It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)

I'm sure you've likely pegged where I first learned of this flick before I even mention it: Fantastic Dinosaurs of the Movies. That tape, along with the books I would check out at my school and local libraries, especially the Crestwood House ones, introduced me to so many sci-fi and monster movies at a young age that, even at this point, I still haven't reviewed or even seen all of them. In any case, like just about all of the movies on that tape, It Came from Beneath the Sea, the trailer of which followed the one for Jack the Giant Killer, looked interesting, starting right off the bat with the giant octopus attacking a ship, and quickly going on to the big setpiece of it attacking San Francisco and destroying the Golden Gate Bridge. However, while I wouldn't actually see a lot of those movies until I was a teenager or even into my adult years, I first saw this one when I was eight years old. It was on a Saturday after I'd been really sick for a couple of days, throwing up and with bad diarrhea. While better than I was, I still wasn't feeling completely well when I wandered into the living room, where my mom was watching the movie on TV, that day. I came in during a scene where the octopus appears at a beach, killing one man and sending the main characters running for their lives. Recognizing what it was from that tape, I stayed for the rest, watching the octopus' attack on San Francisco and its defeat. Even though I still didn't feel great, I did enjoy it, enough to where I actually re-watched Fantastic Dinosaurs that evening. However, I didn't see It Came from Beneath the Sea again until I was 24, when I got it in a Ray Harryhausen DVD set, along with 20 Million Miles to Earth and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, at a horror convention in Gatlinburg. And when I did watch it again, I found it wasn't nearly as good as I remembered. Time Out magazine said it in best on their website in 2018, when they called it, "A minor entry in the '50s cycle of radiation-paranoia sci-fi pics." Harryhausen's effects, as per usual, are the real highlight, although it takes a while to finally get to the octopus and, by the time it's attacking San Francisco, I tend to already be kind of tired of the movie, despite the short 79-minute running time. The three main characters are fine, and fairly atypical of the genre in some ways, but aren't amazing, I don't care for the pseudo-documentary way in which the story is told, and while the movie does come off bigger than it actually is at points, the low budget is still very apparent elsewhere.

While on its shakedown cruise in the Pacific, a nuclear submarine under the command of Pete Mathews encounters an enormous object on its sonar. Despite their best efforts, the crew are unable to elude it, and are then hit by a huge impact. They get a radiation warning, although their reactor is undamaged, and when they try to go forward, and then surface, they can't move at all. They're finally able to pry themselves loose with the diving planes and later, when they've surfaced, two divers find a chunk of rubber-like material attached to the planes. The sub goes into dry-dock at Pearl Harbor, where the substance is analyzed by two marine biologists, John Carter and Lesley Joyce. After nearly two weeks of study, they determine it's flesh from an enormous octopus. Meeting with Admiral Burns, Admiral Norman, and Navy Assistant Secretary Robert David Chase, they hypothesize that the monster has been driven up from the enormous depths from which it came due to H-bomb tests, which have made it highly radioactive and unable to feed on its normal food supply. Now, it's been forced to attack and feed on humans, and Joyce uses the recent disappearance of Japanese and Siberian fishing vessels as evidence. However, their theory is dismissed, until a tramp steamer from Vancouver is lost at sea. Several survivors are picked up and, while it takes some persuasion, one of them admits that they were attacked by a giant octopus. With that, all sea traffic in the North Pacific is suspended by the U.S. government, as the Navy and the scientists attempt to pinpoint the monster's exact location. Following some potential leads, Mathews, Joyce, and Carter find it in a cove in Astoria, Oregon. The Pacific Coast is then mined, all ships are brought to port, and beaches closed, while San Francisco Bay is cordoned off by an electrified submarine net. However, the monster is undeterred by the mines and only provoked by the net. It destroys the Golden Gate Bridge and begins terrorizing the city, forcing Mathews to man his submarine, which is armed with a special torpedo they hope will destroy the monster.

