Saturday, December 26, 2020

Monster Crap Inductee #200: The Giant Behemoth

Monster Crap Inductee: The Giant Behemoth
The Goggles Will Do Nothing Against This Beast
 
1959
 
200 Inductions…
 
Can’t believe I have gotten this far, but this December’s induction will be my 200th induction. I mean, I started all of this on a simple lark of having something to do while I deal with multiple sclerosis and work on getting my certificate from the Connecticut School Of Broadcasting, and maybe hoping to do something in that field of broadcasting.
 
Yeah, There Was A School In Crystal City, Virginia That I Used To Go To And There Used To Be A Bar I Would Hang Out With Afterwards For A Soda While Waiting For The VRE Train Back Home, Called The Hamburger Hamlet. Both The CSB School In Crystal City And The Hamburger Hamlet Are Sadly No Longer There.
 
Thankfully, The Crystal City Water Park Is Still There. If I Wasn’t At The Hamburger Hamlet Waiting For The Train, I Was At The Water Park, Sitting On A Bench And Reading.
 
But more than 14 years later, I am now doing my 200th induction and originally, I was going to do the much anticipated franken-film of a film that originally was shot in 1980 and the final parts now being finished in Grizzly 2: The Revenge. But you all know how insane 2020 has been and unfortunately, all the delays has caused the film to eventually be announced to be released on January 8, which is too late for this induction. So instead, I am going to do like I did in my 100th induction and do a film that means something to me. The 100th induction was my first monster film that I ever saw and the 200th induction will be my second. So let’s talk about the history of The Giant Behemoth.
 
The Giant Behemoth started off as a film written by blacklisted writer Daniel Lewis James, who got blacklisted because as an assistant director of Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Director, he became very associated with Charlie Chaplin and of course, the House Un-American Activities Committee decided that James might be a communist, which James & his wife didn’t help their case by refusing to testify in one of their hearings.
 
Since under his alias of Daniel Hyatt, he made The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and since that film was a success, he was commissioned to write another giant radioactive monster film and so he did. Originally, it was going to be a radioactive amorphous blob, but they also decided to get the director of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms Eugene Laurie and Laurie, in a bit of laziness, decided that it needs to be a dinosaur just like The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get the stop motion effects guy from that film in Ray Harryhausen (he was busy with the The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad & The 3 Worlds Of Gulliver) so they decided that they needed to go to the original stop motion effects star in Willis O’Brien (who did King Kong). Willis O’Brien at this point had been surpassed in stop motion effects and was at this point a cheaper alternative. Although they at least used Willis O’Brien this time.
 
Unlike That Film….
 
Without further ado, let’s get to the film.
 
We begin the way many 50s movies begin with opening credits. Although before that, we get a bible quote about the behemoth. Then, the opening title.
 

Then we have an atomic bomb explosion.
 
Sorry, Hiroshima And Nagasaki For Having To Keep Reliving This In Films.
 
Then we have people in Hazmat suits looking over the radiation from the bomb.
 
Aw, Don’t Worry, Jack….No Way This Crap Ever Travels Via Wind.
 
Anyway, this is film from some professor who is talking about how this radiation is bad and how we should never do a bomb like this again.
 
Yeah, But You Must Admit This Stuff Makes For One Hell Of A Deterrence.
 
We also learn that this guy speaking is Steve Karnes, who if you are wondering is our main character. One asshole decides to say that “Hey, it doesn’t really matter as no one lives there”. Except (the main problem of being a bit of a history buff is sadly knowing a lot of this horrible past) is that people did live in Bikini Atoll before we forced them out so we could do the freaking nuclear tests.
 
Another gentlemen tells the asshole that he doesn’t believe that Mr. Karnes wishes to panic us and that in Japan, boatloads of fish did have to be destroyed dozens of miles away from the test area. Steve says that is exactly what he means about the negatives of our using of these nuclear tests. Steve continues by saying that we really only know little about our ocean except for what we have gotten with our lines and nets. He believes that something that is caused by this uncaring use of radioactive materials in our oceans could rise to the surface at any time.
 
