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Released byy: Columbia Tri-Star
Released on: May 6, 2003.
Director: Robert Gordon
Cast: Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis
Year: 1955
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The Movie:
One of a few films that Harryhausen made for Columbia, It Came From Beneath The Sea is a fun romp through atomic monster land as only Harryhausen could do it.
Directed by Robert Gordon (no relation to the Rockabilly Boogie musician of the same name), our story opens with Pete Matthews (Kenneth Tobey of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and The Thing From Another World) and his crew aboard an atomic submarine that gets attacked while on patrol by an unseen creature of unknown origin. Once the sub escapes and returns to it's base, the engineers find an unusual gloopy substance stuck in the blade of the ship's propellers.
Thy navy and its team of scientists, lead by Dr. Leslie Joyce (Faith Domergue of This Island Earth), begin investigating but unfortunately for a crew aboard a cargo ship, it's too little too late and a giant octopus makes short work of them, then heads for San Francisco where it wreaks havoc on the good citizens and the military alike.
While it takes a little while to get started, the last half of the film is a lot of fun and the monster effects on display are undeniably cool as we're treated to such scenes as the giant octopus taking on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as well as a few skyscrapers around town.
While Harryhausen's effects are definitely the real star of the film, the performances from Kenneth Tobey as the tough-as-nails, chain smoking Navy man and Faith Domergue as the smart and sassy scientist are also both worth noting and better than the average 50s monster movie performances tend to be.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Presented in it's proper aspect ratio for the first time on home video (previous VHS releases were full frame), the 1.85.1 anamorphic transfer looks much better than I thought that it would. There are a few spots where there is some obvious grain and it doesn't take much effort to spot some dust specks here and there, but for the most part this is a crisp and clean transfer that does justice to the film and it's compositions.
The Dolby Digital 2 Channel Mono audio track is clean and free of all but the most minor problems. There are a few instances where astute listeners will pick up some hiss but other than that, this is a pretty clear track and about as good as an old mono film should rightfully sound.
There are trailers included on the disc for the other entries in the Harryhausen Collection as well as Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The main extras are 'The Harryhausen Chronicles' documentary hosted by Leonard Nimoy, and the 'This is Dynamation' featurette focusing on The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad. Both of these are great pieces, but they're also the exact same extras that were on the earlier entries in Columbia's Harryhausen Collection.
The Final Word:
Despite the repetition in the extras department, Columbia Tri Star has done a very nice job on a classic giant monster movie.