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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
It Came From Beneath the Sea (Blu-ray) (1955)

It Came From Beneath the Sea (Blu-ray) (1955)

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Released 5-Dec-2018

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Fantasy Alternative Version-Colorized version of It Came From Beneath the Sea
More…-BD Live
Audio Commentary-Ray Harryhausen and visual effects artists
Featurette-Remembering It Came from Beneath the Sea (21:44)
Featurette-A Present Day Look at Stop Motion (11:38)
Featurette-Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen (27:09)
Featurette-David Schechter on Film Music’s Unsung Hero (22:33)
Featurette-Original Ad Artwork (17:52)
More…-”It Came From Beneath the Sea Again” Comic Book
Gallery-(29:50)
Theatrical Trailer-x 3
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1955
Running Time 79:07
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Robert Gordon
Studio
Distributor

ViaVision
Starring Kenneth Tobey
Faith Domergue
Donald Curtis
Case ?
RPI ? Music Mischa Bakaleinikoff


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 1080p
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
English for the Hearing Impaired
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Japanese
Korean
Arabic
Hindi
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     The nuclear submarine of Commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey) is on its shakedown cruise in the Pacific when it encounters a radioactive “blob” on its sonar that brings the submarine to a stop. After the sub breaks free they find radioactive matter stuck in the diving planes and return to Pearl Harbour for repairs. The navy brings in marine biologists Dr John Carter (Donald Curtis) and Professor Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) to examine the organic matter. After a few weeks they believe that it was part of a massive octopus but the navy brass rejects this hypothesis. They change their minds when a tramp steamer is destroyed in the North Pacific and the creature appears on the coast of Oregon heading for San Francisco. Mathews, Carter and Lesley hurry to San Francisco to coordinate the defence of the Bay area and to work out ways to kill the creature.

     It Came From Beneath the Sea is one of the myriad of 1950s low budget creature features that resulted from mankind messing with the atom bomb. It was directed for Columbia by Robert Gordon, a journeyman director who worked mostly in TV, but the most important aspect of the picture is that it marked the first collaboration between producer Charles Schneer and special effects stop motion wizard Ray Harryhausen, a partnership that lasted for decades until Clash of the Titans is 1981. The script and acting in It Came From Beneath the Sea are pedestrian; Kenneth Tobey is a familiar face with 220 credits, mostly TV episodes, on his CV but his character’s role here is mostly to be part of a very heavy handed romance subplot; the film also adds in some bits about female empowerment for good measure.

     However, the appeal of a special effects creature film is obviously the effects created by Harryhausen. Given the film was made in 1955, these still look very good; Harryhausen had studied the movements of a real octopus but, having to stop motion each tentacle individually, he was careful to only show one or two in each shot as much as possible; indeed, to save money his octopus never had more than 6 tentacles anyway but when watching the film you don’t really notice. Some sequences are still wonderful, such as the sinking of the tramp steamer or the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco using models; the weakest, or least believable model, is the submarine caught in the tentacles near the climax.

     Between effects sequences the film tends to drag, as was the case in a lot of these 1950s low budget B movie creature films, the romance being particularly jarring. However, when the creature and destruction is on screen It Came From Beneath the Sea is a heap of fun.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     It Came From Beneath the Sea is presented in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     Both the Black and White and Colourised versions (called Chromachoice on the menu) of It Came From Beneath the Sea are provided on the Blu-ray. You are able to toggle between the versions using the “Angle” button on the remote.

     The colours of the colourised version are flat but generally look natural enough with the exception of the fire and flamethrower yellows. It may be sacrilege but I did enjoy the colour version and the sequence of the destruction of the red Golden Gate Bridge is great! Indeed, the colourised version smooths out some of the slight blemishes and grain evident in the black and white print, especially in the back projection shots with live action in the foreground that look soft; but this is 1955 technology after all! Elsewhere, the black and white evinced solid detail, very good blacks and greys. Brightness and contrast is consistent.

     Grain is more obvious in the black and white version as were the minor blemishes.

     English and English subtitles for the hearing impaired are provided, plus subtitles in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hindi.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio is English Dolby TrueHD 5.1.

     The film was released in theatres with mono audio and this track is still front oriented, although it does come alive during creature attacks with the screech of metals and the creature, waves and destruction of buildings. Dialogue is clear. The subwoofer was mostly noticeable during creature attacks, the depth charge and mine explosion scenes.

     The music for It Came From Beneath the Sea was provided by Mischa Bakaleinikoff who has a massive 483 credits on the IMDb; he composed the creature theme but most of the score he reused from the Columbia stock library.