As significant as The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms was for Ray Harryhausen's career, as it was the first movie where he was completely on his own, It Came from Beneath the Sea was equally as important, as it marked the first time he worked with producer Charles Schneer. Schneer, who at the time was working as part of Sam Katzman's B-picture unit at Columbia Pictures, would go on to produce every single one of Harryhausen's movies from here on out, with the exception of One Million Years B.C. According to Schneer, the idea for the movie was inspired by the H-bomb tests at the Marshall Islands, making him envision an enormous sea creature being driven to the surface and attacking the Golden Gate Bridge (sounds an awful lot like the oft-repeated story of how producer Tomoyuki Tanaka came up with the idea for the original Godzilla). He hired Harryhausen to work on the special effects after seeing The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and the rest is movie history.

Because Harryhausen was such an auteur in his own right, many don't remember the actual directors of the movies featuring his effects (in fact, he's the only effects artist I can think of who had that kind of impact). In the case of It Came from Beneath the Sea, the director was Robert Gordon, a former child actor who appeared in a number of silent movies, most notably The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson. His acting career ended in 1939, and he made his directorial debut in 1947, with the mystery thriller, Blind Spot. He didn't direct that many films, although in 1963, he did make another genre film, Black Zoo, starring Michael Gough, and following It Came from Beneath the Sea, he started working extensively in television. He directed episodes of My Friend Flicka, The Texan, Maverick, The Alaskans, Bonanza, and The Real McCoys, among others. His career ended in the early 70's and he died in 1990, at the age of 77.

After playing an Air Force captain in The Thing from Another World and an Army colonel in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Kenneth Tobey rounds it out here by playing Naval Commander Pete Mathews. Moreover, while he was part of a large ensemble in The Thing, and had only a small supporting role in Beast, Tobey is more or less the lead this time around, even if he does often share the screen with two other major characters. While we eventually learn that he and his submarine crew aren't the first to encounter the giant octopus, they are the first to escape, managing to pry themselves loose from its grasp and bringing with them a chunk of its flesh, leading to its identification. Hanging around the lab at Pearl Harbor as Prof. Lesley Joyce and Dr. John Carter examine the sample, Mathews insists that Joyce remain to continue the tests when she attempts to leave to return to her school. Naturally, he also becomes taken with her when he sees just how lovely she is, and starts coming up with excuses to spend time alone with her, as well as gauge how she feels about Carter and if she has a significant other elsewhere. The more time he spends at the lab, watching them work, he realizes just how hard they do work and gains respect for them. When the Navy authorities dismiss their hypothesis about the octopus, Mathews tries to soften the blow by telling the scientists that they're just being cautious. He treats them to a going-away dinner at a fancy seafood restaurant, but also attempts to make more moves on Joyce, dancing with her and kissing her when they're alone. However, he's quite unhappy when, despite this, Joyce makes it clear that she's still intending to join Carter on an expedition to Cairo. And that's one problem I have with Mathews: how chauvinistic he comes off, even for the time, thinking that one night of wining and dining will make Joyce give up something she's been looking forward to for a virtual stranger. But they don't have time to dwell on it, as the sinking of the Canadian steamer ship confirms the octopus' existence and they become part of the Navy's attempt to hunt it down. When Joyce opts to investigate a possible lead along the Northwest U.S. coast, Mathews joins her, leaving his lieutenant in command of his sub. And while investigating some disappearances in Astoria, Oregon, the two of them not only become closer but also, along with Carter, encounter the octopus.

Mathews' submarine is brought from Hawaii to San Francisco and loaded with a special, jet-propelled, electronic torpedo that the Navy plans to use to kill the monster. And when it begins attacking from the bay, stretching its huge tentacles far ashore, he's authorized to take charge of his sub and use the torpedo. Once onboard, he and Carter have the Army use flamethrowers to drive the octopus back into the water completely, and they then move in to fire. But even though they do manage to embed the

torpedo into the soft skin of the octopus' head, it snags the sub with one of its tentacles, holding it fast. Using an aqua-lung, Mathews swims out to plant some plastic explosives on the monster, hoping it will free them, only for a premature explosion to knock him unconscious. Fortunately for him, Carter is able to both free the sub and come to his rescue, before the torpedo is detonated.

