User reviews

Underwater was allegedly set in Cuba, but actually photographed on the Kona Coast of Hawaii, was the last time that Jane Russell worked for Howard Hughes. The mysterious industrialist would shortly be getting rid of RKO Studios and RKO itself would shortly go Underwater after that.

The site of Jane Russell even in a conservative one piece bathing suit was enough to delight the male members of the audience with those twin weapons of mass destruction Jane sported. But if you got around to listening to Jane she drifted in and out of an atrocious Spanish accent. There was no reason to cast her as Hispanic so why she was will remain a mystery.

Like his aerial films Howard Hughes took some really good care with the lavish Underwater photography and it remains the best feature of Underwater, even though the stuff photographed on Kona was supplemented by scenes done in a large tank.

All that though just to tell a rather routine tale of four treasure hunters, Jane Russell, Richard Egan, Gilbert Roland, and Lori Nelson who hunt for and discover an ancient Spanish Galleon loaded with gold bars. But also on board is a solid gold larger than life size statue of Jesus also adorned in jewels that was lost at sea to the Roman Catholic Church. Along for the ride is Jesuit scholar Robert Keith.

The four and Keith also run afoul of shark hunters/smugglers/pirates led by Joseph Calleia. How the plot resolves itself frankly borders on the ridiculous.

But the Underwater photography and the Jane photography make Underwater worthwhile viewing.

Howard Hughes was a producer that had a lot of talent for discovering beautiful women that went on to have better careers with other vehicles than the ones he decided to create for them. That seems to be the case of this John Sturges' 1955 film "Underwater!" in which the curvaceous Jane Russell starred for the last time for Howard Hughes.

The film is a curious one. We are introduced to Johnny and Dominic, two underwater divers who are searching for those sunken ships in the Caribbean, especially this one, not too far from Cuba. As they stumble into the old Spanish galleon, they find a man that appears to be a sort of pirate awaiting for them because it's obvious they are after those treasures.

As Johnny and Dominic go back to Cuba, we are introduced to Theresa, Johnny's wife, who is dead set against spending money chasing his dreams. But when Dominic meets Gloria, by chance, she tells him about the yacht she has been left with by a departing old flame. So the four friends, and a priest who knows about those sunk ships, go in search of the riches trapped underwater.

The film doesn't bring anything new to this film genre. In fact, it's pretty tame stuff we see in a predictable story we know how it will end. The best reward for the viewers of "Underwater" is the beautiful Jane Russell at her best. She was one of the sultriest women working in films during those days. The problem is the male stars who give by the numbers performances. Joseph Calleia is the only one that shows any spunk as the man who wants the riches from under the sea.

Screened recently in national television in Australia, and on a Saturday afternoon so all 19 million of us could goggle at it in the daytime, the press release for the TV week magazine exclaimed: No Sunken treasure for Gilbert Roland, but oh boy, check Jane's sea Chest!.....now how could anyone miss that. Not ever seen in 3D here we have had to make do with that. Snazzy cossies and bubbling romance, this sensational lung stretcher cost as much as A STAR IS BORN but hasn't endured like Judy did. Jane is as gorgeous as ever and the film is fish tank pretty. Watch it and love it. No wonder poor RKO went bust too.

I enjoy this movie very much and try to watch it periodically. As someone who took up SCUBA diving the year before this movie was made, I'd like to call attention to the fact that it is the first full length feature movie in which SCUBA was used. In fact, it was so early in the development of equipment that the tanks that they were using were smaller than the 72 cubic foot tanks that became standard for steel tanks.(There were other sizes.) Also, note the two hose regulators that are all but obsolete, the early flipper designs, and the primitive back packs. To some, the story may seem a little corny, but so were early aviation pictures and early submarine pictures. This considered, I think that the movie deserves look.

