Good Singing + "It Came From Beneath The Sea"

Because it is almost July 4th, we sang "The Star Spangled Banner" in church this morning, so I got the chance to belt it, just like the singers do at ballgames. It was awesome! Good singin' in general, and I always enjoy choir, so 'twas a good morning even though I do not enjoy getting up early.  :)

Flintstone toothpicks are in place, however, strong enough to hold up even the heaviest of eyelids.

Tonight I watched a movie, another one from my Sci-Fi Creature Collection called "It Came From Beneath The Sea". Do you know how, in the 1970s, there were a bunch of horror movies with "Don't" in the title? "Don't Go In The House", "Don't Answer The Phone", "Don't Go In The Basement".

Okay, okay! I won't do any of those things - now stop telling me already. Geez.

Of course, it was a genius marketing move to put "Don't" in the title, because that was a magnet for young people - horror's target audience - to "do" those very things by going to the movie theater.

"Do Go In The House"! "Do Answer The Phone"! "Do Go In The Basement"!

Even if there are a bunch of psychos in all of those places and on the other end of the phone, too.

So yeah......the "Don't" theme was big in the 1970s. And in the 1950s, there was another popular title theme in the sci-fi genre in which a creature in question "came from" somewhere.

The most famous of these titles was "It Came From Outer Space". Then there was tonight's film, "It Came From Beneath The Sea".

Make up your minds, will ya? Did it come from Beneath The Sea or from Outer Space?

Oh........it came from both. Sorry, I wasn't sure.

Actually I've seen both movies, and I've also seen "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms", so at least you have the "From" in that title.

I could probably recall a couple of others, but it is a Sunday night and so I shant.

I will give you a brief synopsis of "It Came From Beneath The Sea", however.

An atomic powered submarine is plying the waters of the Pacific in service of the US Navy. It is a brand new sub, said to be indestructible among other attributes, but suddenly on it's sonar there appears a Giant Indiscernible Shape which is rapidly closing in.

Suddenly, it is on top of them, and Whammo!, the sub is hit hard enough to cause it to stall. When the captain sends two Frogmen into the water to check on the damage, they discover a very large piece of Tentacle trapped in an engine duct.

The anamorphous object on the sonar turned out to be a Gigantic Octopus, and I am not hardly joking you. When the submarine crew is able to restore order and get a bead on this thing, they estimate it's size as 100 feet long and probably that tall, too, since it takes on the Golden Gate Bridge later in the movie.

It's Enormous, okay?

What more do you need to know?

"Are scientists working on it"?

Are scientists working on it? Of course they are! Why would you even ask that question? This is a 1950s Science Fiction Flick. And there is enough Science and Military scenery and setup and stock footage of Air Force jets and Navy ships dropping mines into the ocean to more than satisfy any hardware requirements of the genre.

The whole movie is about using the brand new (in the 50s) weaponised technologies of the military to defeat this beyond strong Giant Octopus, who can crush train cars with his little pinkie.

There is a romance angle, too, between the sub Captain Kenneth Tobey and Lady Scientist Faith Domergue. I say "Lady" Scientist, where now a female scientist would rightly be referred to as merely a Scientist, because one of the big messages of this 1955 movie is that women are the equals of men in any academic pursuit, including high level science.

It is interesting to see how social themes were promoted in movies, using romance as a method of demonstration. In this case, Faith Domergue is too busy with her career as a marine biologist to automatically succumb to the pushy male charms of Captain Tobey (although she does like him), but she is a top expert in her field and so romance must wait......

And there is also a freaking Gigantic Octopus out there in San Francisco Bay, and it is pulling down the Golden Gate Bridge for God's sake.

Is anybody gonna do anything?!

That's all I am gonna tell you and you will just have to watch the rest for yourself.  :)

Elizabeth, if you are reading I see that you went to a museum today. I guess that the new "stories" feature on FB is a good way to communicate. :) :)

I also saw that the story of "Elemental" wound up on Instagram, and I saw what you wrote, that it will be played in a loop with other dance films, so that answers my question from yesterday.

Thanks for posting that.  :):)

That's all I know for tonight.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)