The Giant Behemoth

[Deacon]

One of my favorite "giant monster" flicks as a child.

It's a shame great old movies like this are so rarely aired anymore.

[George]

 Well I've got new DVDs from Monsterland of both Behemoth and X-From Outer Space and the sound problems are gone!,it was just one of thoes things,like in every case where you buy or order a DVD,so Monsterland Toys is certainly the place to go to get The Giant Behemoth and X-From Outer Space!.

[Carmela]

My father took me to see this movie when I was very little. It scared the pants off me and I swore that I would NEVER go to England. I avoided Million Dollar Movie when they showed this movie! I saw it a couple of years ago and laughed out loud. It was corny, funny and still a bit scary. I can't wait til AMC puts it on again.

[Kevin]

I notice the sci fi film reviews always denigrate this movie as a cheap rip off of The Beast, and I am happy to have found this page which is a virtual fan club for the Giant Behemoth. This is a very special monster film, and this page shows that it has bonded a generation in a way few films have. We all know the minor low budget faults of the film that resulted mostly from the tragic personal decline of effects legend Willis O'Brien (King Kong) and also Pete Peterson his physically handicapped assistant that did uncanny expressive animations sequences such as the Mighty Joe young piano lifting facial shots. But I would just like to point out a few of the neglected high points of this true classic.  
1. the music score: spine chilling distinctive and strong
in a word  wow
2. the night silhouette of the behemoth and high voltage towers: a tour de force of animation and atmosphere.
3. the Sherlock Holmes type scientific opening with a searing ocean chase in a tiny vessel: never could be done better.
4. the environmental message: amazingly effective without preaching,
5 finally the sound effects like the radiation and the fantastic roar of the monster: super
Sure the point can be made the director Lourie never topped the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms polish and perfection as a film. Critics point out that the fiery amusement part ending   of the Beast was way more spectacular than Behemoth and it was. But the Behemoths demise by a torpedo in the mouth played pretty well with the hard critics of Brooklyn. The difference is subjective in a way. When kids watch the Beast they say  'how neat'  when they watched the Giant Behemoth's paralyzing stare, they want to run.

[Michael]

This is my favorite movie of all time.  I too watched it all the time on channel 9 in New York.  Yea, the missing ferry scene takes away from the movie.  

[Andrew Berk]

 :cheers:I just stumbled upon this site when for some strange reason I decided to do a search on the Rhedosaurus. Of course you all know what that's from but it made me think about this movie. I remember watching over and over on (Now we'll see how old everyone here is) on "Million Dollar Movie." I watched it as a little kid with I guess you would call her my new little girlfriend, which she became because what other little girls was I going to meet who was carrying a gun (Toy, of course) which I was as well when we met that afternoon. Million dollar movie played the same film on Saturday's over and over again and they played this movie. Of all the stations I have had now for years and still get a kick out of watching these old B movies, I have never seen it again anywhere.

My question to you is why was this one movie never played by any of the zillion cable stations My comment is after looking briefly at the readers comments is why did no one mention that the Behemoth steps on the same car 2 or 3 times as it walks down the streets of London? Last just to add I have never seen a copy of it on DVD anywhere. I haven't tried the internet yet because this memory is fairly recent. By the way the DVD I bought that started this was a 2 sided disc with "THEM" and The Beast from 20000 fathoms.

[Xenorama]

this is a fun and underrated movie.  it's out on DVD, good looking print, but with the worst commentary ever, from people who should know better.

David

[George]

Finally The Giant Behemoth is out there on DVD!.

Although that's the wonderful news,one has to be thinking of our two commentators,I once asked the question,did the people at MST3K really like or enjoy the Gamera movies they showed?,in some ways to me it didn't seem like it,and that's why I still have mixed feelings about there airing,even though they were of the Sandy Frank variety.

The same can be said for the commentators on Giant Behemoth,they seem to be making fun of the movie more than giving us interresting details on how long it took to make or the production costs,or even the creation of the monster.

As a reviewer said,maybe it never occurred to them that  people who bought The Giant Behemoth might actually like it?.

At least this great 50s classic is out there on dvd.

[FLU-BIRD]

I saw this movie as a kid i can clearly remeber the dinasour stomping around and cuasing anything that got with in a certian distence to disintigrate and destroying it with the radioactive isitope shot from a rifle

[Kooshmeister]

My favorite character was Dr. Sampson, the childlike paleontologist who believed dinosaurs were still alive since he was a little boy. He's only in a couple of scenes but his heartfelt speech about his childhood dreams makes him the movie's most interesting character. It's a shame the screenwriters decided to just blow him up in a helicopter. What a waste of a character (not to mention a bit too similar to Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, wherein paleontologist Dr. Thurgood Elson also gets killed by the very creature he's seeking.)

Sampson: You know, all my life I hoped this would happen. Ever since childhood I expected it. I knew these creatures were alive somewhere, but I had no proof, scientific proof, and I had to keep it to myself, or my colleagues would have all laughed at me. See, no form of life ceases abruptly, and all those reports of sea serpents - well, what can they be?... The tall, graceful neck of paleosaurus. He can stay underneath the surface for an age, and now he comes to the top.

[dancer5612004]

Sometimes bad is good, besides, the recent dvd release includes the capsized boat scene which was excluded in previous release, and this is the version which is what I saw when it first came out on sci-fi TV back in the early 70s. Great to have again in my collection.

[rmaset]

NYC Million Dollar Movie here too. So scarey it hurt, for me as a kid of about 7, and a core memory (a la Inside Out) for me now. "PB7 PB7 report to me PB7.")

I saw it again as an adult, and was surprised to find that it was actually pretty good.

[alandhopewell]

     I'm not sure how many times Ghoulardi showed this movie, but I watched it every time; it was cool, and scary, particularly if you're seven or eight when you see it. The crispy-crittering of the people and the doll floating on the water after the ferry attack
really got to me. I still love this film, not just for nostalgia's sake, but on its own merits, same for THE BLACK SCORPION.

! No longer available

[Barracuda54]

Hey guys, believe it or not, this was one of my favorite movies as a kid and I still watch it today as an adult....[/b]BUT:
One important point was left out of:
[/b]THINGS I LEARNED FROM THIS MOVIE:
You can't handle radioactive fish with your bare hands, as Gene Evans did in the lab and:
You need to use soap when you wash your hands when you're done with said radioactive fish.

I think that's the only thing he missed....other than that, it's really not that bad of a movie.