This was the first film seen in theaters as a widescreen presentation in Finland in the fifties. So much for the film history, because the video version I saw was in 1.33:1 format leaving a lot of the visual underwater spectaculars out of the picture. Not that it might have helped much the otherwise lackluster presentation. The underwater photography of scavenging a sunken treasure does look great and very well done for its time. But above the surface there are the all too static scenes made in a studio with painted skies and wind machines. The dialog and acting are stiff and more like posing instead of running smoothly along the story. Not that the plot is much of a help either. A bit more care for the script would have been needed for a working balance next to the well executed underwater scenes and such ambitious plans for marketing tricks like underwater screenings with aqualungs for the press. The whole story is very slow moving and largely without excitement until the final fifteen minutes. Only then is the movie finally able to fill some of the expectations that have been promised all along with claustrophobic mood, shark danger and Jane Russell stuck in a favorable position in open red swimming suit. John Sturges was usually a very capable director, but this time his skills have probably been too tied under the command of the producer Howard Hughes. I'm sure they didn't really mean the whole movie to sink like that.

**MINOR SPOILERS** Midly entertaining sunken treasure adventure movie that's only kept afloat by it's star Jane Russell, Theresa Gray, who's constantly competing in the movie with the breath-taking Caribbean scenery off the coast of Cuba. Finding some underwater artifacts that suggest their from a Spanish Man of War it's decided by the sunken-ship treasure hunters Johnny & Dom, Richard Egan & Gilbert Roland, to get a bigger boat to go back out at sea to recover the hundreds of gold bars and box-loads of priceless gems submerged there.

It takes a while for Johnny to first get his wife Thereas to go along with his, what seemed to her, water logged plan. It's then that Lady Luck struck him and Dom when looking to rent a 50 foot boat from this guy Robinson they finds that he checked out of town and left his boat over to his totally land-locked minded young secretary Gloria, Lori Nelson, who's more then willing to let the two treasure hunters use it.

There's a number of unexpected event happen to the quintet with a local padre Father Cannon ,Robert Keith, coming on board who's only interested in recovering a life size solid gold Virgin Mary statue studded with diamonds to be returned to her rightful owners in the little church in Panama where she originally came from. Later there's this boat-load of shark hunters headed by the scuzzy-looking Rico, Joseph Caileia,looking for garbage from John's boat to use as bait to attract the underwater predators. Rico smells a rat, or a gold bar, when John tells him he and Dom are only looking for underwater rocks to be studied by the professors and students at Havana University.

The movie "Underwater" comes to it's very predictable conclusion when after reaching the underwater sunken treasure site Johnny is left by himself with Dom suffering from the bends. It's then when we finally get to see Theresa or actress Jane Russell, who we earlier briefly saw in a swimsuit, put on her bathing suit and dive underwater to help and possible save her husband, Johnny, from either drowning or getting eaten up by sharks. Theresa for all her efforts gets stuck in the sunken ships wreckage where we then have Johnny making it back to the boat to get her an extra oxygen tank. You wonder why all this was really necessary when Theresa has those two giant natural air supply tanks that can easily keep Theresa breathing for at least a week!

With Johnny and Theresa as well as Dom who heroically came to both their aid, risking his life doing it, back on the boat their again confronted by the shark-hunters who were disarmed and left on shore by Johnny & Dom just a while earlier. We then have another boring battle between them and Johnny & Dom which ends with everybody shaking hands and becoming friends> This happens when one of the shark hunters got very religious, which quickly affected the rest of his crew-mates, over the the fact that all this violence was over a golden statue of the Virgin Mary the mother of the Prince of Peace!

Nothing that you wouldn't expect or want in a movie like "Underwater", except hoping to see a lot more of Jane Russell in a tight swimsuit, with a happy ending without anyone in the film getting killed. With the most seriously injury among the cast being that they got a bit wet under and between the ears and,in the case of Dom, a very bad case of the Caribbean cramps.

The scuba diver partners Dominic Quesada (Gilbert Roland) and Johnny Gray (Richard Egan) are treasure hunters that are seeking for sunken treasures in the Caribean waters. When they find evidences of the Seventeenth Century galleon Santo Bello in the bottom of the sea, they raise money and an adequate boat and they sail to the spot with Johnny's wife Theresa Gray (Jane Russell), the boat's owner Gloria (Lori Nelson) and Father Cannon (Robert Keith), who is an archaeologist, to recover the treasure.

