Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

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

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

A couple of respectable elements assemble here for a decent fantasy feature: source material from master of horror Edgar Allan Poe, a capable director in Jacques Tourneur, and the consistently amusing film star Vincent Price. While ultimately it lacks the imagination, budget, and style to be anything more, it's still acceptable entertainment of this kind.Ben (Tab Hunter) is an American living on the Cornish coast at the turn of the 20th century. When mysterious forces kidnap area resident Jill (Susan Hart), on whom Ben is sweet, he sets out after her, with the doddering artist Harold (David Tomlinson) in tow. (Oh, and not to forget, Harolds' pet rooster Herbert.) They soon discover a strange underwater civilization, ruled by the domineering captain (Price). The captain, upon being led to believe that Ben is a professor of immense knowledge, wants to pick his brain on what to do in the event of a cataclysmic volcanic eruption.As part of the package, the captain and his men exploit local "gill men". They're NOT as cool as the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but the masks aren't bad either, and they're not bad characters. Considering that A.I.P. probably controlled expenses a lot, the sets and production values are still respectable enough. The movie is shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is fairly colourful. The score by Stanley Black is also nice. Tourneur gets down to business quickly and the pacing & editing are adequate. Most of the cast & crew credits are saved for the end.Hunter is a handsome and engaging hero. The beautiful Hart is a likable enough heroine. Tomlinson handles all of the comedy relief duties and is delightful. John Le Mesurier is excellent as helpful old Reverend Ives; Henry Oscar, Derek Newark, and Roy Patrick co-star. Price is magnetic as always as our villain, and the lines from the Poe story flow off of his tongue with the greatest of ease.The viewer may not enjoy this quite as much as they'd like to, but it remains watchable for most of its 85 minute run time.Sadly, director Tourneurs' final feature film.Seven out of 10.

"War-Gods of the Deep" (1965)--cool title, dumb movie. Rarely does a movie fail this badly. Nearly everything this movie tries falls flat on its face. For example, David Tomlinson (from "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" and "Mary Poppins") is supposed to provide comic relief with his pet chicken from this otherwise serious story. Maybe we would have needed comic relief had the events been even remotely exciting, but they're not. But even if they had been exciting, Tomlinson's quirky character is not funny, just annoying. His attachment to his chicken is not endearing, it's foolish. Every plot line that is remotely interesting--an impending volcanic explosion, men who live forever underwater, an ancient civilization, a woman who looks like the captain's dead wife--are all inexplicably dropped. It's almost like the director and cast accidentally got hold of the outline of the movie rather than the actual script. Not fun, not funny, not exciting.

After seeing "City Beneath the Sea", I can understand why this is among the lesser-known films Vincent Price made during the 1960s. The problem is that although the idea for the story is pretty cool and it's filmed in color, there really isn't much energy in the film and it never manages to rise above mediocrity. It's a real shame, as I was anxious to enjoy this film.The film is set near the beginning of the 20th century in Britain. Oddly, despite the British location, three of the four leads in the film are Americans--something they never really explained very well. Following a spate of odd occurrences and a dead body washed ashore, a woman (Susan Hart) is kidnapped by some sea creature. Tab Hunter and David Tomlinson set off to find her--begging the viewer to wonder if perhaps they could have found a more formidable search party had they just looked a bit further! Eventually, their search takes them to a swirling pool of water in a cave. The pair accidentally fall in and are sucked into an undersea city where Vincent Price rules with an iron hand. This might no be so bad if it weren't for the fact that Price seemed pretty irrational and blood-thirsty. Plus they discover the lady who'd been spirited away--it turns out she looked like some old lady that Price was in love with so he ordered his goofy sea monster friends to kidnap her.There are two huge problems in this underground paradise. First, there is increasing seismic activity that appears ready to destroy the city. Second, Price is so irrational that there is no way they'll die from the underwater volcano--Price is sure to have them killed sooner. So, Hunter, Tomlinson and Hart escape using primitive looking diving outfits. Naturally, Price, his henchmen and the sea monsters all give chase. Will the trio survive or be doomed to nutty old Price's mercy? This basic story isn't bad. The problem is that there is just not much energy in the film despite the story idea and a few nice special effects and underwater cinematography. In addition, Tomlinson was simply dreadful in the film, as his character was annoying, impossible to believe and a bit of an idiot. How anyone could be expected to rely on him is beyond me! Plus, I rather hoped that he would die--he was just not particularly good as a character. As for Price, his character's motivations seemed vague. He was bad and mad...but why?! In his films such as the Dr. Phibes films or "Theater of Blood", you clearly understood what made him tick and why he HAD to kill. Here he just seems like a jerk...and rarely is that sufficient motivation for a film. Overall, it's worth watching if you have nothing pressing to do or if you MUST see every film Price made.

1903: The Cornish coast. Dashing mining engineer Ben Harris (likable Tab Hunter) and jolly artist Harold Tufnell-Jones (an amusing David Tomlinson) discover a crumbling underwater society ruled by the ruthless Sir Hugh (the always terrific Vincent Price) while poking around a cave in search of sweet fair damsel Jill Tregillis (fetching Susan Hart). The former smuggler inhabitants never age and exploit gill-men creatures as slave labor. Moreover, there's an active volcano which threatens to erupt at any moment. Director Jacques Touneur, working from a fanciful and eventful script by Charles Bennett and Louis M. Heyward that's loosely based on an Edgar Allan Poe poem, relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, evokes a pleasingly eerie and mysterious atmosphere in the opening third, elicits sound acting from a game cast, and stages the lively and exciting last twenty-five minutes depicting the inevitable climactic eruption of the volcano and our protagonists being chased underwater by Sir Hugh and his flunkies with considerable brio. Moreover, there's a nice sense of imagination evident throughout, the amphibious seaweed-covered humanoid fishmen are pretty gnarly looking, the sets are fairly lavish, and the special effects might be crude by today's more sophisticated standards, but still possess a certain funky charm just the same. Stephen Dade's sumptuous widescreen cinematography gives the picture an impressively expansive and picturesque look. Stanley Black's moody and robust score likewise hits the bull's eye. A fun flick.