A genuine all-star cast (including Oscar winner Ray Milland) tackle a deep-sea treasure hunt. Milland plays an archeologist determined to prove the ancient Egyptians settled in Mexico by opening a tomb on the Gulf floor.
Let me read that again. Yep. That's right. I don't know what college hired Milland's character as a professor, but don't send your kids there.
High O'Brian is the square-jawed captain. His "Gilligan" is Dirk Benedict, who kids around so much it's no wonder he can't get a job on a better ship. John Forsythe is the recovering-alcoholic preacher who sets himself up as Milland's antagonist, warning him not to open the tomb because of a "curse." He utters lots of ridiculous, superstitious and anti-Biblical claptrap. I belong to and teach adult Sunday School at a fairly conservative Southern church and if we got hold of a preacher spouting this inanity we'd pitch him out OVER the front steps. The mark of a good actor is to hit his marks and not bump into the furniture, but the mark of a great actor is the ability to recite ridiculous dialogue and make it sound reasonable. Forsythe is a great actor.
Forsythe's jaded wife is an unglamorourized Lee Meriwether. Actually married couple Christopher and Linda Day George play a squabbling couple without much to do. Frank Converse (no, I never heard of him, either) plays a mysterious character with the more mysterious name "Lazarus" who mysteriously arrives without a ticket but whom O'Brien mysteriously lets on board because he said he had one . . . That's the slipshod way this ship is run.
Stella Stevens (leaning forward a lot in low-cut dresses) is the heroine who says she can read minds. And a couple of eye-candy girls are along for the ride, one who is hot and the other who is not (you can tell the latter because she wears glasses, the Hollywood sign of a frump).
Naturally, given the nature of looking for a submerged Egyptian tomb we're handed lots of underwater scenes. I don't like underwater scenes. I never can tell what's going on in them. And either these scenes are particularly murky or I got a poor print. Or both.
Historically, Biblically, sensibly, you name it, the story is garbage. But a talented cast is able to put it across so it makes some sort of sense in some sort of universe. I only wish it had been longer and the more neglected actors (all of whom I like) had more to to. It should have been a miniseries. I've actually witnessed worse. Really.
One caveat: the primary interest these "ancient horror awakes" movies have is in who dies. This movie goes on a long time with no deaths. Too bad. Short as it is, they can afford to cull some of the expensive cast.
