Schlock Scifi is enjoyable because it is unintentionally funny or because somehow the producers of a micro-budget movie were able to pull of something decent. This film fits into the latter category.
The FX are completely unconvincing to modern viewers but are nonetheless ingenious, creative, visually interesting and tell the story. The undersea view of the icebergs alongside the sub, and the design and puppetry of the alien monsters stand out here. There is a clever electronic music soundtrack for this film, which nicely compliments the visuals, making their strangeness seem other-worldly as opposed to just goofy.
Director Spencer Bennet had previously done a lot of work on Columbia Movie Serials in the 1940's, and so was used to operating on a budget smaller than the price of James Cameron's cup of coffee. His work on this film is characteristically unimaginative, but competent, and he didn't obstruct the interesting visuals that the set designer and FX people created.
There is a lot of a stock footage from genuine US Navy submarines, which of course look nothing like the miniatures for the FX shots, but what the heck.
Of note also is good scene with the spectacular Joi Lansing, a curvacious creature who never got the career she deserved. There is a fun double-entendre about icebergs here.
The story and dialog are excellent by schlock scifi standards, with the speeches by the alien cyclops particularly well-done. There is some fun back-and-forth between a hawkish submariner and a brainy peacenik, in which the hawk argues the need for nuclear subs so as to keep the world safe. This argument reflected the debates of 1960, when the argument in favor of the obscenely costly and super-lethal subs was won by hawks. The facts cited by the hawks in our world, that the USSR supposedly had a superior military ever-poised to take the USA over should its resolve weaken, turned out to be a mostly a hoax by the Pentagon, a hoax only slightly more plausible than the space alien scenario of this film.
The FX are completely unconvincing to modern viewers but are nonetheless ingenious, creative, visually interesting and tell the story. The undersea view of the icebergs alongside the sub, and the design and puppetry of the alien monsters stand out here. There is a clever electronic music soundtrack for this film, which nicely compliments the visuals, making their strangeness seem other-worldly as opposed to just goofy.
Director Spencer Bennet had previously done a lot of work on Columbia Movie Serials in the 1940's, and so was used to operating on a budget smaller than the price of James Cameron's cup of coffee. His work on this film is characteristically unimaginative, but competent, and he didn't obstruct the interesting visuals that the set designer and FX people created.
There is a lot of a stock footage from genuine US Navy submarines, which of course look nothing like the miniatures for the FX shots, but what the heck.
Of note also is good scene with the spectacular Joi Lansing, a curvacious creature who never got the career she deserved. There is a fun double-entendre about icebergs here.
The story and dialog are excellent by schlock scifi standards, with the speeches by the alien cyclops particularly well-done. There is some fun back-and-forth between a hawkish submariner and a brainy peacenik, in which the hawk argues the need for nuclear subs so as to keep the world safe. This argument reflected the debates of 1960, when the argument in favor of the obscenely costly and super-lethal subs was won by hawks. The facts cited by the hawks in our world, that the USSR supposedly had a superior military ever-poised to take the USA over should its resolve weaken, turned out to be a mostly a hoax by the Pentagon, a hoax only slightly more plausible than the space alien scenario of this film.