God bless Ray Harryhausen.

One of the earliest moviegoing experiences I remember was The Golden Voyage of Sinbad back in 1974. Not a classic, perhaps, but it enthralled my 8-year-old brain, anyway. Special-effects wizard Harryhausen had created a wondrous Rogue's Gallery of mythological creatures; it was months before I stopped having dreams about centaurs and six-armed goddesses.

So imagine my joy at the gussied-up, two-disc release of It Came from Beneath the Sea. The first of Harryhausen's collaborations with Columbia B-movie producer Charles H. Schneer, this 1955 sci-fi yarn imagines a giant radiation-doused octopus terrorizing the West Coast.

In today's mélange of computer-generated miracles, where even the lamest motion picture can deliver eye-popping special effects, it is easy to lose sight of how extraordinary Harryhausen's creations were. It Came from Beneath the Sea was only his second effort -- coming two years after his monumental debut in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms -- and it's not his most spectacular work. Hell, a shoestring budget forced Harryhausen to limit the octopus to six tentacles, but the film's climactic monster attack on San Francisco is certainly impressive enough, and there is a wicked glee in watching the big cephalopod eviscerate such landmarks as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Market Street Tower.

The tale begins when an atomic submarine on routine maneuvers in the Pacific comes across an unidentified creature. Commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey) finds some sort of foreign matter attached to the sub's rotor blades, a substance that, as an omniscient narrator tells us, is "so strange, so inexplicable and alarming, that the best minds in the nation had to be called upon to solve the problem."

Lucky for Commander Mathews that one of those minds belongs to beautiful Lesley Joyce (one-time Howard Hughes protégé Faith Domergue), a scientist who knows her way around a laboratory but can also flash her smoky bedroom eyes when the need arises. The two engage in some sexual tension, albeit Fifties-styled ("When you're driving that atomic submarine of yours, do you have time for romance?" she purrs), but the flirtation doesn't preclude her and colleague John Carter (Donald Curtis) from concluding that the substance belongs to a mutant, and very hungry, octopus.

Navy brass scoffs at the scientists' theory, of course, but they change their tune after a steamer is attacked at sea. The ship's few survivors are reluctant to tell military psychiatrists about the monstrosity they saw. Leave it to Lesley Joyce and her feminine wiles to coerce the truth out of those red-blooded boys. All it takes is a slinky evening gown and a cigarette that needs to be lit.

Like so many movies of its ilk, It Came from Beneath the Sea suffers in the lengthy lead up to the monster's debut. The screenplay by George Worthing Yates and Hal Smith has plenty of clunky moments -- although some of it is unintentionally funny -- and If the acting were any more wooden, it would contract Dutch Elm Disease.

But God bless that pissed-off octopus. While it takes too long for It Came from Beneath the Sea to hit that final reel, you've gotta love it once the tentacles emerge from San Francisco Bay to exact revenge on sushi eaters everywhere.

The disc boasts both the original black-and-white version as well as a computer-colorized version (both of which are in anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1) for those who like such things. The b&w is grainy and occasionally murky, but otherwise fine. The colorized version is surprisingly solid, if not exactly revelatory. Viewers can switch between the two versions by hitting the "angle" button on the remote.

Viewers can select Dolby Digital 5.1 or the original mono track. The 5.1 is largely wasted, but both tracks are serviceable. Audio is also available in Spanish and Portuguese, with optional subtitles in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

Disc One features the movie, commentary and previews of Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Ultimate Edition and Dragon Wars.

The commentary includes Harryhausen joined by modern-day special effects maestros Randall William Cook and John Bruno, with discussion facilitated by Harryhausen's longtime colleague, Arnold Kunert. It's chatty and pleasant, but the commentary is weighted toward the technical aspects of special effects.

The lion's share of extras, most of which have appeared on previous DVDs, show up on Disc Two. Best of all is Remembering It Came from Beneath the Sea (21:42), an entertaining retrospective in which Harryhausen reflects on the making of the picture. He rented a store in Culver City, constructed a single model of the octopus, built miniatures of San Francisco and proceeded to produce wonders.

Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen (27:07) is an animated and cozy discussion between the legendary Harryhausen and one of his most famous admirers. Harryhausen relates some terrific anecdotes and tricks of the trade -- the whirring sound of the flying saucers in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, for instance, was flowing sewage -- but the nicest surprise here is Burton, who is bubbly, enthusiastic and downright fawning.

A Present Day Look at Stop-Motion (11:34) is a surprisingly charming and fun primer on stop-motion by New York University film student Kyle Anderson.

Another gem is David Schecter on Film Music's Unsung Hero: Mischa Bakaleinikoff (22:32). Schecter, a film music scholar, offers a lively and comprehensive look at It Came from Beneath the Sea music composer Bakaleinikoff, who was a master at borrowing bits of previously recorded scores.

Three galleries have an aggregate running time of 29 minutes, 47 seconds. There are three segments: ad art photo gallery, production photo gallery and Ray Harryhausen's artwork and photo gallery.

Original ad artwork is an exhaustive collection that runs just shy of 18 minutes. Far less impressive is It Came from the Sea ... Again! A digital comic book, it is so shrunken as to be nearly unreadable.

Subtitles in the bonus material are in Spanish and Portuguese.

Not one of the great sci-fi flicks of the 1950s and not one of Ray Harryhausen's finest achievements, but It Came from Beneath the Sea is still a hell of a lot of fun. C'mon, how do you not love a movie in which a ginormous cephalopod attacks San Francisco?