Opération serpent

'Fer-de-lance' or 'Snakes on a Submarine' is an unfairly neglected TV-chiller, often misguidedly pooh-poohed by glib Interweb philistines, this barnacle-tight 70s subaquatic shocker is kept excitingly afloat by the ballast of its above average cast of fine actors, including the delightful Hope Lange, ruggedly handsome Jason Evers, and authoritatively headed by the ridiculously suave and wholly likeable David Janssen as capable naval officer Russ Bogan. For reasons nonsensical, cretinous submariner Compton (Frank Bonner)foolhardily sneaks a bag of lethal snakes onboard, and before you can say 'Darwin Awards Winner' said submersible vessel is deleteriously riddled with venomous, silently striking reptiles! And for additional B-Movie bathos, the stalwart science vessel 'Fer-de-lance' disastrously finds itself perilously scuppered on a precarious rock shelf 1000 ft below the surface!

Avid TV movie-loving fans won't be able to submerge their icy terror as the luckless crew plummet ever closer to their abysmal watery doom! The intense pressures finally reaching fever pitch as these terminally toxic, sinisterly slithering stowaways start to make their poisonous presence felt! The claustrophobically creepy 'Fer-de-lance' remains a buoyant B-Movie with a fang-tastic, fear-flicked premise, a squirmingly good score by the gifted composer Dominique Frontiere, and beloved TV icon David Janssen is just the man to stamp out these ferociously fanged fugitives! And the more obsessive B-Movie fans might be interested to know that snake smuggling simpleton Frank Bonner also starred in cult psychotronic freakshow 'Equinox'.

The Navy nuclear sub Fer de Lance is in South America to pick up an international team of SeaLab scientists conducting pressure research. This includes the science support, medical research and diving teams. Meanwhile, one of the sailors on shore leave buys a basket full of poisonous fer-de-lance snakes to bring back on board as souvenirs. Of course the snakes escape and start biting people, and while that doesn't seem to kill them, they start hemorrhaging and go into shock. One of the stricken crew is manning the trim system and the other is at the helm and so the sub goes into a quick dive to the bottom of the ocean floor.

There's a lot that I like about this movie, such as the claustrophobic feel of it taking place in a Navy sub. But most of all, I like the intelligent dialogue, even the parts that I didn't understand. I enjoy all the Navy speak. Drifting at a depth of 290 feet, they want to bring it up to 190, so they "blow the main ballast." But they rise too high, so then the order is to "flood her back down" to 190. Unfortunately, that's when the crew members really start getting sick and the uncontrolled descent happens. With the senior officers in the torpedo room checking on the first two crew members who were discovered unconscious, they're away from the control room (the conn) when the sub starts to nosedive. Lieutenant Whitehead was left in charge and he's not making good decisions. The Chief of the Boat (the COB), though lower in the chain of command, is the most experienced sailor on board and he tells the lieutenant what to do instead. "Back full, get the stern down." "Redline it." "Flood her just enough to take hold." "We're slowing down, now blow everything." It might have worked, except the helmsman falls unconscious and instead of surfacing they go into a deep dive. End result: the sub is wedged in by rocks, the snakes are still on the loose, and the oxygen will run out in 12 hours.

The crash is pretty exciting. The surviving crew and passengers work together on rescuing the sub. This movie is a suspenseful drama about extricating the sub off the ocean floor and less about the snakes. The Weapons Officer, Lieutenant Nicholson, is competent but young and looks to the COB for advice. COB says, "You take the conn." The lieutenant replies, "I've got five years in, mostly shore duty. You're the COB, Russ, tell me what to do." Lots of snappy dialogue. The Italian and Japanese divers get in on the action too. The doctor helps with the scuba tank air mixture and decompression procedures.

I paid closer attention on my second viewing because I didn't want to miss anything that was said. Yes, I've seen this movie more than once. I'll admit, the premise is kind of laughable, but it really grew on me. David Janssen plays Russ Bogan, the COB. He looks the part – he never looks like he's acting. He's an effective leader and the exchanges he has with the others are sharp. Ivan Dixon is also very good. And Richard LaPore too. All are very low key and solid, giving the impression that aside from the knucklehead who brought the snakes on board, this is a very professional crew.

I found it to be an absolutely first-rate, really enjoyable movie.

FER-DE-LANCE is a made-for-TV movie starring David Janssen as the Officer in charge of a nuclear submarine. A routine mission turns catastrophic when a knuckleheaded crewmember (Frank Bonner) brings the titular serpents aboard. Death and disaster strike, leaving the sub stranded on the ocean floor.

For a network television production of this vintage, It's not bad at all. It's a horror-thriller, as well as a disaster / survival film. The snakes are well-utilized, and Mr. Janssen is the same rough-around-the-edges, unflappable character he always seems to play.

Co-stars the wonderful Hope Lange...

Before "Snakes on a Plane" and "Snakes on a Train", there was this 1974 made-for-television mid-week suspender – snakes on a submarine (Fer-de-Lance is the name of the sub). When a happy go lucky seaman returns from shore leave with a shaman's gift of live snakes, he sets off a succession of catastrophes that places the stricken sub's surviving crew in peril, and forces reluctant hero Janssen to assume responsibility for an almighty mess, a job he clearly relishes as much as a poke in the eye.

As the sub flounders on the ocean floor, the remaining crew must make repairs to extricate themselves before the oxygen levels dissipate, while silently stalked by the highly toxic stowaways. Director Mayberry takes a rather old-fashioned approach with his limited material, focusing more attention on the salvage efforts than the snake threat which becomes the sub-plot in the latter half. The performances are strictly B-grade all round, and include one of Janssen's more ambivalent characterisations (though this was his trademark) as an uninspired, less-than enthusiastic naval instructor who's reluctantly foist into the captain's seat when all the senior officers are killed off during the initial catastrophe. Hope Lange is similarly propelled into heroine status, with her medical knowledge proving critical to the defensive effort against the marauding reptiles as one-by-one, the survivors are taken out. The movie labours to a mechanical conclusion, and though not without some intellect, the action is far too sporadic and there's little suspense.

It's perhaps no surprise that this largely forgettable TV movie has been resurrected in the wake of the "Snakes on a Plane" popularity, although it's well down the hierarchy of motion picture asps. A strong cast delivers intelligent dialogue, but the one-dimensional, melodramatic treatment sinks not only the submarine, but also the movie.

Back in 1974 when this TV-Movie first aired, I saw the first twenty minutes or so and was enthralled by the premise: A submarine trapped at the bottom of the ocean with a pack of deadly snakes slithering around. It seemed like a can't miss thriller. Because I was a kid though, I had to go to bed! I recently found the film on video and was ecstatic to finally see the whole show. However, I should have let my childhood dream of a can't miss thriller be as this movie was incredibly bad. It is very cheap looking, even for that time period and the actors play their scenes with so much indifference that it's hard to care about their plight. The biggest mistake is that the snakes are only peripheral to the plot. Most of the movie is taken up with the crew's attempts to dislodge themselves from the rocks they are trapped against, making it more of an adventure film than a thriller and it's not even a good adventure film. At least I now know why the film was so hard to find all of these years. WKRP fans might want to check it out for an early look at Frank Bonner (AKA Herb Tarlek) as the dopey sailor who brings the snakes aboard the sub.