Another Quickie By Corman

THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH-1960-In Puerto Rico Harold Gern (Anthony Carbone) hides out with his unhappy wife Evelyn (Betsy Jones-Moreland) because he’s been indicated. At a cock fight they are joined by his lawyer Martin Joyce (Edward Wain better known as Robert Towne who also wrote the screenplay). After they go scuba diving they find it hard to breathe. Then they discover their boat driver dead. 

They head back to town and see lots of dead bodies. It becomes apparent that the trio has survived the apocalypse. They hightail it to a secluded villa near a beach and tensions rise due to the two men one woman situation. There's a lot of talk in this 3 day wonder producer/ director Roger Corman made quickly after wrapping CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA (also with Cardone) and THE BATTLE OF BLOOD ISLAND. Strange tragic yet hopeful ending. 

Music by Ronald Stein. It was released on a double bill with THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Most copies are in black and white but a faded color version exists at The Internet Archive.

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Wet Crime Drama

RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA-1964-Bill (Ken Scott), a scuba diver hatches a plot to rob a bank on Catalina Island. He enlists his ex-friend Tucker (Russ Bender) to help him. Bill plans to scuba over from the main island to where the money is kept. Meanwhile his deadbeat brother Buddy (Garth Benton) spies on Bill's wife Dottie (Merry Anders) while she undresses. Somehow Buddy and a trouble maker named Perdy (Booth Colman) nozzle in on the caper. However before the big heist Bill catches Buddy putting the moves on Dottie and nearly kills him. They pull off the robbery but Tucker dies and then complications set in resulting in Bill being killed and Perdy and Buddy being arrested. Dolly watches the whole thing from afar. 

Director Maury Dexter (THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH) had been making low budget crime dramas (and westerns) for a while. After this he went on to make MARYJANE and HELL'S BELLES and a few others before going into TV (namely THE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE). It's pretty boring but has cool “Telstar” like music.

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Sea Hunt

SEA HUNT-1958-1961-I like to watch old TV shows just to see the guest stars, usually “stars” before they became famous. Sea Hunt is loaded with them. I was amazed to learn that 155 episodes were produced over a six year period. It was a popular show! 

Lloyd Bridges starred as Mike Nelson, an expert scuba diver who besides having solo adven-tures also helped out the government by being a commodore in the US naval auxiliary. He was also the only actual “regular” in the series cast although there were reoccurring characters played by Ross Elliot, Russ Conway and a few others. Oldest son Beau played the same character in two episodes. Mostly Nelson solved mysteries and fought cold war spies, hijackers and smugglers. He also found time to prevent murders and help third world countries try to acclimate themselves to their new found democracy. There are a few shows dealing with sea monsters and mermaids but in the end there was always a rational explanation. Some unusual stories involved the discovery of an underground marijuana farm, tainted fish that made people who ate them violent, the hunt for a deadly gas created by the Nazis and the training of “aquanettes”, female astronauts who one day planned to walk on Venus! 

Nelson was likable, clever and strong and the best in his business. Very little got by him. Besides thugs and spies he sometimes tangled with sharks and alligators and even an octopus. Every episode took Nelson under some type of body of water: ocean, lake, lagoon, the Everglades. One exception was the first episode with son Beau where Nelson saved his character from flooding in the sewer system! Younger son Jeff appears in one episode. 

It was a comic book too!

The show was syndicated by ZIV (Science Fiction Theater) but played in prime-time over CBS. Filmed mainly in Florida with some scenes done in The Bahamas, Ivan Tors was the executive producer and later seasons featured stunt diving by Ricou Browning (THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON). Bridges directed at least one episode himself. The show was still popular when it ended its run. Apparently syndicated shows running in prime time became less attractive to the networks. I've also read a story that the demise of the show was caused by Bridges quitting because he felt the stories were becoming too focused on land espionage than underwater intrigue. 

Some guest stars: 

Leonard Nimoy-5 times         Robert Conrad-2 times      
Maris Wrixon                         Whit Bissel
Ross Martin-2 times               Ted Knight 

Laura Lawson-3 times            Joi Lansing        
King Moody-3 times              Myron Healy

John Marley-2 times              Robert Clarke                          
Morris Ankrum                      Brett Halsey

Larry Hagman                        Mari Blanchard                          
Gregg Palmer                         John Anderson

Steve Ritch                             Peter Breck

Bruce Dern                             George Becwar

Jack Nicolson                         Joyce Meadows

Victor Buono                          Ken Curtis

Paul Birch                              Thomas Henry
Robert Montgomery             Robert Quarry        

                                               

                         

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Final note: Mike Nelson's favorite TV show was "Dempsey of the Deep".