One thing that's nice is that, despite being quite beautiful, and an object of desire for Mathews, Prof. Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) is treated with a lot more respect than is typical for women in these types of movies. She's very similar to the character of Pat Medford in Them! in that she's shown to be a very capable scientist, being the head of marine biology at an oceanographic institute, and described by John Carter as an authority on the subject. After their nearly two weeks of study and determining that the chunk of tissue is from a giant octopus, Joyce comes up with a hypothesis as to its origin and reason for suddenly coming to the surface and attacking humans, a theory that is never disproved. She's also very strong-willed and independent, not caring for Mathews and the Navy forcing her to remain at Pearl Harbor and continue her examination when she's due back at her school, or how she and Carter's theory is initially ridiculed by the officials. And while her opinion of him does soften over time, and she clearly likes him, she also doesn't take kindly to Mathews putting the moves on her, especially when she's working with little sleep for nearly two weeks. When he basically orders her to dance with him at the restaurant, Joyce, despite acquiescing eventually, is initially resistant, protesting that he hasn't truly asked her. However, I don't think she has any need to feel bad when he "misinterprets" things and becomes irked that she still intends to go with Carter on an expedition to Cairo. Her best moment by far comes after one of the survivors of the Canadian shipwreck changes his claims of what happened out of fear of being labeled insane. Deciding to put her feminine wiles to good use, Joyce meets with the man in an empty office, switches on the intercom so the officials can eavesdrop, and gets him to admit what happened by pretending to be seeing things herself. Also, when various leads are being investigated, Joyce decides to follow one involving poor fishing along the Northwest Coast, leading her and Mathews to the cove in Astoria.

When they're joined there by Carter, Mathews, who's definitely romantically-involved with Joyce by this point, tries to get the doctor to convince her to leave the octopus to the Navy. Joyce, however, isn't having it, and, as she tends to do, lists off several reasons why: "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." Also like Pat Medford when she's first confronted by one of the giant ants, the only times Joyce screams in terror is when the octopus then appears and kills the disbelieving deputy sheriff, and later, when Carter is in danger on the Golden Gate Bridge. Otherwise, she continues lending her knowledge and expertise to the Navy's plans to kill the monster, coming up with the idea for the special torpedo and briefing the press on everything there is to know. She also acts as a contact for Mathews and Carter at Navy

headquarters when they deploy the submarine during the climax. At the end of the movie, after the octopus has been killed, Mathews proposes marriage in his own way, telling her, "I mean, women can change, move away, get married, have families." Joyce accepts, but also in her own special way: "A: there isn't time for that to happen to me. B: I can be reached at the school. And C: how would you like to collaborate with me on a book, How To Catch A Sea Beast?"

Though you might expect him to be the third part of a love triangle, Dr. John Carter (Donald Curtis) is actually very supportive of the burgeoning relationship between Mathews and Joyce. Though clearly fond of Joyce, noting how she's an authority on marine biology to Mathews, and the feeling between them is mutual, it doesn't go much further than that, as Carter is more than willing to sit back and watch Joyce and Mathews come together. In fact, he tries to help both of them along. After Mathews becomes angry when he feels Joyce led him on, Carter attempts to help Joyce sort through how she feels about him. And when Mathews tries to get him to help convince Joyce that she should leave and let the Navy handle the monster, regardless of what she herself thinks, Carter informs him, "Look, Pete, you don't see many women in the Seagoing Navy... Oh, shore-side women, sure. But 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." And when Joyce lists her reasons for not leaving, Carter says he agrees with her. But he's hardly a third wheel when it comes to trying to find the monster and attempt to destroy it. Not only does he follow up on some possible leads as to its whereabouts and later patrols the coast, using dead sharks as bait, but when the octopus attacks the Golden Gate Bridge, Carter rushes across the bridge to kill the electric voltage that it's irritating it. This very nearly gets him killed, but Mathews is able to rescue him before the octopus tears down that section of the bridge. And he joins Mathews onboard his submarine during the climax and becomes a hero himself, going out with an aqua-lung after Mathews is knocked unconscious, managing to force the octopus to let go of the sub, and getting Mathews to safety before the torpedo is detonated.

