oscar-35
*Spoiler/plot- The Incredible Petrified World. 1957. Four adventurers descend to the depths of the ocean when the cable on their underwater diving bell snaps. The rest of their expedition, believing them to be lost, abandons hope of finding them. Exiting the diving bell, the party finds themselves in a network of underwater caverns. They encounter a shipwreck survivor. He tells them he has been there for 14 years and that there is no way out. The two men in the exploring party believe him only after a hike to a volcanic vent that supplies the caverns with oxygen. Meanwhile on the surface, Prof. Millard Wyman, (the elder scientist who designed the original failed diving bell) decides to try again to explore the depths of the ocean. He finds out that there is another diving bell in existence that is identical to the one that was lost.*Special Stars- John Carradine, Phyllis Coats, Robert Clarke, Sheila Noonan, Allen Windsor.*Theme- Human nature can conquer problems.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. Phyllis 'Superman's Lois Lane' Coates accepted the role of Dale Marshall as a favor to director Jerry Warren, who was a former boyfriend; the actress originally cast in the lead couldn't do it and Warren couldn't find anyone else in time. He convinced Coates to do it by telling her that the film would not be shown in California. However, after it was completed, she found out that Warren did indeed release the film in California, and she was told by at least one studio executive (at Columbia) that the film was so inferior and shoddy that the studio would not be hiring her again. On top of that, Warren never paid her. When the characters are trapped undersea in the diving bell, they simply leave by climbing up to a hatch, supposedly at the top of the bell. Such an action underwater would immediately flood the bell. Yet, not even a drop of water enters the bell when they exit.*Emotion- A waste of the viewer's time due to many problems with this cheap B-Movie. This movie has little to remember for it's lack of good drama, slow and boring pacing, predictable plot and lack of any monster or scenery. Don't bother, it's deadly dull.*Based on- Jules Vern's Journey to the Center of the Earth.
gpeltz
I've been a follower of James Cameron, and before that Jaque Coustou, I sit and watch the silent underwater splendor in rapt awe. Wait, Flashback to 1957. Things were different back then. Where do we begin? Main titles over a agitated and stormy water tank. It didn't quite look like water but it sure was stormy. The music, no composer listed, is dramatic and symphonic. The titles are followed by a five minute undersea documentary, posing as a undersea documentary at some sponsors house, everything credible so far, but then we are only six minutes in. I could say much of how this film is child like, jumping from credible to jaw dropping dumb. first a little background; Four in a diving bell, two men and two women reporters, Phyliss Coates who played Louis Lane in the original Superman TV show is our star reporter.Their purpose is go down to explore the uncharted depths, The diving bell fits all four explorers. A most interesting craft,it does not seem to have any control panel. nor much storage room, nor any seats. It does have a ladder in the middle of the set, this ladder is filmed with obvious affection, as we are prone to watch numerous takes, of flipper feet trying to navigate it as best as they could. This is a Magic Diving bell, you can climb to the top, open the hatch and go your merry way without flooding the chamber, now this sounds dumb, and it is, eat your heart out James Cameron.On the plus side (yeah there is one) The scuba divers exiting from the glowing ball, has an unanticipated unworldly effect. even if they repeat it three or four times. Of what are we aware? the cable snapped at about seventeen hundred feet, Ilove that the gage above and below has only two markings, one hundred feet, and five hundred feet, but the needle keeps spinning. The bell landed on a ledge of some sort, They never show it in a medium shot. The explorers who suspect that they are much closer to the surface, decides to don their gear, and swim to the surface.They all climb the ladder and swim away from the bell, They swim without using their arms. (will the last one out shut the door please) and they are not crushed by the pressure, they discover (also never shown any medium shots) a tourist attraction in Arizona.No really, they seem to come up from underwater to sit in these pre-lit, bright and airy collection of stalactites and stalagmites,complete with a Lizard and a Hoary castaway. Oh man, seventeen years without wimins.It's not surprising (OK yes it is) that his eyes seem to pop out larger with every glance at them.Funny business in the cave; The air in the cave comes from a underground Volcano. (slaps forehead) Of course any child knows volcano's generate oxygen, well our intrepid explores figure that the Volcano is an unsurmountable road block. Perhaps he should watch,Land of the Lost, or at least "Journey to the Center of the Earth. where the volcano provided escape.Scene, in the cavern, the two guys build a fire, OK maybe I could buy dried seaweed, but no, one of the main guys says, as he jumps up, "I'll go get some more fire..." wood? I love the build up for the Lizard scene. They come to a cavern make a right turn, the two ladies eyes go wide, the music dramatically builds, the men grip the ladies arms, and you can hear a gasp!visual: A small monitor lizard is sitting there, doing nothing. One can't quite gage the size, The four appear to be looking at the lizard and you get the impression that the lizard is in a deep pit, or in fact is very small, like six inches. Having watched a survival movie (the Way Back, superior) I suspect they would best catch and eat the thing. The Men take three or more trips back to the bell, no problem still dry inside. They pick up a few supplies and to shorten this report, they are discovered and rescued. But not before the volcano (never wholly shown), but represented by rivers of lava, on stock footage, flows.The cave-in drops a few rubber rocks on the caveman, just as he is about to reveal his ugly true nature, and ask one of the Ladies for a date. The two women are next seen in the second rescue bell, it looks just like the first. But now everyone is going home. HoorayAs I mentioned earlier, the movie follows a child like path of logic; there is light because the walls glow, there are pools of fresh water at every other turn, and fresh air because of a Volcano. childlike explanations.Unexplained happenings, like why did the second diver go limp at the big rescue scene,he said he had enough oxygen, and further more how did they revive him with a cup of coffee that one of the divers conveniently had on his person (wouldn't leave home without it!) The old pros, John Carradine, and other senior members of the cast, hold their own, the parts shot with them are like from a different movie, an intelligent one, maybe. If any movie would be a candidate for mystery theater, this is the one, I found myself making the funny remarks, for the first time.
sddavis63
To be kind, I would give writer John Steiner and director Jerry Warren credit for playing this very "straight." Considering that it was made in the 1950's, this movie was tailor made for the use of undersea monsters and all sorts of creepy life forms. There really weren't any - aside from the man living in the underground caves, who wasn't a monster but was just an unfortunate soul who got trapped there 14 years earlier. So, whatever else you might say about this, it doesn't fall into the "hokey" category that so many B-grade (or worse) 50's films fall into. I can respect the effort to take the story seriously. It revolves around 4 people who, because of a diving bell accident, become trapped in dry caverns deep under the ocean with no apparent way of escape. But, having watched it, as much as I give credit to the effort to take this seriously, maybe a little bit of "hoke" would have helped!The end result was that nothing - absolutely nothing - especially interesting happened in this until the last 5 minutes or so. Otherwise, you get some dreary narration to open, some discussion of the diving bell experiment, a depiction of the accident, and then a lot of shots of people wandering through caves and periodically going back into the water. (YAWN!!!!) It really hardly seemed worth the effort. The only member of the cast who I recognized was John Carradine. Otherwise you had a cast made up either of unknowns who barely acted, or of those (like Robert Clarke or Phyllis Coates) who made acting careers out of guest shots on various TV shows but never really reached any heights. I honestly wouldn't recommend wasting your time with this. It gets a couple of points for the effort to take the story seriously, but in return it loses a lot of points for being just so plain dull! (3/10)