We then go to a beach with a fisherman Tom Trevethan and his daughter Jean. They tie their boat down on the beach and take the bucket that has all the fish. Tom tells his daughter to go to the house and get one of the fish caught prepared for dinner while he takes the rest to the town of Looe, Cornwall to show the other villagers. As Tom goes to clean one of the fishes, we start to hear a noise and then see Tom scream as he sees something that we don’t see. He is also struck by strong light.
 

At night, Jean is worried that her father never came home and starts looking for him. She goes to the bar that he normally hangs out at, but none of the other bar patrons (including a friend of Jean’s and her dad named John Duncan) say they haven’t seen him.
 

John goes with Jean to find Tom and on the same beach where they docked, they sadly find him as he lay dying and Jean screams in horror at his burnt body.
 

They try talking to him, but all he talks about is the prophecy of a behemoth coming out of the water before he finally dies. Jean cries at her dad’s passing and we go directly to his burial.
 

The priest says some words as Tom is sent to his grave. Afterwards John goes on a walk with Jean to hopefully comfort her in this time of mourning. They go to the beaches and they find a lot of dead fish that have beached onto land.
 

Tom then finds a very strange bit of goo and decides to touch it. Unsurprisingly, that doesn’t go well as it burns his hand.
 
You Don’t See The Burnt Hand, But Trust Us….It Is Burnt
 
Back in London, before Steve can return to the US, he sees a bit of news from Looe about the fishing industry down there having issues with tons of unexplained dead fish and also that a sea monster has been sighted, which the broadcaster doesn’t take seriously.
 

This incident causes Steve to cancel his plane reservations so he can stay and investigate this incident in Looe. Steve calls his fellow professor James Bickford about the incident.
 

James also tells Steve that a man died as well there from burns and he finds the whole thing very peculiar Steve says based on the talk of the burns, is that they are the same symptoms as someone who died of burns in Hiroshima. James thinks we shouldn’t go that far as something could have been dumped that caused the burns, but Steve says he is going down there to investigate as he thinks something is up. James just so happens to have a team coming down to Looe and asks Steve if he wants to come along, which Steve accepts the invitation.
 
A train comes to Looe that night and they all the situation the next day. James asks around for a Dr. Morris, but John tells him that Dr. Morris isn’t in right now. James and Steve introduce themselves as people from the atomic institution and say they are there to run tests on the dead fish. John also has revealed that it has been 5 days since the fellow fisherman have been able to find living fish. Also, none of the fisherman seem to want to go out there after what happened to Tom. They also learn that one of the fisherman saw lights in a fog that were strange. John finally decides to take them up to meet Dr. Morris.
 

They ask him about what happened to Tom. Dr. Morris tells them that he has died of 3rd degree burns and shock. They asked why he didn’t call any consultant and Morris says that man was dead so he saw no reason to do so. Dr. Morris thinks the burns may have been due to some poisoning and not from an acid that he has ever seen. They ask if he has had a similar case and Morris first says no, but then stops and tells them about the burns on John’s hand. John shows them we finally see it.
 
Told You To Trust Me, He Was Burned.
 
Steve says the burns definitely remind him of something and James tells Morris that they should send John to London so they can run some tests on the burns. John explains how it happened and talks about the stuff as being a kind of jellyfish, but having a shine to it. He also explains that it is the same cove where Tom died.
 
The scientists then start going over the cove with Geiger Counters and find nothing. They ask Jean about her father’s dying words and once again, we get mention of the biblical prophecy of the behemoth. Back at the doctor’s office, Steve thinks they saw something while James thinks that there may be nothing to this at all. Steve says those are definitely radiation burns on John’s hand, but James says that he’ll truly know it was radiation when he gets a report from the clinic that he sent John to. Steve is only sure that something has happened here that isn’t by the book as something came out of the ocean and went back into it.
 
At a laboratory, everything seems to be normal with the results before Steve Karnes does some small dissection on some dead fish that they found. Then he puts the fish through an X-Ray technique that they call Radio Autograph and while the first two seem fine, the third one has some obviously marks.
 

They turn off the lights and we see one of the fish is glowing.
 

