Wonderful character development!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Finding the RKO Adventure Comedy The Tuttles of Tahiti to be far better than expected,I started hoping that the BBC would show other similar films. Taking a look at BBC iPlayer listings,I was pleased to see an RKO sea life adventure epic,which led to me jumping in the ocean with Jane Russell.The plot:Splashing their cash to go on a boat to go in search for sunken treasure in the Caribbean,Johnny and his friend Dominic take their partners Theresa and Gloria along,with priest Father Cannon joining them at the last moment. Diving under the sea, Dominic and Johnny are thrilled to find a ship wreck which appears to contain priceless items. Coming back up from the ocean,Johnny and Dominic discover that a both filled with shady locals have taken an interest in their activities.View on the film: Going under the sea in scuba gear wearing a sexy figure-hugging red dress, Jane Russell gives a charismatic performance for her final RKO production,with Russell hitting the cheerful Adventure targets that the movie aims for. Stuck with re-writing the original screenplay by Hugh King & Robert B. Bailey,writer Walter Newman layers a new plot outline in extended narration sequences played over the scuba diving,which despite taking place during a "wet" activity,come off as rather dry.Breaking the waves above land,Newman gives the group a neat Adventure tale,which rides on light comedic flirting and a slick desire between Johnny and Dominic to explore the depths of the deep blue sea,which is disappointingly pulled down by the plodding added narration. Losing a huge amount of footage and cameras left in a barge and shooting during the storm seasons,director John Sturges and cinematographer Harry J. Wild are impressively still able to set sail for an enjoyable Adventure. Taking place a good amount of time under water,Sturges and Wild give the scuba diving an impressive crisp atmosphere,where smooth side shots allow the viewer to clearly see the cast underwater and also to spot the shiny treasure in the underwater world.

SYNOPSIS: Two couples search for sunken gold in the Caribbean in the mid-1950sCONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Escapism. I suppose that once you graduated from Beach Blanket Bingo and started drinking rum and coke instead of Soda Pop Ricky's, you started watching films such as this. More of a travelogue for snow bound Midwesterners in Detroit and Minot, it shows a lot of tropical settings and Jane Russell.PROS AND CONS: This isn't a great film, but it is an interesting window into the past. The primary reason for watching is Jane Russell. One of those actresses that could ooze a lot of sex appeal without taking off a lot of clothes. She captures the audience in any scene she is in. Richard Egan as her husband, is one of those 1950s stereotype leading men, chiseled jaw, deep voice, good looking, rugged (probably gay). American virtue is on full display in this film. Love, honor, sharing, fairness, and no heavy plot twists or dark secrets. Everything is pretty much superficial.By today's standards this isn't good film making. Whenever there is a real change, there is noticeable fading at the ends and beginning of the reels (bad film to digital transfer?). Often times there are tint or lighting changes in the same scene when there is an edit. I loved the yacht that serves as their base for scuba diving in the film. On the outside it is a small slope that could probably sleep four adults. But the interior shots of the boat show it to be as big as the Queen Mary with 10 foot high ceilings. There is a lot of travelogue footage of sailboats at sunset, and underwater scenes with bubbles and sharks, which take up about 1/4 of the film. An obligatory dance scene in a dance bar with a smokin hot Latin band. All the usual stuff to make the folks in Peoria wish they were somewhere else in November 1958. An interesting look back to a simpler time, when things weren't to complex.

Why is this film never shown --even on Turner Classics-- in its original aspect ratio? I believe it was the first RKO widescreen film. The pan and scan version makes all the underwater photography look murky and that had been the movie's big allure, along with Jane Russell of course. But I have noticed, especially on Fox Movie Channel, that some widescreen films are never shown in widescreen. Others are. Perhaps the original prints are rotting in a can somewhere. SKY DIVERS, a movie with James Coburn and filmed in Greece is another example of one never shown in all its original glory. Both of these films' experience would be greatly enhanced by full view of the scenery.

"Underwater!" is a routine treasure-search adventure with Jane Russell (Theresa) in love with Richard Egan (Johnny) diving with him and with Dominic (Gilbert Roland), his best friend, in the deep blue water of the Caribbean looking for bars of gold lost in the wreck of a Spanish sailing ship...The essential point of the film is not the legendary treasure shared in part with an unscrupulous 'bandido' named Rico (Joseph Calleia) but a nice shot worth to be remembered: Jane Russell in her distinctive particular one-piece red bathing-suit moving underwater in front Sturges' camera...With a great Latin music score, and the blessing of Father Cannon (Robert Keith) for winning his gold cross, and with Lori Nelson (Gloria), the owner of the beautiful boat in love with Dominic, the film photographed in SuperScope and Technicolor, imparts a special Latin flavor, serving one and only purpose, the figure and the natural wonders of Jane Russell in her last film for Howard Hughes...Ironically another pin-up girl, and another 'Jane' was about to be born, the screen goddess Jayne Mansfield.