Battle Beneath the Earth (1968)

Evil renegade Chinese General Chan Lu (a nicely wicked portrayal by Martin Benson) plans on launching a bunch of nuclear attacks on America from a series of underground tunnels. It's up to brave, but disgraced military man Commander Jonathan Shaw (the dashing Kerwin Matthews) to stop him before it's too late. Director Montgomery Tully, working from a silly script by L.Z. Hargreaves, relates the goofy plot at a steady pace and maintains a serious tone throughout. The admirably sincere acting from a game cast qualifies as a major asset: Viviane Ventura as foxy spelunker Tila Young, Robert Ayres as the ramrod Admiral Felix Hillebrand, Peter Arne as paranoid seismologist Arnold Kramer, Al Mulock as the rugged Sergeant Marvin Mulberry, Peter Elliott as Lu's nefarious scientist assistant Kengh Lee, and Ed Bishop as the stalwart Vince Cassidy. Kenneth Talbot's vibrant color cinematography and Ken Jones' urgent, lively, rousing score are both up to speed. The nifty "Batman"-style whiplash cutaways, the clumsily staged action scenes, some gross miscasting (several British actors play the Asian villains!), the endearingly clunky (not so) special effects (the back-screen projection is especially dodgy), and a big'n'bulky slowly trudging yellow tank car that shoots out deadly lasers which are really just bright beams of light all give this picture a certain lovably dippy kitschy charm. A pleasingly campy timekiller.

You've just saved the world and are close to ground zero with a hot Eurasian woman, what do you do? Think of sex, oh yeah Baby!!!!!! I equate this with a Fantastic Four episode where the Thing, in their first encounter with the Sub Mariner, carries an A bomb into a sea monsters mouth to kill it, that's classic! The only reason this garners such a low rating on IMDb is because it's audience is so limited. So you have a bunch of offended leftist getting mad that the Chi-Communists don't win, LOL! Even that is explained that it's not really the Chi-Comm's doing it so I don't know why they should rate this so low for it's genre. I don't think this film is shown on TCM USA or is available on video in America, but it is shown with frequent regularity on TCM Europe and I have seen it now multiple times because it's a highly entertaining and addictive guilty pleasure to watch. It's A bombs under America with guns and heroics and America wins and it has some great campy moments! If that's what you are looking for this is a definite 9 of 10. Even as rated as a movie with the whole Sci Fi genre its a solid 7, think about it and compare it to all the boring dogs of sci fi flicks you saw from the 50's to even today, this one is solid and has held it's 7 rating well. It's a definite 8 of 10 when you combine that it's in color and it's campy and the actors look like they are taking it all in stride and don't suck like an American International flick. Plus the Navy leads the whole shooting match, I love that part (with some Marine muscle). Not to spoil it too much but I love the part where the renegade General realizes his doom, that was a nice touch I thought. Of course it's soooo easy to destroy this pictures credibility but one thing really jumped out at me, they are running cars in a tunnel, doesn't everyone die of asphyxiation? LOL. OK it's got a smattering (more then enough, but could have wished for more) of hot women of the Asian persuasion, guns, bullets A bombs, military things, sci fi gadgets all the key ingredients you need for a good campy sci fi flick from the early to mid 60's, throw in MGM's higher class touch and it's a classic. 8/10 on the sci fi action scale. You know you've seen much worse and I'm sure better, but there are not that many better than there are a whole lot worse. See it with an open mind!

I watched this effort on TCM, and it gave me the laugh I needed after a very miserable week-end! Martin Benson was the mad Chinese general, made up impressively to look like his predecessor, Charlie Chan, complete with bushy, caucasian eye brows! Peter Elliot his head honcho, made up to look like a typical apple pie American, complete with Mikado make up!The late Peter Arne seemed just as at home as when serving in one of his excellent parts in the Pink Panther series of comedies! Remember the great shorts that made up The Twilight Zone? Well, this could've been one if it wasn't just a little bit too long! There were a few Americans in the cast, and even some orientals, but the movie was so obviously British, complete with terrible Las Vegas cops American accents.The background music was a cross between Dragnet and the Johnny Stacato theme. Maybe they should have used worms in the plot instead of Chinese, that would've been a little more believable! A real good laugh though, and I give this a 1 for awful as it is not too bad to even acknowledge as entertainment!

If you used to enjoy watching Napoleon Solo and his friends back in the sixties, saving the world from democracy every week on television then this might be a movie for you. On second thoughts, get some old Man from Uncle videos, or go and see the new James Bond.