Adventure,Horror,Science Fiction
United States of America
The film was released in 1953 and was directed by Eugène Lourié. It starred Paul Hubschmid, Paula Raymond, and Cecil Kellaway. The screenplay was written by Fred Freiberger and Eugène Lourié, based on a story by Ray Bradbury.
The movie begins with the testing of an atomic bomb in the Arctic Circle, which causes the melting of ice and the release of a prehistoric Rhedosaurus that had been frozen there for millions of years.
The beast then travels south, making its way to New York City, attacking ships and causing destruction along the way. Dr. Tom Nesbitt (played by Paul Hubschmid), a paleontologist who witnessed the Rhedosaurus in the Arctic, is called upon to help stop the creature.
Attempts to kill the beast with conventional weapons prove to be futile, and it takes the efforts of Nesbitt and the military to come up with a plan to destroy it. In the end, they manage to lure the Rhedosaurus to Coney Island, where it is killed with a radioactive isotope.
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is regarded as one of the first creature feature movies of its kind, and is considered to have influenced several other films in the genre, including Godzilla. Ray Bradbury's involvement in the creation of the story also brought a literary quality to the movie. The special effects were created by Ray Harryhausen, who used stop-motion animation to bring the Rhedosaurus to life.
