Cinematic Time Capsule1961 Marathon - Film #43”This lunatic scheme will destroy the world.”Not content with a meager 20,000 Leagues, Irwin Allen takes us on a voyage to the very bottom of the sea! His submarine’s a wonder to behold with its massive windows that no one bothers to look out of until it’s too late and an interior that’s more spacious than an empty gymnasium.Allen’s sets and toys are so much fun that I really want to enjoy this journey, but sadly the film’s bogged down with lackluster pacing and way too many meandering conversations.BONUS POINTS for Peter Lorre as the grumpy grumbling scientist with a semi-well behaved pet shark.”What on earth is he doing?”“Shark walking”Cinematic Time Capsule - 1961 Ranked
Come with meCome with meOn a voyageto the bottomof the seaIn a seaof blue-greenWe will find loveat the bottomof the seaUnbelievableInconceivableFantastic it will seemBut we'll be the firstthe very firstto live such a strange new dreamYes, that's the romantic (albeit corny) ballad that accompanies the opening credits of this movie from the summer of 1961. Does the film live up to the lyrics of the song? Well, it does turn out to be a colorful melange of high adventure, science fiction, submarine thriller, Cold War nail-biter and.....apocalyptic disaster flick. Everything here but the kitchen sink....oh, but there's little of the promised romance.... yet, as a ten-year-old that was just fine with me.The conceit of the story is that the Van Allen Belt, a radiation-dense portion of the magnetosphere surrounding the earth, is set afire by "meteoric activity." Okay....this is never explained really, but who cares, since it's just an excuse for new supersub Seaview to go into (unilateral) action to save the world. In a scenario straight out of Jules Verne, Admiral Nelson of the USN has to damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead, racing to one of the earth's poles (without official sanction) to attempt to launch an atomic missile into the flaming Van Allen Belt. Sounds plausible, right? It's pretty suspenseful, seriously, as earth's temperatures are rising two degrees Fahrenheit each day and as the Seaview races to the Pole it is already 135 degrees....igniting worldwide forest fires and the melting of the polar ice caps. Whoa.....and this was 1961....a 78 RPM song that the Earth is singing to us now, somewhat slower, in real time.This was the world's introduction to director Irwin Allen, who went on to be a titan of family-friendly television. The attractive cast features Walter Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden and Peter Lorre. Frankie Avalon, who was soon to become a mainstay of AIP's seemingly endless Beach Party films, plays a supporting role....and shows off his pipes by singing that credit theme and another song later. Oh, and lest I forget the comeliest lady of the cast.....the submarine Seaview, she was actually a rather large model (no CGI in 1961). It's obvious the sub is a model but she's still kind of cool-looking for her vintage.My Dad, who loved all things nautical and aerial (he was an Air Force guy in WWII), picked this one out on a hot evening in July of 1961. It was my first time in a "hardtop" (indoor) theater as my folks always preferred the drive-ins. Who can blame them?....at drive-ins you could have dinner (yum!) and see two movies for the price of one.Though I diverged from some of my family's worldviews as I grew up, movies were always our common currency. We could put aside our differences for an evening and share the experience of films. I wish my parents were still here but I have this mental snapshot of sitting between them, munching popcorn and drinking a Seven-Up, feeling safe between the "twin mountains", and watching Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
This is one of Irwin Allen's first disaster movies. Allen would have great success in the 1970s with The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon and of course The Swarm (sorry that was actually a horrible movie and a box office bomb). In this one the Van Allen radiation belt catches fire (you gotta hate that when it happens) and starts melting the icecaps and turning the Earth into a sauna. So if I got the science right....if the Earth's temperature reaches 175F it is game over. Scientists think at 173F the radiation belt will put itself out. Walter Pidgeon playing genius Admiral Nelson thinks the scientists are wrong....he thinks they need to launch nuclear weapons to blow up the belt and save mankind....who is right who is wrong?....I sure hope it is the guy with a brand nuclear submarine.Ok this one is silly....but you do get a very young Barbara Eden....former Oscar winner Joan Fontaine....one of the greatest characters of all-time Peter Lorre and of course Pidgeon. Special effects look pretty weak by today's standards...but I am sure they knocked people's socks off 50 years ago. Final thought: Pretty much average all the way around the board.
