Features:
- Radioactive waste dumped in the Atlantic Ocean awakens a prehistoric monster than can project electric shocks and radioactive beams. After the beast terrorizes the English coast, officials decide against attacking the creature with conventional weaponry because such a strategy would spread a dangerous amount radioactive contamination over the entire country. Meanwhile, the monster approaches Londo
People who bought this item also bought:
Description
Radioactive waste dumped in the Atlantic Ocean awakens a prehistoric monster than can project electric shocks and radioactive beams. After the beast terrorizes the English coast, officials decide against attacking the creature with conventional weaponry because such a strategy would spread a dangerous amount radioactive contamination over the entire country. Meanwhile, the monster approaches London...
Customer Review:
Rating: 
Summary: The best Godzilla-like movie ever made
The Giant Behemoth is memorable storytelling: my childhood favorite. What's more, it has an intelligent script and above-average acting. What more could you want from a dinosaur-in-the-present movie? If you like this, you should try The Crawling Eye: being European-made, it also has a far better script and acting than you normally get from Hollywood (where they pride themselves on extracting the most money from the least effort).
Customer Review:
Rating: 
Summary: "Giant Behemoth" not the best of the giant monster genre
"THE GIANT BEHEMOTH" 1959
Another atomic bred giant monster "Godzilla Wanna-Be" film.
Very typical of its time, with very sub-par special effects.
Some of the scenes where the MONSTER is stomping on cars and buildings are repeated over and over. This film must of been on a very low budget....it shows. There are a lot of dull moments in this film which seem just to be filler scenes and you keep hoping to see some action and maybe even the MONSTER here and there. I never remember seeing this film on TV in my youth.
The director Eugene Lourie has actually had better sci-fi films to his credit :
(1953) "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms"....much, much better then "Behemoth"
(1961) "Gorgo"......almost on par with "Behemoth" but you see the monster much more.
I bought this DVD thru Amazon at a marked down price of $5.79. It goes into my collection of 1950 sci-fi films, which I have largely acquired thru Amazon at some amazingly low prices. I find films that I want, save them on my wish list, and when they go on sale I buy them........you can get some great deals and films that you just can't find elsewhere.
Customer Review:
Rating: 
Summary: Cheesey fun
Back in the 50's, there was a television show called "Million Dollar Movie". It showed the same film every night at 7:30 and again on Saturday afternoon. This was my first exposure to "The Giant Behemoth". I watched it every night, much to the dismay of my parents who would have preferred a little more diversity in their viewing. Million Dollar Movie was a 90 minute time slot so truncated versions of the films were shown. This DVD is actually the first time I have seen the film in it's entirety. Not a great movie but so typical of the 50's monster movie genre you can't help but enjoy it. The DVD is letterboxed and the picture and sound quality very good. The special effects are laughable but that is always part of the fun with these movies.An entertaining evening's viewing. I only rate it as 3 stars simply because to rate it higher would be elevating it to a class of many better sci-fi films. Definitely worth owning, though.
Customer Review:
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Mediocre
I remember seeing this as the bottom part of a double-feature when I was nine years old. And while I knew it was a low budget movie, I figured I would give it another shot. I decided to watch the dvd with the audio commentary by two of the major special effects guys at ILM. It was the first time I can remember an audio commentary wherein the commentators knew very little about the film they were talking about. They were wrong about the year it was released (1959) and did not know the name of the star of the film (Gene Evans) although they did admit to seeing him before. Most of their commentary was talking about the endless padding needed to bring this film to its almost 90 minute length, since the film did not have the budget for many special effects and as a result the monster was seen very infrequently. They described how boring it must have been for a 12 year old to sit through this film. (I was nine and don't really remember being tremendously bored.) I did enjoy them comparing this film to some of Harryhausen's although they did throw Spielberg's name in for some reason, I guess to show us that they were two of the major special effects technicians on "Jurassic Park." I wish they would have discussed the director's (Eugene Lourie) next giant monster film "Gorgo" a little more. I've always enjoyed that film.
As for the film itself, the special effects are pretty poor in this black and white film. If you want a pretty mediocre sci. fi film from the '50s, but a fairly good indication of the type of low budget sci. fi. extravaganzas they made in those days, then you will enjoy this film. I grew up during this period and loved the sci. fi., horror and fantasy films of my childhood. However, I'll take "Godzilla," "Gorgo" or any of Harryhausen's films over this one any day.
Customer Review:
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Of The Lourie Dino Trilogy.
Eugene Lourie (pronounced Lure-YAY) was a Russian born French art director and production designer who worked with such directors as Jean Renoir, Charlie Chaplin, and Clint Eastwood. Out of the nearly 50 feature films he was associated with, he directed only 4 of them and they all had a science-fiction background. 3 of the 4 are giant monster films beginning with THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953) and ending with GORGO (1961). The fourth is COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK (1958). Right after COLOSSUS is BEHEMOTH THE SEA MONSTER (1959) or as it is known in America, THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (Department of Redundancy Department anyone?). This is usually and somewhat understandably ranked third in the so called "Dino Trilogy" but it is my favorite of the three.
While it is essentially a British recycling of 20,00 FATHOMS shot on a much smaller budget, it is those two elements that make it more appealing to me. Because of the budget, there is lots of location shooting particularly around Cornwall that is beautiful to look at and effective to the storyline. Being made for British audiences it has a no nonsense approach to the material that makes it seem more important than it is and makes the late appearance of the monster that more effective. Most of the criticism is directed against the monster and while it is somewhat justified it misses the point. Willis O'Brien (who did the original KING KONG) supervised the effects for the Behemoth and he and his team did a creditable job considering the lack of money they had to work with. However it did result in reusing several of the same shots (just as in 1957's THE BLACK SCORPION which O"Brien also did) and repetition weakens their effectiveness.
Looked at today it will seem crude to the CGI generation as well as very slowly paced but for those of us who appreciate stop motion animation and don't mind dialogue where the characters speak in complete sentences and impart information as well, then THE GIANT BEHEMOTH has much to offer. The scenes of the radiation burned victims that gave kids nightmares on the film's original release and when it first played on TV, are still effective today. Unfortunately today's kids are made of sterner stuff and have seen so much more that it probably wouldn't faze them at all which is a shame. You can purchase the individual DVD for a ridiculously low price or as part of a CULT CAMP CLASSIC set (where it doesn't belong) which also includes ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN and QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE.
|
