Eugene Lourie (pronounced Lure-YAY) was a Russian born French art director and production designer who worked with such directors as Jean Renoir, Charlie Chaplin, and Clint Eastwood. Out of the nearly 50 feature films he was associated with, he directed only 4 of them and they all had a science-fiction background. 3 of the 4 are giant monster films beginning with THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953) and ending with GORGO (1961). The fourth is COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK (1958). Right after COLOSSUS is BEHEMOTH THE SEA MONSTER (1959) or as it is known in America, THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (Department of Redundancy Department anyone?). This is usually and somewhat understandably ranked third in the so called “Dino Trilogy” but it is my favorite of the three.
While it is essentially a British recycling of 20,00 FATHOMS shot on a much smaller budget, it is those two elements that make it more appealing to me. Because of the budget, there is lots of location shooting particularly around Cornwall that is beautiful to look at and effective to the storyline. Being made for British audiences it has a no nonsense approach to the material that makes it seem more important than it is and makes the late appearance of the monster that more effective. Most of the criticism is directed against the monster and while it is somewhat justified it misses the point. Willis O’Brien (who did the original KING KONG) supervised the effects for the Behemoth and he and his team did a creditable job considering the lack of money they had to work with. However it did result in reusing several of the same shots (just as in 1957’s THE BLACK SCORPION which O”Brien also did) and repetition weakens their effectiveness.
Looked at today it will seem crude to the CGI generation as well as very slowly paced but for those of us who appreciate stop motion animation and don’t mind dialogue where the characters speak in complete sentences and impart information as well, then THE GIANT BEHEMOTH has much to offer. The scenes of the radiation burned victims that gave kids nightmares on the film’s original release and when it first played on TV, are still effective today. Unfortunately today’s kids are made of sterner stuff and have seen so much more that it probably wouldn’t faze them at all which is a shame. You can purchase the individual DVD for a ridiculously low price or as part of a CULT CAMP CLASSIC set (where it doesn’t belong) which also includes ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN and QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE.
The Capsule Critic 