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The picture concerns upon Chinese communists (leader is Martin Benson as general goes berserk and who places atomic bombs) trying to destroy United States via some continued series of underground tunnels , made all the way from China under the Pacific Ocean , but some US Navy soldiers , scientists , military (Kerwin Mathews , Al Mulok , Ed Bishop) and a gorgeous geologist (Vivienne Ventura) discover the scheme and go underground to repel the invaders .

It's a pulp movie of science-fiction genre in which there are noisy action , suspense , intrigue , tension and results to be quite bemusing . The history deals with nasty Chinese people and American patriots who fight strongly to vanquish them . In spite of lack luster and budget is quite agreeable and fun . The plot is almost ridiculous and senseless but it's developed in fast moving and numerous surprises and that's why it is amusing . The movie has precedent in those films of the 30s with Fumanchu (by Sax Rohmer) and Boris Karloff as heinous starring and nearest the series of the 60s (produced by Harry Alan Towers with Christopher Lee as the Chinese baddie) in which the ¨yellow danger¨ was a fearful enemy . The motion picture takes part of a genre which in the 80s attained splendor , thus : ¨Red Dawn¨ (by John Milius with Patrick Swayze) , ¨Invasion USA ¨ (by Joseph Zito with Chuck Norris) and ¨Amerika¨ (by Donald Wyre with Kris Kristofferson) where the communists -Russkies generally- execute invasion on America . Rating : Average but entertaining .

So many opportunities to laugh at this film. Where does one begin? European actors in "yellowface" playing the bad guy renegade Chinese army. (Let's see here -- the bad guy in his lair always has an eccentric pet with him -- okay the guy has a parrot! Check that off the list!)

A film obviously made in Britain pretending to be a Hollywood film, which takes place in Las Vegas (unconvincing cardboard set inside a sound stage, plus some actual second unit stock footage), San Diego (England), Oregon (England again) and Hawaii (more stock footage, plus various underground tunnels (more paper mache sets in a sound stage).

Comically fake nuclear bombs. Laser guns mounted on bulldozers. Giant spinning tape reel computer banks...no wait, those were real at that time.

Bad directing, jump cuts, dropped frames, one establishing shot where the camera drops off the tripod. Awkward staging. Hokey dialog. The whole plot totally ridiculous. Well, it is like a live action comic book. So why should I take any bit of it seriously? Well, the characters seem to be dead serious about the whole enterprise. (That's good. True camp does not work if you give a "nod and a wink" to the audience...though that one scene with the slot machines in the mental hospital was perhaps a bit over the line...)

Yes, fans of The Batman or Green Hornet TV shows of this time period will be right at home here. Plenty of bright primary colors, swish pan transitions, and blaring cool-daddyo-jazz soundtrack. It's all here for the fan of 1960's camp and Cold War pop culture kitsch to treasure as an endemic artifact of its time, the likes of which we may never see again.

Thank goodness.

This a British film attempting to pretend to everyone and fooling no one that it`s a big budget Hollywood movie . It starts with a couple of Las Vegas cops with laughably bad American accents getting a report of a disturbance . Cut to some stock footage of Vegas with the cop car stopping beside a sidewalk that was obviously filmed inside a studio . Every expense has been spared with BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH . Despite being set in the 1960s all the American troops have firearms and wear kit from the second world war while those nasty Chinese commies have death rays that are obviously flash lights , and in order to save on importing Chinese actors we have caucasians playing oriental villains . Why couldn`t they have employed Burt Kwouk ( Kato from THE PINK PANTHER movies ) I ask myself ?

There is some enjoyment to be had from BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH since it`s one of those " So bad it`s good " type films complete with absolutely ridiculous scenes that defy logic such as GIs` being able to defuse atomic bombs and people managing to outrun the blast from a nuclear explosion

"Battle Beneath the Earth" is an enjoyable film. But just because I enjoyed watching it does not mean that it's a particularly good nor intelligently made movie! After all, the plot is utterly ridiculous and the 'Chinese' in the film look about as Chinese as Steven Seagal or Bela Lugosi!

