So, here's a colorized version of this classic that I saw in 1957 with my neighbors. Ray Harryhausen authorized the colorization of this one, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA and EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS, which we've already done.
I have a sound clip for your approval,
sooooo, you can push the big red
'GO' button located there by our Ymir egg,
NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a little sample from...
20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH!
It all starts with one of the fifties coolest spaceships crashing into the ocean off the coast of Sicily. A small fishing boat makes its way to the ship and the men rescue two crew members before the metal hulk sinks to the bottom of the sea.
Let's see now, the Moon goes around the Earth... Check... Okay then, Venus goes around Pluto?!.. Wait, something seems a little weird here...
Yo,
General!!.. I could use a little
help over here!..
Little Pepe finds a large canister with something very strange inside.
He takes the cannister and sells it to Dr. Leonardo (for the price of a cowboy hat) and the thing breaks out of its casing only to confound the doctor and his daughter, Marisa. Later, the Ymir has grown to human size and grabs Marisa while she was tying down the tarp.
This scene has him eating out of a bag of sulfur, a staple for its race on Venus.
After the creature is caught, they try to figure out what to do with it. What would
you do?!
Anyway, it escapes and immediately has to wrassle with a Republican! Ymir kicks its ass!
Okay, you little shits are really starting to
Piss Me Off!!!..
Just threw in this composite shot because it's so well composed.
Poor Ymir, a stranger in a strange land to be sure... Check in Wednesday because Eegah!! will have something interesting to share with us, I'm sure...
~ A Sad Day, Dungeon Hero David Bowie dies today at age 69 ~
Did you know I hate this movie's story? Little Pepe is an asinine kid who covers up his theft and in so doing dooms the poor Ymir to its fate. Horrible story, and despite the awesome stop-motion work, I just really cannot get into it. Why have it do battle with an elephant? Just seems so cruel, and Kong like ending was a little too derivative...Sorry...
ReplyDeleteThe kid was cloying and obnoxious, and I kept hoping that the Ymir would get him. He really should have been punished in some way for stealing (and selling) the canister instead of turning it over to the authorities.
ReplyDeleteThe plot was not completely original even back then, but it was probably not quite as cliched as it seems now. Good science fiction movies, with really good special effects, were relatively few and far between. And most "giant monster on the loose" movies owe some debt to King Kong.
Did Ray Harryhausen hate elephants, or what? There was a similar monster-vs.-elephant scene in The Valley of Gwangi.
The guy who played the general was also in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, IIRC. And John Zaremba was later in the TV series The Time Tunnel. The former was born to play generals and admirals, and the latter was born to play scientists.
Maybe Harryhausen recycled parts or molds. The Kraken in Clash of the Titans resembled the Ymir.
BTW, the monster is never called "Ymir" in the movie itself. I don't know if Harryhausen called it that, but that is the name used in magazine articles (Famous Monsters of Filmland, Starlog, Castle of Frankenstein, etc.).
I remember watching this movie with my late grandparents during a visit many years ago. Mainly, they recognized "Colonel Calder" as the actor who played private eye Paul Drake on Perry Mason.