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A rocketship, returning from a mission to Venus, crashes just off-coast
Sicily, and of the 18 crewmembers only one, Colonel Calder (William
Hopper) survives ... and a Venusian egg that has somehow made it out of
the sinking rocketship and is swept ashore Sicily where a young boy (Bart
Bradley) finds it and sells it to resident zoologist Doc Leonardo (Frank
Puglia) - who curiously enough lives in a trailer with his granddaughter
Marisa (Joan Taylor).
Eventually the egg - the origins of which are totally unknown to Doc
Leonardo - hatches revealing a tiny creature that looks like something of
a cross between man and dinosaur ... and that grows at an incredible rate.
Doc Leonardo and Marisa soon decide to take the specimen to the zoologic
society, but before they can the creature has already grown strong enough
to break its cage. Good thing then that the NASA has in the meantime found
the trail of the Venusian creature and taken up pursuit - and eventually
they manage to capture the creature too that has since grown to circa 15
feet.
The creature is brought to Rome and put on display, but as it always
tends to happen in films like this, the creature manages to free itself
and cause some havoc in the city until it is shot from one of the city's
landmark buildings, in this case the Colosseum.
The story of this film decidedly lacks creativity, it's the typical monster
runs havoc in modern city style narration one has seen done much
better elsewhere. Still, the film has its redeeming values: On one hand
the Italian locations give the film an exotic touch not often found in
this kind of picture, and on the other hand of course Ray Harryhausen's
stop motion effects that are nothing short of top notch. Especially the
fight creature versus elephant and the creture defending itself atop the
Colosseum are totally memorable. And the creature itself is a wonderful
creation.
So if you can ignore the quite silly plot, this film is compulsory
watching.
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