Goliath Awaits

An ocean liner goes down during WWII and a number of passengers survive and establish a civilization under the sea in the wreck. The film starts out good with but then begins to wither. Too many little subplots are injected into the story, which sink it. (No pun intended) It begins to take on a Voyage to the Bottom of The Sea TV series episode type plot and the chilling Twilight Zone potential of the picture is lost. Christopher Lee does a superb job as the ship captain and is the only really interesting character. A man who has gone from captain of the ship to absolute God in his underwater kingdom. The other characters particularly the Navy personnel who discover the wreck are weak to say the least. John Carradine co-stars as a silent film star who was aboard the liner when it went down and is now revered by the younger generation as one of the `Elders'. Frank Gorshin is also aboard as an individual who serves the captain in much the same way Beria served Stalin.

1981's "Goliath Awaits" was a huge ratings winner for Operation Prime Time, enabling independent UHF stations the chance to compete with the 'Big Three' - ABC, CBS, NBC - but at lower advertising rates that benefited everyone but the networks, in those early days before cable really took off. A highly improbable scenario is made believable by a strong cast of familiar faces, but nominal lead Mark Harmon is often too shrill to be effective. The ocean liner Goliath is sunk by German torpedoes in 1939, yet the 337 people found alive more than 40 years later survived due to the ingenuity of first officer John McKenzie (Christopher Lee), rightfully revered as their leader and captain ever since. A rescue team of four (Mark Harmon, Robert Forster, Alex Cord, John Ratzenberger) venture inside to offer their solution to the inevitable collapse of this insulated existence, only one month left before the fuel supply runs out for good. We have a number of fine character vignettes, in particular John Carradine (veteran of OPT's 1979 miniseries THE SEEKERS) as Ronald Bentley, famed swashbuckling movie hero, in perhaps a nod to one of his dearest friends, the late Errol Flynn. As one of the original survivors from the long ago sinking, he has spent the time educating the young about his life experiences, enjoying the one movie of his that has survived the years, wanting to be remembered as the virile young actor he once was, great with action, less so with dialogue. Still, it is Christopher Lee who stands out as the ambiguous McKenzie, who resists any attempt at rescue, knowing that his days as absolute ruler were bound to end sooner or later, his mysterious associate Dan Wesker (Frank Gorshin) a self appointed 'Angel of Death,' dispensing with people unable to work or feed themselves. Originally broadcast in two parts at over 3 hours-plus, it's never boring and makes good use of stock footage, thanks to the editing skills of director Kevin Connor, who had previously worked with Lee and Ratzenberger on the 1979 "Arabian Adventure." Not all our questions are answered, and the climax is unfortunately drawn out too long to sustain the tension, but overall a commendable effort that stayed with viewers over the decades since, much like the occupants below the sea.

I am reaching way back into my memory for this one, for I saw it on T.V. in 1981 and haven't heard anything about it since, except in 1992 when a co-worker and I got on the subject of shipwrecks and somehow we both remembered this movie from our pasts. We were so vague on the details we had both thought it might have been a dream until we corroborated each other's memory!

Brilliant how an "offshoot" society--a microcosm of our own, with all the various social strata--was represented. There was even a sub-sub-society, the "Bow People," who terrorized those in the main part of the ship.

Also, chilling how the ship's brass were "relieved" to find out that Hitler had been defeated--not even realizing that they had established their own police state far below the surface of the ocean!

Hi, Everyone,

I worked on this movie at The Queen Mary (ship) in Long Beach in May of 1981. The crew and cast were fun to be with. I was an extra who was supposed to be a passenger on the Goliath down at the bottom of the ocean. We were all still alive years after the ship sank.

A group of us were taught the dances of the 1920s (Lambeth Walk, Charleston). We worked in the cargo hold of the Queen Mary for some of our scenes. There were good guys and bad guys. Frank Gorshin and Christopher Lee were the villains. Christopher Lee was the Captain who kept the people alive and wanted to stay underwater when the rescuers arrived.

John Carradine was a very pleasant man to work with in his scenes. He had arthritis but he managed to negotiate the stairway that led down into the hold of the ship. Mark Harmon was the hero who arrives to rescue the passengers.

This movie was originally shown over a two night period on TV. It later was packaged as a VHS movie with some scenes edited out, but the short version seems the better and more fast paced of the two.

There is one scene where the music does not match the dancing in the background. Watch for dancers moving at the wrong tempo. The scene was rehearsed at one speed (No music actually is played. The dancers are given a tempo and they dance without music while the dialog is being recorded. The music is inserted later.)and different music was put in for some reason.

I liked the movie but it was not great. It was an interesting idea that will hold your attention for a couple of hours. If you like ship movies, try "Sea Chase" with John Wayne and Lana Turner or "Assault on a Queen" with Frank Sinatra.

Tom Willett

I saw this when it originally aired as a 2-part TV movie. I really enjoyed the premise of people forming their own society while trapped in a sunken ocean liner for a generation. The moral theme about society despising the Nazis but still becoming fascist is also good. Christopher Lee and Frank Gorshin play very intriguing characters. Alex Cord, Jean Marsh, John Carradine and Eddie Albert make great supporting actors as well. Mark Harmon is okay as the hero. (Ironically, he appeared in another sunken ship film: Beyond the Poseidon Adventure.) The film also has one of Duncan Regehr's early roles, before he went on to roles in "Wizards & Warriors" and "V". Emma Samms is charming as a girl who grew up in the ship. http://tinyurl.com/cwcqarv She would later gain fame as Fallon Colby on "Dynasty".

The first half of the story explains the history of the ship and how it is found. There's a really shocking scene where the first diver enters the old sunken ship and we see barely see through his foggy diving mask that there are living people on board! The hauntingly iconic image of a diver seeing the lovely Emma Thompson's face through a watery porthole was used in the commercials for the movie and when the movie itself cut to commercial breaks.

The second half of the film deals with the cultural and political implications for this isolated society which has been stuck in 1930s culture. They have adapted their lifestyle and morals to survive. Do they want to be rescued?

After many years of searching for a video release, I was able to catch film on TV again, but it was HORRIBLY edited to make it 60 minutes shorter. The film was obviously sped up and many lines and dramatic pauses had been removed, which totally messed up the acting and script. It's hardly worth seeing if it's not the full 3 hour version.