This benevolent G-rated excursion into.....I guess we could call it 'low adventure' .....always comforts the BQ on hot summer nights. Populated with a host of immediately familiar faces from TV shows and movies of the period, we know the film plays fast and loose with modern oceanographic science.......but it all looks cool and fun.....and hey, isn't that whats-his-face from that show.....whats-it-called?
A host of underwater heroes get called upon to warn the world in advance about upcoming earthquakes and tsumanis by touring the oceanic trenches and dropping off seismic sensors. And just like the Beatles......they all live in a Yellow Submarine....a yellow submarine.....a yellow submarine.
And what a great cast the movie recruits to make up this Scuba-Doo gang: Lloyd Bridges, TV's official king of glub-glub heroics from countless "Sea Hunt" TV episodes......Brian Kelly, the beach Ranger dad of TV's "Flipper"......David McCallum, one of the Men from U.N.C.L.E. (since he's British, he's allowed to play the arrogant, sarcastic, self-absorbed asshole in this pool of All-American goodness...).......also on board, Marshall Thompson, TV's jungle veterinarian of 'Daktari' and in the familiar template role of Cranky Irascible Guy Who Knows How To Fix Everything (think George Kennedy in the "Airport" movies), Keenan Wynn.
Too much testosterone, not enough pulchritude? Wait! Bravely hurling herself into this pool of Alpha males comes too-stunning-for-us-mere-mortals Shirley Eaton.....with Goldfinger's paint freshly scrubbed off and causing the guys to breathe heavier inside the sub then outside with their oxygen tanks strapped on. (But there's no question here that Brian Kelly has the inside track on first firm grasp of Shirley's formidable bod.......since he spends most of the movie testily disapproving of her gender....boy, doth he protest too much......)
Off they go, under the sea, our merry bunch, dodging undersea volcanoes and nasty jumbo eels, photographically enlarged to the size of the fish swimming in Dr.No's aquarium. What little down time they have is spent playing chess, searching for treasure, avoiding death-defying incidents and chastely salivating over Shirley. For comedy relief, you have the sight of Shirley's lab guinea pigs sliding into each other during the sub's more bumpy rides. Busy voyage and all good clean fun....
Even in the far more forgiving l966, some critics jokingly dismissed the movie as quaint, old fashioned and downright silly.........it's all those things, true....but the BQ still likes it for its forthright innocence and determination to give us our money's worth in breathless (when the air runs out) adventure.....and lots of TV guys.....and Shirley Eaton swimming in her bikini....what more could you ask for? So we'll fill 3 full tanks of oxygen for "Around The World Under The Sea" (***).......and beware the photo-shopped eel...
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