Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The (1953)

Near the Arctic Circle, an atomic bomb is detonated. This fearsome experiment disturbs the sleep of a giant Rhedosaurus encased in ice for more than 100 million years and sends it southward on a destructive, deadly rampage.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is a film of firsts. It spawned a new era of atomic-age creature features, it was the first screen adaptation of a work by fantasy fiction titan Ray Bradbury, and it marked the first time Ray Harryhausen had control over special effects.

Harryhausen came up with a fantastic creature that swims down from the north to run amok through New York City after it attacks and destroys a lighthouse in Maine.

Intent on stopping it is the might of America’s military and the scientific minds of physicist Thomas Nesbitt (Paul Christian), palaeontologist Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) and his assistant Lee Hunter (Paula Raymond) who draw the beast to a spectacular Coney Island roller-coaster finale (actually The Long Beach Amusement Park in California).

Professor Tom Nesbitt
Paul Hubschmid
Lee Hunter
Paula Raymond
Dr Thurgood Elson
Cecil Kellaway
Colonel John Evans
Kenneth Tobey
Jacob Bowman
Jack Pennick
Captain Philip Jackson
Donald Woods
Corporal Stone
Lee Van Cleef
Sergeant Loomis
Steve Brodie
Professor George Ritchie
Ross Elliott
Sergeant Willistead
Ray Hyke
Nesbitt’s secretary
Mary Hill
Dr Morton
Frank Ferguson
Dr Ingersoll
King Donovan

Director
Eugene Lourie

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