Known in its native England as BEHEMOTH THE SEA MONSTER, THE GIANT BEHEMOTH stomps on to Blu-ray (courtesy of Warner Archive Collection) and proves why it’s one of the most memorable creature feature movies of the 1950s.

THE GIANT BEHEMOTH is a giant-monster-on-the-rampage romp filmed and produced in England. On the coast of Cornwall, loads of dead fish (which turn out to be radioactive) have been washing ashore. When visiting American scientist Steve Karnes (Gene Evans, DONOVAN’S BRAIN) catches wind of this, he contacts Professor James Bickford (Andre Morell, THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES) of the Atomic Energy Commission, and the two team up to investigate. What they find out is that a local older fisherman has died from radiation burns, while another is left with traces of contamination on his hand. It is soon realized that the cause of all this is a prehistoric monster – a radiated Paleosaurus awakened from the ocean floor after millions of years – making its way to London to cause mass destruction.

THE GIANT BEHEMOTH was directed by Eugène Lourié, who also wrote the screenplay (Douglas Hickox — who helmed THEATRE OF BLOOD in the early 1970s — was co-director but not credited on American release prints from Allied Artists). A few years earlier, Lourié directed THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS, a similar film made in Hollywood, and BEHEMOTH is often considered a poor man’s remake of that. The Paleosaurus (similar to THE BEAST, only with a longer neck and more detail given to the creature’s scales) was created by Willis O'Brien and Pete Peterson and done in stop-motion; it looks less impressive when seen in puppet incarnation with its head popping out of the ocean. Scenes of it stomping through London work better, and the added attraction of a giant monster that effortlessly radiates the flesh off the bones of pedestrians was quite horrifying to those who saw this as a tyke. The stop-motion effects overall are not the best of their type and often clumsy, but are easy to overlook as it’s still an intriguing giant monster film, well-acted by leads Evans and Morell (the dependable veteran of a number of Hammer horrors) and carries a good supporting cast including John Turner (THE BLACK TORMENT), Leigh Madison (CARRY OF NURSE), Jack MacGowran (THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS), and Maurice Kaufmann (CIRCUS OF FEAR). Lourié was not yet through with giant monster movies: in 1961 he’d helm GORGO, which like GODZILLA, featured an actor in a creature costume.

Previously available on DVD from Warner Home Video (singularly or as part of a “Cult Camp Classics Volume 1 - Sci-fi Thrillers” three-disc collection), Warner Archive Collection exceeds that standard-def presentation with this gorgeous-looking Blu-ray. The film is presented in 1080p HD in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The framing looks correct, and the black and white picture detail is extremely sharp with any instances of dirt or debris present on the previous DVD now nonexistent. Grain structure is perfectly rendered, while black levels are deep and the grayscale is also very good. There’s also plenty of shadow detail, and it’s now easier to detect all the matte effects utilized in the film, as they are more than clearly outlined. The audio is presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track; dialogue is significantly clear and the music score by Edwin Astley (Hammer’s THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA) also has nice range. Optional English SDH subtitles are included.