NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Coventry You really have to admire the marketing expertise of Samuel Z. Arkoff and the good people at American-International Pictures (AIP)! They had only just finished exploiting Edgar Allen Poe's Gothic horror stories via a hugely successful film series starring Vincent Price and directed by Roger Corman, and not even a year later they're back already to cash in on more Poe-related themes and monsters, only this time in combination with the fantasy and Sci-Fi elements of Jules Verne ("20,000 Leagues under the Sea", "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Around the World in 80 Days"). Now, in case you're thinking that the works and styles of Edgar Allen Poe and Jules Verne form a rather bizarre and illogical mix, you are quite right and thus "City in the Sea" is a primarily preposterous and dumb adventure film! Vincent Price depicts "The Captain"; a villain too obviously modeled after the charismatic and mysterious Nemo in "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" and the relentless leader of a smuggling network that operates from an cavernous city-like lair underneath the sea, just outside the coast of Cornwall. The Captain and his henchmen have been there for more than 100 years, but they're not ageing as long as they remain in their underwater hideout because – and I quote – "it has something to do with the oxygen-composition here below". That's the type of blurry explanations we have to settle for in the script of this film… The Captain may be a tough and sinister bastard, but he's also heartbroken over the loss of his true love and hence he kidnapped her lookalike; the local beauty Jill Tregellis. American engineer Ben Harris, also in love with Jill, goes after her, along with a cowardly artist and his pet chicken (!) named Herbert. They have to rescue the girl from Vincent Price's army of gill-men, and in time before the underwater volcano erupts. It's always even more difficult to acknowledge that a movie is bad when there are so many potentially good story lines. Based on the synopsis, you'll agree with me that "City in the Sea" features several interesting ideas – even if they are all derivative of other stories – but for some reason the whole film is rather dull and exaggeratedly talkative. There are plenty of nice set pieces and imagery, but they are hardly being used. The dialogues are tacky and the acting performances are quite dismal, with the exception of Vincent Price and – of course – Herbert the Chicken. Jacques Tourneur was definitely one of the most important horror directors of the previous century and he made several hugely influential classics, like "Cat People", "Out of the Past" and "Night of the Demon". It's a bit unfortunate that his career had to end with this seedy horror/Sci-Fi hybrid that can't even be referred to as entertaining.

Chase_Witherspoon Undersea adventure is reminiscent of "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" (complete with a feathered friend named Herbert) and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", when Hunter and Tomlinson venture into a mysterious subterranean lair after their female companion (Hart) is abducted and taken captive by an aquatic man-best (looking much like the gill-man from "Creatures from the Black Lagoon"). They soon encounter an underwater civilisation led by the maniacal doctor (Vincent Price), obsessed by a painting of a mysterious woman, and with a somewhat reluctant crew who have inadvertently discovered a fountain of youth. But the city is rocked by frequent volcanic shocks that threaten to sink the undersea world.Inferior retread of the formula undersea sci-fi adventure features pedestrian performances by a capable cast that also includes John Le Mesurier as a long-held captive rector, who has seemingly lost the incentive to contemplate escape, let alone survive the impending volcanic disaster.Widescreen underwater inserts look photographically disjointed, and there's even a brief scene in which a member of the crew in scuba diving apparatus is clearly visible above a pair of agitated gill men. A rousing finale somewhat redeems the picture, but it was too little, too late in my opinion. Dated effort might still appeal to older kids, and mercifully at barely 80 minutes, it narrowly avoids becoming a soporific experience.

