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The Atomic Submarine (1959)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 4:41 pm    Post subject: The Atomic Submarine (1959) Reply with quote




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.

(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.



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The special effects by Irving Block, Jack Rabin, and Louis DeWitt, the team which did "Kronos" two years earlier, are exactly. 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.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Mar 10, 2023 4:27 pm; edited 17 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 12:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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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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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 6:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of my first attempts at model making was that sub!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 6:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

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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alltare
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 11:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember Joi Lansing most as "Gladys Flatt", the wife of Lester Flatt, on the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES.
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 1:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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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
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:37 pm    Post subject: Re: The Atomic Submarine (1959) Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
. . . 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.

Bud, that's one of the things I loved about this movie. The idea of submarine passenger and cargo vessels for taking a shortcut under the ice. It's an old concept, both in SF and real life.

A favorite issue of my Dad's 1960s Popular Mechanics or Popular Science had a cutaway of an atomic powered cargo submarine that would travel under the polar ice. The submarine would tow submarine barges holding oil, or other cargo.

Even though I haven't seen the movie in decades, I loved it as a child. It always struck me that it would have made a good "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" episode.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

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








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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 5:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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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Krel
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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.
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 5:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

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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~ The Space Children (1958)
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Sat May 23, 2020 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2022 12:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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

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

I keep hoping he'll come back, but I'm not hopeful.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2022 5:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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


You'd think the writers for a magazine like Popular Mechanics would do their homework. Those are called diving planes, not "rudders." And modern nuclear submarines don't have a conning tower. The tall fin-like structure atop the hull (called the "sail") contains no crew spaces -- it's completely free-flooding inside except for a narrow access trunk. The sail is really just a streamlined housing for the periscopes, snorkel, and radio and radar antennas.
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