I just caught the tail end of this on TCM

For 1955 there were some pretty good special effects. Like the giant tentacle crushing the car on the Golden Gate Bridge. In the brief time you see it it looks realistic. I also liked seeing 1955 San Francisco. I have never been there in person but I have driven it on Google Street View. Many of the old buildings are still there today and it was interesting to see how they looked back then.

I had to laugh at the scenes of the Embarcadero where the monster is all over the buildings with it's tentacles out in the street yet you see cars driving along normally.. Then I realized that was not so far fetched after all when you consider that today we have people drive into tornadoes and the like, completely clueless of the danger.