Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

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Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

1961 movie poster
Directed by Irwin Allen
Produced by Irwin Allen
Written by Irwin Allen and
Charles Bennett
Starring Walter Pidgeon
Joan Fontaine
Barbara Eden
Peter Lorre
Robert Sterling
Michael Ansara
Frankie Avalon
Music by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter
Cinematography Winton Hoch, ASC
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) July 12, 1961
Running time 105 min
Country USA
Language English
This article is about the original film. For the spin off TV series, see Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series).

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a science fiction film produced and directed by Irwin Allen, released in 1961 by 20th Century Fox. The story was written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett. Walter Pidgeon starred as Admiral Harriman Nelson, with Robert Sterling as Captain Lee Crane. The original choice for the Crane role was David Hedison who later played the role in the TV series. However Hedison had turned the role down as he had just done The Lost World (1960 film) for Allen and wished other roles.[1] The film had a supporting cast including Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, Michael Ansara, and Peter Lorre. The theme song was sung by Frankie Avalon, who also appeared in the film.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The USOS Seaview's dramatic 60 degree angle surfacing in the Arctic.

The new, state of the art nuclear submarine Seaview is on diving trials in the Arctic Ocean. The Seaview is designed and built by scientist & engineering genius Admiral Harriman Nelson (USN-Ret) (Walter Pidgeon). The Seaview's Captain Lee Crane (Robert Sterling) is on loan from the US Navy. One of the on-board observers is Dr. Susan Hiller (Joan Fontaine), studying crew-related stress. The mission includes being out of radio range for 96 hours, but icebergs begin to crack & melt, with boulder-size pieces crashing into the ocean around the submarine. Surfacing, Adm Nelson & Capt Crane discover fire burning in the sky. After the rescue of a delta flow scientist, Miguel Alvarez (Michael Ansara), the sub receives radio contact from Mission Director Inspector Bergan at the Bureau of Marine Exploration. He advises that a meteor shower pierced the Van Allen radiation belt causing it to catch fire, resulting in a world-threatening global warming. Nelson's on-board friend & scientist, retired Commodore Lucius Emery (Peter Lorre) concurs that its possible. Bergan advises that the President wants him at a UN Emergency Scientific Meeting as soon as possible.

Nelson and Commodore Emery calculate a plan to end the catastrophe. The USOS Seaview arrives at NY Harbor in three days. At the meeting Nelson informs the UN that according to their calculations, if the heat increase is not stopped, it will become irreversible and Earth has "a life expectancy of about three weeks." The Admiral & Commodore have come up with a plan to extinguish the Skyfire. He proposes firing a nuclear missile at the burning belt from the best calculated location, the Marianas. Nelson posits that when fired at the right place and time, 1600 hours on August 29, the nuclear explosion should overwhelm and extinguish the flames, away into space, essentially "amputating" the belt from the Earth. The Seaview has the capability to fire the missile.

But the Admiral's plan is rejected by the chief scientist and head delegate, Emilio Zucco (Henry Daniel) of France. His reasons are that he knows the composition of gases in the belt and he believes the Skyfire will burn itself out at 173 degrees. Zucco's plan is to let the Skyfire do just that and he feels the Admiral's plan is too risky. Nelson claims that Zucco's burn-out point, however, is beyond that date and time if the current rise rate is maintained. But at Zucco's urging, Nelson and Emery are shouted down and the plan is rejected. Despite the rejection, the Admiral & the Commodore quickly leave the proceedings, advising that his only authorization will be from the President himself.

It is a race against the clock as the Seaview speeds to reach the proper firing position, above the trench in the Marianas in the Pacific. During this time Nelson & Crane agree on tapping the Rio-to-London telephone cable to try to eventually reach the President. However, an unsuccessful attempt on the Admiral's life makes it clear that there is a saboteur on board. But the confusion over who the saboteur might be revolves around rescued scientist Miguel Alvarez, who becomes a religious zealot re the catastrophe, and Dr. Hiller, who secretly admires Dr Zucco's plan. Other obstacles present themselves: a minefieldand a near-mutiny. And Crane himself begins to doubt the Admiral's tactics & reasoning. During the telephone cable attempt, Crane & Alvarez battle a giant octopus. Although the London cable connection is made, Nelson is told there's been no contact with the States for 35 hours. Also, a hostile submarine follows the Seaview deep into the Marianas Trench, but implodes before it can destroy the Seaview.

The sky returns blue & for the USOS Seaview: Mission Accomplished

Near the end of the film the saboteur is revealed to be Dr. Hiller. Captain Crane happens by as she exits the ships "Off Limits" Nuclear Reactor core, looking rather ill. She has been exposed to a fatal dose of radiation: her detector badge is deep red. Walking over the shark-tank walkway, she falls in during a struggle with the Captain, and is killed by a shark. The Admiral learns that temperatures are rising faster than expected. He realizes that Zucco's belief that the Skyfire will burn itself out is in error.

