The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is a 1953 film about a ferocious dinosaur awakened by an Arctic atomic test that terrorizes the North Atlantic and then New York City.
 * ''Directed by Eugène Lourié. Written by Fred Freiberger.

The sea's master beast of the ages- raging up from the bottom of time (taglines)

Other

 * Opening Narrator: This is Operation Experiment, a secret base far north of the Arctic Circle. Experiment was the codename for a top priority scientific expedition. These men arrived here on X-day minus 60. It has taken them the full two months to get ready. Today is X-day.
 * Cpl. Stone: If you can load it, I can fire it.
 * Prof. Thurgood Elson: I feel like I'm leaving a world of untold tomorrows for a world of countless yesterdays.

Dialogue

 * George Ritchie: [referring to the A-bomb test] You know every time one of those things goes off, I feel as if I was helping to write the first chapter of a new Genesis.
 * Professor Tom Nesbitt: Let's hope we don't find ourselves writing the last chapter of the old one.


 * Cpl. Stone: Colonel says you need a dead shot, mister.
 * Professor Tom Nesbitt: Yes. Ever use a grenade rifle?
 * Cpl. Stone: Pick my teeth with it.

Taglines

 * It's alive!
 * You'll see it tear a city apart!
 * FANTASTIC SEA-GIANT CRUSHES CITY!
 * Prehistoric sea-giant rages against city!
 * They couldn't believe their eyes! They couldn't escape the terror! And neither will you!
 * Cast of thousands! Over a year in the making!
 * The seas master beast of the ages- raging up from the bottom of time
 * A Thrill-Story Beyond All Imagining !

Quotes about The Beast

 * For some reason the creation was called a rhedosaurus, and although I can't remember where this name came from, I suspect Hal Chester or one of the writers coined it. Over the years, people have suggested that the first two letters relate to the initials of a certain animator. I have no comment.
 * Ray Harryhausen (2003), An Animated Life, Aurum Press, p. 49
 * The task of instilling pathos into a creature that was, after all, an innocent victim of circumstances was something I had set myself from the outset, although I was restrained by the script... The Beast is a poor lost soul brought back to life by man and then destroyed by man. If it sounds familiar, it is. King Kong was a huge influence, as he would be in all the other creatures I would be father to.
 * Ray Harryhausen (2003), An Animated Life, Aurum Press, p. 57

Cast

 * Paul Hubschmid — Professor Tom Nesbitt
 * Paula Raymond — Lee Hunter
 * Cecil Kellaway — Dr. Thurgood Elson
 * Kenneth Tobey — Colonel Jack Evans