I didn't enjoy this as much as I remember doing the first time I saw it. It's bright and colourful and Charles Bennett as always provides an exciting structure - the captain of a super sub sets off on a mission to fire rockets in order to save the world (there's a lot of made up science to justify this). Thing is a lot of people think he's deranged and they go after him.
Now that's exciting but the thing is - normally people like that are deranged. I wish they'd found a better reason to justify the chase - like he was blamed for something they didn't do, they were trying to kill him on mistaken grounds or something. It was a bit uncomfortable.
There's some good stuff in there though: a traitor on board ship (I love the reveal it's Joan Fontaine and I love that she gets eaten by a shark), a random shark on board, Peter Lorre in the cast, Frankie Avalon singing a song on the soundtrack, Avalon playing the trumpet while Barbara Eden dances, Michael Ansara as a religious maniac, the vision of the pink skies when they hop out of the sub, a fight with a creature, a minefield, a near mutiny, the sets.
I think they missed a trick not having a romance develop in front of us - when the film starts Eden is going out with Robert Sterling.
It's also not very well directed - Allen was a much better producer than director.
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