A high point in Walt Disney's production of Jules Verne's classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a fantastic fight between the crew of the submarine Nautihis (left) and a giant squid – a sea monster modeled after actual squids that prowl the depths, fight with sperm whales. Disney's squid, if alive, would weigh 20 tons. It is probably the biggest special-effects creature Hollywood has ever spawned – making even King Kong seem a pygmy by comparison.
[image]Squid's tentacle, 40 feet long, stabs down the steps of the submarine's main hatch and almost grabs the commander. Captain Nemo (James Mason). Nemo orders all hands topside to join battle with the monster.[/image]
[image]Coming to grips with the squid, the Nautilus' crew advances warily. The movie monster has eight arms, each weighing 175 lbs., plus two slightly larger tentacles. A push-button control hoard operated by 24 men put it through terrifying gyrations.[/image]
[image]In losing struggle, Captain Nemo tries to harpoon the creature. Disney's squid is composed of rubber, spring steel, flexible tubing, glass cloth, Laminac and Lucite, composing altogether a "squirming horror of a fish."[/image]
[image]Hacking at arms and tentacles with axes, crew fails to down attacker. Squid's feelers were controlled by wires for vertical motion; by electricity for horizontal motion. Bursts of air along interior tubes caused the monster's realistic "convulsive writhings.'[/image]
[image]"A creature of darkness in a world of eternal night": The clammy, seaweed colored squid (right) goggles its yellow, bloodshot eyes as it encircles Captain Nemo.[/image]
[image]Atop the wheelhouse, Ned hurls his weapon, which deeply imbeds itself between the monster's eyes."If the script hadn't assured me I'd win," Douglas said, "I would never tackle this beast."[/image]
[image]Squid tosses Nemo into the air, drags him underwater. Even to its creators, the manufactured brute seemed dangerous as it lunged and thrashed about, gave its Nautilus victims scant mercy.[/image]
[image]Harpooner Ned Land (Kirk Douglas) sees Nemo in trouble and defies the squid.[/image]
[image]Ned dives in to save Captain Nemo (above) and finally rescues him (right) from the death grip of the injured squid. This entire battle will probably run ten minutes when Disney's spectacular CinemaScope film is released in December.[/image]
