City Beneath the Sea (1971)

One can readily concede that the 1971 Irwin Allen-directed made-for-TV sci-fi film CITY BENEATH THE SEA is dated in a lot of ways: acting (overripe at times); plot (old-fashioned); special effects (extremely dated, especially if one thinks of special effects only in terms of CGI). And yet there is still a fair bit to recommend about this TV endeavor, which can be seen as the bridge between Allen's own TV series "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" (which ran from 1964 to 1968), and the pair of big-budget disaster films (THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE; THE TOWERING INFERNO) he would produce in just a few short years that would make him Hollywood's "Master Of Disaster", for better or worse.The basic plot, set in the year 2053, involves a vast underwater city named Pacifica, watched over by a veteran admiral (Stuart Whitman). Whitman is then charged by the President (Richard Basehart, returning from "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea") to take care of a large gold supply (which is about to be stolen by his underhanded brother, played by Robert Wagner), and a supply of the highly explosive H1-28. To add to his responsibilities, in a turn that predates films like METEOR, NIGHT OF THE COMET, Armageddon, and DEEP IMPACT, a planetoid of considerable size is on a collision course with Earth, and Pacifica specifically.All of the aforementioned is, by our 21st century standards, ridiculously old-fashioned, even in comparison to what we'd get from Allen in his disaster films. But in the ensuing years and decades, as the special effects have gotten more and more spectacular, and the films have gotten more and more expensive, reaching ridiculous budgets of $250 million at times now, are the plots really any better than something as "cheesy" as an Irwin Allen TV pilot like this? Having seen this a number of times on TV as a re-run, I'd have to say "Not necessarily." There's no question that CITY BENEATH THE SEA is predictable to a large degree, but the same can be said for most everything being made today for the big screen, whether in IMAX or 3-D. It still works all the same, if one is willing to accept it as a relic of its time.This is why I'm giving CITY BENEATH THE SEA a 7 out of 10.

This movie might be dubbed the king of salad bowl movies, with so many subplots and genres mixed... 1 a James Bond subplot about some Swiss crime agency planning to steal huge amounts of gold. 2 a Yosei Gorasu rip-off subplot about a planetoid of exceptional mass colliding with earth, diverted using nuclear missiles (cfr Meteor with Sean Connery ). 3 a hero-in-distress subplot about an admiral falsely accused of murder 4 a mutant able to breathe under water (later copied in "the man from Atlantis" with Patrick Duffy ) 5 a secret underwater nuclear warhead base. 6 the underwater experimental city in which research is held to produce plancton-based foods subplot (cfr Soylent Green & H&B cartoon Sealab 2020 in 1977 ). 7 costumes, trying to imagine new fashion, are reminiscent of UK UFO. 8 all women look like beauty contestants wearing minidresses & high-heels (cfr Star Trek, UFO etc ). 9 the friend-turned-traitor conspiracy subplot.This said, it's a short & enjoyable, unpretentious movie. SFX look very dated ( the piles of gold bullions are clearly carton boxes ) but retain that 1960-ish charm, extended to the whole movie, typical of UFO & other productions using perhaps too many garage sale toys and miniatures. Acting is negligible, with iconic characters playing their part: the scheming traitor; the coward hireling of the traitor; the belle who changes her mind; the hero... Forsyth's and Miranda's pretty legs and face are the best part of acting i guess. However, it is an easy movie for some relaxing time. You are not supposed to find 1984 (1954, with Peter Cushing ) acting or Matrix SFX in a 1960ish movie with toys & miniatures...are you? To watch more than once.

Interesting to see that a lot of people liked this when they were kids . I first saw it one Saturday night in the late 1970s and actually liked it . After a gap of over 25 years I saw it again this afternoon and thought it absolutely sucked The very first scene features a special effect that wouldn't have been allowed on the very worst episode of DOCTOR WHO . Then we're shown our hero Adm Michael Matthews being introduced along with his bevy of bimbo office babes . I sure did appricated that in the mid 21st century all woman must wear mini dresses but I'm not sure Adm Matthews does . I mean this guy is a bit gay isn't he ? Watch as he prances down steps and tries to be all mean and moody in a white jump suit . Hello sailor The production values are grim . There only seems to be three sets : the control room , the gold vault and a swimming tank with much of the action taking place via monitor screens . This is where CITY BENEATH THE SEA fails . It's a pilot about a city beneath the sea right ? So the producers have already exausted two plots from a totally limited concept . Mincing Matthews has to act fast ( And if you see any acting in this please let me know what scene it appeared in ) to stop some bad guys carrying out a theft and a meteor crashing in the city . I'm surprised it got beyond script stage to be honest

Why that dramatic remark! Simply because "City Beneath the Sea" was the only scifi movie/series pilot like it ever really developed for television. Everyone else was exploring the final frontier of space. The space age was booming, Skylab and the Shuttle right around the corner, why think about the future one could build underwater? Who would go for that? Irwin Allen did, and unfortunately no one really gave a damn because with the effort (pre-conception reel, all star cast etc.) lavsihed on "City Beneath the Sea", it deserved more attention than it got. I won't waste time giving a synopsis, others have done so very well with that, and yes I do realize how dated this movie is but I would love to have seen the continual adventures of the 21st century underwater city denizens, how their culture developed, their issues, and the intrigue. The 80's and 90's gave us horrid movies like "Deep Star Six", "Leviathan" and the schitzophrenic but likeable "Seaquest DSV" for underwater thrills when all we really needed was a fertile and stable base to work with, like Pacifica "the" City Beneath the Sea.