A longtime "dream" project of production designer-turned-director Eugene Lourie , The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms benefits less from Lourie 's output than from the expertise of stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen . The plotline anticipates Godzilla by having the titular beast unleashed on the world via nuclear testing. Making its way from the Arctic Circle, the monster-a carnivorous "rhedosaurus"-begins advancing towards New York. It stomps its way around Wall Street, pausing to have a policeman for lunch. By the time it has reached Coney Island, the rhedosaurus is more of a danger than ever because of the deadly bacteria it carries within its system. It's up to researcher Paul Christian and sharpshooter Lee Van Cleef to try to liquidate the beast with a grenade chock full of radioactive isotopes. The scene every Baby Boomer remembers in Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is not the climactic Coney Island siege but the moment when loveable professor Cecil Kellaway is insensitively gobbled up by the rhedosaurus; when the avuncular "father figure" is killed off, brother, it's time to head for the hills! Not really the best of its kind, Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is significant mainly because it represented Ray Harryhausen 's first solo effort, after assisting Willis O'Brien on Mighty Joe Young (1949). — Hal Erickson