After looking at it a bit more, they determine that the fish has radiation in it and that the Fish and Wildlife Agency in Plymouth should be warned as that is where the specimen came from. James gets a phone call and tells them that they have to stop the fish in Plymouth from going to market as if people eat that stuff, it would have terrible results. Steve goes to Plymouth to see what the cause of the radiation was.
 
As Steve is on a boat at night, Steve and the captain decide to go in for the night as they haven’t found anything. When the captain asks Steve what he is looking for, he says he doesn’t know, but something dangerous is out there like a tiger in the jungle. They then get a report that a steam ship has gone missing and that they and other ships out in the area need to help find it. Suddenly, the radiation starts to spike on the Geiger Counter. The captain tells Steve that he sees something so Steve gets his binoculars to look closely and….
 
Yep….That Definitely Is Part Of A Sea Monster
 
The captain wants to follow it, but Steve warns that it is really dangerous. The captain is willing to risk it so Steve gives the okay to follow it. Unfortunately, they lose it as it is too fast for the boat so they circle around a while before finally heading back.
 
I Think That Captain Is Really Unhappy About Losing It.
 
The coast guard calls for Steve and tells them that they have to return to port at once. Once he gets back to the docks, he is told that the missing steam ship from last night was found beached on the shores and James called for Steve to go find out what happened.
 
Yeah, I’d Say Something Wrecked That Ship
 
As the authorities and Steve are going through the ship, they find bodies and they all have radiation on them. One of the investigators tells Steve that whatever destroyed this steam ship was pretty huge and very powerful based on the damage it did. Steve goes back to London to meet with James and the head of the investigation into the steam ship. Steve tells them that he believes they are facing a marine animal of tremendous size and shape. Basically, they all believe that it is monster that they are dealing with. Yeah, in the 50s movies, it was that easy to get people to see the evidence and convince themselves that a monster is destroying things. Basically it is like this….
 
Main Character: There is destruction and I believe there may be a monster out there based on eyewitness accounts.
Authority Figure: We’re need more than hearsay.
*Later*
Main Character: Now we have some actual evidence to show it exists.
Authority Figure: Crap….then we do have a monster causing havoc
 
Seriously, when you see so many movies do the tired cliché of having the authority being so unbelieving of the monster that he will only believe when it is right in freaking front of him (no matter the evidence already presented) and sometimes even then says it was still not real, it is rather refreshing when in a film, someone shows evidence and everyone is like, “yeah, we have a monster”. It allows for more of the monster having carnage while people find a way to deal with it.
 
News gets around the world rather quickly and we have lots of stock footage of ships sailing around. We then go to a dog barking the next day.
 
Aw Man….As Someone Who Has A Dog, They Better Not Kill It.
 
Yeah, I Still Have A Dog.
 
The dog’s owners decide to ignore the animal as they are eating dinner. Of course, the father and son finally go outside with a rifle to see what is up and dog gets killed (dammit) and giant monster walks by causing radiation which kills the dad and kid.
 
This Is A 50s Monster Movie. They Are Gonna Kill The Damn Thing So I Don’t Have To Worry About Pointless Child Death. Also, I Believe The Kid Is Old Enough To Where My Issue With It Expires. Otherwise, I Would Never Be Able To Like Slasher Films.
 
That night, the police come by to show Steve and James a photo from the tragedy that befell the father and son.
 
Well, It’s Official….We Are Dealing With A Dinosaur
 
Well, It Looks Like We Are Going To Have To Walk The Dinosaur
 
Steve asks James to get his best man in paleontology on this and James does in Dr. Sampson.
 

They tell him about the situation and even he has a hard time believing it, but when presented by evidence….he also believes in the monster existing. Oh and he is also able to tell them that it is a paleosaurus. He tells them that the creature is obviously heading towards the Thames as paleosaurus obviously like fresh water more than salt water.
 
I guess, I should get into this now. If most of you are not aware, paleosaurus are (as of this writing) carnivores in eating fish. But, until the 1960s, there were several species close to the paleosaurus that were also called paleosaurus, and ultimately, turned out to be a bit different in that they ate plants. But I am not gonna give the filmmakers too much shit about this because we also had the whole brontosaurus debacle (look it up as it is rather funny if you really like dinosaurs) and this is not even the most egregious some movies decided to use freaking lizards as dinosaurs, even though they look nothing like the dinosaur they are portraying.
 
