AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA (1966)
Article #1408 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-21-2005
Posting Date: 6-20-2005
Directed by Andrew Marton
Featuring Lloyd Bridges, Brian Kelly, Shirley Eaton

A gang of adventurers embarks on a submarine voyage to plant sensors at the bottom of the ocean that can be used to track underwater earthquakes.

You know, there’s a certain type of adventure movie that has distinct qualities about it. Some of these qualities are –

– that you know you will be treated to lots and lots of ‘environmental’ footage. In this case, you’ll have more underwater footage than you can shake a stick at.

– that you’ll have a somewhat varied assortment of characters who will be your companions on the adventure.

– that each of this somewhat varied assortment of characters will be developed only enough so they can have their requisite number of character moments during the adventure. For example, the gruff cynic will develop a heart and save the beleagered guinea pigs.

– that the presence of one woman on the adventure combined with the presence of one man who doesn’t think a woman should be along on the adventure only adds up to one thing – romance.

– that the above romance will provide the entire character developments of both characters involved.

– that there will be plenty of incident (though I hesitate to call it action) during the voyage. Yet, despite all the incident, everything occurs at exactly the same level of excitement (or tedium), because there is no attempt made to build any real drama or suspense.

– that there will be a lot of talk.

– that you can safely ignore almost 95 percent of the talk.

– that, despite the fact that there will be a certain degree of character conflict among the adventurers, none of it will develop into anything really big because that would destroy the atmosphere of complacent cameraderie that defines the movie’s emotional center.

– that you can safely raid the refrigerator at any time during the length of the movie without the fear of missing something really important because nothing that happens ever feels more important than anything else.

– that you have no idea how long a time the voyage took because the movie fails to give you any indication of the passage of time.

– and finally, that you somehow knew that the movie was going to be like this after watching the first five minutes.

No, the movie is not awful. It is merely predictable and without any surprises. Even the presence of Keenan Wynn doesn’t really spice things up. It goes through the system easily and leaves nothing behind to remind you of its presence.

I’m ready to move on to the next movie now.