They find the galleon located in a dangerous location on the edge of a cliff and they use a winch to try to hold it in position. Meanwhile they feel threatened by greedy shark hunters but they leave them in an island. When Theresa is trapped in the debris of the sunken vessel, Johnny and Dominic have difficulties to rescue her. But when they return to they vessel, they have a surprise.

"Underwater!" is a naive popcorn movie with a great adventure of treasure hunters. The attractions of this film are basically the underwater filming and Jane Russell, but it is entertaining in a rainy afternoon on DVD. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Alforje do Diabo" ("The Devil's Saddlebag")

Skin-divers Richard Egan and Gilbert Roland scour the depths of the Caribbean looking for treasure; they eventually find it buried under the sea with the wreck of a sunken ship (teetering on the edge of an underwater cliff). Howard Hughes-produced adventure from R.K.O. unevenly divides its time between on-location footage and studio shots (occasionally occupying the same scene) for a strangely dislocating visual experience. Jane Russell received top billing playing Egan's wife, and she's not bad except that her accent (perhaps laid on for a colorful, comical effect) slips in and out of Frito Bandito territory. The cast looks great in their swim-wear, but the story is without much suspense. *1/2 from ****

Leonard Maltin got this one right, I'm afraid. It's standard fare all the way through. Richard Egan and Gilbert Roland searching for lost treasure don't create much excitement, even with Jane Russell and Lori Nelson along for the ride. Ms. Russell briefly displays a Latin accent which goes in and out, mostly out. If you could never get enough of the old TV series 'Sea Hunt' this might be your thing but otherwise it's strictly take it or leave it.

Why is this film never shown --even on Turner Classics-- in its original aspect ratio? I believe it was the first RKO widescreen film. The pan and scan version makes all the underwater photography look murky and that had been the movie's big allure, along with Jane Russell of course. But I have noticed, especially on Fox Movie Channel, that some widescreen films are never shown in widescreen. Others are. Perhaps the original prints are rotting in a can somewhere. SKY DIVERS, a movie with James Coburn and filmed in Greece is another example of one never shown in all its original glory. Both of these films' experience would be greatly enhanced by full view of the scenery.

I purchased the recent Blu Ray release version of this film and I was pleasantly surprised by the exceptional picture quality of both the colorization and sound of Underwater! Heck, who doesn't like an adventure film about buried treasure on a sunken ship with sharks swimming around nearby of both the mammal and human persuasion. I really enjoyed this 1955 film for many reasons. First the story of a ship that got caught in a storm a century ago with gold bullion on board is sunk and lost forever, or so everyone thought.

Then two adventurous men (Richard Egan and Gilbert Roland) , their two attractive women (Jane Russel and Lori Nelson) and a priest (Robert Keith) sign up for the adventure of their lifetime to find and recover this buried treasure. The priest's mission is not for the greed of gold but because there are some religious solid gold artifacts that were also rumored to be aboard this sunken ship.

And so their adventure turns real when the abandoned and tattered ship is discovered hanging precariously off the top of an underwater reef and if disturbed, could fall many fathoms deeper into the bottom of the sea bed too deep for men to swim without dying from the bends.

Of course while the two deep sea divers are in the middle of bringing up the ships treasure they are interrupted by some human sharks who want to steal the treasures after the danger of the deep sea dive is over and the treasures are brought on board their ship. It is quite an adventure and as I said the picture and sound quality are superb for a 1955 film and only enhanced by the attractiveness of both Jane Russell and Lori Nelson. The women viewers will also enjoy the two divers/actors Richard Egan and Gilbert Roland in their tighty whities throughout their underwater dives.

It's a film classic that should be shown on stations such as Turner Classic Films more often in all its glorious color for adventurous film buffs to watch and enjoy over and over.