I’m Looking Particularly At You, King Dinosaur…..Trying To Tell Me This Is The King Of The Dinosaurs AKA A Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Back to the movie and the scientists are a bit miffed that the paleontologist is happy that a dinosaur is still alive. Oh and he mentions that the paleosaurus is like an electric eel in that it emits electricity from it’s body to stop enemies from coming near it, which may explain the people getting fried by being near the creature. And for that, I have no freaking clue where they came up with that idea because I don’t know any dinosaur book I ever read that said they were like an electric eel.
 
The paleontologist (once finding out it is radioactive) is sad to hear the creature has to be killed, but seems to understand that yeah, it can’t be kept alive. He just only wants photographs for further study so out of monster movie scientists that may want to keep the creature alive for further study, he actually understands why that is not possible, which trust me, is a rarity.
 
In planning, they tell the military that they will have to block off the Thames so the creature won’t come into London since they couldn’t even do that during World War 2. He starts to say they can’t do that and then says that they already did so via radar. Oh and Dr. Sampson is in a helicopter hoping to get a picture of the creature.
 
This Seems Like A Terrible Idea
 
They have found the creature based on it leaving a radioactive outline in the sea.
 

They radio back to tell them that they see the creature, but it seems that the creature cannot be picked up on radar so let’s just say that bad stuff is about to happen. The helicopter follows the creature and the monsters decides to use his radioactive aura to kill them.
 
Aww….And Dr. Sampson Looked Like He Was About To Have An Enjoyable Nap, With The Ways His Eyes Closed And The Smile On His Face.
 
Well, with the helicopter no longer able to be picked up by radar and now the creature coming in, the military decides that they may need to head to that area in hopes of stopping the creature before it gets to London, which means more stock footage.
 
Stock Footage….A 1950s Movie Favorite
 
Well, sadly that fails as the creature eventually arrives in London.
 
Cheerio, London…..I’ve Finally Arrived
 
Sadly, the first people that get it are everyone on a ferry that we saw sailing out to the Thames as the beast destroys it.
 
Stay Away From Me. Yeah, Never Misunderstand Me..
 
Then like many old monster movies, we have the newspapers.
 
Meh, This One Seems To Just Have A Guy Selling Newspapers Instead Of Spinning Newspapers Like Bigger Budget Monster Movies At That Time.
 
That ferry incident ultimately has caused 36 dead and more than 50 missing. And now the Thames is closed to all residents. So no boats and you probably won’t be able to cross the river on a bridge either. And in this movie, you see people sad about it, but no one actively yelling and protesting over these safety moves.
 
OH YOU KNOW I HAVE TO BRING THAT SHIT UP!!!!! SHAME ON THESE PEOPLE!!!!
 
The head of the task force is saying they are re-routing all traffic through the tunnels and are planning to meet the monster anywhere as anywhere is where it could strike. So we get a montage of the military getting prepared for an attack of any kind by the monster.
 

Oh and of course they are also evacuating people.
 
More Orderly Than Any Evacuation You See In A Godzilla Film
 
Now the streets are empty as we go to a task force meeting where they say they should use bombs from planes or helicopters. James thinks this is a bad idea as the entire area will be radioactive if they hit the beast so they need to find a way to destroy the creature in one piece so they can then dispose of the radioactive carcass in a safe way. Steve says that the beast is killing itself with its own radiation, but he has no idea of how long it will survive for. They then think of ways to speed up the process of the radiation killing the creature.
 
One guy suggests they dip a tank shell into some radium, but that gets shot down because if it misses, they’ve done more damage to the city than the monster could have done. Steve then comes up with a torpedo as the ideal solution. And of course, that is the idea that they are going to go with, but they will need time.
 
That night, the creature comes up from the deep.
 

Alerts are raised that the creature is about to attack. The creature immediately starts destroying some nearby structures.
 

Remember when I said orderly evacuations?
 
