La cité sous la mer

I noticed another reviewer gave this one a score of 1. I do not understand this. While few would consider "City Beneath the Sea" a great film, it certainly is a modestly enjoyable one.

Two deep sea divers, Brad (Robert Ryan) and Tony (Anthony Quinn), arrive in Jamaica dive for the Fornby Company. Apparently, one of their ships sank and it was filled with gold...so no wonder they'd employ a could divers to look for it. However, they don't know that the rep from the company is a crook...and he has a nasty partner. Their plan is to send Brad and Tony to the wrong area...and return later themselves to get the gold. Not surprisingly, this is very dangerous stuff.

While the dives were undoubtedly filmed in a pool at the Universal lot, the diving scenes looked pretty good and there were no goofy sea monsters or giant squids or octopi (like in "Reap the Wild Wind"). Additionally, while the story is light and not especially memorable, it is a decent time-passer. Not a perfect or excellent film by any standard, it still is reasonably entertaining and worth a look.

City Beneath the Sea came on BBC2 one Saturday afternoon some years ago and I was pleased I taped it. This has never been released on video so I was glad I kept this TV copy.

Two divers come to Jamaca to recover some gold on a sunken ship off the coast. One evening, they visit a club and meet two girls and both subsequently fall in love with them. Rivalry then breaks out between the two men over who will keep the gold when retrieved. The ship sunk near the ruins of an underwater city (not Atlantis) and the locals are against the men recovering the gold because the city is one of their tabu's. Not surprisingly, danger looms when the city collapses as a result of an undersea earthquake, trapping one of the divers. He is rescued by his mate and neither of them get the gold in the end.

Despite being a bow budget movie, the underwater scenes in City Beneath the Sea are not that bad.

The cast includes Robert Ryan and Anthony Quinn as the divers and Mala Powers and Susan Ball as the love interests. This also stars George Mathews and Woody Strode.

Watching this movie is a good way to spend just under 90 minutes one afternoon or evening. Very enjoyable.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

Universal-International studios. Two tough American buddies (Robert Ryan, Anthony Quinn). Sunken treasure off the Caribbean. Plots about scuttled ships and sunken gold. A thuggish sea-captain. Giant squids. A set-piece bar-room brawl. Even voodoo drums. Tacky colour. You can almost picture the lurid cover of the 10-cent paperback novel the film was based on. All that's lacking is a real femme fatale.

Bud Boetticher was a cult director in the Don Siegel/Sam Fuller vein, later acclaimed for the series of sparse but superb western quickies he made in the late 1950s with actor Randolph Scott (Ride Lonesome, The Tall T, Westbound, etc).

Irresistible and well made.

This movie is pretty run of the mill under water sea adventure stuff , very typical of the era .The best scene however is in the tropical bar.Who ever chose or built the set did a great job.The bamboo theme, national geographic erotica style is unfortunately a thing of the past.Why the hell can't we have really cool bars like this to go to .At least a half decent joint where you can throw on a pair of old service chinos and a cool hawaiian shirt, drink rum colas and check out the dames!If anybody knows places like this let me know!

There were batches of underwater adventure movies in Hollywood besides this one: BENEATH THE 12 MILES REEF, UNDERWATER, SHARKFIGHTERS.... This one directed by Budd Boetticher for his Universal Studios contract period is very enchanted, full of color and helped by a strong cast with the likes of Robert Ryan and Anthony Quinn. Paramount Studios could have produced this plot, typical of the studio, where we could have found for instance John Payne and Rhonda Fleming. But this one is perfect for gem diggers and interested in those fifties adventures movies, so full of charm, no matter the story and implausibilities.