BF20KF (How's that for a shorten-er!?) has Ray Harryhausen's splendid effects to thank for its continued longevity; the patience he must have had, and the devotion and love of his craft he possessed, show through in every frame of the Rhedosaur's screen time. It is, of course, an entirely fictional dinosaur, and the first two letters of its name uncannily match those of a certain animator....:) Our titanic friend is thawed out from the Arctic ice during an A-Bomb test in an impressive (apart from the obvious stock footage used) opening sequence. And like all self respecting prehistoric Dinos do, heads for New York, Tokyo presumably being a bit too far away."Sometimes I feel as if we were writing the first chapter of New Genesis.""Let's hope we're not writing the last chapter of the old." This exchange early in the film between two scientists places us firmly in the Nuclear Age paranoia of the 50s. And let's face it, that dilemma is still with us. Is all progress good? This sort of thing was done in countless sci-fi movies of the era, of course. But the succinct dialogue here really makes the point. Surprising to find such good writing in a B-movie monster flick. At least it is if you have seen as many of them as I have!Along the way we meet up with Cecil Kellaway's Paeloentologist (always welcome) his assistant, who is one of the few female leads in this type of movie that doesn't succumb to hysterics at some point, and a brilliant scene where the monster demolishes a remote lighthouse in Maine, thereby probably inspiring Stephen King. This is loosely taken from Ray Bradbury's short story The Fog Horn, and is tremendously effective.When the Rhedy gets to New York he goes the King Kong route to introducing himself to the Big Apple's citizens, though he avoids The Empire State Building and lands up at Coney Island instead. A young Lee Van Cleef plays the sharpshooter who shoots him down with radioactive isotope.Overall this is a watchable and very well done monster movie, produced, I believe, on a budget of only $150,000. Kong cost about four times that twenty years earlier. One of Harryhausen's great innovations was to get the cost of shooting stop motion to manageable proportions. His creations have real feeling behind them. Does today's CGI?

A ferocious dinosaur awakened by an Arctic atomic test terrorizes the North Atlantic and, ultimately, New York City.When producers Dietz and Chester were negotiating with Bradbury to rewrite their screenplay, he reminded them that both works shared a similar theme of a prehistoric sea monster and a lighthouse being destroyed. The producers, who wished to share Bradbury's reputation and popularity, promptly bought the rights to his story and changed the film's title.The film is worth watching because of the involvement of Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen, as well as having a supporting role from Lee Van Cleef. It may not be amazing, but the effects are rather good and it is a piece of 1950s science cheese that can be enjoyed if you just suspend disbelief for an hour.Most interesting is the alleged influence this movie had on "Godzilla". This film is semi-forgotten, or at least not widely seen. But it had a dinosaur rise following an atomic blast and then destroy a city, trampling the army and electricity in its path. Sounds like Godzilla! And indeed, this was a primary influence on the Japanese monster film, which has since become one of the most culturally important films in horror / monster history. So maybe "Beast" needs to be respected just a little bit more.

Monster movies in the 50s were excelling and many companies started to make made low budget sci fi movies that sometimes raked in millions more than they put in. This was the B movie age and this is probably the biggest of these.This is my review on The Beast from 20000 Fathoms.The plot is very simple.A beast gets woken up from an ice glacier when a bomb goes off in the area. It starts attacking boats and lighthouses before eventually landing on the city of New York and running amok.This is probably the birth of the Giant monster movie craze. apart from King Kong and the lost world, no one had really seen this type of movie before. A enormous lizard roaming around the city of New York destroying everything in it's path. It was really scary in those days!! Now when I watch a film with stop motion animation I instantly give a mark to the final score if it's done right. After all, anyone who can use this wonderful film technique deserves it. This film is no exception and the animation it uses is top notch. Who could blame it if the animator of the film is none other than Ray Harryhausen, master of film stop motion animation. The effects are marvellous from the lighthouse scene to the fairground sequence at the end. The Beast itself is just brilliantly made- I wouldn't mind having one of those myself! The characters are inspiring but forgettable. You won't remember their names by the end of the film- Garenteed. However they was a sweet cameo appearance that I was really pleased about-Lee Van Cleef. Yes, old angel eyes makes an appearance and is actually responsible for the downfall of the mighty creature. I'm really glad they put him in; Hardly any lines of duologue but the fact he was there makes up for it.The city scenes are action packed and are a spectacle to be seen in HD with good sound. It's only out on DVD to my knowledge but even on the DVD it looks mighty fine. The monster jumps through buildings and smashes cars. he destroys a whole theme park. is there anything that can stop this monster!? Well, like in all Monster movies, they kill off the good monster. The beast is my favourite movie monster ever and to see him die was quite sad. He gets shot by a special gun that shoots unique bullets that kill the monster in seconds. It pains me to watch the last scene where he rolls about in pain then finally dies. I'm sure i'm not alone in thinking so.This has got to be the best Monster movie ever made. It's got action to die for, great scenes of suspense and will have you at the edge of your seat. I will go as far to say that this could be one of the best movies ever made.....

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is a real science fiction pleaser in which Ray Harryhausen invents his own creature, a Theseasarus. Say it quickly and it sounds like a reference book. In fact Harryhausen liked this one so much he used it again in a few films. Check some of his future work out and see what I mean. He had many cousins.Talk about global warming our military is conducting atomic tests in the Arctic Ocean and a hydrogen bomb blast awakens this creature from a long several million year slumber. Theseasaurus wakes up and heads for the only place where his fossils have been found, the Hudson Valley which is probably the Theseasaurus burial ground.Scientist Paul Hubschmid sees the thing after it wakes up, but nobody believes him at first. As other incidents occur he gains some converts which include paleontologists Cecil Kellaway and Paula Raymond. The military also gets involved in the persons of Kenneth Tobey and Donald Woods.It won't be easy to bring old Thesee down because when they do wound him contact with his blood is infecting anyone who comes near with some millions of years old germs which have died out and man has no immunity to. But our military is capable.When I first saw The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms decades ago I was scared out of my wits when Cecil Kellaway and a navy yeoman go down in a diving bell to observe the creature and midst description, the bell is swallowed whole in one gulp. Looking at it now I think how stupid is this, to be absolutely helpless in that bell, why would you do it in the first place. Saying that though it still is one of the most frightening moments I've ever seen in any science fiction film.Issues like global warming and cryogenic freezing are actually if superficially dealt with in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Even with its mythical dinosaur, the film still is marvelous fright entertainment.