Cheap The Giant Behemoth (Video) (Douglas Hickox, Eugène Lourié) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of The Giant Behemoth

Behemoth Should Have Stayed In The Sea
The set up for this movie is well done.It was obvious that the screen writer did his research on atomic radiation.The way the scientists went about using the clues left behind to discover what they were up against was fascinating and really held my interest(If they were making this stuff up they sure had me fooled).Although,50 minutes into the movie,the monster still hadnt gone on a rampage,I would have easily forgiven this had they just come through with an exciting finaly.

Sadly,thats where everything fell apart.

I read somewhere that Willis O'Brien only had 5 and 1/2 weeks to do the stop-motion effects on the film and boy does it show.When you consider that Ray Harryhausen spent as much as 8 months(maybe longer)on some of his projects,you can imagine how poor and limited the effects were.Stop-motion was a very tedious and time consuming process.Its not something that could be rushed.

Allowed the proper time,Willis could have given this film the ending it deserved(As evidenced by his outstanding work on The Black Scorpion which only came out a year before this one).Unfortunately,the end doesnt justify the journey.Buy The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms instead which is the same plot with much better stop-motion effects.

---

A pretty decent dinosaur flick for the end of 50's sci fi
Okay, a lot of criticism has been said about this movie,and I'd like to also add my two cents worth. First, like most science fiction movies in the 50's, this wasn't meant to be a major production, unlike most of the movies like this at that time, the makers wanted to have a monster that wasn't a man in suit or other and opted to have what was known at that time as the best special effect for these types of film known as stop-motion animation, only two people did stop-motion at that time that was really good, Ray Harryhausen, who did all the animation himself, and gotten really exspensive, and the team with Willis O'Brien, which was usually Pete Peterson doing most or all of the animation. Yes, this is the English version sort to speak of "Beast From 20,000 Fathoms",but for all its shortcomings still is a decent monster flick. Aside from the same car being stepped on 3 times in different ranges of the same shot, I find the animation of the Behemoth as pretty good, especially when it comes up on the dock, walks down the pier, and attacks a crane all in the same shot, also the same when it attacks power lines later on in the film. Also the skin detail has to be one of the most realistic I've ever seen on an animated model, actually looking like real reptile skin. Performances by the actors are all good, never could figure why they got Gene Evens though, who usually played in westerns or as tough guy sergents, although he is good and beleivable in this film. Another thing about this film is has to be the most butchered film I've ever seen. The video release from Warners Bros video has the ferry scene and several others gone from it as well as what follows after that scene, making it 9 minutes shorter than it really is. I bought this video twice with that problem. After that I tried to record it off the SCI-FI Channel and it was really cut, all the way down to 67 minutes. I finally thought I'd buy it again and this time it has all the scenes in making it the 80 minute film it was origially timed at. I guess what really intrigues about this film is how it starts off as a mysterious death type play and finally comes down to a huge prehistoric beast attacking London. One thing to take in consideration about movies like this, movies like these are for us people who grew up with these films and know what they had to offer, unlike the CGI films that promise alot and then (fizz)out.

---

Classic film, MISSING KEY SCENE THOUGH!
A Great film but shame on Warner Bros. for releasing an edited version! Film quality is good, but the FERRY SCENE where the creature attacks and sinks the ferry is MISSING! Great sequence involving people boarding a ferry for an afternoon ride, when suddenly the creature attacks. Old woman eating, little girl with doll, full ship of people become victims of the beast. Memorable last scene in this sequence showing bodies floating, burned from the creatures radioactive rays, gruesome, yet an important part of the movie, What Happened To This Scene? Too long to blame it on broken film, obviously they used an Edited print! Too bad, hopefully the eventual DVD release will be INTACT! And COMPLETE!