It’s another case of a giant monster created by radiation. It starts in a fairly low-key way. A fisherman in Cornwall is found dead on the beach with symptoms that could suggest radiation burns. Plus there are thousands of dead fish. American marine biologist Steve Karnes (Gene Evans) certainly suspects that radiation could be the cause. Professor James Bickford (André Morell) is more cautious but he certainly intends to investigate. The body of the dead fisherman has already been buried but there’s another fisherman with burns on his hands which really do look very much like radiation burns.
Tests on the dead fish reveal lots of radioactivity and some strange cells.
Karnes has come up with a wild theory that they’re dealing with a gigantic sea monster, like the behemoth of biblical prophecy. Professor Bickford is sceptical at first but reluctantly comes around to the idea that Karnes may be right.
The wreck of a freighter seems to conform the sea monster theory. It’s hard to explain the damage to the ship in any other way.
A consultation with an eccentric palaeontologist provides more bad news. He’s convinced it’s a dinosaur and this type of dinosaur always returns to fresh water to die. And this beast is so radioactive it has to be dying. Which means it will try to return to the Thames to die. The palaeontologist also informs them that not only is this monster radioactive, it’s electric as well. Like an electric eel. So it can project radioactivity at anything in its path.
Pretty soon the monster is loose in the Thames. Some way has to be found to stop it but they can’t blow it up - they would spread radiation everywhere.
If you’re tired of seeing Tokyo get stomped by giant monsters this is your chance to see London get stomped instead.
The miniatures work is not too bad. As for the stop-motion effects, special effects legend Willis O’Brien was in charge. Some of the effects are excellent, some not so good. The location shooting in Cornwall for the early scenes is one of the highlights.
This movie has many similarities to the Eugène Lourié-directed 1953 monster flick The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms which is hardly surprising given that Lourié was involved in The Giant Behemoth as well.
André Morell was a fine actor and he gives the movie some gravitas and some class. Gene Evans is quite good as well.
The Giant Behemoth is played very straight. The subject matter might have suggested a high camp approach but the actual approach taken is the exact opposite with some real effort being put in to maintain tension and build atmosphere. The scientific stuff, while wildly far-fetched, is fun with some great 1950s high technology used to establish the nature of the threat.
For aviation geeks there’s some rare footage of an Armstrong-Whitworth Sea Hawk jet fighter.
The Warner Archive DVD release offers a very fine anamorphic transfer. Very unusually, there’s an audio commentary as well.
The Giant Behemoth is surprisingly effective. Despite the outlandish concept it’s never played for laughs. The impression it gives is that the people involved were trying to make a monster movie that was a cut above the usual run of such movies. To a certain extent they succeeded. It’s still a cheap monster movie but it’s a good cheap monster movie. Recommended.
3 comments:
I must see this. I think I have a copy somewhere. Thanks for the review, duder!
This one was quite scary to a young boy growing up in the 60's. The electric eel nature of the beast, causing it to project radiation, was pretty damn scary. Gene Evans really did a good job with this, and you rarely see Andre Morrell give a bad performance. I rather enjoyed the paleontologist with his "Oh, it's a pity it has to be destroyed" routine, only to be killed by the beast in the helicopter. Great movie!
I've just watched this on Blu-ray, which seems to be the DVD upscaled; the commentary is the only Special Feature. I liked this - some of it I found a bit too cliched, and the shot of Behemoth chasing people through the streets probably goes on a bit too long, although it's definitely the best effects sequence - really VERY good. But the good bits were very good. The cast is great and play it perfectly (I loved the boat captain who was more than happy to help Gene Evans chase after Behemoth, instead of worrying about his ship!) - although as usual I got a bit distracted by spotting famous actors in bit parts. And did anyone else hear the Cockney Cornishman?
I thought the attempt to kill the monster at the climax was very entertaining, although actually ludicrous - miniature submarines are pretty useless against moving targets; they're more for getting in and out of ports eg sabotaging the Tirpitz. On the other hand ... they had a miniature submarine - they REALLY knew their audience lol! And I loved the very last scene - I can't think of any other 50s monster movie that ends like that; it's much more modern than usual.
One other thing that struck me - most of the stock footage of British ships and airplanes was genuinely British. If you watch Lourie's next film, the brilliant Gorgo, all the stock footage of the 'Royal Navy in action' is of the American Navy. I wonder who he annoyed at the MoD?
Many thanks for the recommendation!
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