I saw this movie in a theater in 1960, when I was six. What they were thinking showing it at a Saturday matinee of little kids I can't imagine, but that was before ratings. It scared the s*** out of me! That horrible one-eyed alien, and the terrible things that happen when the submarine crewmen are trying to escape! Very, very scary.
October 16, 2006 |  | Makes me hungry for a submarine sandwich |  |
50s movie about a submarine crew that meets a large octopus like puppet living in a flying saucer who wants to take over the world. Alien creature can read minds but cannot read that the movie hero was going to shoot him. One scene has a sub worker screaming for his shipmate to rescue him from certain death. Shipmate hears his cries and slowly wanders over to see what the problem is. Wandering shipmate gets stuck in a thin rubber door that closes on him so he also dies. Flying saucer can hop from galaxy to galaxy but cannot outrun a slow missle launched from a submarine. Wooden acting, cliche filled script but still great fun!
March 24, 2006This film stinks. It gives B scifi a bad name -- even makes those Roger Corman movies look stunning. If possible, I would give it a negative rating to balance the positive reviews seen here. If you want cornball underwater action, buy "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." Provided that your cerebral cortex is active, you'll agree it's a zillion times better.
May 23, 2004 | | Atomic Sub on every set at home | |
I saw this movie on the BIG screen when I was 6, and I was under the seat most of the time back in 1958. My parents lived within a block of the movie theater; thus, you know what I was doing at that age. The music and sound effects really added to the earie atmosphere of this movie; especially, when the beam of light melted the frogmen. The cyclops creature had me under the chair - I now know it's a hand inside the puppet - but on that BIG screen...
July 16, 2003 | | What fun...with my own reservations... | |
I have to admit that a few things about this film disappointed me. The acting was better than expected, and the script was somewhat literate. Other than that, this was all the schlock, bad F/X I expect from films of this genre & time period. It's interesting to know that this film was released by Allied Artists, which was a studio neck-to-neck with American-International for the drive-in crowd. A-I went somewhat legit when they went with the Corman/Poe/Vincent Price movies, later the Beach Party films. Allied Artists went a different route: they picked up the options for the American release of "epics" like EL CID and 55 DAYS AT PEKING. (My vote goes to A-I, for sheer originality...) Enough history... This is a fun film. The special effects are absolutely laughable, my favorite being the alien saucer leaving the polar ice cap, obviously a toy being pulled up through soft wax. A previous reviewer referred to this as "warmly corny"; I couldn't put it better. Bad sets, bad effects...and, of course, after Brett Halsey proves himself to be a hero and not a wimp, his shirt is suddenly open showing lots of manly chest-hair. What a guy! I've always liked Arthur Franz (especially in "Monster on the Campus"). All in all, it's loads of fun for the "bad sci-fi" afficianado. My major disappointment with the DVD, though it has great picture & sound quality, is that it should've been in Widescreen. At the beginning, they show News Headlines declaring horrible stuff, but you could only see the middle of the headline...there was no perifery. As far as sets go, the perifery wouldn't have mattered...but no one can deny that the majestic scenes of the Arctic (few as they were) would have been awesome. Watch this, and keep all of your other guilty pleasures (beverages, junk food, etc.) handy. If you can ignore the good points of the film, the bad points will overwhelm you and entertain.
April 20, 2002More reviews at Amazon.com ...
Daily Birthdays
(11 reviews)