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City Beneath the Sea marked an unusual misstep for Irwin Allen’s productions. Attack of the 50-Foot Woman was his previous producer credit and within the genre of science fiction, he produced a plethora of features such as The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants. TV and the previously mentioned film Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea partook in involvement with Irwin Allen’s production company. Along with that, Allen was also part of the timeless film Lost in Space. All of these projects contributed Allen to be an immensely popular figure among the youth of the time due to modern day violent visuals being in abundance. City Beneath the Sea was envisioned as a possible pilot, however, it was never picked up, so Allen switched gears and returned to cinema after a lengthy break. This lead to him making The Poseidon Adventure, which later became the first installment of several catastrophe movie franchises.
On June of 2053, an oil rig within the Atlantic Ocean explodes under mysterious circumstances. Admiral Michael Matthews, played by Stuart Whitman, who’s under the government’s watch while living in New York due to an incident involving the death of a friend is called into service by the President of the United States, Richard Basehart. This commences an investigation into the cause of the explosion. With reluctance, Matthews accepts the offer and shifts back to the underwater city of Pacifica, where he served as the architect. Despite discomfort from Lia Holmes, Rosemary Forsyth, the widow of the deceased and Matthew’s former second in command Woody Patterson Robert Colbert, Matthews begins working and discovers much more than a mere conspiracy on the assassination of the wife of a slain leader. With the gold reserves of America stored in Pacifica post transfer from Fort Knox, he realizes that his brother, Brett Robert Wagner, has a crucial role in the conspiracy to steal them. On top of that, Matthews finds out his brother vehemently opposes him, and with the addition of a rogue planetoid on a collision draw, Pacifica is left with little time to figure out a way to avert it all.
City Beneath the Sea wasn’t a series, and no one is surprised as to why. In 1969, Allen shot a brief pilot film that had little to no appeal, as evident by the lack of network interest. No matter. In 1971, he would go on to revisit the concept, attempting to capture the attention of a wider audience. Instead, the pilot got turned down once more which led him to distribute it overseas. In the UK, it was rebranded as One Hour to Doomsday. The incidents encompassed in the poorly crafted plots clearly suggested he had enough material for three episodes. Just like in the Allen productions, the characters appeared one-dimensional. This, in addition to other issues, explains why his attempts to monetize via ticket sales failed. The plane crash, Matthews’ return to Pacifica, and confronting the gem accident were not enough to secure a series renewal. It leaves one wondering, what would have happened if a series were to be created?
Every time I turn into the show, I do get entertained – though the characters seem forgettable to me, the cast is surely mesmerizing, and there are a good number of effects that are similar to those seen in Gerry Anderson, and the sets and costumes are filled with colors, and there is always some sort of deception going on. It’s all rather showy and not a smidgen of dignity to be seen (Pacifica’s “merman”, Dr. Aguila, can “breathe underwater like a fish”, but the actor Burr DeBenning seems to be stifling in every one of his underwater scenes) but, there is some appeal to it, a highly exaggerated, action-packed adventure that would not have had a great deal of success as a series, but is a mildly entertaining waste of an hour and a half. Some moments are unintentionally funny (the science is predictably ridiculous and there is an hilarious moment during which Aquila and a medical squad rush down hallways with Brett on a gurney, and one nurse ends up hunching over “the machine” that Brett never appears to be attached to) but that sort of stuff comes with the territory. Allen never minded much of anything else as long as he was able to get people to run about, lots of explosions, and many model shots.
From a certain angle although, it’s a tenuous one there is some case to be made that City Beneath the Sea falls in the same imaginary universe as Allen’s earlier underwater blockbuster Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. However, the president is never mentioned and is played by Richard Base hart so ignoring the inconvenient fact of dates (which simply speaks for itself since Voyage is set in the 70s and 80, City in 2053, so he would need to be over a hundred years old here, but who cares about that in the greater scheme of this), he could be a promoted Harriman Nelson, the subs on the Seaview are now retrofitted as the “aqua foils,” and for a lot of other props and sets, costumes for Land of the Giants and Lost In Space, you’ll notice them making an appearance here too. If you look closely enough, you might also see a modified model of the Seaview itself in the background of a couple of those shots. And just to add to what you were thinking, you also might remember the identical titled City Beneath the Sea, released in 1953 and was directed by Budd Boettcher, which had as a plot the sub-aquatic city and the gold heist.
Although City Beneath The Sea was poorly made and doesn’t make much sense, it still holds a camp quality that is oddly enjoyable, which is clear through the serious attitudes portrayed in the film. Because of this, the plethora of odd and extreme visual effects paired with the frantic plot seems to keep the audience thoroughly entertained throughout. Admittedly, it is not a movie that you would care to see again, but as the famous saying goes… “you can only watch it for the plot.” City Beneath The Sea is released during a moderate time of Allen’s career it contains the same level of production quality as his television shows, but also features a disaster filled race against time narrative that he would use in subsequent productions. He moved on from the Poseidon Adventure and started doing bigger budget movies such as The Towering Inferno, The Swarm, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure and When Time Ran Out. He also used the same concept in his television movies like Flood!, Fire! And Hanging by a Thread. In the small television show The Return of Captain Nemo, he’s once again underwater.
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