The Giant Behemoth

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Not going to lie, my enjoyment was at its height when Peter Peterson, an assistant working in concert with the great Willis O’Brien, gets to work their cinematic magic by bringing to life the stop motion “behemoth” of the title, a reptile of considerable dinosaur size, radioactive and on the rampage, growling and on the attack with London as its target once stomping about an English fishing village and the Thames. Those in close contact that aren’t crushed under its feet or tossed to and fro suffer radioactive effects, many dying not long after.

Scientists, like visiting marine expert, Steve Karnes (Gene Evans), and England’s own Professor James Bickford (André Morell), are called on to come up with the means to stop the radioactive behemoth, believing that could very well be radium, once fired into the creature could “speed up” its dying (because it is radioactive, that is causing it to die…just not at the rate humankind could hope for).

Dead fish washing ashore, a blob of radioactive waste, and a dead fisherman alert and serve as warning signs of what is to come. Warning of the atomic age’s nuclear experiments causing harm to marine life, Karnes is not the least bit surprised when the behemoth rises from the watery depths to cause a great deal of death and destruction. The military and law enforcement try to contain with no such luck, and radar can’t track the damn thing. A helicopter with a renowned dinosaur specialist (these dinosaur experts never fare well in these movies) goes KABOOM! A ferry on the Thames turned over with those on board either drowning or radioactively perishing. Good shot of a girl with her doll and some kids with their parents to indicate just how the innocent can befall the ills of the atomic age and what monsters it produces. Cars don’t fare any better than those trying to get away from the behemoth. Nor does the power lines and facilities when the behemoth travels through. Explosions, rubble, and burned faces…oh, my!

The ending leaves us with the knowledge that perhaps the behemoth conquered in London isn't the last to do its damage on mankind!

Eugène Lourié also directed Gorgo (1961), The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), and The Colossus of New York (1958). I personally think Gorgo is even better than Behemoth…