Monster of the Day #48

Updated on June 17, 2010 By Ken Begg 12 Comments

Here’s a cousin to yesterday’s monster.  Sometimes all you need is one scene to gain screen immortality.

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  • The Rev. D.D.

    That is one of my favorite man vs. monster fights. The squid is dynamite. I want it in the shed with the dragon from The Magic Sword and the Them! ants that I own in my beautiful, beautiful dreams.

    Stupid reality.

  • Ericb

    I saw this movie at a drive in when I was a kid. Unfortunately for me it was the second movie in a double feature and it didn’t come on until realtively late at night so by the time the movie started I was nodding in and out of sleep. But as 20,000 Leages was the picture I wanted to see and as the giant squid was reason I wanted to see it my parents soldiered through and made sure I was awake for the squid scene. Once the scene was over though they brought me home and put me to bed.

  • BeckoningChasm

    There’s so much good in “Leagues,” as well as so much that just doesn’t work too well. The squid, though was fantastic.

  • KeithB

    As I have mentioned before, make sure to check out the alternate for this scene on the dvd. It was set at sunset on a calm sea and did not work nearly as well.

    Beckoning: Was Kirk Douglas’ singing part of the “works well” or the “did not work well”?

    (Odd fact: because there were only a few cinemascope lenses available, the special effects guys made a squished sub for the underwater scenes. You can tell because the bubbles are ovals!)

  • Kirk Douglas singing changed my life.

  • C’mon, Sandy, Douglas sang all right. Not as good as the seal, maybe…

  • Ericb

    Better Kirk than Pat Boone.

  • Gamera

    Wow, must have seen this film a zillion times as a kid. Personally I never saw that many flaws in the film but hey I have to look at it with rose-tinted glasses.

    I’ve seen a few other film adaptions but frankly I didn’t really like any as much as the Disney version.

    I need to go back and read the novel again.

  • Rock Baker

    Sea-going adventure pictures with science fiction elements, I just love ’em! 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea remains one of the very best of this breed.

  • John Nowak

    My love for this film surpasses reason.

    I used to have the silent version on VHS.

  • Capt. Nemo

    Ah, now this is my movie.

    You see what they could do before computers.

    The people who made this squid would go on to make the shark in Jaws.

  • Dennis Fischer

    Sometimes you only get one chance to make a good first impression. As you probably already know, Ken, Disney had the squid scene reshot when the first version (available as a bonus on the DVD) just wasn’t exciting enough and the wires were too visible. So instead of shooting it at sunset, it was redone at night during a storm, and suddenly it seemed far more exciting and far less fake.

    It made such an impression that other authors assume that a giant squid appears in Verne’s original novel of 20,000 Leagues. As someone who has read Verne’s book, I know the Nautilus encouraged giant octopi and cuttlefish, but not a giant squid. Of course, that didn’t stop Michael Crichton from using a squid in Sphere (supposedly inspired by the book) or the replication of that mistake in the even worse movie version.