As we all know this colourful piece of sci-fi hookum spawned the hugely successful TV series.
Being a big fan of the Voyage TV series, I naturally found myself idly comparing the film to the TV series.
The atomic supersub, Seaview makes its very early appearance hurling itself out of the Arctic Ocean and belly flopping onto the waves. Its a great looking manoeuvre, but probably implausible, and if it isn't, I hope the crew were wearing seatbelts and not drinking coffee!
The Seaview's implausible entrance goes hand in hand with the improbable plot about a swarm of meteorites igniting the Earth's Van Allen radiation belt and causing the World's temperature to rise, threatening to kill all life on the planet.
Exciting stuff and a plot that was re-used in one of the TV episodes, along with sets, props, scale models and film footage. The Mini-Sub, mainly seen in the TV version's first season makes an appearance during a brief encounter with some undersea mines.
The film's interpretation of Voyage's familiar TV characters was a little different too, presumably for that extra dramatic effect.
Although they begin with a father and son type relationship antagonism between Admiral Harriman Nelson (Walter Pidgeon), and Captain Lee Crane (Robert Sterling) soon grows, with Crane doubting the Admiral's ambitious plan to extinguish the burning Van Allen Belt. Although, to be fair there's a few TV episodes like that, but as ever, all's well that ends well.
Some crew members seen in the film make it to the TV series too, in particular Delbert Monroe - Kowski in the film, Kowalski in the TV series. In the film he's spokesman for a bunch of wannabe mutineers who want to abandon the Seaview, fearing the end is nigh!
It's also worth noting as a little bit of trivia, that the film does have a slight Gerry Anderson connection, in that the Seaview's radio operator, Sparks is played by Robert Easton who went on to voice 'Phones' Sheriden in Stingray.
I bought the blu-ray last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. You can't overthink '50s Sci-Fi schlock, otherwise you'll ruin the child-like joy when trying to watch them. It does make me wonder though, as bad as many of the films of the era were, how many people were influenced by them and went on to careers in science, technology, or film?
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean Ed. When this came out the Van Allen belt hadn't long been discovered so it was still quite mysterious. I think it was quite a creative idea from Irwin Allen.
DeleteI do love the film and to be honest I don't considered bad at all, and I too, will probably invest in a blu-ray copy.