Seems Not Everyone Got That Memo
 
You Know, If I Had Hands…..I Would Do The Queen’s Wave At All Of You
 
The creature walks around, crushing cars and people along its way. Some random people stop, unable to move in pure horror and the creature emits its radiation to kill them.
 
Really, Guys….You’re Just Going To Stand There.
 
Now You’re All Dead. Congratulations, Morons.
 
The military starts firing and with this creature, it works as well as you would think.
 

Some people try to hide, but the monster destroys the wall they are hiding behind, crushing them.
 
Hey, Did You See That Poster Talking About A New Year Party? This Induction Is Perfectly Timed For This Time. Not One That I Had To Decide At That Last Minute Because My Original Choice Never Came Out. No Siree….
 
And with all of that destruction and people running, we move on to head of the task force asking James how long will it be. James tells him that they are forging the bit to the torpedo now. As they put the radium tip onto the torpedo…
 

We go right back to the monster, who has to deal with those dumbass power lines.
 
Careful There, Giant Behemoth…I’ve Seen Too Many British PSAs Where People Die Because Of Those Electrical Wires.
 
This Little Bird Knows What I Mean…
 
This Monster Is Not A Fan Of Those British Safety PSAs
 
The night skies shows London on fire.
 
Well, That’s A Lot Of British Fire PSAs Going On (They’re Terrifying As Well). Many Of Them Could Have Used A Smoke Alarm. 
 
As everything seems calm with the monster, two dumbasses decide to hide in a car and are just so unlucky that the best decides it is going to grab that car with its mouth and fling it into the Thames.
 

The monster then breaks a bridge and falls into the Thames himself.
 
Aaaaahhhhhh…..I Meant To Do That!!!!
 
The special torpedo has finally been finished and has been put into the two man submersible and it will be this gentlemen who will piloting and firing.
 

Steve goes in too as he will be directing where to fire it. After a few minutes underwater, they find the creature.
 

The creature tries to destroy them with his radioactive aura, but this submersible has been specifically armored to partway handle that. The creature bites at the submersible, but they are thankfully able to get away before they die as a snack. They find a perfect spot and fire at the creature.
 

It strikes true and the missile allows the radiation to eventually kill the creature from the inside.
 

The creature comes up for one last gasp and then it dies.
 

The military tells them that the creature is dead and everyone celebrates. James and Steve get into a car and the radio says that mountains of dead fish are being found in America (maybe setting up a sequel that will never come).
 
Their Grim Faces At This News Ends This Movie.
 
So how did it do. Well, with many 50s monster movies, I really don’t know how it did in the box office. But I do know that critics don’t particularly like the film and some of their reasoning is pretty stupid. One American critic Andrew Wickliffe didn’t like that it was attacking Brits as he said (and I quote) “No offense to the Brits, but watching a bunch of folks stand around and keep a stiff upper lip while radioactive monsters attack London isn’t too much fun.” Ultimately, people found the film to be a copy of Eugene Laurie’s earlier film The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, and from everything I read, I believe that might have been intentional.
 
As far as the actors go, I don’t think any of them did much else. However, Eugene Laurie was actually a co-director of this film as a young Douglas Hickox co-directed this film and it was Douglas’s directorial debut (in fact, Douglas Hickox has an award named after him that is given to a British director for their directorial debut). The other thing he did was be the father of genre director Anthony Hickox, who directed such films as both Waxwork 1 & 2, Hellraiser 3, and Sundown: A Vampire In Retreat (a underrated vampire western). Sadly for Willis O’Brien, he would only have two more films he was attached to. One of those films, The 1960 Lost World remake, he was commissioned for, but the studio never used his stuff and instead used actual lizards. The other film was It’s A Mad Mad World where he only did part of the film and sadly, he would never live to see it get released. Daniel James (the blacklisted writer) had a bit of a controversy as 1983, he decided to write Famous All Over Town about a Mexican-American family living in Eastern Los Angeles under the guise of Daniel Santiago. This idea to try and pretend to be a Mexican-American (when he is really just some white guy from Kansas City) would come back to bite him in the ass as the book (that was loved) is now debated as being authentic.
 
Speaking of which, let’s get into the people no longer with us and yes, I know….most of the cast and crew are dead.
 
