When a giant octopus attacks a state-of-the-art submarine, it is up to Commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey) and Professors Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) and John Carter (Donald Curtis) to figure out how to stop this radioactively motivated sea creature before it attacks. Unfortunately, time is running short and the creature eventually shows up in the San Francisco Bay. While researching, a love triangle forms between the trio and the added complication of possible romantic interaction makes the added layer in the movie's story just that much better.
Overall, the movie is great considering the 1955 setting and, as always with a Harryhausen film, the stop-action animation very much has his look and feel. The scene where the monster attacks and tears apart the Golden Gate Bridge is just classic.
On the second disc, you will find an interview with Harryhausen by Tim Burton (a modern advocate of stop-action (if movies like James and the Giant Peach, Corpse Bride and Nightmare Before Christmas are any indication), as well as a preview of the upcoming comic book It Came From Beneath the Sea... Again!. You can also see a featurette about music's role in film as seen by David Schecter and a discussion about how classic stop-action movies and techniques have effected special effects as we know them today.
It Came From Beneath the Sea is one of those movies that I never got a chance to see before now, but had always seen referenced and wanted to see. So I was pleased to find that It Came From Beneath the Sea is very much a to-buy movie for Harryhausen fans.
