IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA

 
Italian Title: IL MOSTRO DEI MARI
Production: 1955 - USA, Columbia, b/n, 80 min.
Director: Robert Gordon
Producer: Charles H. Schneer
Screenwriter: George Worthing Yates and Hal Smith
Special Effects: Ray Harryhausen and Jack Erickson
Music: Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Cast: Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis, Harry Lauter, Ian Keith, Dean Maddox Jr., Chuck Griffiths, Harry Lauter, Richard W. Peterson, Del Courtney
The nuclear submarine commanded by Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey) runs into [encounters] a mysterious presence that moves through the waters of the Pacific, close to the coast of California. Two scientists, Doctor Leslie Joyce (Faith Domergue) and Doctor John Carter (Donald Curtis), discover what turns out to be a species of giant octopus that emerged from the ocean depths, and filled with radioactivity, most surely an after-effect of nuclear tests. Studying the movement of the creature, the two scientists hasten to sound the alarm: The animal, in fact, in search of food, is heading directly for San Francisco!
The creature knows no obstacles and nears the large cities, undetected. Destroying a good part of the port with his spreading tentacles, clinging to the picturesque Golden Gate Bridge with his distructive grip, and showing every intention of carrying on his advance against the homes and mansions along the shoreline.
Just when science and the armed forces appear to admit defeat, the courageous Commander Mathews (who, in the meantime has spun a love story with Doctor Leslie Joyce) intervenes in the nick of time, to defeat the sea monster - he believes - with a good salvo of torpedoes. . . and his submarine does not hesitate to get into action.
The Special Effects wizard Harryhausen - here in his second movie and his first time with producer Charles H. Schneer - is part of a story which, at least on paper, has the basics for suprising the public. The film, nevertheless, did not achieve the hoped-for success. Blame for this was placed from the anonymous direction of Gordon to the tightness of the budget (it is said that Harryhausen for economic reasons was forced to create an octopus with four tentacles, rather than six) and, for some reason, to the lack of cooperation on the part of the San Fransisco government that presumably considered the bad publicity generated by a film that ends with the destruction of the Golden Gate, shortly opened with a great ceremony.
©
English version by Vince Mattaliano