One of the most interesting filmmakers when it comes to
dinosaurs was Eugène Lourié. A Franco-Ukranian who fled the country after
making the anti-Revolutionary film The Black Crows, he revived his career in France as an artist
for the film industry, acting as production designer for directors Jean Renoir
and Rene Clair, and art designer for Rene Sti, Georges Marret, Jean de Limur,
Marcel L’Herbier, Georges Lacombe, and fellow exile Viktor Tourjansky. As a
director from 1953-61, he dabbled in American television, the high concept
sci-fi film Colossus of New York, and three films about prehistoric sea monsters. After his brief directorial stint, he
returned to art direction, this time in Hollywood, doing such films as The
Battle of the Bulge, Crack of the World, Confessions of an Opium Eater, and
more TV work. His interest in special effects led him to work in the
spectacular Krakatoa, East of Java. He retired after 1980’s Bronco Billy, and
his only speaking role was as a doctor in the 1983 erotic thriller Breathless.
He died in LA in 1991.
His first, best, and most successful of the three Sea
Monster films was The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. I’ve already discussed it but
needless to say, his excellent eye combined with amazing effects by the master
Ray Harryhausen to make a blockbuster. Godzilla was born of both the Beast and
King Kong (the favorite film of both Harryhausen and his Toho counterpart Eiji
Tsuburaya), proving to be just as successful as his parents. Both Godzilla and
his Beastly progenitor proved to be decisive for Lourie’s next films.
The epic producer Ted Lloyd partnered up with
thriller-focused David Diamond with Lourie to make a new science fiction epic.
The rising interest in science fiction about atomic radiation prompted writers
Allen Adler (who also wrote Forbidden Planet) and the obscure playright Robert
Abel to consider making a film about an
amorphous bloblike being resembling a flying, glowing ball of light, that
ravaged London with horrifying radiation. However, the distributors Eros Films
and Allied Artists knew of Lourie’s dinosaur blockbuster, of course, and the
1956 Godzilla was an international smash as well. So, they insisted to change
it to the more visually interesting, kid-friendly, ever popular dinosaur.
