Harry Harryhausen

(On Cable TV, April 2020) Historically, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is important because it bridged the gap between King Kong (which had a very successful re-release in 1952) and later kaiju/monster films such as Godzilla and Them! Fortunately, it happens to hold up pretty well as a movie for newer audiences as well. The story is archetypical monster-movie stuff (but emerged here first)—a nuclear explosion wakes up a monster who heads for a major metropolitan area, but stops at various points of interest in-between before the urban demolition. Harry Harryhausen provides the effects, adding a sheen of charm and characterization to the stop-motion material. Generally speaking, it’s a well-handled script with conventional but well-handled plot progression. The third-act rampage through New York City is a highlight, not only of this movie but of 1950s Science Fiction films in general—it’s surprisingly effective even with the dated special effects. Unlike many of its many imitators, the scope is ambitious and there are a lot of moving parts to The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, all of which help ensure that it remains a head above many of its imitators—Gojira excepted, obviously.

(On Cable TV, October 2019) Considering the central role of computer-generated imagery in portraying fantastic creations in modern movies, there’s still an old-fashioned charm to see ambitious fantasy movies from the pre-digital era. In Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, stop-motion wizard Harry Harryhausen is at the top of his form in making fantastic creatures interact with live-action actors.  It’s all the service of an old-fashioned adventure tale with a party of adventurers, evil opponents and a stream of wonders. In many traditional ways, this is not a particularly good movie: the acting is perceptibly poor, the direction is clearly limited by the requirements of the special effects and the episodic plotting is of the one-thing-after-another variety so popular in picaresque fantasy adventures, with few things building upon each other. But Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger is not a movie to be appreciated on the usual scale. The stop-motion animation is often impressive (although that final-act tiger looks more huggable than threatening) and the imagination at work in terms of developing even rough fantasy conceits is refreshing in contrast to so many mainstream movies of the era. It has definitely aged and is now definitely dated: the special effects can be great or terrible depending on the scene and your own indulgence in such matters. But Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger is, perhaps almost despite itself, quite a bit of fun. It’s like being told a fairy tale, filled with known elements but comforting because of how familiar it is, and how old-school it now feels.