The story begins with a seemingly insane man ranting and raving in Las Vegas about sounds he's hearing beneath the pavement. Eventually, however, they realize that the man should be released from the asylum because there IS something going on under the ground....and it's a Dr. No-like Chinese general who is bent on world domination! Can he be stopped?

As I mentioned above, the Chinese in the film are certainly NOT Chinese but are Brits with Bela Lugosi hairdos and bits of prosthetic material around their eyes to make them look Asian! While the Americans are all played by Brits isn't that badly done, the Chinese in the film were embarrassingly bad. Plus the notion of Chinese folks tunneling from China throughout America....utterly silly and impossible. But despite all this, the film is fun and enjoyable...provided you first turn off your brain!

Claustrophobic, by Nature, Story of a "Chinese" Communist Invasion on America's Homeland by Tunneling.

Driving, Supposedly, Futuristic Sci-Fi Boring Vehicles.

That are Shown as Nothing More than Toy-Trucks Painted in Loud Colors with some "Teeth-Like" Appendages.

Moving at a Whopping 8 MPH and Encountering USA Resistance Once in a While to Slow Them as the Home of the Brave Manage to Invent a Rival, Unimpressive Looking (for Movie Buffs) Toy of Their Own.

The Film Starts with some Levity as a "Crackpot" Scientist with Ear to the Ground on a City Sidewalk Says...

"Listen, they're down there like ants, coming to exterminate us."

Turns Out the "Mad Scientist", who was "Locked-Up" in the "Loony-Bin", is the Only One Who can Invent such a Toy.

Unintentionally Funny Lines Pop-Up like...While Exploring with a Fellow, but Female Researcher, B-Movie Swashbuckler Kerwin Matthews, Stops Mid-Stride to ask...

"So how long have you been researching tunnels?".

Another Guffaw is, During the High-Tension Invasion, Discovering the Enemy, a Military-Man Gets on the Phone and Shouts...

"This is a PRIORITY, DOUBLE-SCRAMBLE THE SIGNAL."

Some Colorful Images as Wall-Paper and an Over-the-Top Comic-Book-James-Bond Megalomaniac, Can't Save the Boredom.

Forgotten Vietnam Conflict Propaganda Picture is Not Worth Remembering.

One of the scenes holds a special place in my memories as the most unintentionally hilarious piece of cinematography I have ever witnessed.

Picture this: The hero is wandering along a discovered tunnel with the leading lady, a geologist. In their travels they come across an obstacle; the passageway is dissected by a lava river level with the passageway. This is excusable, too many films show heroes far far closer to lava than the human body would stand, especially underground. However the female GEOLOGIST is about to step onto the lava, when the hero has to hold her back to stop her saying IIRC "Stop Honey, its hot."

Battle Beneath the Earth is a comic strip, fortunately the bad sets and casting have left it iconic and clean cut enough that it can pass for one in the manner of the 60's Batman series or Thunderbirds. If you choose to accept this you will enjoy the film, if for all the wrong reasons. If you cannot stay the hell away. This film rates one out of ten, but its a very watchable form of awful. In my opinion better than the cult Ed Wood films as it does have a followable plot, however ridiculous it may be.

I knew this movie was going to be silly but I tried to watch it as objectively as possible. In the beginning this still went well but as the movie progressed the story lost more and more credibility, which was not only due to the poor silly story but also due to the poor film-making in general.

The story is not just only silly in terms of its premise but it's also filled with some implausibilities and giant plot holes. Like for instance, why don't the Americans launch a full scale attack after they discovered the Chinese rouge army, that plans to explode nuclear bombs on (or under) American soil? Instead they send about a dozen man, of which some aren't even used to combat situations. And why do the Chinese transport a couple of nuclear bombs without even an escort? The more you start thinking about this movie and its story, the sillier it gets. Perhaps you should try to watch this movie without thinking too much. It's the kind of story material normally used in a simple "Thunderbirds" episode, in which they have to save the world in 20 minutes time.