Willis O’Brien (stop motion effects) left this world in 1962 at the age of 76 from a heart attack (It’s A Mad Mad World was dedicated to him). Jack MacGowran (who played Dr. Sampson) died in 1973 at the age of 54 from the flu. Wallace Bosco (who had an uncredited role as Scientist at the Atomic Research Conference) passed away in 1973 at the age of 92. Jim Tyson (who had an uncredited role as Publican) died in 1974 at the age of 62 after suffering a heart attack. Arthur Gomez (who had an uncredited role as Fisherman at Quayside) died in 1976 at the age of 73. Andre Morell (who played James Bickford) died in 1978 at the age of 69 from lung cancer. Henri Vidon (who played Tom Trevethan) would leave this world at the age of 69 in 1978. Michael Mulcaster (who had an uncredited role as Fisherman at Quayside) died in 1984 at the age of 72. Douglas Hickox (co-director) would pass away in 1988 at the age of 59 after heart surgery. Daniel Lewis James (the blacklisted writer) died in 1988. Howard Lang (who had an uncredited role as a Naval Commander) died in 1989 at the age of 78. Leonard Sachs (who had an uncredited role as Scientist) died in 1990 at the age of 80. Eugene Laurie (co-director) died in 1991 at the age of 88 from a combination of a stroke and heart failure. Pat Ryan (who had an uncredited role as Officer in Situation Room) died in 1992 at the age of 76. Peter Sinclair (who had the uncredited role as the Trawler Captain) died in 1994 at the age of 93. Alastair Hunter (who had the uncredited role of Dr. Morris) died in 1996 at the age of 82. Maurice Kaufmann (who played the guy piloting the submersible) passed away in 1997 at the age of 70. Gene Evans (who played Steve Karnes) passed away in 1998 at the age of 75 from heart failure. Chris Adcock (who played an uncredited role as a man running in the crowd) died in 1998 at the age of 75. Lola Morice (who had an uncredited role of Barmaid) died in 1998. Guy Standeven (who had an uncredited role of Naval Officer in Situation Room) died in 1998 at the age of 70. Joe Wadham (who had an uncredited role as a Police Driver) died in 1998 at the age of 80. Bill Cummings (who had an uncredited role as Fleeing Man) died in 2002 at the age of 74. Neil Hallet (who had an uncredited role as a Helicopter Pilot) died in 2004 at the age of 80. Charles Price (who had an uncredited role as Allison the Marine Guard) died in 2004. Lloyd Lamble (who had the uncredited role of Admiral Summers) died in 2008 at the age of 94. Leigh Madison (who played Jean Trevethan) would leave this world in 2009 at the age of 74 due to complications from a degenerative neurological condition. Max Faulkner (who had an uncredited role as a PLA Radio Operator) would leave this world in 2010 at the age of 79. Georgina Ward (who had an uncredited role as Girl listening to Police Radio) died in 2010 at the age of 68. Neal Arden (who had the uncredited role as TV Newscaster) lived to be 104 before passing away in 2014. Aidan Harrington (who had an uncredited role as a Hotel Guest at the Connaught) died in 2017 at the age of 88 from natural causes. Patrick Jordan (who had the uncredited role of a Lab Aide) died in 2020 at the age of 96.
 
Now for my personal opinion of this film. I’ll admit that my enjoyment of this film gets lesser and lesser as the more times I see it, but I still enjoy it especially for nostalgia purposes as I still remember watching it the first time back in the day. Is it kind of like other monster movies (especially The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms)? Yes, and I think Eugene really didn’t want to do this and copied a past film of his. History has a certain points not been kind to this film with what we more know about the dinosaurs, but I let that go and I suggest you do too because they don’t have the ability to know the future.
 
Now I could have asked a bunch of people I know to have segments about congratulate me getting to 200 inductions like plenty of others have done. But honestly, I’m kind of lazy and I did not think ahead of time to do so. So instead, I will do the same as I will always do around this time of year and wish you all a Happy Holidays and I’ll see you in the new year with the GINO Award winner. Hopefully, I get to 300 inductions or hopefully I get to use my time to do something that could be a paid career. So see ya then…
 
You Filthy Animals