Three Navy superiors, Admiral Burns (Ian Keith), Admiral Norman (Dean Maddox Jr.), and Assistant Secretary Robert David Chase (Del Courtney), first appear when they're called to Pearl Harbor to hear Joyce and Carter to present their findings. Although all three of them are skeptical, Chase comes off as especially dismissive and more than a little condescending about their hypothesis, and doesn't put much stock in any of the evidence Joyce uses to support her theory. He simply says

that he has to question everything, while Burns asks if they have some other theory to put forward, which, of course, they don't. Though they leave as skeptics, they become more inclined to believe them following the sinking of the Canadian ship, especially when Joyce gets one of the survivors to admit what happened. Even when they know what they're dealing with, they underestimate the octopus, thinking they can easily track it down and kill it, until Joyce and Carter show them just how fast it can move through the water. They also start

following any possible leads, allowing the scientists to do the same, and though Norman is initially reluctant to allow Mathews to accompany Joyce in searching the coastline, he changes his mind when he gets the report of disappearances in Astoria. And when Norman is shown a photograph of a print in the sand left there by one of the octopus' suction cups, he sets up headquarters in San Francisco. This, of course, proves significant when the monster invades the bay, and in the end, Norman gives Mathews the order to take out his submarine with the special torpedo.

Though he doesn't have much of a role, Mathews' lieutenant, Griff (Chuck Griffiths), is actually the first character you see when the movie begins, commenting to Mathews how he can't get used to their new, atomic submarine. Initially coming off as laid back and kind of jokey, his demeanor becomes dead serious when they realize something huge is following them and that they can't shake it. Once they've escaped and have made it to the surface, Griff tells Mathews of the traces of radiation on the diving planes, and also asks him his opinion of what happened. Mathews says he's going to keep his personal thoughts about what happened to himself and advises Griff to do the same. When the submarine is used against the octopus during the climax, Griff goes back into battle with Mathews, even volunteering to plant the plastic explosive to free them from its grasp, though Mathews tells him it's a personal matter and that he'll do it himself. After Mathews gets knocked unconscious, Griff intends to go out with his own aqua-lung and attack the monster, but Carter goes instead, as he knows where it's vulnerable. Once they're freed, Griff gives the order to explode the torpedo when they're far enough away. He's then reminded that both Mathews and Carter are still outside but he says, "I know it. I'm obeying the Captain's last orders. You'll do as much for mine." Fortunately, both Mathews and Carter manage to get clear of the explosion and the submarine picks them up afterward.

Someone who isn't so lucky is Deputy Bill Nash (Harry Lauteras), who takes Mathews and Joyce, and later Carter, out to Harper's Cove in Astoria. Upon arriving there with the former two, he leads them over to a wrecked car, which he believes was a result of faulty brakes and a steep parking spot. He laughs when Joyce asks if there have been any reports of "whales" or "sea serpents" in the area, though Mathews tells him that Joyce isn't kidding. Regardless, and despite their finding a mark left by one of the octopus' suction cups (the last of a number that Nash himself says were covering the beach before), he still doesn't take it seriously, even when Mathews warns him to be careful while patrolling the beach. He soon finds out the hard way that it's no laughing matter when the octopus appears near the shore and crushes him with one of its enormous tentacles.