I give this 1955 adventure film classic a superb 8 out of 10 rating

Another movie vehicle to Jane Russell under Howard Hughes's orders on RKO Pictures, how he discovers her in dental office and took her to stardom, our luck, otherwise we never know about the tallest woman with gorgeous legs bared largely in "Underwater" picture, in so many breathtaking sequences, also in her radiance of beauty.

Sad it was a small endeavor for Jane working in low budge movie also with secondary casting aside the director John Sturges, all others members as Gibert Roland, Richard Egan and Lori Nelson weren't in the level of Jane Russell obviously, the picture wasn't properly memorable even so not devoid of interest in a underwater classic adventure at Caribbean sea where two former US Navy's buddies as scuba divers, meeting again to hunt a treasure on shipwrecked Spanish voiliers, the storyteller Dominic Quesada (Gilbert Roland) tries convince Johnny Gray (Richard Egan) about a supposed treasure from Spain naval empire that sunk somewhere in those nearby sea.

Nonetheless his old pal Johnny is freshly married with eye-candy Theresa Gray (Jane Russell) that doesn't approve sell their boat to invest in this undertaking doomed to failure, however the dogged Dominic got a sailboat from the Gloria (Lori Nelson), Johnny and Theresa end up agreeing with such crazy endeavor, promptly advised by a historian Priest Cannon (Robert Keith) sailing toward where a possible route which the Spanish sailing ship sunk, they find the old wooden vessel nearby underwater cliff, a very dangerous place, thus the next step is certifies that is dealing with "Santo Bello" Spanish galleon really which the old story contains the "Madonna of gold" inside and gold bars, the matter wasn't how they recover the treasure, because there are sharks around...

Underwater was the last movie for Howard Hughes to soar highest fliers in forthcoming best projects aftermaths, Jane Russell survives out of range of Hughes's hands and made so many unforgettable pictures with those legs and magnificent breasts that later named a twin peaks at Alaska.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2011 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.

Originally, I watched this on televison during the Renaissance in B&W, and was quick to dismiss it. Watched it recently in TCM and liked it - a lot. Brilliant technicolor print with vivid underwater scenes. Russell and Egan made a great team. They have great onscreen chemistry. WATCH THIS ONE IN COLOR ONLY!

I want to start by saying I watched this on blu ray and I would recommend that to anyone who wants to give this film a shot. It's probably the best this picture has looked since it was released. The image quality really elevates the whole experience. The first time I saw this was on TCM years and years ago. I was pretty bored. I was still a little bored this time but during the lulls, the pretty images kept me interested.

There's two reasons to see this movie: Jane Russell in a bathing suit and underwater treasure hunting. When the movie delivers on either of these things, it's a thrill worth your time. Unfortunately this film is way too long and gives us entirely too little of at least one of the two things I mentioned above. The first forty-five minutes or so should have been cut significantly. As it is, things plod along at a snail's pace before it gets good. The cast is likable enough, with Gilbert Roland and Joseph Calleia standouts. Jane Russell is, of course, a stunner and makes the most of a thin part. Richard Egan is cardboard but inoffensively so.

The underwater scenes are exciting for the time and still hold up well in a Flipper sort of way. Don't expect too much and be prepared to use your fast forward button for the talky parts, and I think you'll enjoy this one well enough. Definitely see it in HD though, if nothing else than for beautiful Jane Russell.

Johnny Gray, his wife Teresa, his friend Dominic Quesada and Dominic's girlfriend Gloria (who just happens to own a boat) are on a diving expedition off the coast of Cuba, searching for sunken treasure. (Teresa is supposed to be Cuban, and some of her dialogue is in Spanish, but Jane Russell does not attempt a foreign accent in her English-language dialogue). In particular, they have dreams of finding a 17th century ship containing a life size solid gold Madonna with precious jewels. They realise, however, that even after they have found the wreck, they will have to face many perils before they can recover the treasure. They also discover that they face competition from a group of local shark fisherman who are suspicious about their activities and who refuse to be fobbed off with their story that they are merely geologists collecting samples.

