As far as entertainment is concerned, It Came From Beneath the Sea is a nearly perfect machine, each of its interlocking parts crafted with the utmost care, allowing for a smooth operation free of unneeded stops or friction.
Some may call it disposable, and they might have a point, if you consider the fact that the story of a giant radioactive octopus isn’t exactly life-affirming, but in its own way, I love movies like this as much as Nashville or Ikiru or Berlin Alexanderplatz (to name three random life-affirming favorites). At the very least, they're just as necessary. Those who this movie loved their work, and it shows. Cinema can fill the soul, and sometimes a rampaging cephalopod does the trick.
The theories made about the cause of the giant octopus’s existence are a little different than typical radioactive mutation scenarios; nevertheless, ships are being lost at sea and architectural landmarks will eventually be dismantled, and at the end of the day it’s still the bomb’s fault.
In actuality, this octopus, created by effects master Ray Harryhausen, possesses only six tentacles, a barely noticeable measure that saved countless hours of animation. The result is strictly awesome in its organic movement and detailed textures, an astonishing feat especially when considering how the influx in appendages and movement on this model must have increased the rendering time exponentially.
Detail shots of the beast are so precise that, for their moments on screen, they appear genuinely real (a rare achievement in effects, and not necessarily a desirable one). Unless someone just as ingenuitive and expressive with CGI comes along, chances are it won’t be topped. (Note: this is amongst octopi only, unlike squid, on which note 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has the final word.)
An 80-minute running time demands efficiency, and this film satiates that need with gusto, always maintaining a brisk sensibility but never denying the plot or characters room to breathe. There’s a strange progressive streak throughout, in the form of an impromptu love triangle of such a nature that one might expect Alfred Kinsey to come up in conversation.
This and other blips of personality make the film more memorable than standard monster fare; even as it employs a template, it’s also bucking trends. A colorized version exists, approved by Harryhausen himself, but when it comes to the showdown between a tentacle the width of a road and a flamethrower-equipped human, black and white is simply more prodigious.
It Came from Beneath the Sea. Dir. Edward L. Cahn. Perf. Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis, Ian Keith, Dean Maddox Jr., Chuck Griffiths, Harry Lauter, Richard W. Peterson. Columbia Pictures, 1955. Running Time: 79 min. 4 out of 5 stars (no halves).