gavin6942 A lost city beneath the sea is discovered off the coast of Cornwall. Vincent Price is the captain overseeing a group of sailors who have lived there for more than a century where the peculiar mix of gases has allowed them to extend their lifespan.Allegedly, Vincent Price didn't see the script until six days before shooting began. He does not show up until 25 minutes into the film, and is not the main character. If you came to this film to see Price, you will, just do not expect him to carry the picture.This one is as beautiful as any of the AIP films, despite not being well known, and having a plot that might leave some disappointed (it is, after all, a take off on the Atlantis legend mixed with "Creature From the Black Lagoon", but maybe not a smooth mixture). I thought the atmosphere really carried the picture, personally.The female lead is gorgeous, though she appears far too briefly, and I like the concept of ultraviolet rays causing shorter lifespans, along with the negative consequences of immortality (forever is a long time).The film is sometimes called "War Gods of the Deep", and sometimes takes the title of a Poe poem, "The City Under the Sea", and attempted to exploit the Poe films trend, even though the only connection is a recitation of the poem at the end. Since "City" is not one of Poe's well-known poems, this probably was not a problem.Again, this movie is apparently not well known, as it does not appear in any of my reference books. And that is a shame. It has a good horror/sci-fi feel to it, beautifully shot, and stars Vincent Price. Deserves a lot more recognition than it has received, and I hope more people come to discover it.

Cosmoeticadotcom War-Gods Of The Deep is one of those films whose title really makes no sense, but is right in keeping with the whole tenor of the film. It was made in 1965, the first of the famed American International Pictures post-Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poe-themed horror and sci fi films of the 1960s, that started with The House Of Usher in 1960, and was a part of the Big Four of horror and sci fi films of that era. The three other competitors in the field were the giant monster films from Japan (Godzilla, Mothra, Gammera, etc.), the stop motion action-adventure-monster films of Ray Harryhausen, and the British Hammer Studios horror films. That War-Gods Of The Deep was set in England, even though made by AIP, and featuring two American B film superstars like Vincent Price and Tab Hunter, and based upon a poem by American poet and writer Poe, is just one of its many ironies. Yet, that still does not explain its odd title. The alternate title was The City Under The Sea, which makes sense, since that's what it is about, a city reputedly called Lyonesse- not any War-Gods. It was based upon the Poe poem The City In The Sea, which is quoted by Price at film's start and end, and begins:Lo! Death has reared himself a throne In a strange city lying alone Far down within the dim West, Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best Have gone to their eternal rest.Suffice to say, the poem was not one of Poe's great classics, and the film derived from it is not one of AIP's better Poe themed films. War-Gods Of The Deep was the final film in the storied career of Jacques Tourneur, probably the greatest B film director in cinema history, and one of the true masters of the black and white medium. While better known for his classic films produced by Val Lewton (Cat People, I Walked With A Zombie), Tourneur proved he could make great horror films on his own. In 1957 he directed the British horror classic Night Of The Demon (Curse Of The Demon in the U.S.), and even in this color film, with its thin premise of a sunken city off the Cornish coast, unaging sailors from the Eighteenth Century, who do not age because of an imbalance of oxygen from an undersea volcano and some nonsense about ultraviolet light on the earth's surface in daylight (huh?), Gill-Men who are third rate Creatures From The Black Lagoon, and other assorted lunacy- such as a British comic foil for Hunter who carries about a chicken with the male name of Herbert, the film actually entertains, even if it lacks real chills.The film has several layers to it. Watching it today, one must bear in mind, with the film over four decades old, yet the story is set in the more distant past of 1903, with characters who came from their even more distant past of decades, and even over a century, earlier, that this was made right at the beginning of notions of Postmodernism; which shows mostly that PoMo and B film psychology are kissin' cousins. What this says for both mindsets and pulling the wool over one's eyes is open for debate. The film also makes great use of its recycled AIP wares from prior movies. AIP reputedly never trashed old sets, and art director Frank White makes the most of the sets and miniatures that comprise the underwater city. The film also seems to be a scrapbook of ideas from other, better films, like the aforementioned Poe films, and The Time Machine. But, it also recalls the stellar Forbidden Planet by having the underground city being powered by huge pumps and machinery built by a long destroyed society that is no longer, having degenerated into the Gill-Men. The underwater cinematography by Neil Ginger Gemmell and John Lamb is also excellent, for a B film, even though the divers are all manifestly in a pool no more than fifteen or twenty feet deep, not leagues under the sea for the surface can be seen a few feet above the divers' heads. There are even some chuckles to be had when Harold sticks his chicken Herbert inside his diving helmet. The rest of the cinematography, by Stephen Dade, is merely solid, although there are some moody moments captured seemingly inadvertently, with miniatures.