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Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

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Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
1961 movie poster
Directed byIrwin Allen
Written byIrwin Allen &
Charles Bennett
Produced byIrwin Allen
StarringWalter Pidgeon
Joan Fontaine
Barbara Eden
Peter Lorre
Robert Sterling
Michael Ansara
CinematographyWinton Hoch
Music byPaul Sawtell and Bert Shefter
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
July 12, 1961
Running time
105 min
CountryUSA
LanguageEnglish
This article is about the original film. For the spin off TV series, see Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a science fiction film produced and directed by Irwin Allen. The film was released in 1961 by 20th Century Fox. The story was written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennet. Walter Pidgeon starred as Admiral Harriman Nelson, with Robert Sterling as Captain Lee Crane. The film had a supporting cast including Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, Michael Ansara and Peter Lorre. The theme song was sung by Frankie Avalon, who also appeared in the film.

Plot

Meteors piercing the Van Allen radiation belt cause it to catch fire, resulting in a world-threatening global heat wave.The heat is generated by a literal fire in the sky,a Skyfire. The fire is making the world's temperature rise alarmingly each day. If it is not extinguished, it will soon end all life on Earth. Meanwhile the new, state-of-the-art atomic submarine Seaview is on diving trials in the Arctic Ocean. The Seaview is being put through these trails by the scientific genius who designed and built the futuristic submarine, Admiral Harriman Nelson (Pidgeon). The specific details are being managed by the Seaveiws Captain Lee Crane (Sterling). There is a team of independent observers on board to appraise the new submarine. Among the them,Dr. Susan Hiller (Fontaine). These tests end abruptly when icebergs start falling around the Seaview. The submarine surfaces and its crew learns about the skyfire.

Admiral Nelson along with his friend and fellow scientist, Commodore Lucius Emery (Lorre), do some calculations. The two scientists race to an emergency meeting of the worlds top scientists at the United Nations. The purpose of the meeting is to figure out what to do about the skyfire. At the meeting Nelson informs the gathered delegates that according to thier calculations if the heat increase is not stopped, the "Earth has a life expectancy of about three weeks". The Admiral has come up with a plan to extinguish the orbiting flames. He proposes firing a nuclear missile at the burning Van Allen belt from the Marianas Trench. Only the Seaview has the capability to do this because it is the only submarine that can dive deep enough.

But the Admiral's plan is rejected by the chief scientist and head delegate, Zucco (Henry Daniel). The reasons that Zucco gives for the rejection are that he plans to let the skyfire burn itself out and he feels the Admirals plan is to risky. At Zucco's urging, Nelson and Emery are shouted down and the plan is rejected by the other delegates. Despite the rejection the Admiral remains convinced his plan is the right one. Nelson and the Commodore return to the Seaveiw and set sail for the Marianas Trench.

It is a race against the clock as Nelson tries to reach the proper firing position in time. There is trouble on board when it emerges that there is a saboteur among them. But is it the scientist rescued by the Seaview in an early scene, Miguel Alvarez (Ansara), the stress-observing psychologist, Dr. Susan Hiller or someone from the crew. Other obstacles present themselves: a minefield, a hostile submarine with orders to sink them, a giant octopus, a near-mutiny and religious fanatic Alvarez, who believes it is God's will that the world end. Near the end of the film the saboteur is revealed to be Dr. Hiller. Her identity revelad, she falls into the sub's aquarium during a fight during a fight with Captain Crane. There she is killed by a shark that marine biologist Emery is using for research.

Eventually,the sub reaches the Marinas Trench. There,in spite of the threats and objections of Alvarez, the Seaview launches a missile into the belt, extinguishes the fire and saves the world.

Technical background

The name of the film is an inversion of a phrase popular at the time, concerning the exploration of the Arctic Ocean by nuclear submarines, namely, "a voyage to the top of the world." No large submarine can currently reach the ocean floor safely.

The film submarine's design is unique in that it features an eight window bow viewport which provides panoramic undersea views (in the novel of the film by Theodore Sturgeon) the windows are described as "Transparent hullplating", a process developed by Nelson as "X-tempered herculite"). The bow/nose also has a shark-like bottom flare,and the stern has extended V-shaped wing tail surfaces. In the film,the USOS Seaview (United States Oceanographic Survey) is under the authority of Nelson and the Bureau of Marine Exploration. The novel mentions the bureau as being part of the U. S. Department of Science.

At the time that Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was made, the Van Allen Radiation Belts had only recently been discovered, so much of what this movie says about them is made up for the film. Discoveries since then clearly invalidate what the film says: the Van Allen Belts (actually somewhat more radiation-dense portions of the magnetosphere) are made up of sub-atomic particles trapped by the Earth's magnetic field in the vacuum of space which cannot catch fire.

Cast

Other media

The success of the movie led to the 1964-1968 TV version on ABC, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. During the run of the series this film was remade as an hour in length episode. The episode was written by Willam Welch and was called The Skys on Fire,The Skys on Fire. Many of the scenes in the movie became scenes or even episodes in the Television series.

In June 1961, Pyramid Books published a novelization of the feature film by Theodore Sturgeon. The book was reprinted several times during the 1960s. Collectors be aware that one of those reprintings has Richard Basehart and David Hedison pictured on the cover. The book is still about the Walter Pidgeon film. For collectors who want a novelization of the Tv series you should find City Beneath the Sea. That book uses the TV characters but should not be confused with either the tv episode or the later Irwin Allen flim of the same name.

The Sturgeon book is based on an early version of the movie script. The book has the same basic story as the movie. The book also has a few characters that were not shown in the film and some additional technical explanation. Some scenes are different from the film.

The original 1961 cover shows a submarine meeting a fanged sea serpent. Neither the submarine nor the sea serpent appear anywhere in the novel or the film.

In 1961 Dell Comics did a full color adaptation of the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie. The comic book has a few publicity stills of the movie plus a section on the history of submarines. In the comic book the admirals first name is Farragut instead of Harriman.

Similar films

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was made at a time when nuclear submarines were very new. They must have seemed like futuristic Science Fiction come to life. In addition to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, futuristic submarines were the heroic subject of two other Science Fiction films made in the same era. Those two similar films were the American made The Atomic Submarine and the Japenese made Atragon.

Several years prior to the making of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Peter Lorrie starred in another submarine fantasy film, Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

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