ATOMIC SUBMARINE (1959)

ATOMIC SUBMARINE (1959)

Tagline: The Screen's Spectacular Inferno of the Battle for Civilization!

(Sci-Fi, Thriller, Cyclops) [G]

Note: This movie never got an MPAA rating, but it definitely would have been a [G].

Try to remember, you’re not going out to rehearse a water ballet. We need a damage report. 

In this one, we are taken to the hardly distant future of 1968 where lots of ships and planes are transporting things across the North Pole. The problem is that a lot of these ships and planes are disappearing and the United States has had enough. They decide to take on whatever the underwater threat is in a retrofitted nuclear submarine called the “Tigershark”. It doesn’t take long before the crew realizes what they are about to face is like nothing mankind has encountered before.

First off, one major issue I have with this damn thing is the ridiculous overuse of stock footage. If you are going to go with that much stock footage, then you “already” have a reference to base your model submarine on. This film crew didn’t bother with any of that. The “Tigershark” seems like it ends up getting 4 or 5 different looks in a 72-minute movie. 

The odd changes in the submarine being different so often isn’t the only issue here. This movie is loaded with tedious dialog and a very weak subplot (pun intended) between Reef and Dr. Carl Neilson Jr. For me this was pretty crazy to watch because the main plot was actually pretty freakin cool. I get adding some human drama into the story, but the subplot I mentioned just seemed like it belonged in a completely different movie. The writing especially towards the end of the film is sadly and bizarrely bad. We also have at least one crazy scene where there is stock footage of a dude just cooking? I guess it may have been provided by the military for the film, but it makes absolutely zero sense that it made it into this thing. On top of all this, there are several scenes where it doesn’t appear that the submarine is even underwater when we are clearly being told it is. The effects are just pretty shaky when it comes to the submarine itself. 

Acting wise the cast is just very wooden. I am not sure if this was a directing decision, but it’s a rough watch most of the way. Arthur Franz who plays Lt. Cmdr. Richard 'Reef' Holloway is a great actor normally, but this was just a rough one for him. Franz by the way was no stranger to sci-fi flicks. He was also in both MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS and FLIGHT TO MARS and more. We also get Brett Halsey who plays Dr. Carl Neilson Jr. and if anyone showed a little range it’s him. I will say that though I personally disagree with a lot of Dr. Carl Neilson as a character, he was actually one of the most likable characters in this movie. Halsey was in the sci-fi classics REVENGE OF THE CREATURE and RETURN OF THE FLY. Joi Lansing who plays Julie was also in this is decent, but her role is cut so short she wasn’t really given a chance to shine in this one. Her other big sci-fi flick from the 1950s was QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE, but she doesn’t get a lot of screen time in that either. 

What this movie does right is taking a couple of tried and true sci-fi ideas and turning them on their heads. Even to this day movies like NOPE seemingly are influenced by this movie’s take on “saucers”. I don’t want to give too much away if you haven’t seen this, but the two movies have one major element in common.  I also loved the backstory for the “foe” in this movie. The fact that they tied it all into Greek mythology was a highlight for me. I also really liked the “cyclops” design. I will just leave that at that. 

Overall I feel confident giving this movie a middle-of-the-road score because it took some guts for them to go in this direction. I guess some of the previews for the movie really downplayed the sci-fi element of the film. I think this was a huge mistake because when it comes to “ideas” this movie swings for the fences. It’s a downer that it was so poorly executed. This one is a 4 out of 7, but it could have easily been a 6 or 7 just on the premise alone. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF GORHAM PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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