A ferocious dinosaur awakened by an Arctic atomic test terrorizes the North Atlantic and, ultimately, New York City.

When producers Dietz and Chester were negotiating with Bradbury to rewrite their screenplay, he reminded them that both works shared a similar theme of a prehistoric sea monster and a lighthouse being destroyed. The producers, who wished to share Bradbury's reputation and popularity, promptly bought the rights to his story and changed the film's title.

The film is worth watching because of the involvement of Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen, as well as having a supporting role from Lee Van Cleef. It may not be amazing, but the effects are rather good and it is a piece of 1950s science cheese that can be enjoyed if you just suspend disbelief for an hour.

Most interesting is the alleged influence this movie had on "Godzilla". This film is semi-forgotten, or at least not widely seen. But it had a dinosaur rise following an atomic blast and then destroy a city, trampling the army and electricity in its path. Sounds like Godzilla! And indeed, this was a primary influence on the Japanese monster film, which has since become one of the most culturally important films in horror / monster history. So maybe "Beast" needs to be respected just a little bit more.

Influential in many ways. Seminal to say the least. This is the first Monster to be unleashed by the awakening awesomeness of the Atomic Bomb. This is Ray Harryhausen's first solo outing (he was Willis O'Brien's (King Kong) assistant on Mighty Joe Young (1949).

It has a crisp Black and White look and is a sharply defined matte of Monster and surroundings. From the early sets on the frozen tundra, to the depths of the Ocean, to the New York City Streets, to the Amusement Park finale, this is a beautiful low-budget Film.

There are some stiff Performances and some that are lively. It pulls few punches in its depressing display of Radioactive Paranoia. Some unforgettable Highlights include the eerie Lighthouse encounter, the viciously impressive looking Dinosaur wreaking havoc between Skyscrapers, and the Roller Coaster imprisonment and execution.

Note: Will all Godzilla and Toho fans please nod, bow, and applaud.

I saw this movie virtually back to back with "The Giant Behemoth" and I can't get over how much better this one was considering it came out six years earlier and both had the same director, Eugene Lourie. That's probably in large part due to Ray Harryhausen's animation work on this picture. One notable comparison to make is when the rhedosaurus here comes in contact with motor vehicles they actually look like real ones instead of the toy props trampled by the paleosaurus in the later picture. Very well done.

Actually the picture hooked me early on when in an opening sequence the scientists made reference to 'azimuth 63 degrees' during the atomic bomb blasts. Any sci-fi flick using the word azimuth automatically earns bonus points with me. The dinosaur didn't waste any time showing up either, that was a plus as well since many monster films try to whet your appetite with an extended build up and then tease it's appearance with quick shots or shadowy parts before the grand entrance. This beast was fully on display for a good part of the picture, which made it easy to notice that he had a singular dorsal instead of a bilateral, and you couldn't miss that cantilevric clavicle suspension. Yeah right.

You know what else was pretty cool? The film makers did a nice job of putting New York City on display with some great street scenes. Pepsi Cola was the beverage of choice on the Times Square billboard, while Clark Gable was appearing in 'Across the Wide Missouri" at one of the local theaters. Then just down the street Kirk Douglas was starring in "Detective Story" while Judy Garland was appearing in person at an All Star Show a couple of doors down. Kind of makes you wish you were around when this picture came out.

And so who do they get to bring down the prehistoric rhedosaurus? I never caught his character's name during the show but it was pretty cool to see Lee Van Cleef draw down on the monster and fire that radioactive isotope gizmo to stop him in his tracks. If you think about it though, the beast from twenty thousand fathoms went down fairly easily after taking out the roller coaster. I thought he'd at least get a crack at the Tilt a Whirl.