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Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . whereas "GIANT BEHEMOTH" often serves to flesh out the meaning of "redundancy." Calling an ant a "tiny behemoth" would qualify as an oxymoron as well: "shrimp" is a synonym for "tiny," while "behemoth" can be found with "giant" in a thesaurus. If the title for this movie had been THE GREAT BIG HULKING HUGE BEHEMOTH, it may well have done better at the box office. But would the longer title have increased ticket sales enough to cover the overtime necessary for the marquee man to put up such an excessive amount of letters (plus the expense for purchasing several extra "H's" that doubtless would need to be special-ordered)? Behemoths--giant or not--seldom have appeared more threatening than the 200-footer with the radioactive death ray eyes featured during THE GIANT BEHEMOTH. In his head-long rush to pose for fatal selfies with the G.B., "Prof. Sampson" overlooks the obvious solution to London's moth infestation: let one of those "All creatures great and small" English veterinarians cure Big Boy of his radiation overdose. A homeopathic remedy such as brimstone would be bound to perk up Nestor in a day or two, and you know what they say: Healthy behemoths are the happiest (and safest) kind to have around!

zardoz-13 "King Kong" visual effects supervisor Willis O'Brien cooked up a Paleosaurus on a shoe-string budget for French director Eugène Lourié's "The Giant Behemoth," another amphibian monster epic like "Godzilla." Reportedly, the producers wanted Lourié' to steal from his earlier but better monster picture "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" instead trying to scare audiences with a blinding blob of a monster. Neither as good as "Beast" nor as "Gorgo," "The Giant Behemoth" qualifies as a respective entry, even if the same car gets squashed three times from different angles. No, it doesn't surpass "Godzilla." The interesting thing about this atmospheric Allied Artists production is the conspicuous absence of a romance. Gene Evans and André Morell serve as the two heroes. Evans does the heavy lifting, while Morell furnishes him with something to lift. Reportedly, too, Lourié collaborated behind the camera with freshman helmer Douglas Hickox. Later, Hickox went on to direct his own share of distinctive movies and television shows. There is no way that you can tell what Hickox contributed and what Lourié did. The film has a gritty look, and you don't expect that The Grim Reaper has earmarked certain characters. For example, we see a little girl on a ferry playing with her doll baby. Later, after the ferry has sunk, we see the little girl's doll but no sign of its owner.Overall, "The Giant Behemoth" is a serious but dreary escapade, even the doomed monster takes himself seriously. The British Government conducts itself admirably and doesn't stint on anything in the storyline. The English settings are a welcome change from Tokyo or America. Gene Evans has the rare occasion to take top billing, and he plays Dr. Steve Karnes as a methodical but boring American marine biologist. The writers do not have him call on women but he spends far too much time catch that Paleosaurus. Karnes, however, is only one man, and he helps virtually all the help and information that he needs from Professor James Bickford (André Morell) who oversees the Atomic Energy Commission in Great Britain. If Karnes is like James Bond, then Bickford is like Q who supplies 007's wants and needs. "Exorcist" supporting actor Jack MacGowran steals the show as Dr. Sampson, the Paleontologist of the British Museum. He babbles on about the monster until he realizes that the photograph of the amphibian's foot dwarfs the size of a car parked near it. Unfortunately, the nerdy paleontologist isn't around longer. "The Giant Behemoth" benefits from MacGowran's antics. Evans does well for what is required of him and he shows that he had more range that American producers usually allowed him. André Morell delivers another of his usually reserved but wolfish performances."The Great Behemoth" has an uneven quality, probably because the nature of the monster changed from when the fisherman discovered it until Karnes caught a glimpse of it through his binoculars. Initially, it looks like thick shaving lotion and then it emerges as a dinosaur. The monster lacks any sort of personality. The movements seem primitive compared with Ray Harryhausen's stop-action stuff. Sometimes, the directors let the shots of the monster linger far longer than they should have.

Leofwine_draca BEHEMOTH THE SEA MONSTER is a British version of the classic GODZILLA story, although it's more closely linked to THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS with whom it shares a director in the Russian-born Frenchman, Eugene Lourie. A youthful Douglas Hickox (THEATRE OF BLOOD) is also credited as co-director in British prints.I always find British monster movies to be a lot of fun and this one is no exception; the cast is full of decent, stiff upper lipped types who instantly band together to tackle whatever great menace is coming their way. And BEHEMOTH THE SEA MONSTER tells a very typical storyline for its era, following a specific template that sees a slow and gradual build-up in the first half lead into some all-out monster action in the second.The film features a likable imported American star in Gene Evans, backed up by some heavyweight British talent in the form of a tough Andre Morell and the likes of Jack MacGowran. Film fans will be delighted to see some brief snippets of stop motion effects contributed by the one and only Willis O'Brien at the tail-end of his career, although a cheesy model also bolsters the action. And I enjoyed the way the action plays out in a particularly grim fashion, with the monster readily offing men, women, and children thanks to that radioactive death ray.

BA_Harrison The Giant Behemoth was released on DVD under Warner Brothers' Cult Camp Classics label, but it doesn't really qualify as such: it's far from a classic and certainly not in the least bit camp. Like many of these 50s atomic creature features, it plays matters remarkably straight, perhaps even more-so than usual, presenting scene after coma-inducing scene of dull scientists discussing paleontology and nuclear physics before getting down to the monster action.About twenty minutes from the end, the radioactive Paleosaurus finally makes its appearance, a rather rigid rubber version sinking a model ferry in a bath tub, and a slightly better animated version stomping on Dinky cars (or is that 'car'?—the same vehicle gets crushed three times) and terrorising Londoners (of which there seem to be quite a few, despite an earlier evacuation of the city). These silly scenes just about make the film worthwhile, but this far from the best the B-movie monster genre has to offer.