A flawed 1959 sci-fi film that may be of interest to fans of IT CONQUERED THE WORLD or JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET. But this is no THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. The film has a lot to offer in the area of bad miniature effects, military melodrama, and 1950’s sci-fi goobledygook. The plot itself is not too bad, and might even be interesting had it come out today and made use of big budget digital FX. The movie does feature some of those 1950’s charms that MST 3000 fans like to make fun of.

The film stars Dick Foran as captain of the submarine Tigershark, and Arthur Franz as ornery commander Reef Holoway. Brett Halsey is Dr. Carl Nelson, inventor of the lungfish, a manned underwater explorer. Victor Varconi and Tom Conway play the egghead scientists, Dr. Clifford Kent, and Sir Ian Hunt. Reef Holoway’s got a killer girlfriend played by Joi Lansing (the only female in the movie and she is not in it enough), who was also in QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE.

A narration informs us that atomic submarines regularly use the Artic for their shipping routes. Several of these submarines have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The US Navy has called in Captain Wendover to helm the Tigershark, a secret super-submarine. The Captain, along with Commander Reef are to lead to team of scientists to investigate the disappearances. One of the team is Carl Nelson, who along with his father (and friend of Commander Reef) invented the lungfish mini-sub. Carl is a young man who does not believe in the military, and so he and Commander Reef are at odds, which creates some of the melodrama.

When the Tigershark finally reaches the Artic ocean, they are attacked by the alien craft (which the scientists dub as The Cyclops) and the saucer retreats. Much later they relocate the saucer and start using all their weapons on it; which does no harm to the enemy. In an attempt to stop it from again escaping, Capt. Wendover orders that they ram the alien saucer in suicide-like fashion to destroy it. However, after the impact, like a living thing the hull of the saucer seals up around the Tigershark and sinks to the bottom of the ocean taking the submarine with it. Now, the only way for the submarine crew to survive is to enter the alien craft and cut through their hull using torches. A team lead by Commander Reef begins the journey into the enemy alien saucer where a first contact situation will commence.

Orville Hampton’s script is ripe with melodrama but ultimately falls short for its on-going narration throughout the film. I’m all for introductory narration, but to have it continue throughout the movie is very distracting. The narration is usually accompanied by newsreel footage and is obviously an attempt to "educate" the viewer. But instead of advancing the plot by dialog or action, it becomes evident that it is a budgetary restriction. Also, when Reef finally meets up with the alien, the alien itself reveals far too much to fills in the story’s gaps. It’s as if the writer was using the Alien to compensate for his own poor plotting.

The effects for this film are quite primitive and are not even the caliber of a classic Godzilla film. Though the underwater submarine battles obviously resemble pencils floating in a fish tank, the aliens themselves are rather convincing (for a fifties flick) and memorable. They have a body like a tube, and on top of the tube is a huge hairy eyeball. On the lower half of their body are several slimy tendrils rolling about. If you’ve ever seen THE SIMPSONS episodes that feature strange cyclopean aliens then you know what these aliens look like! One of the aliens gets shot in its eye and the juice pours. In one surprising effects shot, the aliens use some heat-inducing weapons to shrivel up the crew members in some convincing makeup effects scenes for a movie of this vintage.

This 1959 film was most likely shot in 1.33.1 ratio and that is what Image serves up here. Considering the age of the film, and the fact that it is black and white, the image is quite good. Everything is either shades of pure black or shades of pure white which makes for an eye catching image. There is virtually no grey at all unlike the black and white films you see on AMC. There are no nics or scratches in the film elements or transfer. Some grain is visible, but not as much as you would expect from a film of this vintage. The blacks and shadow detail are very good. Gilbert Warrenton’s cinematography is done justice by this DVD transfer. That being said, the film does makes use of some newsreel footage as well as stock footage. These brief scenes do not match the sharp clarity of the interior and exterior shots of the film. These scenes look mainly grayish, are fuzzy, and have a lots of grain. Fortunately, the stock footage is used sparingly, and does not interrupt the flow of the film. After viewing some b+w classic films on DVD lately, I’ve come to the conclusion that DVD and black and white films are made for each other.

This soundtrack is an impressive PCM mono mix. What does this mean? Well, the audio track is not compressed on the DVD meaning the wavelength is wider resulting in better sound and range. Image is onto something here, for this is the best mono soundtrack I’ve heard yet. There is actually some depth and bass present compared to a compressed mono mix. There are no hissing, pops, or distortions of any kind normally associated with a film of this age. Along with the ongoing narration, the film is generally dialog driven and it sounds perfect for a mono mix. Alexander Lazlo’s score is an electronic one typical of 50’s sci-fi pics and it sounds weirdly eclectic. The narration (by Pat Michaels) sounds crisp and the head aliens voice (by John Hilliard) sounds ominous. This is a very clean and powerful (believe it or not) mono mix.

FEATURES

The only extra is a theatrical trailer. The trailer is full frame and mono. The quality is what you would see if it were on VHS.

CONCLUSION

THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE works on two levels. For those of you who enjoy black and white movies and enjoy viewing films with nostalgia in mind then the film is worth checking out. For the rest of you, here is a movie that you can watch and laugh at ala MST 3000. However, The MST 3000 TV show doesn’t have the high quality video and sound that this DVD from Image has. I accidentally came upon this film at three o’clock in the morning a few years back, and was frightened away from watching it because of the horrendous video quality that was being broadcast. So if you ever consider seeing THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE, make sure you see it on DVD. Incidentally, Image has acquired the rights to numerous 1950s-60s sci-fi flicks, and if they continue the quality of this DVD and throw in some extras, then they might produce some interesting DVDs.

THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE is available from DVDEmpire.com

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