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The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms DVD cover
Directed by	Eugène Lourié
Produced by	Jack Dietz
Written by	Fred Freiberger Eugène Lourié Louis Morheim Robert Smith from a story by Ray Bradbury
Starring	Paul Christian Paula Raymond Cecil Kellaway Kenneth Tobey
Music by	David Buttolph
Cinematography	Jack Russell
Editing by	Bernard W. Burton
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	1953
Running time	80 min.
Language	English
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IMDb profile

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is a black and white 1953 science fiction film directed by Eugène Lourié. The film's shooting title was Monster from Beneath the Sea. When The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, a short story by Ray Bradbury was published in The Saturday Evening Post, the producers were reminded by someone that both works share a similar theme of a prehistoric sea monster, and a lighthouse being destroyed. The producers who wished to share Bradbury's reputation and popularity, bought the right to Bradbury's story and changed the film's title. The movie was promoted as being "suggested" by a Ray Bradbury story. Bradbury would eventually change the title of his story to The Fog Horn when it was eventually reprinted. The monster of the film looked nothing like the Brontosaurus-type creature of the short story. A drawing of the creature was published along with the story in the The Saturday Evening Post.^[1]

Creature effects by Ray Harryhausen.

As a result of an arctic nuclear test, a fictional carnivorous dinosaur known as the Rhedosaurus thaws out of the ice and starts making its way down the east coast of North America. It arrives in New York where it manages to destroy most of Coney Island before finally being killed.

Contents 1 Cast 2 Trivia 3 Notes 4 Reference 5 See also 6 External links

• Paul Hubschmid – as Professor Tom Nesbitt (as Paul Christian)
• Paula Raymond – as Dr. Lee Hunter
• Cecil Kellaway – as Dr. Thurgood Elson
• Kenneth Tobey – as Colonel Jack Evans
• Donald Woods – as Captain Phillip Jackson
• Ross Elliott – as Professor George Ritchie
• Jack Pennick – as Jacob Bowman
• Lee Van Cleef – as Corporal Stone

• While trying to identify the Rhedosaurus, Professor Tom Nesbitt goes through the dinosaur drawings of Charles R. Knight, a man whom Harryhausen claims as in inspiration. Charles R. Knight died in 1953, the year Beast was released.
• The dinosaur skeleton in the museum sequence is artificial; it was obtained from storage at RKO Pictures where it had been constructed for Bringing up Baby (1938).

• This was the first film to feature a giant monster awakened or brought about by an Atomic Bomb blast and to attack a major city. Due to its success it helped spawn the entire "Giant atomic monster on the loose" films of the 1950s. Producers Jack Dietz and Hal E. Chester got the idea to combine the growing paranoia about the Atom Bomb with the concept of a giant monster after the successful theatrical re-release of King Kong in 1952.
• Some prints of this film were tinted in sepia (rather than Black and White). Others had the underwater scenes tinted in green.
• At one point there were plans to have the Rhedosaurus snort flames, but this idea was dropped before production began due to budget restrictions. However the concept was still used in the films movie poster.
• Some early preproduction conceptual sketches of the Rhedosaurus showed that at one point it was to have a shelled head and at another point was to be a beaked Dinosaur creature. [1]
• This movie had a production budget of $210,000. It grossed roughly $5 million dollars at the Box Office.

1. ^ Jeff Rovin. The Encyclopedia of Monsters. New York:Facts on File, 1989.

• List of stop-motion films

• The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms at the Internet Movie Database
• Suite of the film score re-recorded on "Monstrous Movie Music" label (sound samples available)
• Ray Harryhausen: The Beast Master Speaks