THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (1958)
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 80 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Eugène Lourié
Cast: Gene Evans, Andre Morell, John Turner, Leigh Madison, Jack MacGowran, Maurice Kaufmann, Henri Vidon, Leonard Sachs
The start of this big monster film from the 50's, appropriately, if somewhat overkill-ishly titled The Giant Behemoth, opens with American scientist Steve Karnes (Gene Evans, The Ballad of Cable Hogue) and Brit Professor James Bickford (Andre Morell, The Plague of the Zombies) being called to an idyllic seaside village to investigate the strange death of a local fisherman. His corpse showed signs of burns associated with radiation exposure, and his dying words to his daughter was "behemoth". His death is followed by a massive fish kill in the area and the beaching of a large ship with no survivors.
Their investigations leads them to the discovery that the dead fish are highly radioactive, with the next bit of weirdness happening at a seaside farm with the discovery of enormous footprint. The scientists theorize that nuclear testing in the ocean may have mutated a creature, consulting with paleontologist Dr. Sampson (Jack MacGowran, Cul-De-Sac) whom identifies the footprint as an aquatic dinosaur that is known to have emitted an electric pulse, not unlike that of an electric eel.
Funnily, the scientist through this one picture of blurry footprint not only identifies what the creature is, but also theorizes that it's exposure to radiation is killing it, and like a salmon it will swim inland upstream to the place of it's origins to die! Even by the tenuous criteria of 50's b-movie logic this diagnosis is a bit of far-fetched stretch, but when I was eight years old watching this on TV you know I believed every word of it as potential science fact!
Of course the monster makes it's way from the open ocean up the River Thames where it destroys a ferry before making landfall in London, stomping people and crushing cars, knocking down buildings and causing terror in the streets. Eventually the beast returns to the river and the scientist pursue it in a mini-submarine with a radium-tipped torpedo in hopes of killing it before it can further decimate London.
Fifties creature features about irradiated lizards of unusual size wreaking havoc on atom-age man were not unusual, director
Eugène Lourié (The Colossus of New York) is repeating himself here having already directed a very similar movie a few years prior, that being the superior The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), and just a few year later would do it again with Gorgo (1961), which is the worst of the bunch, but not un-fun mind you, just a worse film by comparison.
The beast here looks a bit shit at first, with all the presence and articulation of solid-core rubber dinosaur a kid might play with in the bathtub in the 50's. The creature emerges from the dry-ice infused water with no movement whatsoever, water dripping from it's body, relegated to odd panning camera movements to give it the unconvincing illusion of movement,. It's not until the final ten minutes or so that the creature is presented in full stop-motion animation with work done by the legendary Willis H. O'Brien (The Black Scorpion), a man who had done some excellent work in his time, this is the man who worked on the original King Kong after all, but here is working with a very low-budget which hamstrung the potential of his on-screen creation.
That's not to say it's an un-fun movie, because I love 50's monster movies and this is one of the ones I watched multiple times as a kid laying on the floor in front of the TV with by head propped up on by fists. It has not aged very well, but it has that nostalgic patina that will always keeps it close to my heart. The way that the creature transmits radioactivity is pretty cool, a circular spiral pattern that reduces people to husks of irradiated ash, an effect sometimes achieved through a dissolve from film to an illustrated image,which is not too convincing, but when I was a kid I thought it was absolutely horrific.
Andre Morel appears here as the Brit scientist, he's a bit dry here, the whole film is very British and talky so there's the expected level of dry tinder dialogue, but this is a lesser film role for the veteran actor. I much prefer his turns in both Hammer's crime-caper Cash On Demand (1961) and the underrated undead flick The Plague of the Zombies (1966), where he is a man of science and of action.
Audio/Video: The Giant Behemoth (1958) arrives on Blu-ray from a brand new 2019 2K scan of original film elements. The image looks solid, the 1080p HD black and white cinematography is crisp, grain is finely managed and contrast is excellent throughout. Some of the optical shots do allow some softness to creep in but that's to be expected. Close-ups offers some nice texturing, particularly in shots of the beasts skin. The increased resolution is not always kind to the film, those miniatures of the ferry boat capsizing with toy cars and trucks falling into the water absolutely do not hold-up, if they ever did!
Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono mix that is quite adequate, it's clean and free of distortion, the raucous score from Edwin Astley isn't the most fidelic and nuanced, but it's well-balanced, optional English subtitles are provided.
Warner Archive carry-over the audio commentary with Dennis Muren and Phil Tippet from their previous DVD release, which is somewhat mocking of the film, as well as the theatrical trailer for the film.
The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster, which is also excerpted for the disc art.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary by Veteran Special Effects Creator Dennis Muren and Phil Tippett
- Theatrical Trailer
The Giant Behemoth (1958) is fun monster movie stuff, it doesn't rival the monster mayhem of Ray Harryhausen but I have a real soft spot for these Willis H. O'Brien stop-motion animated creations, even when their not great, they're still awesome. I tip my b-movie lover's hat to Warner Archive for bringing this vintage creature feature to Blu-ray, a high recommend for monster kids of all ages.
