U-112 assalto al Queen Mary

Frank Sinatra starred in two memorable heist movies in the 1960s. The first was Ocean's Eleven (1960), which brought the Rat Pack together for a film that Sinatra is said to have remarked "Forget the movie. Let's do the heist!"

The second was sci-fi writer Jack Finney's Assault on a Queen (1966). Despite its mediocre rating here on IMDb, it's actually a fascinating film marred only by rather cheap special effects (Sinatra's diving scenes look like they were shot in a backyard pool) and the sometimes ridiculous Rod Serling script. "She's so deep in my gut we breathe together" is the worst line, and one that Sinatra must have needed more than a few drinks to articulate.

Meanwhile, Virna Lisi appears as little more than eye candy in the film, and Anthony Franciosa's character is rather repugnant and oily. However, there are some good scenes with Sinatra and fellow Rat Pack member Richard Conte, and the movie would have benefited greatly if their two characters had been given more time together.

It's definitely worth watching, and Sinatra's acting is great as usual despite the weak script.

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.

This is an underrated heist film from the sixties, which was the decade for the genre. This one is totally unlikely, crazy, but not a comedy, not like ITALIAN JOB, BIGGEST BUNDLE OF THEM ALL, SEVEN GOLDEN MEN; it should be on the contrary be compared to GRAND SLAM. Yes, a totally unbelievable but not charmless, purely sixties movie which could be some kind of OCEAN' S ELEVEN rip-off, and not only because Richard Conte and Frank Sinatra's presence too. Be careful to the music score and overall atmosphere again. Forever lost sixties. Cool crime thriller but without being a comedy. I read the Jack Finney's book and prefered the book.

This movie has some heavyweight names among its writing team .The script is by Rod Serling -he of The Twilight Zone fame-and it is based on a novel by Jack Finney ,whose book Invasion of the Body Snatchers has given rise to some fine movies.This is probably the most mainstream movie they have been associated with -and a pretty poor one it is too.

Sinatra had made a big hit with the caper movie Ocean's 11 and probably assumed another heist movie would ring the box office chimes too .Sadly ,this movie lacks even 10% of the qualities that made the earlier picture so successful -plausibility, a good support cast and a decent director The Queen of the title is the Queen Mary and Sinatra and his gang -Richard Conte ,Tony Franciosa ,Virni Lisi and Alf Kjellin plan to rob it and steal the money ,jewels etc of its well heeled passengers .The heist involves first raising a U-Boat once commanded by Kjellin from the bottom of the sea and then using it to board the liner

The acting -Kjellin apart -is dire ,the direction by Jack Donahue is so anonymous as to be non-existent and the whole enterprise is dead in the water . It is likely to interest Sinatra lovers ,sea movie nuts and Anglo-phobes while others -especially those in search of entertainment -are advised to look elsewhere

Assault on a Queen offers an intriguing, albeit far-fetched, caper on the high seas. To say "far-fetched" is a bit of an understatement really. Clearly all of the scenes underwater were shot in a pool (you can clearly see the sides of the pool). In addition, the scenes towards the end of the film are almost laughable. Still, since this film was not filmed with our modern technology, its understandable that some of these features are not up to snuff. However, there are far too many holes in the plot to make up for the lack of sophisticated filming. From the timetables used by the crew to the strategies to the final scene everything is just too hard to believe. The acting does not enhance the film either, making each character a bit predictable and wooden.

Pros: Incredibly interesting narrative idea. Cons: Tired acting, unbelievable plot and low quality stunts. 5/10.