg—she gets the man to admit he saw the sea monster, which the officers hear through the intercom. So, you see, that's why we need female scientists, because they have special ways of getting to the truth.Mathews and Joyce decide to investigate reports of poor fishing along the northwest coast, because it may be that the octopus has been eating all the fish. They spot what might be called an octopus footprint on the beach and they send for Carter. When Carter arrives with the deputy sheriff, Mathews asks Carter to help him persuade Joyce to leave and let the Navy take over the job. When Carter asks what Joyce has to say about that, Mathews responds, "What's the difference what she says?" At that point, Carter proceeds to lecture Mathews about women: "There's a whole new breed who feel they're just as smart and just as courageous as men. And they are. They don't like to be overprotected. They don't like to have their initiative taken away from them."Joyce picks up the argument: "A, you'd want me to miss the opportunity to see this specimen, one that may never come again. B, you'd be making up my mind for me. And C, I not only don't like being pushed around, but you underestimate my ability to help in a crisis." Carter says that he is entirely on her side, as she nestles into the arm her puts around her. Mathews concedes to having lost the argument.Suddenly, the octopus appears and kills the deputy, causing Joyce to scream like a girl.The octopus starts wreaking havoc on San Francisco, Mathews and Carter take turns saving each other's lives, during which Joyce screams again, finding solace first in Carter's arms and then Mathews', until at last the octopus is killed.They have dinner again. Mathews, saying that women can change, says he wants Joyce to marry him and start a family. She says she hasn't time for that and offers to collaborate with him on a book, "How to Catch a Sea Beast." Mathews tells Carter he is right about this new breed of women.

mark.waltz Judy Garland once sang, "I never will forget Jeanette MacDonald standing in the middle of the rubble and singing". Who would have thought that 49 years after the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 that the city by the bay would be attacked by a giant octopus who was definitely much bigger than King Kong and equally as high as the Empire State Building. But this squid with the giant plunger like suckers on his tentacles (which left manhole sized marks on the sandy beaches of the Pacific Coast) could literally climb up out of the ocean, hugging the Embarcadero and reaching his tentacles far down Market Street to cause all sort of disaster. Considering that MacDonald's character might have been only in her early 80's when the event with the octopus occurred, she very well could have witnessed it, and as the rubble fell, screamed, "Oh no, not again!" This is a very enjoyable science fiction monster movie, a product of the nuclear age and a reminder of what real life science might be capable of. Faith Domergue, once the protégée of Howard Hughes during his executive years as head of RKO, is a very intelligent scientist working with the military on the obvious presence of something lurking under the sea. Kenneth Tobey is the Navy commander she strikes up a friendship with, and fortunately, the romantic element of the movie is underplayed as Domergue is seriously a 50's career woman, still beautiful and desirable, but determined to find a way to stop this beast with eight tentacles before she deals with the beast with two arms.She explains this isn't the first case of a giant octopus coming out of the sea, having found evidence of such creatures back in the 14th century off the coast of Denmark after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It's obvious that these creatures lie dormant in the outer reaches of the ocean floor, only rising when disturbed. This monster makes a dramatic entrance, taking down a raised submarine and pretty much killing the entire crew. Those who laugh at its possible existence end up regretting it (if they live to remember it), and those driving down California State Highway 480 will surely get a visual to remember, if they make it past Market Street.Excellent special effects make this one of the best of the nuclear age science fiction monster movies with decent performances and a brisk pace. It isn't nearly as good as "20 Million Miles to Earth" which humanized the monster, but it is still gripping. Who will ever forget the octopus coming out of the sea and revealing not only its tentacles but its huge head as it prepares to destroy a submarine, its sudden appearance on the beach and its efforts to take down the Golden Gate Bridge before it makes its way over to the Embarcadero. San Francisco has had many car chase movies and several films about its different shake-ups, but to see something of this size taking down some of the most famous west coast tourist attractions is a wonderful movie memory to cherish and to enthrall science fiction fans for decades to come.

Scott LeBrun "It Came from Beneath the Sea" may get overshadowed by movies like "Them!" and "Tarantula" when it comes to the giant monster movies of the Atomic Age, but it's a good and enjoyable example of the genre.The "It" of the title is an enormous octopus that has become radioactive thanks to A Bomb testing and, because its prey can now be alerted to its presence, it's been forced to move out of its natural habitat and look for sustenance elsewhere. Among the people figuring out how to track down the beast and destroy it are intrepid submarine commander Pete Matthews (Kenneth Tobey) and scientists Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) and John Carter (Donald Curtis).The movie is typical of its kind in the way that an ever present narrator provides us with a generous amount of exposition. It is admittedly somewhat slow and dialogue heavy much of the time, and truthfully doesn't feature a whole lot of good octopus action, but in a way this does help in the appreciation of all of those moments when the monster makes its presence known.This was the first collaboration between producer Charles H. Schneer and legendary stop motion expert Ray Harryhausen, and Harryhausen's effects are as always quite fun to watch. Even if budget constraints necessitated the octopus possess six tentacles rather than eight, the effects still work incredibly well. Robert Gordon's direction is efficient right down the line, up to the big finish which is equal parts exciting and suspenseful. Of course, with an engaging Tobey in the lead, this is highly watchable on that merit alone, as he'd proved himself a reliable hero in this and the other 50's science fiction efforts "The Thing from Another World" and "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". The beautiful Domergue is good, with her character in the mold of other leading ladies from the era: intelligent and capable, and more than eye candy. Curtis is solid in a no-nonsense role and the three main characters also figure in a love triangle that takes up a little too much of the running time. A fine supporting cast also includes Ian Keith, Dean Maddox Jr., Chuck Griffiths, Harry Lauter, Richard W. Peterson, and Del Courtney. Anybody who enjoys the genre, Harryhausen's work, or the actors is sure to have a good time with "It Came from Beneath the Sea".Seven out of 10.