Something's Fishy

 

ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN-1979-Survivors of a shipwrecked prison ship including a Lt./doctor Ross (Claudio Cassinelli; in MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD the same year) and some prisoners have their lifeboat attacked by a sea monster. The survivors of that attack wind up on an island where they find a voodoo altar and one of them declares the island is inhabited by zombies. When a snake threatens them it's shot by a mysterious woman on horseback. She warns them to leave as the owner of the island, Edmund Rackham doesn't want visitors. The group also seems to be followed by a strange frog-like creature. They meet the smug, pompous Rackham (Richard Johnson; in ZOMBIE the same year)  who offers them shelter. Rackham and his wife Amanda (Barbara Bach; THE SPY WHO LOVED ME) obviously have some marital problems. He invites Ross to dinner and while they discuss various things an old man spies on them. Later Rackham watches his smirking head servant Shakira (Beryl Cunningham) perform a voodoo ceremony and then sees her bonding with the frog monster. After one of the cons is killed attacking a woman Ross has his own encounter with Froggy but is saved when Amanda orders it to stop. Ross discovers that a famous biologist Prof. Marvin (Joseph Cotton; in GUYANA: CULT OF THE DAMNED the same year) is in the house too and very sick. He's also Amanda's father. Rackham seems desperate to have Ross keep him alive. Finally Rackham reveals some secrets to Ross. Under the island is the last remnants of Atlantis now occupied by the fish men. There's a huge treasure there but it's too deep. Rackham needs the fish men's help to get it. Prof. Marvin invented a potion that allows him to communicate with the creatures. Amanda can too. But Marvin is actually a mad scientist drummed out of the medical profession for his experiments on humans. Turns out the amphibian inhabitants are actually humans mutated by him. 

This movie isn't great with too many long stretches of nothing happening and some very dark scenes. A lot does happen in the last half hour though as a volcano erupts, Ross almost drowns but is saved by the dying Shakira who Rackham shot when she attempted to kill his wife, Ross and Rackham have two fights, the last resulting in Rackham's bloody death at the claws of the fish men who save Amanda from drowning. She and Ross survive.

Sergio Martino directed this Italian production that played in US theaters under the titles SOMETHING IN THE DARK and SCREAMERS. Both feature a new gory opening sequence featuring Cameron Mitchell & Mel Ferrer. 

The same year he made FISHMEN Martino also made THE GREAT ALLIGATOR which featured Bach, Cassinelli and Johnson. In 1995 he made a sequel for Italian TV "The Queen of the Fishmen". 

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"I've made a lot of junk". ..Joseph Cotten

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".

Americans In Japan (and underwater)

LATITUDE ZERO-1969-This Toho production much like the previous year's THE GREEN SLIME was made in Japan but used several American actors in the lead roles. An American reporter Perry Lawton (Richard Jaeckel; also in GREEN SLIME) and two Japanese scientists Dr. Ken Tashiro (Akira Takarada; from the original GODZILLA) and Dr. Jules Masson (Masumi Okada) are trapped in a diving belt after an horrendous explosion. They are rescued by the crew of the atomic submarine Alpha, under the leadership Captain MacKenzie (Joseph Cotton), a Capt. Nemo-ish guy in an open silk shirt and gold chain who claims his sub is 160 years old! Which is nothing since he's 204! His assistant is Dr. Barton (Linda Haynes), a cutie in a very revealing outfit. He has to abort his mission of studying underwater volcanoes (which caused the diving belt to crash) and rush home because of Masson's head injury. Cesar Romero is the evil Dr. Malic who has one of his subs attack the Alpha. ("How bloody inventive that MacKenzie is") His “companion” is Lucretia (Patricia Medina; Mrs. Joseph Cotton in real life). 

It seems that Malic would have taken over the surface world long ago if not for the efforts of MacKenzie and “Latitude Zero” an underwater paradise/kingdom with a sun, waterfalls and agents all over the world. A new recruit, Dr. Okada (Tetsu Nakamura) who has invented a secret formula, is kidnapped (along with his daughter) by Malic who threatens them with some whacky furry man-bats. He acts very crazy while putting a woman's brain into the body of a lion (man in a suit) he's crossed with a vulture. ("You're a monster!" "No, I'm a genius!") MacKenzie (and his servant Kobo) joins forces with the three land lubbers to invade Malic's island and rescue the doctor. They wear gold jumpsuits with gloves that have flame throwers and lasers built in the fingers. Along the way they are terrorized by a landslide, giant rats and small bats. Eventually Malic is defeated (by his own creature) and Lawton returns to the surface where no one believes his story.

