City Beneath the Sea

Why that dramatic remark! Simply because "City Beneath the Sea" was the only scifi movie/series pilot like it ever really developed for television. Everyone else was exploring the final frontier of space. The space age was booming, Skylab and the Shuttle right around the corner, why think about the future one could build underwater? Who would go for that? Irwin Allen did, and unfortunately no one really gave a damn because with the effort (pre-conception reel, all star cast etc.) lavsihed on "City Beneath the Sea", it deserved more attention than it got. I won't waste time giving a synopsis, others have done so very well with that, and yes I do realize how dated this movie is but I would love to have seen the continual adventures of the 21st century underwater city denizens, how their culture developed, their issues, and the intrigue. The 80's and 90's gave us horrid movies like "Deep Star Six", "Leviathan" and the schitzophrenic but likeable "Seaquest DSV" for underwater thrills when all we really needed was a fertile and stable base to work with, like Pacifica "the" City Beneath the Sea.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed and Produced by Irwin Allen. Warner Brothers telefilm for NBC broadcast. Screenplay by John Meredyth Lucas, from Irwin Allen's story; Photography by Kenneth Peach; Edited by James Baiotto; Music by Richard LaSalle. Starring: Stuart Whitman, Rosemary Forsyth, Robert Wagner, Richard Basehart, Robert Colbert, James Darren, Edward G. Robinson Junior, Whit Bissell, Joseph Cotten, Sugar Ray Robinson, Burr DeBenning, Paul Stewart and Charles Dierkop.

TV movie provides paychecks for innumerable TV has-beens. A highly improbable science-fiction adventure concerning a planetoid hurtling toward the Earth. Safekeeping of gold and H128 reserves are jeopardized at a 21st Century underwater community.

About a fantastic city beneath the sea.

Everything about this film, the effects, the sets, the casting, the actors, are all fine, but with the one tiny problem area of Robert Colbert and the terrible lines he has and the terrible acting he gives.

An early character building scene in this film has Colbert respond to Stu Whitman by saying "that's right we all take orders ... just like Bill Holmes did". It sounded terrible!

But having said that. This is pure Irwin Allen showmanship of the best kind. As others have pointed out, Richard Basehart and the flying sub make this feel like an up-dated Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and who could blame Irwin for wanting to bring back Voyage?

But non-Voyage things such as Stu Whitman and Robert Wagner (Beneath The 12 Mile Reef and The Towering Inferno) make this great entertainment. Also the Richard LaSalle score and big sets with blinking light Time Tunnel computers. I have actually made about 30 viewings of this film over the years.

One of my very favourite movies ever (despite Robert Colbert).

This was one of the few flops that Irwin Allen had during his days in television. This film was supposed to be the latest of Allen's science fiction series. Unfortunately, it didn't work. However, it was a good premise. People moving to a city under the Pacific Ocean to not only do research, but to create a whole new society. It also was a nice little caper film due to the sub plot of the gold heist in the backdrop of the main story of the title city's impending doom from the onrushing planetoid. This truly was a lost gem of television. Too bad it never made it as a series.

Also, isn't it ironic that Richard Basehart is playing the president in this film? Of course, he played Admiral Nelson on Allen's biggest hit series, the similarly themed "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".

This movie came out when I was twelve years old. Although the effects are now cheesy compared to modern technology, at the time I loved it; it was perfect for a 12 year old. I remember at school the next day everyone saying how cool the movie was. It was perfect after having previously experiencing Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, etc... Irwin Allen knew how to entertain kids of that era.