Giant radioactive monsters, while apparently preferring Tokyo, do occasionally attack other major cities, whether they be San Francisco in It Came from Beneath the Sea, or London, as in this movie. This one, called the behemoth, I think is referred to as a plesiosaur but looks more apatosaurus-like. The Giant Behemoth, aka Behemoth the Sea Monster, is your average monster-attacks-city movie. It spends an inordinate amount of time on people jabbering along, scientists trying to figure out what gave dead people radiation burns, et cetera, et cetera. By the time I started nodding off, the monster makes his first appearance, and looks kind of like a piñata. Later it comes on land and is a stop-motion effect. This was Willis O'Brien's penultimate film. At this point, O'Brien and his techniques had been surpassed by those of his student, Ray Harryhausen. The behemoth looks not much better than the dinosaurs of the silent The Lost World. Still, I quite like it. There's just something about stop-motion effects that charms me. But these effects are too few and far between to make the movie worth anything.
Review of The Giant Behemoth
The Giant Behemoth
(1959)
One of the last films Willis O'Brien made, but it isn't a very good movie
12 October 2008