Assault on a Queen (1966)

Frank Sinatra starred in two memorable heist movies in the 1960s. The first was Ocean's Eleven (1960), which brought the Rat Pack together for a film that Sinatra is said to have remarked "Forget the movie. Let's do the heist!" The second was sci-fi writer Jack Finney's Assault on a Queen (1966). Despite its mediocre rating here on IMDb, it's actually a fascinating film marred only by rather cheap special effects (Sinatra's diving scenes look like they were shot in a backyard pool) and the sometimes ridiculous Rod Serling script. "She's so deep in my gut we breathe together" is the worst line, and one that Sinatra must have needed more than a few drinks to articulate.Meanwhile, Virna Lisi appears as little more than eye candy in the film, and Anthony Franciosa's character is rather repugnant and oily. However, there are some good scenes with Sinatra and fellow Rat Pack member Richard Conte, and the movie would have benefited greatly if their two characters had been given more time together.It's definitely worth watching, and Sinatra's acting is great as usual despite the weak script.

Who in their right mind would think that taking a sunken German submarine and raising it to rob the luxury liner, The Queen Mary, would be a good idea for a caper? That's the whole idea of this extremely silly thriller that in the 1940's would have been a great Universal movie starring the likes of Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Sabu, Lon Chaney Jr. and Turhan Bey. It's all about as realistic as "Cobra Woman", yet the characters in this movie match each of the archetypes the actors I mention would play. In the case of this movie, it is Frank Sinatra, Virni Lisi, Anthony Franciosa and Richard Conte (to name a few), and I was more than surprised that none of them broke into gails of laughter when they had to recite lines in this silly screenplay. Poor Errol John as the only black man involved in the plot becomes the victim of some rather tasteless racial slurs, while Alf Kjellin displays obvious Nazi qualities as he strokes the quickly drying Nazi flag they find aboard the submarine. While the Queen Mary doesn't end up similar fates to the Titanic or the Luisitania, disaster of another kind results.

First of all, this poster for this movie is incredible. One of my all time favorites. This movie was really hard to find until recently (just came out on blu-ray April 2012) so years ago I found an old paperback of the Jack Finney novel and read it. Loved the story. Then, finally, I was able to see the movie ... disappointing. My biggest complaint is the direction: absolutely flaccid, dull and without any creativity. Not surprisingly the director, Jack Donohue, was a hack TV director almost his entire career and only directed a handful of movies - none of them good. And so Assault on a Queen feels soooo slow when it really should be fast paced and have high energy. The great Rod Serling wrote the script from a fun novel, so I'm not going to blame the writing. And the acting was fine too. The only other problem was the music: poorly used and sparse and never seemed appropriate for the scene. I suppose I can blame the director for this too since he'd be the one overseeing where it was used.Anyway, worth watching for fans of 60s heist movies. I like it, but wish it were better.

Although some of the underwater scenes in this film were pretty good, I am afraid I found the film a frightful bore. The only thing that raised me from my torpor was a glaring error.Anthony Franciosa is supposed to be impersonating a British naval officer. He is told to pronounce lieutenant "leftenant" the British way and not "lootenant" the American way. But Anthony Franciosa let's a "lootenant" slip out, and nearly ruins the whole operation, getting away with it by claiming a Canadian connection. Only one problem: in the Royal Navy it is correct to leave the f sound out, so, by saying "lootenant", Anthony Franciosa was doing nothing wrong. This is just careless by Rod Serling the scriptwriter, and, as another commenter said, Rod Serling should have stuck to The Twilight Zone. And I'm not impressed with Mr Franciosa's research for his part either.