City in the Sea

Most of the time when a film is held up in release you know the studio has lost faith in it. Made in 1963 according to the Citadel film series book on Vincent Price the film did not come out until 1965.

It wasn't a terrible film, but it was exceedingly dull in spots and exceedingly stupid in one aspect. Of course anything with Vincent Price being sinister will have some good points.

Set in Cornwall at the turn of the last century, the City Beneath The Sea is about a local legend of a lost city off the coast that became lost during an earthquake. Some might call it Atlantis, but the locals use the Arthurian legend name of Lyonness.

Young heiress Susan Hart disappears and her lawyer and a visiting artist find a secret passage from her home. Tab Hunter and David Tomlinson play the pair of hunters respectively.

Folks originally lived there adapted and became water breathing gill men. How later arriving humans like Vincent Price and his pirate crew subjugate them is never explained and is beyond me. But one thing does happen these folks live very long like the inhabitants of Shangri- La. And they have the same weakness that those Shangri-La characters do.

In a much better film, Journey To The Center Of The Earth one of the characters carried his pet goose until the villain ate him. I thought that was a stupid plot gambit then and I think David Tomlinson carrying the pet rooster Herbert was even more ridiculous. After a while his silly twit Englishman got downright annoying.

Vincent Price's fans might show a little strain with this one.