Even though the movie, like most that involved Sam Katzman, was very low budget, it sometimes comes off as much bigger. That's because, rather than build the interiors on sets, they shot aboard an actual submarine, both down below and when the characters are on deck, in Long Beach, as well as at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard for some scenes. There are also many shots of the actual streets of the city and the Golden Gate Bridge, and they're often composited seamlessly with Ray Harryhausen's effects. Of course, there is still a lot

of studio work here, with sets such as the laboratory where the scientists spend a good amount of time working (and where Mathews often smokes, despite there being an obvious "NO SMOKING" sign on the back wall), the seaside restaurant where the three leads spend some time, including the ending scene, and various official offices, but the most noteworthy set is the one they created to simulate Harper's Cove. Save for some shots that were done at an actual coastline, that

entire sequence was done on a soundstage filled with tons of sand, and mixed with obvious rear-projection footage of the beach and ocean (rear-projection of the latter is also used in the background of scenes at the restaurant). Similarly, rear-projection is used to put the streets of San Francisco behind a newspaper vendor right before the octopus first appears in the bay. There's some underwater shooting during the climax but. while competently done, it comes off as rather restricted

in terms of its scope and the environment. As was common in these types of B-movies at the time, the filmmakers make extensive use of stock footage for stuff they had no way of shooting themselves. In fact, it starts off with footage meant to detail the design, construction, and launching of the atomic submarine, and there's more used throughout the movie, like when the submarine arrives at Pearl Harbor, shots of it diving below the surface, other footage of Navy destroyers and fighter jets during the montages where they're trying to find and kill the monster, and shots of pedestrians in San Francisco during the climax.

While it's not as notoriously bad, I have to admit that It Came from Beneath the Sea does remind me of The Giant Claw in several ways. Besides the obvious, in that it's a low-budget, 50's monster movie produced by Sam Katzman, there's the aforementioned large amount of stock footage, as well as a very melodramatic narrator. As I've said in other reviews, a lot of these movies have narrators, and they sometimes begin like an educational film or newsreel, with the narrator educating us on some relevant topic. Here, he gives

us a lesson on the atomic submarine: "From her beginnings on a Navy drawing board, through the months of secret field experiments out on the Western desert, then through the desperate search for new metals with properties she needed, she was designed to be the nation's greatest weapon of the seas: the atom-powered submarine. Her engines were to be a miracle of speed and power, her sides strong enough to withstand any blow, her armament and fire power of greater force than the worst enemy she might encounter. The mind of

man had thought of everything, except that which was beyond his comprehension!" (That last part is rendered both somewhat moot and contradictory after the opening credits, where this prologue text also rises out of the ocean: "For centuries the mind of man has learned comparatively little of the mysteries in the heavens above - - or in the seas below. Since the coming of the atomic age, man's knowledge has so increased that any upheaval of nature would not be beyond his belief.") But like in

The Giant Claw, this narrator continually pops up throughout the film, often over the stock footage, telling us the significance of Mathews first meeting Joyce and Carter in the lab, how what was going on was top secret, and how long it took before they were finally able to determine what the monster is; how, after one of the survivors of the Canadian shipwreck confirmed it was a giant octopus, "The North Pacific was closed to all shipping. The sea trade between three continents came to a standstill.

There was hardly a nation in the world that failed to demand through its government and press the reason for such drastic steps. It was officially announced that the United States Navy was engaged in secret maneuvers, while, in reality, the strangest search in history was taking place,"; and the impact of the scene at Harper's Cove, and so on. Since he's not trying to make a truly ridiculous monster come off as a genuine threat, it's not as laughable as in The Giant Claw, but for me, it still makes the movie come off as flat and stodgy.

