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| Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Irwin Allen |
| Produced by | Irwin Allen |
| Written by | Irwin Allen Charles Bennett |
| Starring | Walter Pidgeon Joan Fontaine Barbara Eden Peter Lorre Robert Sterling Michael Ansara Frankie Avalon |
| Music by | Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter |
| Cinematography | Winton Hoch |
| Edited by | George Boemler |
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Production
company |
Windsor Productions
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| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,580,000 |
| Box office | $7 million (US/Canada) |
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1961 American science fiction disaster film, produced and directed by Irwin Allen, and starring Walter Pidgeon as Admiral Harriman Nelson and Robert Sterling as Captain Lee Crane. The supporting cast includes Peter Lorre, Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, Michael Ansara, and Frankie Avalon. The film’s storyline was written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett. The opening title credits theme song was sung by Frankie Avalon. The film was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Two milestones in underwater exploration were achieved in 1960, the year before Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was released. On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and Lieutenant Don Walsh (USN), in the bathyscaphe Trieste, made the first descent to the bottom of the Challenger Deep. The Challenger Deep is the deepest surveyed spot in the world’s oceans, and is located in the Mariana Trench, southwest of Guam. From February 16, 1960, to May 10, 1960, the submarine USS Triton, under the command of Captain Edward L. Beach, Jr., made the first submerged circumnavigation of the world. Triton observed and photographed Guam extensively through her periscope during this mission, without being detected by the U.S. Navy on Guam.
In the film, Seaview fires a missile from a position northwest of Guam to extinguish the “skyfire.”
The film’s submarine design is unique in that it features an eight-window bow viewport that provides panoramic undersea views. In the novelization by Theodore Sturgeon, the windows are described as “… oversized hull plates which happen to be transparent”. They are made of “X-tempered herculite”, a process developed by Nelson.[8] In the film, Seaview has eight bow windows in the exterior shots, but only four appear in the interior shots showing the lower level Observation Room (the four upper windows are implied to be out of frame, at the top of the Observation Room). The lower hull also has an exterior shark-like bow flare, and the stern has 1961 Cadillac tail-fins.
In the film, the USOS Seaview (United States Oceanographic Survey) is under the authority of Nelson and the Bureau of Marine Exploration rather than the U.S. Navy. The novel mentions the bureau as being part of the U.S. Department of Science. The crew wears US Army type dress uniforms with naval rank insignia rather than U.S. Navy uniforms.
The film was part of an upswing in science fiction and fantasy films at the time, including adaptations of the works of Jules Verne.
The film marked Walter Pidgeon’s return to filmmaking after some years committed to work in the theatre. The role of Captain Crane was originally offered to David Hedison who played the role in the 1964 television series. Hedison turned the film down after completing Allen’s The Lost World (1960) saying that the did not like the script.
Set designer Herman Blumenthal did not approach the Navy to do research. He relied on pictures of naval vessels in the media.
The theatrical release poster shown above is one of four posters that were produced to promote the film. Each one has different wording and slightly different artwork, and each one promotes the film from a different perspective. The poster shown above also promotes Sturgeon’s novelization.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was previewed on June 18, 1961. It was released to theaters in early July 1961 and had run its course by late fall (September/October). The film played to mixed reviews from critics, but audiences made the film a popular success. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was made for US$2 million and brought in US$7 million at the box office.
For the filming of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, a number of detailed sets, props and scale models were created to realize the Seaview submarine. After the film was finished the sets were placed in storage. When Irwin Allen decided to make a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea television series, all he had to do was pull the sets out of storage. This was done at a fraction of the cost that he might have had if he had begun from scratch. The film reduced the cost of setting up the show and was the template for the type of stories that were done. The studios, having made the film, helped make the television series easier to produce.
The success of the television series encouraged Irwin Allen to produce other science fiction television shows. The most notable of these shows were Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants.
The success of the feature film led to the 1964–1968 television series on ABC, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. During the series run, the film’s storyline was remade as a one-hour episode. That episode was written by Willam Welch and was titled “The Sky’s on Fire”. Other scenes in the film were also rewritten and incorporated into the television series.
Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea (1961) – Theatrical Trailer
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