It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)

It Came from Beneath the Sea
Directed by Robert Gordon
Written by George Worthing Yates and Harold Jacob Smith from a story by Yates
1955/USA
Clover Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Cmdr. Pete Mathews: The next time I cruise in these waters I’m going to have torpedoes with warheads on them.[/box]

A dopey love triangle meets some pretty cool special effects and a liberated lady.

An atomic sub picks up a strange object on its sonar – too big to be a whale and shaped wrong for another submarine.  The crew also notices excessive radiation in the area. Cmdr. Pete Matthews (Kenneth Tobey) calls on biologists Dr. John Carter and Dr. Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) for advice.  They analyze some debris and determine that the object is a huge octopus.

Lesley is a biology wizard and refuses to be left out of the more dangerous assignments. She is also not averse to shedding her lab coat and revealing her Jane Russell-esque curves when it serves her purposes.  Naturally both Cmdr. Matthews and Dr. Carter are in love with her.

Back at the ranch, the octopus creates havoc at sea and in the Pacific Northwest before heading to San Francisco to attack the Golden Gate Bridge.  How can it be destroyed?

Truthfully, the main reason to watch this movie is that it features early special effects work by Ray Harryhausen which is light years ahead of the other special effects of this period. The octopus is fairly slow but it does look awfully good.  The Blu-Ray contains a nice commentary by Harryhausen and a couple of fans.

Trailer