Out of all the monsters that Ray Harryhausen created and animated throughout his career, the giant octopus in this film is probably the most unmemorable, not because of the effects work but because of its so-so portrayal. While the other monsters that Harryhausen did around this time, like the Rhedosaurus in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms or the Ymir in 20 Million Miles to Earth, had the definite personalities and sense of pathos that he would become famous for, there's not much character you can give an octopus. Granted, you do get a backstory and understand its motivation, in that it's desperately hungry because its radioactive nature now drives away its prey, and it's heavily suggested that its attack on San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge is done through rage, which you can definitely see when it grabs Mathews' sub during the climax. It's also given an auditory presence, as there's a fleshy rumbling sound whenever it's onscreen, instances where it can be heard breathing, and it moans loudly when it's driven back by flamethrowers. Other than that, however, it's mostly just a rampaging sea monster, attacking any vessel it comes across and killing anyone within reach of its tentacles. That's another thing that hurts the octopus' effectiveness for me: while it's most definitely dangerous if you're out in the ocean with it, the threat it poses on land extends only as far as its tentacles. It does a fair amount of damage and kills a number of people when it rises from the water near the shoreline and reaches its tentacles into the city, but it still feels constrained since it can't come on land entirely. Since some octopi are able to do so, it wouldn't have been completely out of the realm of possibility for this one to do the same (not taking basic physics into account, of course), but that probably wasn't within their budget range. Finally, I don't like how, at the end, when Carter scuba-dives outside the sub to make the octopus let go of the sub and save Mathews, it doesn't make a move towards him. Instead, it just lazily looks at him and only reacts when he spears it in the eye.

It goes without saying that Harryhausen's design and animation of the octopus are both fantastic, even if budget limitations forced him to give it only six legs instead of eight, leading him to call it the "sixtopus." As always, he manages to create the illusion that this thing is alive and breathing, as you can often see the latter detail in the animation of its head. The most impressive piece of stop-motion is in the iconic scene where it destroys the Golden Gate Bridge, as it feels as though it really is grabbing a hold of and pulling itself up onto the

structure. Similarly awe-inspiring is the octopus' attack on the Canadian ship, especially in how water is also effectively included in that sequence. Just as effective as the full-body shots are the many times you see just one or more tentacles onscreen, particularly during the attack on San Francisco, where they're crushing buildings and slithering through the streets. Speaking of which, the miniature buildings and pieces of them are nicely detailed and look great when they're crushed and crumble. The meshing of the effects with live-

action elements is also quite good. There are some that do come off as a bit wonky, with some very obvious rear-screen projection, like when a tentacle rises up in front of or behind Carter when he's on the bridge, some shots of the tentacles up against the actual bridge or real actors, and when they're rising out of the bay, but other than that, it's very well-done. One of the most impressive feats is how they were able to combine both the stop-motion octopus and miniature section of the bridge with

shots of the actual bridge, and that's to say nothing of when you see running extras in the same shots as the tentacles and miniature buildings during the city attack scene. As you can see, it's downright ridiculous how great some of those shots look. My only major problem with the effects comes when you see the octopus underwater near the end of the movie, when it's grabbed the submarine. Not that it doesn't look like it's underwater, because it actually does, but that miniature set comes off as constrained and doesn't feel like I'm looking at both a creature and an environment that are enormous.

The first scene involving the octopus, when it attacks Pete Mathews' sub at the beginning, is a fair example of less is more, as you don't actually see it. While in the middle of their shakedown cruise, they suddenly realize that their sonar is registering something approaching them. As it gets closer, they realize it's too big to be either a whale or another submarine. Even when they change course, increase speed, and dive deeper, they're unable to lose it, while the only image that appears on the

sonar screen is a blurry blob. Eventually, they're hit by a powerful impact that knocks everyone off their feet, and then get a Geiger warning, but can't pinpoint exactly where it's coming from, except that it's outside their ship. They try to pull ahead but can't move, nor are they able to head to the surface. Mathews calls for two aqua-lung volunteers to blast them loose if necessary, when the submarine lurches roughly, knocking everyone off-balance again. Mathews next orders them to use the bow diving planes to try to free them, and when they do, it does start to loosen. He orders them to kick in the stern planes as well, and they're finally able to pull away and surface.

