Leofwine_draca Disaster maestro Irwin Allen is the old hand behind CITY BENEATH THE SEA, a TV movie that happily recycles many of the props, sets and scenarios from Allen's various TV productions. It's a slight tale, starring Stuart Whitman as a man who travels to the bottom of the sea where he must protect an underwater kingdom from robbers and an incoming asteroid.This is pure hokum, of course, but not without charm. The late '60s-era special effects have to be seen to be believed, they're that cheesy, but the film as a whole isn't bad. Allen ropes in many old faces for cameo appearances, including the likes of Whit Bissell and Joseph Cotten, and he can't resist incorporating some 'doomsday' disaster scenarios into the storyline. Add in the requisite fist fights and underwater diving shots and you have an incredibly dated but nonetheless fun little TV movie.

Blulite As a kid I had this movie on Viewmaster in 1972, on 3 reels I really liked it then. Never had it on VHS, but was glad I waited to get it on DVD. Which finally I did. I enjoyed movie when it came out, enjoyed the cast, especially Robert Wagner, Rosemary Forsythe, and Robert Colbert, I really like all the people that were used as guest stars. And I enjoyed the city and that they used the flying sub from "Voyage to the bottom of the sea", in the movie. I liked the sets, the costumes were excellent, the US Navy really should consider naval uniforms like the costume department used in the movie, the music supplied as very good, I certainly wish this had become a Television show, at the time it aired on broadcast I thought it was a Pilot for an upcoming TV show, sadly that never happened.

HyperPup 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.

cascade-1 When I first saw this film in 1971 on KING-TV in Seattle as a kid, I had no idea it had won an Emmy for best special effects or that the screenplay had been written by Star Trek producer John Meredyth Lucas.All I knew was that it was a wonderfully clean and futuristic looking film, with lots of action and exciting situations. For fans of Irwin Allen's previous TV shows, it's a treasure house of familiar faces and reused props. James Darren, Robert Colbert and Whit Bissell are here from "Time Tunnel," as is Richard Basehart and Robert Dowdell from "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." The glowing red planetoid, which still looks fantastic as it approaches the Earth, had previously been a glowing GREEN planetoid used for "Land of the Giants". Even the main title music for this film is background music from "Land of the Giants". The opening shots of the flying sub (stock footage from Voyage) is straight from the negative, and looks incredible. The film also boosts many new effects as well and impressive sets. It would have been a great TV series, something more ambitious for the early 1970s than "Invisible Man" or "Six Million Dollar Man". A fun ride.