La fiera del mar

This is not a creature you'll rub elbows with at Sea World, to say the least. Not after it's done a number on San Francisco and without a wrecking ball in sight. But then if Godzilla can take Tokyo, why not an octopus taking out an American city in big time stop-motion fashion. Okay, it's archaic special effects by today's digital standards, but cutting edge for its time and still a lot of movie fun.

Tobey's a fine underrated actor, perfect as a military type. And Domergue-- Howard Hughes' big squeeze— shows her dewy-eyed stuff as a "women are as good as men" feminist. Actually, it's Curtis, a man, who states that case for the "new woman", though Domergue's aggressive scientist makes a convincing case all by herself. Surprisingly for this type movie, the three share equal time on screen, and it's pretty clear director Gordon's instructions to them are to low-key it, which they do to good effect.

The first atomic submarine, the Nautilus, sailed in mid-1954 to a lot of public interest. No doubt, the producers here were well aware, and wove a crowd-pleasing story around the film version. Then too, mutant monsters had not yet taken over movie screens as they would a few years later. No doubt, the success of this film was parent to many of those creature offspring. Anyway, as these movies go, this is definitely one of the better ones in all departments, (though a couple of romantic scenes could have been easily economized).

In passing—I really like that last scene where our three musketeers get no recognition for their heroics. It's a nice ironic touch. And see if you agree—looks to me like they're about to "break character" at fade-out.