I wonder if Joseph Cotton while making movies like CITIZEN KANE & THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS with Orson Welles ever thought he'd be fighting flying man-bats while shooting a laser from his finger? Probably not, but that's show biz! Cotton doesn't look too happy most of the time despite being protector of the Earth. Romero steals the show as the insane bad guy who really loses it in the end. Medina seemed to be enjoying her role too. There's of course a lot of GODZILLA connections here. GORJIRA star Takarada (who's voice isn't dubbed in this film. He's actually speaking English for a change), special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya (who died soon after this), composer Akira Ifukube and as Malic's winged lion Haruo Nakajima who played Godzilla many times! 

LATITUDE ZERO was directed by the legendary Ishiro Honda who also made the disappointing GODZILLA'S REVENGE the same year. It's a lot like STARMAN with a little of TV's VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA thrown in but the ending makes no sense!

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The Creature From The Black Lagoon

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON-1954-This “creature classic” from Universal-International (originally filmed in 3-D) takes place in the Upper Amazon (after a brief intro on how the world began) where the fossilized remains of an over sized claw are found. Two research-ers, David Reed (Richard Carlson), a se-rious level headed science guy and Mark Williams (Richard Denning), a crabby hard nose who's more concerned with financial success, head an expedition to check out the find. They bring along Reed's fiancee Kay (Julie Adams) too. Nestor Paiva is Lucas, the guy who steers their “barge”. Whit Bissell is Dr. Thompson, another victim, I mean researcher. Little do they suspect that the creature who's remains they are looking for is still alive and has killed two local native helpers. 

Their first dig doesn't turn out so good so Reed has a plan to visit the uncharted “Black Lagoon”. After only seeing a scaly claw for a few scenes, The Creature finally emerges when Reed and Williams go scuba diving. When Kay goes for a swim, the creature checks her out. On another scuba dive, the duo have a closer encounter with “the gill man” where Williams spears him. Later, after it's obvious his intentions lay with Kay, they use a native drug to capture him and put him in a bam-boo cage. That doesn't last long and he breaks out and does some plastic surgery on Thompson. When they try to leave the creature blocks their path. In their efforts to clear a path Williams is killed. Just when it looks like they'll escape the creature grabs Kay and takes her back to his pad, I mean cave. Before he can do in Reed the Gill Man dies in a hail of bullets...or does he? 

TCFTBL is one of the great monster movies of the 1950's. The creature itself deserves to be right up there with all the other “famous monsters” like Frankenstein & Dracula.

The year before this director Jack Arnold made another movie in 3-D the Sci-Fi themed IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (also starring Carlson). Producer William Alland was a former member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. He played the reporter trying to find out the meaning of “rosebud” in CITIZEN KANE. He'd also produced IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and produced later Arnold efforts including the sequel THE REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, TARANTULA and THE SPACE CHILDREN. Co-screenwriter Harry Essex had penned IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and later worked a lot in TV. In 1971 he made his own version of an undersea creature, the whacked out OCTO-MAN. Ricou Browning portrayed the creature underwater, while Ben Chapman was the creature on land. The same year as CREATURE star Carlson directed his own Sci-Fi movie RIDER TO THE STARS. There's a also a memorable musical score by the un-credited trio of Hans Salter, Herman Stein and Henry Mancini.

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Kind of A Sequel

CAPTAIN NEMO AND THE UNDERWATER CITY-1969-In this British sequel to Disney’s 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, Captain Nemo (Robert Ryan) has built an underwater city called “Templemere”. While roaming the sea in his submarine The Nautilus he and his crew rescue a group of people who’s ship was wrecked in a storm. Chuck Connors is a US senator who wants Nemo to share is fantastic technology with the world. Nanette Newman is the head strong female survivor with a small son. Bill Fraser (RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY) and Kenneth Connor (’ALLO ’ALLO) are two gold hungry brothers who provide comedy relief. Alan Cuthbertson is a claustrophobic engineer who starts trouble. It’s pretty boring and Ryan is fairly catatonic as Nemo. Luciana Paluzzi (THE GREEN SLIME) is Mala who provides the love triangle with Connors and Nemo’s jealous first mate (John Turner).

Director James Hill previously made BORN FREE (and it’s sequel) and A STUDY IN TERROR.

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