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.

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.

This is a TRUE Irwin Allen classic!! a underwater city that can fight off hazards from outer space, handle dangerous unstable nuclear material, store all the gold from Fort Knox, and has a man who can breathe, and talk underwater, who helps deal with sabotage, and a major gold theft!! WOW!!!!,but WOW!!!! Stuart Whitman makes a great city leader!!, Robert Colbert[Doug Philips of TIME TUNNEL fame] makes wonderful second in command!!, Richard Basehart[ADM Nelson of Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea] as President[I would have voted him for the OVAL OFFICE!!], and Robert Wagner was a absolutely great villain!! I even liked the props especially the FLYING SUB[from Voyage To The Bottom Of The SEA]!! Yes Mr. Allen outdid himself on this one!! I am sorry that this movie did not become a series, either as a T.V. series or a movie series, either one would have been THE greatest series of all time!!! However I do feel that this movie should be released for DVD video because I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A COPY OF MY OWN THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Disaster maestro Irwin Allen is the old hand behind CITY BENEATH THE SEA, a TV movie that happily recycles many of the props, sets and scenarios from Allen's various TV productions. It's a slight tale, starring Stuart Whitman as a man who travels to the bottom of the sea where he must protect an underwater kingdom from robbers and an incoming asteroid.

This is pure hokum, of course, but not without charm. The late '60s-era special effects have to be seen to be believed, they're that cheesy, but the film as a whole isn't bad. Allen ropes in many old faces for cameo appearances, including the likes of Whit Bissell and Joseph Cotten, and he can't resist incorporating some 'doomsday' disaster scenarios into the storyline. Add in the requisite fist fights and underwater diving shots and you have an incredibly dated but nonetheless fun little TV movie.

This is Irwin Allen at his Irwin Allen-est. This whole show while entertaining is a recycling of a failed pilot and a bevy of canceled sci-fi series.

The failed pilot starred Glen Corbett and Lloyd Bochner. This was made in 1967. The TV movie came out in 1971.

The first thing you notice in the movie is the Flying Sub from "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". The next thing is Robert Colbert from "The Time Tunnel". Looking closely at Pacifica, this city beneath the sea, you will see the Jupiter II from "Lost in Space" as a dome sitting on top of a tower. The submarine "Seaview" is seen prowling the depths of the underwater streets of the city. Later we see Richard Basehart as the President of the US (VTBOS), Whit Bissel (TT) and Jame Darren as a scientist(TT). And the props -- computers, laser guns, radios, video telephones -- all recycled from his series from the '60s. The sound effects are familiar ones. The costumes are too.

Some throw away cameos were added -- boxer Sugar Ray Robinson and veteran actor Joseph Cotten (he was in "Citizen Kane" for god's sake). Even Edward G. Robinson's son is added for good measure.

The plot is cross between "Armageddon" (an asteroid is headed toward impact on the earth) and "Ocean's 11" (a heist of the vault containing the US's Fort Knox gold reserve and the "highly fissionable H128"). It is fairly pedestrian. The fun in this movie is seeing all of Irwin's old shows being brought back in some form. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants were all canceled by the time this movie came out. Watch this one if you can find it.