At the end, Seaview reaches the Marianas. There, in spite of the threats and objections of Alvarez, Seaview launches a missile toward the belt and it explodes the burning flames outward, saving the world.

[edit] Technical background

The USOS Seaview in New York harbor, with Nelson & Emery & their plan to the UN to extinguish the flames from the Van Allen Belt.

The name of the film is an inversion of a phrase popular at the time, concerning the exploration of the Arctic Ocean by nuclear submarines, namely, "a voyage to the top of the world".

The film submarine's design is unique in that it features an eight-window bow viewport that provides panoramic undersea views. In the novel of the film by Theodore Sturgeon, the windows are described as "transparent hullplating," a process developed by Nelson as "X-tempered herculite". The bow also has a shark-like bottom flare, and the stern has 1961 Cadillac tail-fins, the "Cadillac" of submarines. In the film, the USOS Seaview (United States Oceanographic Survey) is under the authority of Nelson and the Bureau of Marine Exploration. The novel mentions the bureau as being part of the U.S. Department of Science.

At the time that Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was made, the Van Allen radiation belts had only recently been discovered, and much of what this movie says about them is made up for the film. Discoveries since then clearly invalidate what the film says: the Van Allen belts (actually somewhat more radiation-dense portions of the magnetosphere) are made up of sub-atomic particles trapped by the Earth's magnetic field in the vacuum of space and cannot catch fire, as fire requires oxygen, fuel and an ignition source, all of which are insufficient in the Van Allen Belts. Unburned hydrocarbon emissions have never reached concentrations that could support a "skyfire".

[edit] Reception

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was released to movie theaters in early July 1961 and had run its course by late fall. The film played to mixed reviews from critics, but audiences made it into a success. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was made for US$2 million and brought in US$7 million in box office revenue.

[edit] Impact

For the filming of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, a number of detailed sets, props and scale models were created to realize the Seaview submarine. After the film was finished the sets were simply placed in storage. When Irwin Allen decided to make a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea television series, all he had to do was pull the sets out of storage. This was done at a fraction of the cost that he might have had if he had been beginning from scratch. The film reduced the cost of setting up the show and was the template for the type of stories that were done. The studios, having made the film, helped make the television series easier to produce. The success of the television series encouraged Irwin Allen to produce other science fiction television shows. The most notable of these shows were Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Other media

The success of the movie led to the 1964–1968 TV version on ABC, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. During the run of the series this film was remade as a one-hour episode. The episode was written by Willam Welch and was titled The Sky's on Fire. No mention is made in the episode of the skyfire ever happening before. This is one of several reasons to doubt that the film is part of the TV series' continuity. Many of the scenes in the movie became scenes or even episodes in the television series.

In June 1961, Pyramid Books published a novelization of the feature film by Theodore Sturgeon. The book was reprinted several times during the 1960s. One of those reprintings has Richard Basehart and David Hedison pictured on the cover. The book is still about the Walter Pidgeon film. Collectors who want a novelization of the TV series should find City Beneath the Sea. That book uses the TV characters but, should not be confused with either the TV episode or the later Irwin Allen film of the same name.

The Sturgeon book is based on an early version of the movie script. The book has the same basic story as the movie. The book also has a few characters that were not shown in the film and some additional technical explanation. Some scenes are different from the film. Some scenes in the book are wholly absent from the film, and likewise some scenes from the film are entirely missing from the book.

The original 1961 cover shows a submarine meeting a fanged sea serpent. Neither the submarine nor the sea serpent appear anywhere in the novel or the film. Interestingly a very similar sub design for THAT covers submarine and its mission to save the word shows up in a DELL Comics series called VOYAGE TO THE DEEP to in 1962 to capitalize on the movie's popularity. Its mission also took it to the Mariana's Trench to stop the Earth from wobbling out of orbit. It stopped publishing by issue #4 (confirmation needed) That ship was named Proteus-as was a later subs name in the film FANTASTIC VOYAGE

In 1961 Dell Comics did a full color adaptation of the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie. The comic was Four Color Comics #1230. The comic book has a few publicity stills of the movie plus a section on the history of submarines. In the comic book the Admiral's first name is Farragut instead of Harriman.

The movie poster shown in the infobox is one of four posters that were made to promote the film. Each has different wording and slightly different drawings. Each poster promotes the movie from a different perspective. The poster shown also promotes Sturgeon's book.

There is also a board game, manufactured by a company called GemColor, that is tied to the movie and not the TV show. The box has a photo of a diver with an eight-foot miniature of the Seaview.

The movie has been released on VHS and DVD.On one DVD the film was co-packaged with the film Fantastic Voyage. When the movie was released on a special edition DVD, the special edition was titled "Global Warming Edition".

There was some interest in a remake or reboot of the film in the late 1990s, but the project fell apart relatively quickly.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea [TV Series] (1964) - Critics' Reviews - MSN Movies
  1. Tim Colliver, Seaview: The Making of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, 1992, Alpha Control press.
  2. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (VHS)

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_to_the_Bottom_of_the_Sea"
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