20 Million Miles to Earth. One of Ray Harryhausen's finest! An expedition to Venus crashes into the Ionian sea upon its return to Earth. The only survivor is a Venusian!

From 1957. Directed by Nathan Juran, written by Christopher Knopf, story by Charlotte Knight.

Harryhausen's stop-motion animation is superb. The unique part of this story is that the Venusian - a bipedal lizard creature - is not a monster, merely a fish out of water. The creature displays no tendancy for wanton destruction and only reacts aggressively when forced to defend itself.

The opening sequence is a treat, if only for the visual of a giant finned rocketship sinking in the sea.