The guys watched Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea first. It's a 1961 film that was produced and directed by Irwin Allen. You might be familiar with some of his tv work which leaned heavily toward science fiction.
- Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964–68)
- Lost in Space (1965–68)
- The Time Tunnel (1966–67)
- Land of the Giants (1968–70)
- The Swiss Family Robinson (1975–76)
- Code Red (1981–82)
I'd watched Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea and blogged about it back in January 2011 on a Science Fiction Sunday post. Here's that review.
Walter Pidgeon plays Admiral Nelson, designer and builder of the Seaview, a massive atomic submarine. They are on a trial run in the arctic when the Van Allen radiation belt catches fire. The sub surfaces, after 3 days under the polar ice cap, to find the sky burning. Ooohhh! Pretty. Pretty deadly too! If they don't put out the burning sky soon the people of the earth will be charred to a blackened nub. Ummm! Crispy! If this movie was set today we'd have to worry about spontaneous human grease fires breaking out all over the USA. The sub heads to New York City and a meeting of the scientific community at the UN. Walter thinks they should fire a nuke into the fire and blow it out. There are opposing views that think we should wait. Walter says no and takes off for the firing point over the Marianas Trench. He's got a certain window of opportunity to fire the missile and can't wait. There's lots of activity and danger on the way, both inside and outside the ship. There's a minefield that takes out a couple of guys in the mini-sub. There's tension in the crew, some of whom want to go home and be with their families in the end times. There's sabotage from some traitor on board the sub. That person will get some payback later when they eaten by a shark. Ha ha! Really, what do you expect. The sea is a dangerous place. The crew also has to fight off a giant octopus. See, told you. That giant octopus scene would become the signature of the tv series that would follow in a few years. I guess giant octopus, and their plus-size aquatic brethren, are common in that universe's ocean. Glad that isn't the case here. Mostly it's a good action movie even if the science is hokum. The under water stuff is ok for the time. There are some good actors in the movie beside Walter. Peter Lorre plays the Commodore, Walter's old friend and fellow scientist. Peter gets to walk some sharks in the comic part of the movie. Robert Sterling plays the captain of the Seaview. He had a 47 year career starting in 1939 with lots of bit movie parts and ending with a guest shot on Murder She Wrote in 1986. He was George Kerby in the 1950s tv show Topper. Barbara Eden is a Lieutenant on the sub. When the movie opens Barbara and Robert are planning their wedding, due to happen in three weeks. Michael Ansara plays a scientist rescued from an ice flow. In real life he was married to Barbara Eden at the time the movie was made. Frankie Avalon plays a sailor and he also sings the movies opening theme song. It's really awful, even for Frankie and I have seen all his beach party movies. Mostly the movie is pretty entertaining. You can watch episodes of the tv series over at Hulu. The first season is pretty entertaining, for a 60's action show.
The second movie was The Black Sleep. It's a 1956 movie that's the last film that Bela Lugosi was in before he died. It stars Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney Jr, John Carradine, Akim Tamaroff and Tor Johnson. Basil is a surgeon in 1872 London who has a wife in a coma because of a brain tumor. It's too deep to operate but Basil is determined to save her, even at the expense of others. He saves a former student, played by Herbert Rudley, from the hangman with a drug that simulates death and collects the body to revive. Herbert claims he was framed and didn't kill anyone. Still, once revived, he's happy to be alive and is quite happy to go to work for his former teacher. They work in a secret lab behind the fireplace. Up to the lab and down to the dungeon. Bela plays the old butler and he looks pretty frail. The movie was shot in 1955 and Bela would die the summer of the following year. Akim plays a gypy tattoo artist and kidnapper. He collects bodies and stuff for Basil. Tor, Lon and John play victims of Basil's experimentation. They look pretty messed up what with their damaged brains and all. Eventually they revolt and cause everyone some issues. Herbert falls for Patricia Blake, one of the two nurses in the secret surgery, who turns out to be the daughter of Lon's character Mungo. Poor Mungo had been a brilliant surgeon before getting a brain condition. Basil had tried operating on him and the reasoning centers of the brain were damaged. It's made him fairly dangerous. The other nurse on staff is the only one who has some control over him. You can see there are plenty of things that could add to the drama and problems for the characters. Eventually things boil over and there's a pretty fun bunch of crazy actions. Lucky for them, Herbert and Patricia manage to escape being murdered and the police clear Herbert of the murder he was charged with. It's a fairly entertaining piece of work with a complicated plot set in a big old castle with lots of dark and dangerous corners. Nice sets, costumes and good make up effects. Kind of typical when compared to other low budget horror films of the time. Well worth a gander.
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