ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Two things make it hard for me to enjoy this bargain basement science fiction film, even though it's not without some imagination.

(1) All the submarine interiors look exactly like what they are: sets with three walls, a few pieces of furniture, and some lockers. Submarines aren't made that way — and I just love submarines.

But there are a few interiors that fairly good.



(2) All the submarines exteriors look exactly like what they are: teeny tiny miniatures that are smaller than the toys I used to play with in the bathtub.



However, any movie that let's Author Franz make out with Joi Lansing deserves a modest amount of respect. Miss Lansing is remembered by sci-fi fans my age for her role in Superman's Wife, the color episode that cast the blond beauty as a police woman who pretends to be married to the Man of Steel so she can get the goods on a crime boss.

An entire generation of young Baby Boomers fell deeply in love with this gal and never managed to climb back out again.


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But it's Bon Voyage for Arthur before anything truly interesting can happen with Joi, and we're off to the North Pole in a yarn set in the not-too-distant future, when mankind is using submarines to carry passengers and freight across the ocean.

That's a concept unique to this movie, and I doubt anybody would call it practical, but it certainly shows imagination.

A mysterious force begins destroying ships, and the Navy sends their most heavily armed submarine to investigate. Commander Arthur Franz ("Flight to Mars") and scientist Brett Halsey ("Return of the Fly") put aside their personal difference while they attempt to solve the mystery.

This movie is not boring, and if you forgive the blatant lack of money to do the story well, it's enjoyable. If you've seen it before, you might consider watching the DVD with a commentary by Tom Weaver, chatting with producers Alex and Richard Gordon, the guys who gave us Fiend Without a Face and First Man into Space. Very interesting.

The ship-killer turns out to be a submerged flying saucer that runs on magnetism, recharging itself periodically at the North Pole. This movie certainly doesn't hide it's alien creature the way some films do.



The special effects by Irving Block, Jack Rabin, and Louis DeWitt, the team which did "Kronos" two years earlier, are not exactly their best work. As I mentioned, the submarine models are so small the camera has difficulty focusing on them.

The saucer's interior is comprised largely of a dark sound stage with all the light focused on the actors, but there is one matt shot of the alien's spherical command center.

And saucer design is fairly good.




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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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First enjoy my post above. Then watch the trailer below.

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_________ The Atomic Submarine (1959) - trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Robert (Butch) Day]

One of my first attempts at model making was that sub!
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Bud Brewster]

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I watched a download of this movie from an obscure online source tonight (with a fine picture) with Bulldogtrekker while chatting on Facebook.

The plot is ambitious, even though the FX are pretty low-budget. We enjoyed the movie (for about the third time) very much.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[alltare]

I remember Joi Lansing most as "Gladys Flatt", the wife of Lester Flatt, on the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES.

[Bogmeister]

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______________The Atomic Submarine Trailer


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Something is destroying ships in the Arctic Circle, so shipping lanes there are closed down and the special sub Tiger Shark is sent to investigate (and possibly eliminate) the mysterious threat.

There are several specially-selected scientists aboard to help figure things out.

There's a bit of drama involved regarding the exec (Arthur Franz) and a young civilian scientist (Brett Halsey). The young scientist is the son of a former military man whom the exec reveres. But the scientist is a pacifist whose outspoken attitudes have ruined his father's life.

The sub's crew eventually encounter an alien flying saucer creeping around under the waves and then, after ramming this saucer, they encounter the saucer's occupant, a one-eyed monster (but, as the alien explains, it's all relative. To the alien, we are very ugly).



This is on the slow side for the first two-thirds of the film. The sub spends a lot of time looking for the elusive threat - over a month — weaving in and around the Arctic (this is also shown via maps).

But, the final act is fairly entertaining, with not all the crew surviving the alien encounter — the manner of death, getting roasted, is sort of horrific for that time.

Some of the interior sets are very low budget and do not look like the interior of a sub. And some of the exterior shots of the sub, perhaps purposely blurred so that we don't notice that it's a very small model, are lame.

The alien does explain — via telepathy — the strategy of his alien race, that of scoping out a potential new world for themselves, but the alien's voice is unintentionally comical with all the melodramatics.

BoG's Score: 5 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Krel.]

[Bud Brewster]

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I contradicted my statement later when I wrote extensively about "tethered undersea cities" at the thread below and in several others.







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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]

This is from a Popular Mechanics that we only have a partial issue of:



Is it the one you remember or similar?
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Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

[Krel.]

No, although I really like this one, thanks.

I did a search, and it is from Popular Mechanics Magazine, March of 1970. It is an article about a icebreaker submarine that would tow a powered oil barge. The artwork is by the great Ed Valigursky

I found the article on this page: http://m.edvaligurskyart.mypage.ru/1038791.html

David.

[Eadie]

GREAT HERBERT'S GHOST!

The Dragon in the Sea: Serial publication: Astounding, November 1955 – January 1956. First edition: New York: Doubleday, 1956. Also titled Under Pressure and 21st Century Sub. by Frank Herbert
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Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

[Bud Brewster]

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Good God A'mighty, that article is amazing!

I'm going to post copies of it both here and in Science now, add Fiction later. Thanks, Krel!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]

Mr. Wayne Orzel

You have made some great plans of various vehicles that are posted on ALL SCI_FI.

Here are the best pictures of the SS TigerShark (properly the SSN Tigershark) from The Atomic Submarine (1959).

Could you do the same for this?

Sincerely;

Eadie.









Thanks!
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Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

[Bud Brewster]

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Wayne left All Sci-Fi several months ago (for the second time in two years) because I offended him unintentionally.

I've called him repeatedly to humbly apologize . . . but he's never responded!

I keep hoping he'll come back, but I'm not optimistic.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]