The Greatest Mystery of the Whole Movie

Vicky wasn't the only one who died, remember she was on a yacht (or something) and the entire boat was destroyed when the octopus went after it. The people on the yacht discovered the wreck of a smaller boat, and radioed in to report it. The octopus causes some sort of tidal wave (?) that overturns the yacht. Vicky escapes and swims back to the wreck of the smaller boat, but the octopus follows her and attacks her.

It's been a long time since I've actually watched this movie, so I don't remember the exact details of the scene, but I think the idea was, the group at the people standing around while the boats came in were reacting to the destruction of the yacht, not just Vicky's death. The boats returning were probably out investigating the disappearance of the yacht.

Or perhaps they were just sad about the fact that they got to appear in a movie, and it turned out to be this one.

groovydoom.blogspot.com

The greatest mystery is how this film was green lit and funded.

One of the strangest things about the film is how much arthouse type camerawork is in it. The shot you speak of is a 3 minute unbroken crane/dolly shot, which is actually pretty masterful. It ends on the husband of the woman who I guess has just found out. So it was very thought out.

The credit shot is a long planned out shot as well. The introduction of John Huston is cool. The child by the sea. A lot of scenes are nicely composed.

It makes me wonder if these types of shots were because of the director or cinematographer and if they did these types of shots in other movies.

Never noticed that scene before in my life.

I saw this movie on tv back when it first came out (if it was a theatre release or not, I wouldn't know, don't care), then I may have caught it 25 years later, knew how silly it was, but just caught it again and upon reading your description, looked for the scene.

Yep, set up just as you described. My guess and assumption would have to be they are watching late night search boats coming in from Vicky's death and whoever else there may have been, if any, I'm not looking over the entire previous scene.

Was 'Vicky' bo Hopkins woman? Hence why we see him grieving.

What was especially amusing was the first clip after the Octopus closeup we see is a closeup of Hopkins, in the yellow slicker, sitting at the picnic table with boats going behind him.

CUT to the overhead shot of the people standing about, watching the boats come in, pan here, pan there, zoom in, slowly, slowly, then we see Huston turn around and the guy behind him lights his cigar. I was thinking that was funny, then the closeup continues on the guy sitting on the table with his back to the camera, IN THE YELLOW SLICKER.

Sure enough, he turns around to be Hopkins, who then proceeds to sit down at the table, much the same way as he began the scene in the first cut. Clearly that first snippet was the continuation from the overhead pan.

The sad look of Vicky's husband told me that he knew she was dead. The people gathering had probably heard of the search for her from the media and had come to the shore out of curiosity, and for some, to express sympathy by their presence. I figured the boats coming in had been searching for her.