The story is original and in its core it had potential. However the way everything is brought to the screen is far from impressive or credible. I mean when they basically use giant flashlights for laser-beams, it's hard to take this movie serious. Also throughout the movie they occasionally use multiple sequences multiple times, in some cases even three times the same shot! Due to money or time problems? Anyway, it doesn't do the movie much good.

And why aren't the Chinese main villains being portrayed by Chinese, or even just Asians for that matter. Instead they are now being portrayed by British actors, with make-up, which works far from convincing to say the least. But also the rest of the actors aren't much good. Hard to say if that's entirely their fault, since the characters that they have to play are also far from well developed or even interesting enough to follow.

Guess in a way it's one of those movies that is so bad that it becomes good. The movie still does has its entertaining moments but yet the way the movie is made as a whole makes sure that you can't help to laugh and cringe at this movie.

4/10

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In Las Vegas, a crowd has gathered to watch Arnold Kramer listening to the ground. He hears something like ants crawling beneath them. The cops arrest him as he tells them to talk to Cmdr. Jonathan Shaw. Shaw led a underwater sea research project which collapsed and killed 27 men due to unknown cause. He goes to the asylum to see his Korean war buddy Kramer who has a crazy idea. The Chinese are tunneling under the country to attack us.

It has a fun opening which reminds me of the Radiohead music video. It's a great scene but it's a long slow downhill slide from that point on. The movie really wants to be too big. Getting the military involved is a bad sci-fi move. It's a 50's sci-fi Yellow Peril B-movie and not a good one. It's a silly action film worthy of Flash Gordon. It's a cartoon. Once they got into a tunnel, one could expect that they follow the tunnel back to where-ever in the network. They should be calling for backup and flood the mine with men. It's all non-sense from a sci-fi comic book.

This movie is actually fairly entertaining, but mostly because spotting the continuity errors and absence of logic is so much fun. The concept is interesting, but the script is stunningly dumb. I think it is worth one viewing by fans of C-grade sci-fi, but unless you can turn the film into a drinking game - and you could - that is enough.

I can agree with the various shortcomings of this film although I loved it when I first saw it at a kid's matinée feature. The concept is so like a Bond movie I'm surprised it wasn't used for one. The scheming Chinese General could easily have been Dr. No. The special effects are nominal but serviceable and I'll offer the backhanded compliment that it could have been much worse if it had been an penny-pinching American production.

Anyway, see it for yourself if you dare but it's light fluffy fun from the late 60's when it seemed the viewing public knew nothing of science and could ignore the glaring errors, both scientific and plot-oriented.

Bonus! Ed Bishop of Gerry Anderson fame has a substantial role. Bonus again! The Chinese officers drive around in yellow German Kubelwagens.

Build a time machine and send your enforcement team to 1967. There is ethnic misappropriation on the set!!! 2 stars for goofiness

A classic. Utterly dismal. This film must have been made with the change left over from the first Blair Witch project. The rock wall tunnels practically wobble, truck headlights pretending to be rock boring lasers. Englishmen pretending to be Chinese with silly slant eyes - you know the style seen in every lame 60 or 70's movies - how hard is it to hire real Chinese as actors? If the effects stink they are fragrant compared to the plot. At one point to detect the Chinese tunnels the military orders the US to go silent for Gods sake; like it was a submarine on silent running! The whole things is so bad as to be camply hilarious.

Why couldn't this be about mole men attacking surface dwellers? Once it's revealed, quite early on, that it is Chinese soldiers tunneling under major U.S. cities to plant atomic bombs, I quickly lost interest as not only is this a goofy and delusional plot - we're talking deliriously paranoid stuff here - but it leaves out the fact that even though these Chinese soldiers are supposedly "rogue" the U.S. government would still have immediately declared war on China and we'd be looking at World War Three. I'd have preferred a more comic book science fiction enemy than this ridiculous premise.

