Le retour du capitaine Nemo

This is sort of a "1930s Serial as done by Irwin Allen". Imagine what Republic or Mascot could have done with 1970s movie technology. Superb special effects, the acting ranges from good to hammy, the dialog often inane, the premise preposterous, but if you don't take it too seriously, it's fun, a good rainy/snowy afternoon entertainment. It does contain one of my favorite movie scenes however. When the two Navy officers awaken Captain Nemo and he starts to talk about his crew and his ship, one of them says: "But Captain Nemo was a character in a book by Jules Verne!" To which he replies: "Had it perhaps occurred to you that that writer was a biographer as well as a novelist?"

The Amazing Captain Nemo is a movie not worth searching out, but definitely worth watching if it's on TV late at night, when you don't take everything that is shown very seriously anymore. The movie has a deliciously nonsensical story about 2 Navy-commando's who accidentally find Captain Nemo and free him from stasis. After a 100 years, the Nautilus is still light years ahead of other submarines in terms of technology. When a mad scientist threatens the world in exchange for a ransom, Captain Nemo's help gets asked, even though he really wants to continue his search for Atlantis.

The movie is full of over-wrought cheesy dialogue, over-acting, and unbelievable technology, but that's really the movie's charm. The mad scientist's dialogue could be used, line-for-line, as samples in techno-songs; that's how campy it is. Jose Ferrer is really the right man for the role. Although I know him more for his serious roles in secret intelligence movies, he plays the role of the larger-than-life Nemo fantastically. A fun movie to watch on a bored Friday night.

This short lived television series based on a cryogenically frozen Captain Nemo coming to life in the latter part of the 20th century and and putting his Nautilus at the disposal of the USA whom he sees as the good guys. Of course it helps that Naval Intelligence undersea branch in the persons of Tom Hallick and Burr DeBenning discover him and thaw him out. They serve as first and second mates on detached duty from the navy.

His Nautilus even beats our nuclear submarines, but it isn't the Russians who have a better boat. It's arch villain Burgess Meredith as a mad scientist who wants to rule the world with a half human, half robot crew that wants that.

This film is compilation of three episodes of the television series. While it was done it must have been a hoot for both Jose Ferrer and Burgess Meredith. These guys were just loving trying to top the other in outrageous displays of ham acting. They make it a joy to watch this most inferior science fiction film.

Best line in the film was when Hallick says Captain Nemo was a figure of fiction, Ferrer says that Jules Verne was a biographer as well as a science fiction writer. From there get set for some ham a la mode.

I fondly remember watching this show when it first aired in 1978. I was very excited about it thanks to previews in Starlog magazine, and had been waiting for it for months. I videotaped all three episodes on my dad's Betamax. I was 11.

I enjoyed it, but even at 11 I was *very* aware that it was, at root, a retread of the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea premise about a super-sub and it's super-genius owner/builder who save the world from certain annihilation every week. The sets were similar to Voyage ones, the feel of the show was similar, and at one point during a dive scene, we even get a few bars of the old Voyage theme music. I would not have been surprised if Admiral Nelson or the Seaview showed up at some point, it was just that similar. (And I later found out that the Nautilus miniature was actually a heavily re-worked Seaview miniature!) That said, it wasn't that good. I enjoyed it as only an 11-year-old weaned on crappy Irwin Allen shows can, but I was very much aware that it wasn't a really great show. It's about on par w/ some of the 4th season episodes of Voyage: watchable, but kinda' lame. Not only was it derivative of Allen's earlier work (And even managed to use a lot of stock footage), it had a strong dose of "Whatever people like right now" so you had shootouts very similar to the ones in Star Wars in corridors that resembled those of the Death Star, etc.

I'm a bit confused about the production, however: This aired as a 'series' that ran for 3 weeks, and wrapped up it's entire storyline. Years later, I saw it as a movie version that included - as far as I can tell - all of the 3 episodes of the series. I get the feeling this was perhaps filmed as a 2-hour-and-change movie, and then chopped into three parts to fill a hole in CBS' schedule or something.

I wouldn't mind watching it again, just to see how fuzzy my memory has gotten, but I didn't mind too much when it got canceled.

What was planned to be a TV series "Return of Captain Nemo" the producer Irwin Allen already aware just in three episodes envisages a failure or something alike, thus they adjust all fulfilled episodes in a TV movie "The Amazing Captain Nemo" Irwin Allen's concept, also he brought his old whole crew to do it according his early standards of cinema fantastic.

In far off 1877 the Nautilus struck in a cliff on deep water, thus Captain Nemo disbanded Nautilus's crew to surface and to save the advanced submarine he enters in a suspended animation on cryogenic chamber and 101 years ahead thru a war games on pacific area two Naval Officer finding him there, through a shock wave he awakes in 1978, soon they invite Nemo to Nautilus repair on US's Naval shipyard's drydock in San Francisco, in the meantime a diabolic genius Prof. Waldo Cunningham (Burgess Meredith) is willing to vanish of map Washington by a delta beam if the USA's president pay him on billion dollars in gold, he has another high-tech submarine.

In exchange of Nautilus's repair and upgrade Mr. Miller (Warren Stevens) chief of secret service asking for a help to Nemo aiming for locate the wild Prof. Waldo and try stop the menace at Washington, the same US's naval officers joint in a Nemo assignment as Nautilus's crew members, Captain Nemo has an agreement with Mr. Miller after struggles against the evil Prof. Waldo if he accomplishes the task, will be free to pinpoint the sunk Atlantis civilization after Hercules's portals.

As said for a reviewer here I've rather the older miniatures instead any CGI process, aside it has some technical aspects that will against beyond imagination as Nautilus is stronger under high pressure on deepest waters that any highest advanced Atom Submarine available in late seventies, well we've to stand such outrageous benchmarking, the obsolete Nautilus has a handheld operation, instead the US's Submarine are driven by high-tech computer, the casting is fabulous, José Ferrer and Meredith got the show for themselves, the supporting is fine as well, a hybrid of Voyage from the Bottom of the Sea and Galactica with those hooded machine men with metallic voice, great fun indeed.

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First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: Youtube / Rating: 6.