The Cavern

The Cavern is a poignant movie which is much more about character development and human interactions than it is about action/adventure. The setting is a diverse group being trapped in a cave along with a huge supply of food, munitions, and other supplies. I do not want to reveal any spoilers, but several of the scenes in this movie stayed with me for over forty years. A excellent movie. Hard to find it on any streaming services, which is a shame. I think it might be in the public domain, but I am not sure of that. If you can find it, or see it is playing, record it and make sure to give it a watch. Well worth the time.

I was going to give this movie a 5 and say, "This is a solid 5!" Then I decided that if it's such a solid 5, why don't I give it a 6?

Why?, you may ask.

I watched it on FX cable last night, having missed the first 10 minutes or so. They were already trapped in the cavern. In a few minutes I was hooked. I happened across it again a few hours later just after the credits and caught the first few minutes until I was up with where I came in. Then I almost sat to watch it again. That alone says something.

Let's get some things out of the way about this film. This is in the public domain. It was shot in 1.85:1, but was broadcast in 4:3. It was broadcast on an HD channel, but still looked as if I was watching it through a silk screen. It may have been a 16mm transfer or a multigenerational copy.

Do not judge a book by its cover.

Many of the comments here about weakness in the script, character motivations and low budget production values are reasonable, but with a caveat. Many of those bad character decisions or odd motivations take place after being trapped in the cavern for weeks and months. When that is taken into account, some of the irrationality might be excused, or at least rationalized.

The cast is actually quite good, though half are likely unknown to most viewers.

The early exterior shots are not encouraging. The opening few minutes which set up the story look low budget. One German soldier stopped his motorcycle to give a report to an officer. After the report, he couldn't restart it, but they kept the "take".

Once the main characters are trapped in the cavern, however, the low budget matters less than the story.

Not everyone survives, and heroes and not-so-much heroes may not be who you expect. But that's a large part of what makes the film engaging.

It won't be the best ~80 minutes of your life, but it won't be a waste.

PS: One of these actors went on to a long-term gig as host of "Hollywood Squares". See if you can spot him. Another went on to be an iconic character on the TV series "Dallas". And this will be one of Brian Aherne's last roles, and not bad though certainly not his best.

First of all I'm the biggest John Saxon fan in the whole world. I can't think of a time when this guy showed up and didn't do his job-wasn'' convincing in a role? Never!

Big budget!! US Givt war footage, which these guys could never afford, mixed in with like a cheap shot of bricks falling from a truck. (The cars they use are so old and decrepit, it's funny)

But I'm pretty sure the whole purpose of this movie is for someone to see as much nakediditty as Rosanna Schiaffino / censors will allow.

I walked away from the movie for a couple minutes, you know multitasking, this is the first movie I can think of that sounds like it's dubbed...and it's not.

Really wretched. Really wretched.

Maybe this isn't the first WTF movie, but it certainly is in the running, and certainly the epitome of a WTF (What the Flock!) movie.

This movie, on the surface, is about people of different nationalities and sides during a war, being trapped in a cavern together. The social plot is about the "class" warfare, as the "officer" class becomes the majority, and the one "enlisted" man becomes the leader.

This should have been a good movie. The very nature of it destined it to "cult classic" status, but the writing is perhaps the worst you could get for what could have been great.

We want to cheer for the lone enlisted man, John Saxon, whose everyday looks made him a natural for the "Everyman", but his character looks to be written by someone who has never been in the "enlisted" class.

We have one German surviving to reach the cavern, who becomes the solitary enemy figure, but not a nemesis. In fact, he is one of the more rational of the characters. The nemesis figure comes from a cliché of a rich jerk, played by Hagman. However, Saxon's character is so poorly written, that we have a hard time pulling for him against the cliché jerk.

This is a great example of a great idea gone sour by poor writing. Not surprising to those of us who have sat in bard meetings where decisions over writing are made. It's always best to let one writer submit and at most one other to edit, before the director makes his final "rewrite", which most directors do. Today, you even have prima donna actors doing "rewrites", which is why you have so much garbage on film.

Those of us from the "enlisted" class want to cheer for this movie, and maybe that is why I don't rate it "1" or "2", but it is laughably bad. A real WTF movie, made worse by the fact that it did the worst job with a great idea.

Director Edgar G. Ulmer is mostly famous for one of the best film noirs ever made, Detour (1945)and therefore I was curious to see what else he has made.

This adventure drama about a group of people that gets trapped inside a fallout shelter/cave, is a exciting albeit slightly flawed film.

The group consists of a retired general(Brian Aherne), now working as war correspondent, a GI joe(John Saxon) who has been stripped of his rank,an Italian soldier( Nino Castelnuovo), army publicist(Larry Hagman) escorting the general, Italian civilian(Rosanna Schiaffino), Canadian POW(Peter Marshall) and a German soldier(Hans von Borsody) Despite different background, gender, these people must learn to co-operate in order to escape. There are some great scenes here when looking at this group and dynamics between them.

This film is like classical excerise in a philosophical discussion about ethics, human values and the darwinian model for survival.

Asking questions like:

Who is best leader?

Do everyone deserve a fair share of the small amount of food?

These and other vital questions are what film deals with and in way the film reflects society in a smaller scale.

The acting is very good and is surprise for modern viewers to see actors like Larry Hagman, now mostly famous for his role as JR Ewing in the soap opera Dallas, here showing a wider range then usual.

Same thing can be said about John Saxon who has(and still have) a long career, playing all kinds of characters. Here he does a good job playing a street smart soldier with disciplinary difficulties.

Rosanna Schiaffino is a new face for me but she is very believable as the only female stuck in cave surround by men. She very attractive something that causes tensions within the group.

Who should she choose?

Brian Aherne is just excellent, he plays his character with great subtlety, someone whos old ways doesn't really fit in with rest of the group. Time seems to have run away from him, and he can't keep up.

This film seems to be a lowbudget feature but Edgar G. Ulmer knew what he was doing, using the outmost of his small resources. The biggest flaw is in the script, where some character archs don't develop properly, the film is too long and should been shorter.

So future viewers that liked Lifeboat (1944), The Edge (1997), Sands of the Kalahari (1965)should get a kick out of this one.