Destination Inner Space

Watching "Destination Innerspace" again after so many years, one instantly notices how low this film's budget must have been. Also upon re-inspection, a few new qualities emerge. Namely, the unintentional laughs. Previous reviews have already noted the outrageously tiny-looking miniatures, and how some of the music cues (borrowed from the B-classic "Angry Red Planet") are not exactly subtle. Oh, and the sight of Gary Merrill trying to subdue a big, walking large-mouthed bass is certainly hard not to find amusing now. Such sad but funny indicators of low budget film-making aside though, what does still seem to work about this little movie is the premise: a monster preying on humans trapped in a confined space, which is basically how "Alien" works. Only here, we have an underwater facility "subbing" for the space tug Nostromo and being stuck on the ocean floor is not a bad setting if you're making a claustrophobic thriller.

One sequence to admire is the alien ship's arrival on the scene. Watching as it soars directly over the sea lab, with the addition of sound effects giving voice to it's engines the space craft actually becomes kind of impressive. It's rather neat the way it "buzzes" the installation with it's nervous crew watching from inside. Clearly, they had the right idea here, and with a little more money this could have been a first rate sci-fi thriller.

One can also definitely defend the sequence where the crew attempt to lure the alien creature into a booby trap of spear guns. It's rather suspenseful as the hero, Commander Wayne, using himself as bait, bangs on a metal door and waits forcing the viewer to sit and wait there with him for the monster's inevitable appearance.

Speaking of Commander Wayne, this guy emerges as quite an enjoyable hero, and playing him like John Wayne underwater, Scott Brady is so well cast in the role that he really elevates the occasionally soggy proceedings to a level it never would have achieved without his capable presence. His smart alec, tough guy lines are funny, too like when he tells a cynical female marine biologist, "You listen to me, beautiful. I grew up with a couple of sisters, and let me tell you something: a brother doesn't always tell a sister "everything". Shove that under your microscope and study it awhile."

In fact, Commander Wayne has a snappy answer for just about everyone on board:

Dopey scientist: "do you realize the importance of this, Commander?"

Wayne: "I realize the danger we're in."

Dopey scientist again: "We've been cut-off from topside. Something must have happened to their communication equipment."

Wayne: "More likely something happened to them.

It's not a great script, nor is it brilliantly directed, and there are sure lapses in the pace here and there. All quite true. Still, this ancient sci-fi flick does achieve a modest measure of suspense. With the addition of an appealing star, some very funny lines and some unintentionally funny fx's, well, you could do worse than introduce your child to this enjoyable little monster movie.

If you are a fan of fast paced monster films that are filled with kills and insane encounters then I would probably check elsewhere. If you want to see people put on wet suits and take them off and put them back on, well this is the film for you! I have never see a film where the act of putting on a suit to explore the ocean was more prolific in a movie than the monster in said film. One scene the poor guy was struggling to buckle up and you can tell it was painful! On the plus side, it had a very interesting premise which one wishes they could have explored more rather than seeing the characters change into wet suits and change back out of them...

The story, some big naval guy comes to a sea lab due to the scientists discovering a strange object. This dude immediately takes charge, but he and an engineer on the underwater station have a history and are bitter towards one another. The engineer is trying to woo a woman, who apparently likes and is attracted to a man who leaves people to die. Well, the strange object seems to be extraterrestrial in nature and when they go on board a strange object is found. The military man wishes to leave it, but his rival wants to take it and by golly, it is some sort of egg of a fish monster!

Lots of padding in a film that really had a premise that did not really need any. You could have done much more with the monster and the ship, but in lieu of that, we get diving prep and tragic backstories. At one point, we even get the same scene repeated! The actors and actresses are standard fare for this type of film not really adding anything, but not detracting either.

So, we get a monster that looks kind of like the Zora from Legend of Zelda and we get a ship of unknown origin. However, we get a lot more time watching people switch out clothes! I don't know, maybe watching this process was more exciting in the 60's or something? If they could have just added more monster and actual action this thing could have been good, but as it is, I am just not that interested in diving prep...

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Francis D. Lyon; Produced by Earle Lyon, for United Pictures, released by Feature Film Corporation of America. Screenplay by Arthur C. Pierce; Photography by Brick Marquard; Edited by Robert Eisen; Music by Paul Dunlap. Starring: Scott Brady, Sheree North, Gary Merrill, John Howard, Wende Wagner and Biff Elliot.

Science-fiction adventure revolving around perilous underwater scientific exploration and the uncovering of a man-like amphibian monster, of fishy parentage. Suffers from a low-grade production despite nice cast.

I totally enjoyed this 60's slice of deep sea b-movie monster pie. The story was pretty good and engaging, and very weird the way the monster comes to be and both the miniatures and the monster are great! One of the best underwater humanoid sea creatures since Creature from the Black Lagoon. I don't know the history of the creature or who made it, but a lot of time and effort went into constructing that beauty! As a kid I remember it scared the hell out of me because of its size and speed. Not only that, there are a few suspenseful scenes in Destination Innerspace that work really well and I think still hold up today. Sure, the monster is not so scary now, but I'm still very impressed by the look of it which really made this obscure little gem worth finding again.

Lots of cheesy fun but what's really cool is that Mike Road did the voices for the animated series' characters Race Bannon (JONNY QUEST), Reed Richards (FANTASTIC FOUR) and Zandor (HERCULOIDS). So for fantasy fans everywhere, we can put a face with that heroic "manly man" voice we grew up with in the 60s.