The film was directed by John Sturges, a director whose work could vary in quality but who at his best was responsible for some of the great classics of the fifties and sixties such as "Bad Day at Black Rock", "Gunfight at the OK Corral" and "The Great Escape". "Underwater!" is not really in the same class as any of those great films. One of its main weaknesses is the casting of Richard Egan, a rather stiff actor more notable for his impressive physique than for his acting talents, in the leading role of Johnny. As Johnny is a complex character, not a mere action hero, the film would have been better with a stronger actor in this part. The rest of the cast are rather better, although I suspect that a lot of the film's appeal, at least for male viewers, was the chance to see Jane Russell showing off her own equally impressive physique in a swimsuit.

Overall, however, "Underwater!" holds up pretty well today. On one level it is an exciting adventure story, in which the treasure-hunters have to battle sharks, moray eels and other underwater dangers. (In this respect it is far superior to something like "The Deep" which attempted to tell a roughly similar story some two decades later). A film shot underwater must have been something new and original in 1955; these scenes were not actually shot under the sea but in a specially constructed tank. On another level, however, it is a parable along the lines of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" about what gold can do to men's souls, although it does not have quite the dramatic power of John Huston's masterpiece and lacks its tragic ending. Johnny becomes obsessed with the quest for the statue to such an extent that he is quite prepared to sacrifice his own life, or the lives of his companions, to find it. In the conflict with the fishermen it is Johnny who is the aggressor. It is notable that the cast includes a Catholic priest who acts as a sort of moral compass for the rest. These two layers of meaning help to keep the film watchable nearly sixty years after it was made. A bonus is the attractive musical score based around the popular hit tune "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White". 6/10

Underwater is a soggy adventure story with personable characters, little tension or plot and some nice underwater photography in colour even though some of the underwater scenes go on for too long. At the time such scenes would had been a gimmick.

Johnny Gray (Richard Egan) and his Cuban business partner Dominic Quesada (Gilbert Roland) think they have made a discovery of a valuable wreck although Dominic might had sugared the pill a little. They pretend to be scientists collecting rocks to a nosy shark hunter to put him off the scent.

They get some funds, equipment and a boat together and return this time with Johnny's wife Theresa (Jane Russell) Gloria (Lori Nelson) and a knowledgeable priest Father Cannon (Robert Keith) who thinks that the boat they discovered escorted a bigger ship carrying a valuable religious artefact which sank.

As they look for the treasure Johnny and Dominic know that they need to keep one step ahead of the nosy shark hunter and his crew who are always nearby in shark infested waters.

The film really is by the numbers, in fact it is padded with the underwater scenes and Jane Russell in various bathing suits. The soundtrack features music to the song 'Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White.'

Egan is wooden, Roland is charismatic. Russell and Nelson are easy on the eye.

The story wasn't the deepest, but I was glamoured by the handsome cast and the phenomenal underwater footage in this film that includes sea turtles and sharks. This is a Howard Hughes film that really promoted Jane Russell in a bikini at the time of it's release. While Jane Russell is very lovely as Theresa Gray, as a woman you might image that not being a big draw.

The big surprise for me in this film was Mexican-American actor Gilbert Roland who played Dominic with his suave scarves and jaunty hat, followed very closely by the handsome Richard Eagan who played Johnny Gray.

The film was directed by John Sturges and follows two treasure hunters who find a potential shipwreck that may have been carrying gold and return from Cuba with a ship provided by its owner the lovely Gloria (Lori Nelson), a priest Father Cannon (Robert Keith) who has knowledge of the wreck and the religious idol on board, and Johnny Gray's new (one year) wife Theresa.

I wasn't sure since they were living in Cuba and she knew Dominic since her birth if Theresa was supposed to be Mexican or Cuban...but I appreciated the liberal use of Spanish throughout the film particularly by Dominic and Theresa, but including shark hunters, waiters, band members etc.

The film was beautifully shot on location in Hawaii and Florida with a great "sleigh" used for the divers to be pulled along underwater looking for underwater shipwrecks. Great tropical costumes (including bathing suits....lots of bathing suits). Surprisingly the thing I liked the most was the relationship between husband and wife. Theresa is initially reluctant to agree to Johnny going...gold or not and they have this wonderful conversation about how their marriage is still new enough that they are virtually strangers and how will they get to know one another if they aren't honest with each other(I.e. He needed to tell her how badly he wanted to go).

