Le Sous-marin atomique

What a difference the three years separating ATOMIC SUBMARINE and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA made! Of course, Allen's much larger budget sure helped too. Still, one can see The Tigershark as being the direct parent of The Seaview.

We have an advanced nuclear sub capable of firing missiles or torpedoes and equipped with a secondary submarine. The Seaview originally carried a small fleet of 2-man submersibles but they got eclipsed by the flashier Flying Sub. And of course you have the senior officer, the younger guy who actually handles the action scenes, and a couple onboard scientists just for the heck of it.

The plot itself is pretty much the model for many of the Voyages to the Bottom of the Sea. The hidden mystery at the heart of an otherwise normal mission, the unexpected monster.... Yeah, this could have been a VOYAGE episode. And in fact, eventually IT WAS! VOYAGE did an episode that adapted ATOMIC SUBMARINE pretty much straight, just changing the sub, the crew names, and a few details (and ditching Joi Lansing's character, alas!).

While ATOMIC SUBMARINE does look frightfully low budget compared to VOYAGE, let alone today's super-bloated budget busters, it works pretty well for a product of its time. And the minimalist, barely illuminated alien saucer interior is surprising effect. I know it creeped me out when I first saw this late one night in '66!

**SPOLIERS** After some half dozen US Navy subs have been destroyed in the Arctic Ocean within 200-from 87 to 90 degrees North latitude-miles of the North Pole it's decided by the US Military to send it's most advanced atomic submarine The "Tiger Shark" there to see what's causing all this destruction.

With Camdr. Reef Holloway, Arthur Franz, and his second in command Capt. Dan Wendover, Dick Foran, put in charge of the nuclear sub "Tiger Shark" in a top secret mission to the North Pole things get a bit sticky when Dr.Carl Neilson joins the sub's crew. Despite his youth, he's in his late 20's, Dr. Neilson is one of the top oceanographers in the world.

Dr. Neilson is also an unashamed peace-nick who had his old man, Reef's mentor the top naval war tactician in Annapolis,and the person whom Reef worshiped the very ground he walks on,end up hospitalized with a career ending nervous breakdown! That resulted in Dr. Neilson insinuating to the press that his father is a warmonger in his obsession with the use of nuclear submarines- and their payload of Polaris nuclear missiles-in the defense of freedom.

This tension between Reef and Dr. Neilson goes on unabatedly during the entire trip to the North Pole until it's realized that what's been sinking US military vessels up there is a hostile 300 foot in diameter flying saucer!

This UFO identified as the Cyclops, because of its flashing blue light, is using the magnetic pull of the earth, centered at the poles, to regenerate itself with magnetic energy. At the same time the UFO in order to keep it's existence secret zaps any ship or underwater sub that's unfortunate enough to get in its way!

It's also later found out straight from the UFO's pilot's-a hairy one eyed alien- mouth, or subconscious, that it's planing to have it's fellow one eyed monsters colonize the world and enslave the earth's human population!

It takes a while, with a number of the "Tiger Sharks" crew members getting killed, to figure out how to handle this alien, or aliens, from space. But later with the help of the now, he finally saw the light, kill em first and don't ask questions later ex-pacifist Dr. Neilson the human race in the end prevailed.

The problem now, after destroying the Cyclops, is just how many more of these one eyed monsters are still out there in space watching and monitoring us! And also will we have the both strength and fortitude, as well as the military hardware, to combat and defeat them in the not so far off distance future?

Something about this movie makes me believe it was inspired by some article in an old Popular Science magazine about giant atomic-powered cargo subs of the near future plying the short route to the Pacific under the polar ice cap. (I must have missed that development while I was commuting by hovercar to my all-plastic cabin in the mountains, where a home breeder reactor supplies me with power too cheap to meter.)

The actors are (mostly) competent, with B-movie stalwart Arthur Franz in the lead. The script is serviceable, containing some creepy moments as well as an occasionally interesting clash of ideologies between military tough guy Franz and the peacenik scientist son (Brett Halsey) of his revered mentor. Though they despise each other at first, they find they can agree on the need to kick some alien booty.

The fx team of Jack Rabin, Irving Block and Louis DeWitt collaborated on quite a few low-budget sci-fi's in the 50's -- the most notable example being "Kronos", with its bizarre, energy-sucking giant cubist robot -- and manage to achieve a few interesting effects in this one, too.

The most unusual thing about this film is that I believe it's the first sci-fi movie to use the concept of a "living" spaceship. And I'm willing to bet money that the film's slime-dripping, tentacled alien Cyclops is the direct inspiration for The Simpsons' Kang and Kodos. Even the voice is similar.

If you're willing to forgive its obvious limitations, "Atomic Submarine" is an entertaining little low-budget romp.

Following a series of attacks on cargo ships and, most notably, nuclear submarine's, the Pentagon send their best ship, The Tigershark, to investigate. On board is Lieutenant Commander 'Reef' Holloway (Arthur Franz) and noted scientist Sir Ian Hunt (Tom Conway), who after examining the previous incidents and eye-witness statements, soon form the belief that they are dealing with some kind of underwater alien craft. Holloway's attack-first-ask- questions-later approach puts him at loggerheads with young pacifist Dr. Neilson, Jr. (Brett Halsey), the son of a revered scientist. They soon discover their speedy enemy, and Holloway finds himself confronted by a one-eyed monster intent on world domination.

There is a lot to criticise about The Atomic Submarine, regardless of the obvious budget limitations and drive-in aspirations. Sci-fi movies from the 1950's and 60's manufacture most of their charm from bad special effects and clunky dialogue, but The Atomic Submarine looks particularly ropey, with miniature toys and a fish-bowl filling-in for apparently state-of-the-art aquatic engineering and the great blue yonder. The first two-thirds of the film is extremely talky, which would be fine if not for the characters being little more than B- movie archetypes, either puffing their chest with patriotic defiance or providing some light comic relief.

Yet the climax, which sees a lot of the crew massacred by the drooling extra-terrestrial (voiced by John Hilliard), proves worth the wait. It's certainly formulaic, but it's full of wobbly, retro sets and a genuinely creepy score by Alexander Laszlo, key aspects in what makes these films so fun to watch. The face-off between Holloway and the spaceman also contains some unintentionally hilarious dialogue. "At last Commander, we meet as your people say... face to face!" says the alien. "That's a face?" Holloway replies. The Atomic Submarine is immediately forgettable, best watched late at night when you feel like you're the only person left awake in the world, but this effortlessly likable fluff.

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Yet another interesting, small-budget, black-and-white thriller gem from the 1950s. These pictures are being continually (and successfully) released to DVD, much more than the genre films from the 1960s through 1990s. Why? In these post Atomic, Cold War years, imagination ran rampant with so many new ideas that were fresh and innovative. They're charming in their antiquated way. Using inexpensive special effects, with a generally serviceable, attractive cast working with scripts that moved the action along, these sci-fi drama infused sex (tame for the time) and violence with effective results. "Atomic Submarine" tells the story of an alien spacecraft destroying subs in the Arctic. When Arthur Franz finally meets the creature, a giant cyclopean octopus-style thing, it states (via telepathic communication) "We finally meet face to face. Franz replies: "That's a face?" Later Franz relates to extraordinarily handsome hunk Brett Halsey, that he left his little black book on the alien spacecraft, which included the number of buxom blonde (Joi Lansing) that he had a rendezvous with earlier. Most enjoyable.