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Ahh, the atomic age, such a wonderful point in history. To the average person, the above statement may seem morbid, sick, or both. But all reasonably knowledgeable monster fans know the atomic age as a period during the 1950’s in which dozens of monster movies centering around monsters created by nuclear bombs and other man-made weapons which include some of the greatest monster movies ever made, including classics from the 1954 hit, ‘Them’ ,‘The giant claw’, ‘Godzilla: King of the monsters’ (which was actually inspired by ‘The Beast from 20,000 phantoms’) and ‘The black scorpion’. One of the first, and to this day, greatest of these films is the Ray Harryhausen classic, ‘The beast from 20,000 phantoms’.

The movie, particularly the scene in which the Rhedosaurus attacks the light house, was inspired by a short story written by one of Ray’s closest friends, Ray Bradbury. Unfortunately, this was the only film in which the two worked together, if they had it their way, things would be very different. The story starts off in the artic where an experiment, dubbed ‘operation experiment’, is being conducted to test the hydrogen bomb. The test goes as planned, but when Dr. Tom Nesbitt (Paul Christian) sees a gigantic creature while investigating the experiment’s aftermath, he succumbs to serious injury he just bearly makes it back to base. After telling various people about this monster, he is taken to see a New York psychiatrist during his stay at the hospital, who tells him he was most likely hallucinating. Nesbit however is certain of what he saw, and visits the renowned paleontologist known as Professor Elson (Cecil Kellaway), who does not believe the creature, which he suspects would have to be over 100 million years old exists. But his assistant, Dr. Hunter (Paula Raymond) believes the doctor, and consults with him and, later, a sailor from Nova Scotia who had a similar encounter with the beast. When both men choose the same animal out of a pile of drawings of Prehistoric animals, Elson is finally convinced that the beast, which Dr. Hunter has identified as a Rhedosaurus, is indeed at large, and is heading directly for New York City. Dr Elson heads towards the deep waters off the coast of New York were the last remains of a similar creature was found years ago. The military provides the Dr. a diving bell so that he investigate where the creature is lurking. Deep under the underwater caverns the Dr. Elson finds the creature but the beast turns towards the bell and destroys it killing the Dr. and his crewman instantly. The creature then heads towards New York and attacks the docks and then continues towards the city and creates complete chaos in the streets, Can the armed forces defeat this titanic saurian and prevent the spread of its ancient virus that his blood carries? or is the big apple doomed? Watch the movie to find out!

Creatures to look out for:

Trivia:

• All the live action scenes for the Coney Island park sequence was filmed at an amusement park in Long Beach, Willis Cook built two detailed miniatures of the roller coaster.

• The entire animation sequences for the film were done in five months.

• The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms became the sleeper hit of 1953, grossing in excess of $5 million, even today it continues to gross huge sums, making a mint for Warner Bros.

• The picture opened on the 1st of June 1953, with Warner spending $20,000 on a huge publicity campaign, matching its negative costs and making the film the hit of the year.