Oh, don’t clam up or get crabby… this is NOT in reference to your gawdawful experiences with those sharks you’ve met online who are prone to nefarious porpoises, I mean purposes.

Call me odd, call me nutty, call me a bad punster. Or call me a broad with strangely eclectic movie tastes, including vintage sci fi flicks, and I can’t disagree. And here’s one for you – “It Came from Beneath the Sea.”

How many times in horror or monster movies, especially from the past, have we seen the macho male ordering people around (especially women) and taking charge. And, as the female lead screams and falls down as the monster du jour approaches, the big brave dude saves the hapless female lead.

Surprisingly, in the l950s, a sub-genre of sci fi movies emerged in which there IS a strong female character who – ta da! – isn’t only brave but helps save the day. She’s usually a female scientist, but not always. And “It Came from Beneath the Sea” (1955) is a case in point.

It stars Kenneth Tobey, who had a kind of modern, swaggering sexiness. He was one of those journeymen actors. He played the lead in loads of sci fi and B movies and tons of TV show guest spots over more than half a century – and he starred in the TV series Whirly birds from 1957 to 1960. In this flick, he’s Pete Mathews, commander of a nuclear submarine. “It Came from Beneath the Sea” has ANOTHER star who plays perhaps the most important character (although you might not gather that from the movie poster). I’m talking about Faith Domergue (she also starred as a fearless female scientist pitted against evil space aliens in “This Island Earth”).

The gorgeous (excuse this diversion but I LOVE her short yet sexy ‘do in this movie). By the way, for you gossip mongers, yes, Miss Domergue was “discovered”, probably in more ways than one, at age 16 by Howard Hughes who quickly put her under contract to his RKO Radio Pictures. No surprise -she and Hughes were in an on and off again relationship for a couple of years.

But I digress.

In the movie at tentacle, I mean hand, she stands up to Tobey’s know-it-all character (of course, romance will result ). Anyhoo, Miss Domergue plays the world's top expert in sea creatures. She's a brilliant scientist who helps save the world -- not a falling down, wimpy female. (She also starred as a fearless female scientist pitted against evil space aliens in “This Island Earth”).

“It Came from Beneath the Sea” is easy to find online and it’s downright fun AND the special effects were created by the always brilliant, creative and astonishing talents of Ray Harryhausen.

“A TIDAL WAVE OF TERROR ENGULFS THE SCREEN! A RAGING MONSTER FROM THE SAW OF CREATION ATTACKS THE WORLD OF MAN!”