For the most part I enjoy monster movies from the 50’s and 60’s. They have a fun camp value and nice charm to them. It’s fairly rare, however, that a movie of this genre moves past the simply fun factor and into the great territory. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen of course, but merely that it doesn’t happen all that often. Arnold Laven’s The Monster that Challenged the World is a 50’s monster movie that I would say plants it’s flag firmly in the great territory.

At the Salton Sea in California, the U.S. Navy is conducting some rescue training parachute jumps. During the training an underwater earthquake strikes and breaks open the floor of the sea. When the patrol boat arrives in the middle of the sea to pick up one of the training jumpers, they only find a parachute. One of two Naval officers on the patrol boat dives into the water to search for the jumper. After a few moments something large emerges from the water. The audience is unable to see what it is, but it’s big enough that it scares the second Naval officer to death.

After failing to reach the patrol boat via radio, Lt. Cmdr. John “Twill” Twillinger (Tim Holt) takes a rescue boat out to sea to look for the missing officers. Once Twill reaches the patrol boat he discovers the body of the officer that remained on the boat. He also finds the boat covered in a weird slime. They take the body back to land to perform an autopsy. The autopsy reveals shocking details as the dead officer’s body was completely sucked dry of all moisture. Unsure of what could do this, but weary that it could cause major problems, Twill gets together with the town sheriff, Josh Peters (Gordon Jones), and the two close down all the beaches in the area. Despite locking off the beaches more and more people come up missing. The Navy decides to investigate further by sending a team of divers down into the sea. What they discover is a giant mollusk and a ton of eggs!

The Monster that Challenged the World should be one of the first movies that comes up when discussing movies from this era. Why it doesn’t, I have not a clue. For starters it’s basically Jaws before Jaws. I don’t know if Spielberg took inspiration from Laven’s little gem, but I have to think he was a fan. While two films obviously aren’t 100% identical, they have an awful lot in common.

Much like Police Chief Brody in Jaws, both Sheriff Peters and Twill must deal with some backlash with their decision to close down the beaches. It’s the middle of summer, extremely hot and peak tourist season. People expect to go to the beach and if they can’t go to the beach they’re going to be upset about it. Young me would have been upset about this much like I was when I first saw Jaws. Before I was wise to the world I couldn’t understand why people would be upset about the beach being closed for their own safety. Now I’m older and I know better. Doesn’t matter how many people die, if it impedes someone from having a good weekend they’re going to be pissed about it.

It’s more than little story details like above that link The Monster that Challenged the World with one of the greatest films ever made. The two stories unfold in similar ways. In both cases the villain is a massive underwater creature that we ease into actually seeing. It’s not until just before the halfway mark of The Monster that Challenged the World that we finally see the giant mollusk for the first time. There are multiple deaths prior, but we only gets hints as to what is responsible for the havoc. Much like Spielberg would do nearly 20 years later, Laven does a wonderful job at letting the suspense build by holding off on the reveal.

Despite this approach, the creature actually gets a lot of screen time. Quite a bit more in fact than the monsters in other movies from the time and it actually looks pretty damn good. Essentially we get the best of both worlds. We have the edge-of-your-seat tension and then we get the big payoff with the creature getting plenty of action. It’s a beautiful mix.

One interesting tidbit I have to point out is some of the odd, somewhat dark humor in the movie. There’s not a lot of it and it’s subtle, but when you catch it, it really jumps out you. One specific example of this I remember stemmed from a trip to the morgue to get the autopsy results of one of the dead officers. The coroner offers the Sheriff and Twill lunch by pulling out one of the body trays to reveal some food. This was just a really weird moment in the film that stuck with me.

The Monster that Challenged the World is a woefully underrated creature feature from the 50’s. It has all the camp factor and cheese you would expect, but it’s also a genuinely good movie, skillfully made. I can’t recommend this one enough.

The Monster that Challenged the World is now out on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. The Blu-ray features an audio commentary track with film historian Tom Weaver.