Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (Global Warming Edition) [Import]

Despite a number of harsh criticisms, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a thoughtful and entertaining sci-fi film with an intelligent premise. When the submarine Seaview discovers a strange, burning sky over the Arctic with temperatures unusually warm, its crew learns that the Van Allen Radiation Belt surrounding the earth has somehow caught fire, threatening to roast the earth unless something can be done to stop it. With temperatures around 170 degrees and communications with Washington cut off, Admiral Nelson (played nicely by Walter Pidgeon) orders the Seaview to the North Pole, with the intention of firing a nuclear missile as a solution to the ensuing catastrophe. Unfortunately, Captain Crane (Robert Sterling) and most of the crew are at odds with the Admiral's intentions. Attempted mutiny follows, while enemy subs, giant sea creatures, and sabouteurs try to foil the mission. Peter Lorre swims in a shark tank, Barbara Eden dances to Frankie Avalon's trumpet, and Michael Ansara plays the religious fanatic. While nowhere in the realm of the sci-fi classics, this is, nonetheless, a colorful and entertaining film with good acting (from most of the cast) and good special effects - a worthy and necessary inclusion in any serious sci-fi collection.

To enjoy any movie, one must suspend disbelief. The problem with watching "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" is that, from beginning to end, the absurdities keep coming so thick and fast that suspension of disbelief would require the assistance of a powerful hallucinogen. If there is any other main-stream motion picture ever made that is packed with more pseudo-scientific babble and less understanding of science and technology, I have not seen it. The best moments of the movie are as silly as any Japanese monster movie, providing unintended laughs; the worst parts are simply abysmal. It is patently obvious that no one involved with the production of this movie had the slightest knowledge of either science or submarines or, if they did, they did not use it. From the absurd plot about the Van Allen belt to the even more absurd solution to the problem, and from a diving alarm that sounds like a runaway semi, to impossible diving depths, there is no believability anywhere in this movie. The Seaview itself, however, should be the envy of every naval architect. Not only are its compartments larger and have higher overheads (ceilings to landlubbers) than any compartment on any surface warship, the Seaview actually is larger on the inside than the outside! And while I realize the movie was made in 1961, whose decision was it to put tail fins on a submarine, for crying out loud? The most important thing this movie accomplished was to teach Barbara Eden to play comic fantasy with a straight face, thereby preparing her for her role as Jeannie in a TV sitcom that was far more realistic than this movie.

This remains the most enjoyable of the "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" adventures that I recall seeing. Walter Pidgeon is at his absolute best as the driven Admiral Harriman Nelson. His performance is worth alone the admission price of this otherwise routine science fiction submarine thriller. It's a pity Irwin Allen never got his science correct nor his writing; otherwise both this film and the television series which followed could have been a credible underwater version of "Star Trek".