The second sequence, where you first see the octopus, is when the Canadian steamer is attacked. Late at night, two men on deck spot one of the monster's tentacles emerging from the water next to them. It goes back under and they run for it, while the octopus chases after the ship and raises another of its tentacles out of the water, this time catching the attention of the men on the bridge. As the men on deck run around in a panic, the order is given to abandon ship. While everyone else scrambles and

fall over themselves due to the rocking ship, the radioman sends an S.O.S. A number of the seamen jump over the side, even without the benefit of a life-raft, while the octopus grabs the ship with its tentacles and begins pulling it down into the water. The engine room and other areas below deck are quickly flooded, and it quickly becomes clear that the radioman and all the others who remained onboard are doomed. The octopus then manages to drag the ship completely under. Later, after its existence is confirmed to the Naval authorities,

Mathews and Prof. Lesley Joyce head to Harper's Cove in Astoria, where they find both the wrecked car of a missing family and a mark in the sand from one of the octopus' suction cups. That night, shortly after Dr. John Carter joins them, the octopus emerges near the shore and kills Deputy Bill Nash by reaching down and crushing him beneath its tentacle. Mathews, Joyce, and Carter quickly jump into a jeep and speed away from the scene, smashing through a roadblock sign on the way.

The climax begins shortly afterward, with mines laid far offshore and an electrified submarine net hung from the Golden Gate Bridge, while Mathews' atomic submarine arrives, as does the special jet-propelled, electronic torpedo, which is loaded onto it. Soon, something is picked up on the sonar, approaching fast. It enters the mine-field and, as it gets closer, the mines in its path are detonated. But despite a number of large explosions out in the ocean, the monster continues heading for San Francisco Bay. A red alert is

issued and all traffic is ordered off the bridge. There, Billings, an operator for the submarine net's voltage, radios headquarters that there's been contact. He's ordered to switch on the electricity, but when he does, it only prompts the octopus to stretch its tentacles out of the water and grab onto one of the bridge's supports. Joyce alerts Carter, who was out in a helicopter, trying to find the monster from the air, of what's happening. Joyce and Mathews then head for the bridge, while Carter lands nearby and is driven there by the police.

Billings is ordered to abandon his post but when he does, he leaves the switch on. He reaches the end of the bridge just as Carter arrives and tells him what happened. Carter, after showing his ID to an officer on duty, then drives the police car across the bridge to Billings' post to turn it off. He stops and looks over the side, at the still attacking monster, which then raises one of its tentacles up in front of him. He runs to the switch, while the octopus continues raising itself out of the water, pulling at

the bridge. Mathews and Joyce then arrive, as Carter turns off the electricity. By this point, the section of bridge he's on begins to groan and buckle from the octopus' weight, and it then crushes the car under its tentacle. Seeing this, Mathews gets back into his own car and speeds across the bridge. The bridge begins to fall apart, and its support is squeezed by the octopus' powerful tentacles, one of which then smashes up through the bridge, right behind Carter. Mathews

arrives, yells for Carter, and he joins him in the car. The two of them head back the other way and get off the bridge right before the octopus finally manages to tear that section off. Everyone watches as, with the electricity no longer provoking it, it sinks back down into the water.

