The Giant Behemoth
           
Director: Eugene Lourie
Year: 1959
Rating: 6.0
This Giant Monster film has accurately been criticized as too similar to The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, especially as they have the same director, Eugene Lourie. In between, he had also directed The Colossal of New York and afterwards helmed Gorgo. But to some degree this gave me Quatermass vibes if you switch out an alien for a sea monster.  Part of that is because it takes place in London, has an American scientist and actor as the main character and has André Morell as the other main character. Morell was not in the Quatermass films, but he was Quatermass in a six-episode TV series and was in many other films from Hammer. Adding to that is simply the way the film goes about its business - serious, patient, scientific, methodical, collegial and all business with no time for romance.



The monster does not show up till the 50-minute mark but the narrative leading up to that is well-done and well-acted. Yes, once the monster comes ashore it becomes like most of the other Monster films with crowds running in panic through the London streets - but that is one of my pleasures and I never tire of how it is going to be filmed. I would love to be an extra in one of those scenes if they ever need an older gentleman with bad feet and not too swift. For sure the Monster would get me and that would be fine.



Professor Karnes (Gene Evans) is an American expert on radiation and the film opens with him lecturing other scientists on the dangers of radiation and how it can spread through our food sources from algae and up through the food chain. Coincidentally, as he speaks in Cornwall a fisherman gets blasted by a light and his body badly burnt. Before he dies, he says "It came out of the sea. A behemoth". Karnes hears about it on the news and rushes down but finds no evidence of radiation. Professor Bickford (Morell) becomes his Watson but with connections to the British establishment. When a freighter goes aground with everyone missing, the two of them know something is up and begin to search for the monster.



The monster is depicted with stop-motion with Willis O'Brien as part of the crew. It looks like your standard dinosaur and feels a bit clunky at first with a face with no personality as if it is a toy - but once it decides to visit London it becomes very good. I was a little disappointed that it didn't stomp on Big Ben, Parliament or Buckingham Palace, but perhaps the Brits won't allow that. The final 20-minutes is basically the monster stomping and people running. It can also send out radiation flares that sizzle people like a good Texas barbecue. It is of course the American who comes up with the solution because they had to make the American audiences back home happy. Yay America! I say that in total irony after what just happened.