The film is partially narrated...but it's the visuals that will really win you over. Great film for the summer and containing a sinister group of Mexican shark hunters...along with some sharks making it appropriate for TCM's and anyone's shark week.

SYNOPSIS: Two couples search for sunken gold in the Caribbean in the mid-1950s

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Escapism. I suppose that once you graduated from Beach Blanket Bingo and started drinking rum and coke instead of Soda Pop Ricky's, you started watching films such as this. More of a travelogue for snow bound Midwesterners in Detroit and Minot, it shows a lot of tropical settings and Jane Russell.

PROS AND CONS: This isn't a great film, but it is an interesting window into the past. The primary reason for watching is Jane Russell. One of those actresses that could ooze a lot of sex appeal without taking off a lot of clothes. She captures the audience in any scene she is in. Richard Egan as her husband, is one of those 1950s stereotype leading men, chiseled jaw, deep voice, good looking, rugged (probably gay). American virtue is on full display in this film. Love, honor, sharing, fairness, and no heavy plot twists or dark secrets. Everything is pretty much superficial.

By today's standards this isn't good film making. Whenever there is a real change, there is noticeable fading at the ends and beginning of the reels (bad film to digital transfer?). Often times there are tint or lighting changes in the same scene when there is an edit. I loved the yacht that serves as their base for scuba diving in the film. On the outside it is a small slope that could probably sleep four adults. But the interior shots of the boat show it to be as big as the Queen Mary with 10 foot high ceilings. There is a lot of travelogue footage of sailboats at sunset, and underwater scenes with bubbles and sharks, which take up about 1/4 of the film. An obligatory dance scene in a dance bar with a smokin hot Latin band. All the usual stuff to make the folks in Peoria wish they were somewhere else in November 1958. An interesting look back to a simpler time, when things weren't to complex.

...about 10 minutes before the end of this fun movie, the lead actors are struggling underwater, when all of a sudden Richard Egan (..or his stunt double) reaches across the front of Jane Russell (..or HER stunt double) to free her from some impeding disaster, and as he pulls away his hand he pulls down her bathing suit ever so briefly and exposes the right nipple...

THIS is what HDTV wide screen technology can do..stuff that got by the editors years ago is now there for detailed and easy to see review.....DVDs make it even easier, but you have to catch UNDERWATER on cable..(..of course you can Tivo it and freeze frame whatever...)

When two ex-marines working in the tourist trade off Cuba come across evidence of a sunken galleon, they set off on an underwater search for a famous lost treasure. Accompanied by two beautiful women - one of them the irrepressible Jane Russell-and a priest, their reward seems close but for the unwanted interest of some local fishermen ...

The underrated Richard Egan, Jane Russell, Lori Nelson and Gilbert Roland star in this fairly exciting adventure film directed by John Sturges, who would go onto make Gunfight at the OK Corral et al; Underwater features some good characterisations, especially by Egan, who plays a deeper character rather than a macho one. This is all interesting, however it's the underwater sequences that eclipses every thing else with its dreamy quality. Just imagine watching this on the big screen!

Full-figured Jane Russell (as Theresa), her skin-diving husband Richard Egan (as Johnny), and his Cuban partner Gilbert Roland (as Dominic) search for treasure in the Caribbean. They find a shipwreck, shark, and others interested in the booty. Early in the running time, listen for Perez Prado's mega-hit instrumental "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White". This Howard Hughes production unabashedly showcased the chests and legs of its co-stars; other than the obvious, note how the Ms. Russell's legs are made visible while under the ship's table and Mr. Egan's shirt blows open in the breeze, for a loving camera. The "Underwater!" climax (and Russell cleavage) is routine, but it does not bore.

***** Underwater! (2/9/55) John Sturges ~ Jane Russell, Richard Egan, Gilbert Roland, Lori Nelson