With everyone now aware that the monster is still at large in the bay, the city is in chaos, as certain roads are congested with traffic and people attempt to evacuate away from the shoreline. After Joyce pinpoints where the monster may be, in the vicinity of Embarcadero and Ferry buildings, the area is ordered to be evacuated. But no sooner is the order given and everyone begins clearing the crowded streets than one of the tentacles emerges from just offshore. It grabs and crushes a large cargo container, as people onshore run for it, and after

dropping it, the tentacle reaches up into the sky, in front of a helicopter that was helping with the evacuation. The pilots end up crashing into it, and the octopus' head emerges from the bay and it begins stretching its tentacles into the city. Mathews and Carter head for the submarine, while the octopus wreaks havoc, sending people running and clamoring for safety, and destroying sections of buildings, ensnaring the Ferry Building itself. Seeing from the sub's deck that it's pulling itself out of the water, Carter and Mathews contact Joyce

at headquarters about a way to drive the octopus back. The Naval captain then contacts the Defense Department, telling them to bring in flamethrowers, while the submarine prepares to dive, intending on torpedoing the monster when they get within range. It destroys the Ferry Building, then stretches its tentacles across the roads, crushing a number of people beneath its weight. Down in the bay, the submarine is within range to fire, but Mathews decides to wait until

after the flamethrowers blast the monster. After its tentacles cause more havoc on the streets, one of them crashing through a storefront window, the flamethrowers arrive via a fire-truck. The soldiers wielding them blast the tentacle and they're able to make it recoil, as the octopus yells in pain. They chase the tentacles back down the street, continually blasting it until they force the octopus to drop back below the surface. Once it does, Mathews orders the torpedo fired, and they manage

to successfully lodge it into the octopus' head. However, it promptly snags the sub in retaliation and holds it tight. Now unable to move away in order to detonate the torpedo without blowing themselves up, Mathews decides to go out with an aqua-lung and try to blast them loose with plastic explosives.

Swimming out of a hatch, and armed with a harpoon, which the plastic explosive is attached to, Mathews swims up to the side of the octopus' tentacle and sends the harpoon at it. But before he can get to safety, the explosive goes off and the shock-wave knocks him unconscious on the seafloor. Onboard the sub, Griff prepares to go out and help, but Carter opts to do it himself, making a strong enough case as to why it should be him. Once he's in his wet-suit and armed with a harpoon gun and explosives, he swims out and immediately

finds Mathews. He attempts to rouse him, but then heads towards the octopus. He swims up to its enormous eye, which opens and looks directly at him. He then fires the harpoon right at the eye, causing the octopus to recoil and let go of the sub in its thrashing. Now that they're free, Griff orders for the torpedo to be exploded once they've gotten to a safe distance. Carter swims back over to Mathews, this time managing to wake him up, and

the two of them quickly swim away. Once the sub reaches a range of 1,000 feet, Griff orders the torpedo exploded. When it detonates, it completely destroys the octopus. Afterward, the submarine surfaces and Griff and the men search for Mathews and Carter, finding the two of them waving at them nearby.

The music score, by Mischa Bakaleinikoff, is pretty typical of 50's monster movies, especially the big, bombastic, screaming leitmotifs for the octopus itself, which you first hear over the opening credits and would later be recycled in The Giant Claw. In fact, between that and the light, airy music for the romantic scenes between Mathews and Joyce, there isn't much variety in the music to speak of. Other than the main theme for the monster, the most memorable music for me is this soft Hawaiian music you hear playing onboard the submarine at the beginning (I remember that mostly because they played it in the trailer and it stuck with me ever since I was a kid), which is then changed over to some band music.

It Came from Beneath the Sea is an enjoyable enough watch but it's definitely not among the greatest 50's monster flicks. On the plus side, you have the always excellent work of Ray Harryhausen, three main leads who are likable enough and manage to defy conventions in some ways, and there are interesting ways in which the film manages to transcend its low budget. However, the latter only go so far, as there are still many times where you're watching stock footage meant to pad out the movie or looking at obvious rear-screen projection work; the story is told in a way akin to documentaries or newsreels that makes it come off as badly dated and stuffy, rather than giving it any sense of immediacy; the music score is nothing to write home about; and as much as the scenes with the monster are the highlights, it takes quite a while to finally get to them, so much so that you may not be interested anymore when the third act rolls around. In the end, it's worth a watch by genre fans, but others may want to skip it.