Hello Horror 2022 - Day 14 - The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

  After the crapfest that was yesterday's movie, here's a nice creature feature from the Atomic Panic years.  Content warning: animal death (pretty sure they just fed an octopus to a shark for some B-roll)

Atomic testing in the Arctic awakens a 100 million-year-old creature.  The eyewitness, Professor Thomas Nesbitt (Paul Hubschmid), is adamant in the face of ridicule and contacts a noted paleontologist (Ceil Kellaway) to confirm his theory.  Not until multiple other attacks happen do any of the authorities take note, and the beast makes it all the way to Manhattan before any real response is put together.  

This very much seems like a Godzilla clone, except it was released the year before.  The monster is by Ray Harryhausen in his solo debut, a phenomenal achievement when you look at how seamless the movement of the beast is and how well-integrated the animation is with the live-action.  You can also see a very young Lee Van Cleef as the sniper assigned to take the monster down with a radioactive bullet.  

It is not available on any streaming services, but you can find the whole thing on the Internet Archive for free.