It Came from Beneath the Sea

1955

Horror / Sci-Fi

7
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 39% · 10 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 39% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.9/10 10 7104 7.1K

monster submarine san francisco, california radiation u.s. navy water monster

Plot summary

A giant octopus, whose feeding habits have been affected by radiation from H-Bomb tests, rises from the Mindanao Deep to terrorize the California Coast.

Director

Robert Gordon Photo
Robert Gordon

Top cast

Kenneth Tobey Photo
Kenneth Tobey as Cmdr. Pete Mathews
William Bryant Photo
William Bryant as Helicopter Pilot
S. John Launer Photo
S. John Launer as Naval Doctor With Stethoscope
Herschel Graham Photo
Herschel Graham as Restaurant Patron
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
726.72 MB
1280*690
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 19 min
Seeds 2
1.32 GB
1920*1036
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 19 min
Seeds 9

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by AlsExGal 6 / 10

Columbia B movie is lifted out of the mediocre by great special effects.

A nuclear sub is taking its' shakedown cruise when the Captain puts on Swing music on the stereo. The monster disapproves of his music choice and pins down the sub. The sub eventually gets free, but there is unidentifiable matter stuck to it. Eventually scientist Faith Domergue figures out it belongs to a giant octopus.Director Robert Gordon does a good job of not letting the film get bogged down in talk. Domergue and the Navy argue about whether sea monsters actually exist. The film is worth watching for the stop-motion animation Harryhausen did on a limited budget. The monster is marvelously realistic looking as it wreaks havoc upon the countryside.
Reviewed by Wilbur-10 7 / 10

One of the best giant octopus on the rampage films I've seen.

Having already starred in 'The Thing from Another World' (1951) and 'The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms' (1953), Kenneth Tobey completed a memorable treble of classic Sci-Fi films with this offering.Make no mistake, 'It Came from Beneath the Sea' is one of the classics of the genre and as such is above the mundane criticism about poor script, narrative, performances etc. We all know that these monster-flicks from the 50's and 60's had their shortcomings, but they were made to a formula for a target audience and in this respect there is little to fault and much to commend.Here we have a giant octopus, disturbed from it's Pacific lair by atomic testing, heading for San Francisco in a foul mood. The Harryhausen effects are great, the narrative follows a course of some scientific logic and Faith Domergue, if a little too old, looks good enough in her tight blouse.Director Robert Gordon did little else of note which is surprising - he did a good enough job here and whilst not up to the standard of '20 Million Miles to Earth' (1957), 'It Came from Beneath the Sea' is still superior for its type.BEST SCENE - no contest; the octopus trashing the Golden Gate Bridge.
Reviewed by Space_Mafune 7 / 10

One of the First "Disaster" Movies

When an atomic-powered submarine runs afoul of something most bizarre on their radar, its Commander Pete Matthews decides not to risk the $ 55 million dollar naval submarine he commands and tries to head out of the area but suddenly the submarine is unable to move while something outside them is emitting radiation. Eventually after a considerable struggle, they do escape and later discover that what had held them down was in fact a giant Octopus!From scientists Dr. John Carter (Donald Curtis) & Dr. Leslie Joyce (Faith Domergue), working along with the military's Commander Matthews, we learn that this Octopus has undergone an atomic mutation and has now come to prey on man instead of fish and is all set to ravage the West Coast of America. Eventually it surfaces and attacks the Golden Gate Bridge while San Francisco panics in fear! Can It be stopped?The real star of this film is Harryhausen's Giant Octopus, who even with only six tentacles, manages to make a more lasting impression on the viewer than most of the cast. That said, the theme of feminism is also an important undercurrent of this story and I felt Faith Domergue did a wonderful job with what she was given to work with. The moments she coaxes the trans-steamer survivor into admitting it was a giant Octopus that attacked his ship is a great one for her.While this movie is much too slow getting to its eventual pay-off for most viewers, it's never bothered me as much because I felt Domergue and Tobey had a great chemistry on screen together and I actually liked the addition of their romance here. Still this has to be one of the first disaster films really considering how a giant Octopus nearly does in San Francisco...and well that's a cool and fun premise for a movie in my book (even if one does have to swallow one's disbelief).
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