Absolutely Fantastic

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Interesting.. on the opening title screen, this has "copyright 1939".. which must be the RE-release date. Was originally released in 1931 or so. I've never been let down by an Alan Hale film. He made over 200 films ... probably the hardest working guy in show-biz. Could do anything. Even though it's rated pretty so-so on imdb, it's pretty good. Appears to be a mix of footage of a real ship sinking, combined with filmed studio shots. As we open, the Alatania is sunk, and Captain Winters (Hale) a witness is being tried for neglect of duty. Later... Winter is back on board a salvage ship to find the sunken ship and bring up anything of value. Winters tries to convince Evelyn, the daughter, (Laura LaPlante) that he will help her get back her inheritance. Trickery, guns, back-stabbing, conniving all around. Lots of brawling. Viewers will probably recognize Clarence Wilson as the scheming Mr. Sykes. Because of his appearance, he probably played the underhanded, evil guy much more often than he played a good guy. This creeps along at a snail's pace towards the center, but picks up again right near the end. It's not so bad. Entertaining enough. Directed by William Nigh. He had directed a whole bunch of the Mr. Wong films.

IMDb lists the date for this as 1939. However, Netflix says 1931. Well, judging by the lady's hairstyle and clothes, 1931 looks to be about right and 1939 cannot possibly be the date. Perhaps the film was made in 1931 (or so) and sat on the shelf for most of the decade--only to be released in '39. Who knows? Regardless of the date, one thing that is hard to deny is that this is a cheap and pretty lame movie. It begins with a prologue that tells us that they're using a lot of crappy stock footage in the first portion of the film. Well, they didn't say 'crappy', but at least they acknowledged the film was original--and very grainy. It shows the sinking of an Allied ship by a German sub. And, because a ship's captain (Alan Hale) disobeyed orders and stopped to look for survivors, he got himself in HUGE trouble and was drummed out of the US Navy.Years pass. Now Hale is hired for a job, but there is LOTS of trickery and deceit going on--and it's hard to know exactly who's working for who. You know that Hale MUST be a good guy (it's the formula), the skinny skeletal guy is the villain and, here's the ridiculously unbelievable part, the captain of the sub who sank the boat at the beginning of the film is also aboard!! And, it all has to do with a silly plot involving cheating a lady out of her inheritance.None of "Phantom Submarine U67" makes a lot of sense, and the lady is a TERRIBLE actress. The film also is pretty talky and dull as well. As for the other merits of the film, the direction was static and the scene involving divers early in the film is hilariously bad! That's because it is VERY obvious that they superimposed the actors on an 'expensive underwater set'--which was, in reality, a cheap 10 gallon aquarium!! You can even see the tropical fish swimming about in this home aquarium!! Overall, dumb and silly from start to finish--but not quite bad enough to satisfy bad movie buffs!

Another "B" that's worth a look – especially for fans of Laura La Plante – is the 1931 The Sea Ghost (later re-issued as U 67). The movie stars Alan Hale as a disgraced skipper (courtesy of the stock footage library) and German actor, Peter Erkelenz (in what turned out to be the second of only two Hollywood movies). The plot (propelled by Clarence Wilson's sneaky lawyer) moves from one creaky situation to the next and is certainly not helped by Claud Allister's typical British-to-the-backbone comic relief. Nonetheless, director William Nigh handles a bit of location footage with finesse. As for Miss La Plante's blonde bombshell, she certainly looks great (thanks to ace photographer, Sid Hickox, on loan from Warner Brothers)) but her voice seems both a little too soft and too cultured for a hard-boiled heroine.

Alan Hale (Father of the Skipper on Gilligan Island) stars as a Captain of a ship during WW1. When a sub sinks a passenger liner near him he pauses in his pursuit of the sub to check for survivors. A Naval board of inquiry finds he disobeyed orders and removes him from service. Years later as Captain of his own ship he is hired to recover a safe from the hold of the ship that was sunk and to allow the captain of the sub to be the man who dives. From there we have other complications involving a will, weaselly lawyers, fist fights and other nonsense. A very good very early sound film that makes one wonder why Hale never got more leading roles. A breezy and fast paced 62 minutes this movie is the sort of thing that Hollywood rarely made, especially after the production code was enforced (bare shoulders on a women, hints of lesbianism were among the no no's). I really liked this movie a great deal. Let me be honest its a not a great film, but it was perfect for a very cloudy Sunday afternoon when I was feeling under the weather. It was the perfect distraction from the world and my woes.