     There are no lip synchronisation issues.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Start-up ad (2:24)

     At start-up is an ad for Blu-rays. This is also available from the Trailers menu.

Alternative Version

     Both the Black and White and Colorized versions of It Came From Beneath the Sea are provided on the Blu-ray; at any time you can use the “Angle” button on the remote to toggle between them.

BD Live

     If the Blu-ray player is connected to the internet, access other material.

Audio Commentary

     Arnold Kunert sits with Ray Harryhausen, animation expert Randy Cook and visual effects artist John Bruno as they watch the colourised version of the film. Kunert controls discussion and asks questions; the group talk about how the project came about, various cast members and their careers, the colours in the colourised version, the size of the octopus model, the number of tentacles, the size of the models as well as the techniques used during various effects shots although as this commentary was being recorded 57 years after the film Harryhausen a number of times says that he does not remember how things were done.

Remembering It Came from Beneath the Sea (21:44)

     This extra is better than a “remembering” piece. Made in 2007 it mostly features Ray Harryhausen speaking about how It Came from Beneath the Sea came about, meeting his long term producing partner Charles Schneer, researching how an octopus moves and the film’s low budget, but the majority is Harryhausen explaining how he did the special effect stop motion shots, including the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge, which is fascinating. Some film footage plus minor input from John Bruno, a special effects artist who speaks about the first time he saw the film, and historian John Canemaker.

A Present Day Look at Stop Motion (11:38)

     Also made in 2007, Kyle Anderson, a student at NYU, shows how to design and made the puppets and how to animate them, including lip movements.

Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen (27:09)

     Director Tim Burton visits Harryhausen at home and they chat, and play with, some of the models from Earth vs. The Flying Saucers. They talk about Harryhausen’s influences, his characters, working with writers and the budgets of his early Columbia films. Harryhausen says how delighted he is that his three black and white Columbia films are being colourised for if they had the budget at the time they would have been made in colour!

David Schechter on Film Music’s Unsung Hero (22:33)

     Soundtrack producer David Schechter talks about the techniques of Columbia’s B picture’s unsung hero Mischa Bakaleinikoff who both composed themes, and utilised Columbia’s stock music library, for numerous pictures. He concentrates on the Harryhausen black and white pictures It Came From Beneath the Sea, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers and 20 Million Miles to Earth showing the repeating themes and where library music was reused from other unrelated Columbia films. For example, he points out that music from 18 composers was used by Bakaleinikoff during scoring for 20 Million Miles to Earth.

Original Ad Artwork (17:52)

     Producer Arnold Kunert shows and analyses the Press Books, promotional materials and lobby cards of It Came From Beneath the Sea, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers and 20 Million Miles to Earth.

”It Came From Beneath the Sea Again” Comic Book

     Sixteen screens of the colour comic book; silent, use the remote to advance.

Galleries (29:50)

     Copious photo galleries of the film’s promotional artwork in various languages, production stills and Ray Harryhausen’s artwork. The photos advance automatically with the film’s soundtrack, dialogue and effects.

Theatrical Trailers

     The following trailers, plus an ad for Blu-ray, are available: 20 Million Miles To Earth (2:00), Earth vs. The Flying Saucers (2:16) and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1:41).

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     Elsewhere It Came From Beneath the Sea is only available on Blu-ray in box sets with other Harryhausen films that differ with each box set. See this link here for some of the sets. There is no direct equivalent to this, Australian released set. We get the black and white and colourised versions, plus all the extras that were available on the Sony Region Free US release. As a box set, ours is fine.

Summary

     It Came From Beneath the Sea still retains its charm after more than 60 years because of the wonderful stop motion creature work of wizard Ray Harryhausen. One could be nostalgic for a time when things were done practically instead of wall to wall CGI, but these effects, and films, transcend nostalgia because they are still great fun and wonderful entertainment. The colourised version gives a whole different look to the film.

     The video and audio are very good for a 60 year old B movie, the extras genuine.

     It Came From Beneath the Sea is included in the 3 Blu-ray package from ViaVision The Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen: Collection Two which also includes Earth vs. The Flying Saucers (1956) and The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960), all with commentaries and other extras, a treat for fans of Harryhausen or classic sci-fi adventure.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ray Nyland (the bio is the thing)
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Review Equipment
DVDSony BDP-S580, using HDMI output
DisplayLG 55inch HD LCD. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderNAD T737. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated.
AmplificationNAD T737
SpeakersStudio Acoustics 5.1

Other Reviews NONE