The Giant Behemoth in '50s Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

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The Giant Behemoth

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creepycrawley	The Giant Behemoth	Lead	[-]
Dec 29 04 12:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Another fave from the fifties for me was the B monster movie the Giant Behemoth(1957), which when you think about the title comes out as the Giant Giant. Anyway, I knew a vhs copy of this movie existed but I had the damndest time finding one. Then I lucked out and found a really good, widescreen version on DVD on ebay. Actually I found quite a few gems on ebay recently. You have to be careful with what you buy on ebay, but I found most sellers pretty honest about what they're selling. They'll usually tell you how good the viewing quality. I am also looking for a copy of The Monster of Piedras Blancas, which for those of you who have never seen it, which is the poor man's version of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
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JimPV	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#1	[-]
Dec 29 04 1:09 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	When I was a kid, I saw this title in print and pronounced it "Be (as in bed)-he-moth", with the emphasis on the "Be-". Hey, I was a kid, I didn't know how to pronounce it--! Not a great movie, but's it's neat how the animation in the O'Brien/Peterson films is of such a different style as Harryhausen's stuff. They used alot of chiaroscuro lighting and animated camera shots, which gives animation a much different feeling. "If I had a hidden microphone inside of my heart, I would turn the power on..."
Tim Lucas VW	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#2	[-]
Dec 30 04 12:28 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	All three of Eugene Lourie's dinosaur films tell essentially the same story (and share a bathysphere sequence), but I like this movie for a variety of reasons. The radiation of the behemoth is a chilling touch, with those shots of the onlookers being reduced to mounds of ash, and the pairing of Andre Morell (a TV Quatermass) and Gene Evans (on his best behavior, but more akin to Brian Donlevy's brash American Quatermass) is an effective study in contrasts. I have a few different copies of this movie; I am hoping I have this somewhere in my attic with the Allied Artists scroll attached.
TomWeaver999	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#3	[-]
Dec 30 04 12:53 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I don't think GIANT BEHEMOTH ever got Strockified -- just a lot of the under-75-minute AA's did. WORLD WITHOUT END, BODY SNATCHERS, FRANKENSTEIN 1970, a lot of 'em did not get tinkered with.
Laughing Gravy	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#4	[-]
Dec 30 04 1:22 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ghoulardi used to show BEHEMOTH, and it terrified me. The scene in which the little girl's doll is shown floating in the river... man, it still sends chills down the ol' Gravy spine.
Bill Warren	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#5	[-]
Dec 30 04 1:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, some kind of alteration to increase its length was done to THE GIANT BEHEMOTH; there were lots of held frames scattered through the movie, including in the stop motion sequences.
Rapfred	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#6	[-]
Dec 30 04 5:01 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	>> Well, some kind of alteration to increase its length was done to THE GIANT BEHEMOTH; there were lots of held frames scattered through the movie, including in the stop motion sequences.>> If so, the alterations were done for the theatrical release and not the broadcast version. When THE GIANT BEHEMOTH ran on WOR-TV, it was actually cut to fill a ninety minute time slot. BEHEMOTH has always been my favorite of Lourie's dino movies. High points: Edwin Astley's tense, understated score, the grim, gray, MAN OF ARAN look of the Cornwall scenes (complete with striking hand-held camera work), and Jack McGowran's brief but memorable turn as Sampson, the paleontologist. As written, Sampson is a rehash of Cecil Kellaway's colorful eccentric Dr. Elson. As played by Beckett's favorite actor, he's a whole lot more. With voice quavering and a faraway look in his eyes, he waxes beatific about the existence of a living dinosaur, the realization of a long-held dream he could never share with colleagues who would only have ridiculed him. McGowran transforms this trite monologue into a moving ode to lonely monster kids of all ages.
taraco	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#7	[-]
Dec 30 04 7:29 PM Burgomaster Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I agree. THE GIANT BEHEMOTH has always been way under-rated. It's got quite passable and at time very effective special effects, an actual storyline, characters who seem to actually care what is going on -- rare in the 50s -- and several scenes that are unforgettable. The panic scenes alone are end-of-the-world archetypes. That Lourie made three such on-the-loose films is remarkable as well. I like the BEHEMOTH very much and have always been bewildered at the razzing it gets. Even if he does step on the same car three times! david
Bill Warren	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#8	[-]
Dec 30 04 7:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* If so, the alterations were done for the theatrical release and not the broadcast version. When THE GIANT BEHEMOTH ran on WOR-TV, it was actually cut to fill a ninety minute time slot. Well, actually, no, the alterations were not done to the theatrical print, but to the print they showed on television. I'm only guessing when I say the occasional held frames were to lengthen the film, but they were definitely in there in some prints I saw. My attention was drawn to this by Jim Danforth.