"My god, they're everywhere!" Referring to the Chinese, formerly known as the Yellow Peril. I will stay away from the "science" in this sci-fi, though it seems more absurd than the customary mumbo jumbo in this kind of drive-in programmer. Why is the Navy chosen to fight this burrowing menace? The producers apparently had access to a large number of Navy costumes, which is my theory. Why not the Border Patrol? It looks like the Navy had all of its signs made and equipment labeled at the same facility using the same stencils. The explanation is that the Chinese arch-villain can trace ancestry back to the Ming Dynasty, raising the question whether this is Ming's revenge for Flash Gordon. The "yellowface" makeup and caricatures are borderline offensive, even making allowance for the era in which this film was made.

The best thing about this movie is that they require the help of a beautiful, young female geologist and she is absolutely no help. Just an excuse to squeeze an unneeded love story into a less than mediocre movie. You probably shouldn't watch this.

In Battle Beneath The Earth the never ending Communist plot has decided on a new tactic to take over America. They're going to tunnel their way in from Asia. After that it's just planting nuclear bombs in strategic places, military bases, large cities and they blow up a couple and dictate surrender to the survivors. Neat ain't it.

Interestingly enough at the time Battle Beneath The Earth came out it might have found a resonant audience because in the People's Republic Of China the Red Guard phenomenon was getting underway. Mao Tse-Tung turned on a whole lot of his comrades from the 1949 Revolution feeling that they had lost the zeal for change. The young people were those he placed his trust in and his guy for dealing with the old line Communists was a fellow named Lin Piao who met an untimely end a few years later after things really got out of hand.

The Chinese general played by Martin Benson who is doing all this tunneling, a Communist mole in a literal sense of the word could have been based on Lin Piao. But sad to say this film plays like one of those old Fu Manchu stories and those in fact were coming back somewhat with Christopher Lee doing some of those new films as well around the same time as this came out.

Peter Arne is the scientist who discovers the tunnels, something he wanted to work on for the west, but no one would let him. Kerwin Matthews handles the military end of stopping the Commies.

If you're taste runs to Fu Manchu, I suggest you watch the real deal instead of this.

Truly awful, this may be the worst movie I've ever seen. Going in I was hopeful for a "so bad it's good" experience, but even here the film disappoints. The fact the plot is so ridiculous is not the problem, nor is the confusing editing or forgettable acting. The line the film crossed from just plain bad to epically bad is the portrayal of Chinese in the various speaking roles. With only one exception, no speaking role of an Asian character was played by Asians actors. Yet, there are several Asian extras in the cast, but only in non-speaking roles. This would be bad enough, but the make-up and accents used by the non-Asian actors playing Chinese is so extreme in its racial stereotypes as to be grotesque and unwatchable. If you're looking for a "it's so bad it's good" movie, look elsewhere.

This movie classic, from the Golden Age of Sci-Fi films, is a movie to remember. USA vs China, with Jules Verne like settings and the requisite nuclear weaponry that goes with any 60's sci-fi setting.

Definitely worth watching again.

A renegade Chinese General is tunneling beneath America with the intent of bringing about a New World Order by detonating atomic bombs beneath cities. Terrible in all respects, with a ridiculous premise, a bland cast that includes clearly non-Asian 'Chinese' villains and a gratuitous 'pretty-face', music so typical of sixties' detective shows that you expect Mannix or Ironside to show up at any moment, and TV-quality sets, action sequences and special effects. A barely watchable attempt at a 'Bond' clone with insufficient resources, talent, or imagination.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Montgomery Tully; Produced by Charles Reynolds from England for MGM release. Screenplay by Charles Vetter; Photography by Kenneth Talbot; Edited by Sidney Stone; Music by Ken Talbot. Starring: Kerwin Mathews, Viviane Ventura, Roy Ayres, Edward Bishop, Pete Elliott, Peter Arne, Sarah Brackett and Bessie Love.

Fairly straight science fiction film set by the British in an ersatz America where an evil country has created an underground nation which threatens to take over the world, with some stagings reminiscent of the "Dr. No" type of sci-fi intrigue "one man against the heavies" genre.