Raiders from Beneath the Sea

I was expecting Raiders From Beneath the Sea to be good for some cheesy B movie chuckles. To my surprise, this film has some qualities that raise it a notch or two above the usual fare. 1. Overall, the acting decent, with an especially credible performance from Merry Anders. 2. The cinematography is better than average for a B movie. 3. Some (not all) of the dialogue is snappy film noir, especially the lines delivered by Russ Bender as Tucker. This film isn't a keeper, but it has enough going for it to set it apart from the laughable B movies. I watched it back-to-back with Rocket To the Moon (formerly known as Cat Women of the Moon, as described in the titles), and this one provided the cheesy laughs I was expecting. Marie Windsor, the Queen of the Bs, must have recognized the movie is so bad it isn't even campy, because she didn't put much effort into her performance, although Victor Jory, and, oddly, Sonny Tufts rose above the material.

Raiders from beneath the Sea is a low budget crime movie from the 1960's. Four men plan to rob a bank and then escape via scuba diving.

It's an easy to follow plot and although the actors aren't great I found their performances strangely fascinating. There was a good chemistry between Ken Scott and Merry Anders as well as over a foot difference in height!.

It all gets strangely surreal towards the end and it must feature the first and only bank robbery with full scuba gear.

This is not a great film by any means but it is something different and kept me watching for it's full duration. I loved the ending.

Although I appear to be in a small minority, I really enjoyed it.

RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA is a resolute B-movie, shot on zero budget and with little in the way of action, incident, atmosphere or indeed decent plotting to recommend it. The storyline sees a gang of criminals deciding to come together to stage an audacious bank robbery dressed in scuba gear.

That plot line is as preposterous as they come, but unfortunately the good stuff doesn't happen until the last ten minutes of the running time. Up until then we get plenty of bad acting, some early '60s cheesecake with starlet Merry Anders parading around in her bikini a lot, and a Peeping Tom thrown into the mix. The music is goofy and inappropriate and the performances are anything but electrifying; for the most part, you'll be marvelling at just how silly and unintentionally funny this all is.

This film has to rate badly because the acting and writing are woeful - but as daft action adventure films go, it's not the worst I have ever seen. There is a semblance of a plot - two buddies plan to emerge from the sea clad in diving gear and armed with harpoons, then proceed to rob $250,000 from a bank in an arcade before returning to their watery escape route... It could actually have been a decent germ of a cunning heist, if only the thing hadn't got bogged down in a poor melodrama between a David and Goliath of a couple (Ken Scott and Merry Anders) as she tries to fend off the unwanted attentions of his mate "Buddy" (Garth Benton) and a really dreadful (and I really mean dreadful) soundtrack. Nice shots of the island help a wee bit too, but yes - it's just rotten. Sorry.

If you love scuba heist movies with a grating inappropriate travelogue score, this is your meat and potatoes. Ken Scott, 6 feet five of unrelenting blandness plays an apartment manager married to Merry Anders, loyal and supportive to this lunk, which is the only mystery here. Her brother-in-law lives with them too swilling beer and peeping on his brother's sister when she changes to "go out on the terrace for some sun." Somehow they make all this extremely unseedy. She even goes to church. But hubby has thought up a preposterous plan to rob a bank on Catalina Island with his old pal and mentor, "Tuck," in full diving gear and spear guns, then escape underwater before the cops come. To see them come up out of the water and stroll nonchalantly across the street to rob the bank is the highlight of our film. They don't even leave any wet footprints. Naturally, they run into a cop who tells them wearing scuba suits and masks and fins and carrying spear guns inside the city limits is unlawful. I'm not making this up. They did. Had a good giggle.