Bill Cooke	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#9	[-]
Dec 31 04 2:03 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	When THE GIANT BEHEMOTH aired on AMC (I believe) it was shorn of the ferry sequence, an episode that was burned into my child's brain after countless viewings of the Ken Films Super-8 version. I remember being particularly moved by the shot of a child's doll sinking in the water following the disaster. Warner released an excellent letterboxed laserdisc of this title in 1999, complete with ferry attack sequence. The company should have upgraded it to DVD when they released VALLEY OF GWANGI, BEAST FORM 20,000 FATHOMS and THE BLACK SCORPION last year. Now there is very little to tie-in with, except maybe WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH and... GORGO In the Top Five of my DVD Wish List is a major studio release of GORGO, mastered from the negative. MGM used to own this, but I suppose it's now under the domain of Warner Bros. I think I once read that the majors don't see this title as viable because of all the public domain versions that have flooded the market -- a shame! GORGO is a fantastic film -- an exhilerating marriage of effects and music -- and historically important for its unorthodox ending, which has since been copied by the likes of Spielberg and Toho.
paleoguy	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#10	[-]
Dec 31 04 2:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Nice to know there's someone out there who loves GORGO as much as I do. Hopefully, someday, a quality DVD will come to pass. Martin
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Thorn Sherman	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#11	[-]
Dec 31 04 4:00 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	<<Well, actually, no, the alterations were not done to the theatrical print, but to the print they showed on television. I'm only guessing when I say the occasional held frames were to lengthen the film>> This was called "skip-framing" and was common practice with AA titles in the 50s when sold to television. Not all of them had additional footage - some just artificially expanded. Thorn Sherman
Rapfred	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#12	[-]
Dec 31 04 4:41 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I like GORGO too, mainly for Vincent Winter's winning performance as Sean, and for the chilling mass panic during the London rampage. Once again Lourie goes the hand-held camera route, achieving a You Are There verisimilitude that almost makes you forget Mother Gorgo's wiggling ears. The key word here is 'almost.' GORGO is aimed squarely at kids, since damn near every adult in the film is a creep, including the leads. The usually affable Bill Travers is particularly loutish here, especially in his rough treatment of Winter. (I know, I know, he eventually saves the kid's tail -- too little, too late, I say). Here's hoping for a remake of GORGO intended for grown-ups, with a screenplay based on the Monarch novelization by Carson Bingham. In this version, Sam Slade (Travers) would hook up with virginal Moira McCartin and help her to "discover the deep passions slumbering within her." Gregory Dark would be a shoo-in to direct. "Moira taught him to love and Gorgo taught him to fear." -- from the Monarch paperback
Bill Cooke	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#13	[-]
Dec 31 04 4:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I don't have the GORGO novelization -- wish I did -- but I do covet a copy of the REPTILICUS paperback. "General Grayson looked at the girl beside him, wondering if he would live to enjoy Connie's warm, vibrant flesh again. Svend Alstrup, his aid, was remembering Karen's wanton seduction of him and hoping for a repeat performance."
Rick	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#14	[-]
Dec 31 04 9:26 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* Here's hoping for a remake of GORGO intended for grown-ups, with a screenplay based on the Monarch novelization by Carson Bingham . I bought the GORGO paperback off the rack with my very own thirty-five cents. When I got it home, I just dropped it on the coffee table where my mom picked it up and started leafing through. She said, "you just got this because of the monster, right?" "Yeah" "You're not going to really read it, are you?" "No, no, of course not." "Good," she said. So of course I snapped it up and high-tailed it to my room for the first of many readings, at least of the hot pages. I still have the book. I can turn from the computer and see it on the shelf along with the novelizations of TALES OF TERROR, PIT AND THE PENDULUM, THE RAVEN, BRIDES OF DRACULA, and THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH. At least one of those other titles would not have passed Mom's muster either, can't remember for sure which. Probably BRIDES. I'll have to check it out.
paleoguy	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#15	[-]
Dec 31 04 10:03 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have the BRIDES OF DRACULA novel, too. It is pretty racy. Who would have thought that Doctor Van Helsing was such a wild lover??!! Martin
ryanbrennan	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#16	[-]
Dec 31 04 11:06 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I could be wrong but I believe that "skip-framing" is just what it seems to be describing: the elimination of frames -- every other frame, every third frame, whatever -- to speed up, rather than lengthen a shot. In short, whatever the cycle, to "skip" frames. And welcome back to Thorn Sherman.
luluthebeast	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#17	[-]
Jan 1 05 12:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I had also bought the Gorgo paperback when it first came out and lost it over the years, but recently found a copy of it along with the Konga paperback at a little used bookstore in Florida. What really stands out in my mind is the trailer for Gorgo that I saw as a young one. They were asking what the connection was between the kid and the monster so as a young boy who loved monsters that was all I needed to see!
Count Gamula	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#18	[-]
Jan 1 05 2:04 PM Burgomaster Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Did anyone ever have any of the GORGO comic books? A few were drawn by Steve Ditko but I've never seen one. I'm curious how that handled it as an ongoing story. *Count Gamula*
Bill Warren	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#19	[-]
Jan 1 05 3:47 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* I could be wrong but I believe that "skip-framing" is just what it seems to be describing: the elimination of frames -- every other frame, every third frame, whatever -- to speed up, rather than lengthen a shot. In short, whatever the cycle, to "skip" frames. I think you are indeed mistaken. I don't know the terminology, but it's obvious that at times a frame or two is repeated causing a momentary pause in the action; the normal frame rate resumes, and again a few are "held." To actually remove a frame would make the action jittery, not hesitant.
luluthebeast	Re: The Giant Behemoth	#20	[-]
Jan 19 05 7:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think I found out why they took out the ferry boat attack on every copy I've seen since I saw it when it first came out, but I was too young to catch it. I just got an un-cut copy from horrobles on ebay, along with The Colossus Of New York and Invasion Of The Saucer-Men. It was wide screen and a great dupe, probably from that other laserdisc. I also have a laserdisc of it, but it was the earlier one without the ferry sequence. I was sitting here, enjoying the attack when all of a sudden the body pops into view and it is not covered with "skin". You can plainly see the wood and metal strips of the body and where the "skin" of the neck starts. It seems to be to far up in the frame so that cropping would cut out too much of everything else, so they just cut out the whole sequence.
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