Überfall auf die Queen Mary

First of all, this poster for this movie is incredible. One of my all time favorites. This movie was really hard to find until recently (just came out on blu-ray April 2012) so years ago I found an old paperback of the Jack Finney novel and read it. Loved the story. Then, finally, I was able to see the movie ... disappointing. My biggest complaint is the direction: absolutely flaccid, dull and without any creativity. Not surprisingly the director, Jack Donohue, was a hack TV director almost his entire career and only directed a handful of movies - none of them good. And so Assault on a Queen feels soooo slow when it really should be fast paced and have high energy. The great Rod Serling wrote the script from a fun novel, so I'm not going to blame the writing. And the acting was fine too. The only other problem was the music: poorly used and sparse and never seemed appropriate for the scene. I suppose I can blame the director for this too since he'd be the one overseeing where it was used.

Anyway, worth watching for fans of 60s heist movies. I like it, but wish it were better.

Nothing special about this one..Sinatra doing his usual under-acting, but Anthony Franciosa is usually interesting, and Virna Lisi is one of the great Italian beauties of the 1960's. Alf Kjellin and Richard Conte are decent actors, but this one drags about half the time. A 5 out of 10.Best performance = Mr. Franciosa.

Films like this were common in the mid-60's and Sinatra never seemed to have a clue. Sorry Frank! Anything with Virna Lisi as the main female is always worth checking out. Simply gorgeous with intelligence and a great voice. There's not much else to recommend it and there are no surprises.

The former Navy military and friends Mark Brittain (Frank Sinatra) and Linc Langley (Errol John) are hired by the treasure hunters Vic Rossiter (Anthony Franciosa), Rosa Lucchesi (Virna Lisi) and Eric Lauffnauer (Alf Kjellin) to dive seeking a sank boat with a treasure. Mark finds a World War II German submarine instead and they decide to recover the submarine to heist the Queen Mary. The mechanic Tony Moreno (Richard Conte) joins the team and they use the submarine that is partially sailing to lure the Captain of the Queen Mary to steal the safe. Will their plan work?

"Assault on a Queen" is an adventure with a silly premise. The idea of recovering a submarine after twenty years sank in sea waters is stupid and practically impossible. Sailing an old submarine with a small unexperienced crew is also terrible. Last but not the least, the lack of chemistry between Frank Sinatra and Virna Lisi destroys any chance of a successful romantic pair. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Assalto a um Transatlântico" ("Assault on a Transatlantic")

This movie is the perfect entertainment for everyone who likes either ships, U-Boats and/or Frank Sinatra... Although the main story is nothing but a fantasy plot, the movie works out pretty well. Mainly because of Franky's outstanding performance and some interesting dialogue. Don't miss the 'crushing' climax...

This 'start studded' seawater heist is a clapped together Paramount pantomime with terrible studio scenes apparently pretending to be inside a submarine and some deck bound extra shots on the real Queen Mary. the last 40 minutes of the film are just stupefying with the sort of Navy surplus store fittings not seen on screen since THE QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE tried to fool us with hardware store bunks and pipes. Frank Sinatra gives his usual one note acting performance, and the hilarious scenes where their toy submarine apparently gets stuck under the Queen Mary allows the sedated viewer to see the bottom of the swimming pool in which they are filmed. One scene at the end where the Coast Guard ship is supposed to ram the submarine is, incredulously, filmed in the studio using a screen of the ship bow, a bucket of water flung across the set and then the cardboard conning tower is pushed over. Virna Lisi is hilarious as she totters about the submarine, gasping and hold in on for dear life. If you had paid for a ticket to this in any year you'd want a refund or a good look at Ms Lisi's treasure chest at least.