I went in knowing tonight's movie was lousy... and I enjoyed it ANYWAY!
Here's one of the FUNNIEST negative reviews I've read of late, of...
WAR-GODS OF THE DEEP (with Vincent Price!)
http://www.1000misspenthours.com/reviews/reviewsn-z/war-godsofthede...
More thoughts from one of my yahoo groups...
"It sure ain't the cream of the AIP/Price stuff. Disappointing in a lot of ways but still better than Master of the World, which I think is the weakest of the lot." Really? I got a copy of that off TCM. Wish I had a TCM copy of
WAR-GODS OF THE DEEP (what on Earth were they thinking changing the title, it's now more commonly known as
CITY IN THE SEA, from the EAP poem). Someone jokingly suggested a film like this would be a lot more fun if the leads had been Doug McClure & Caroline Munro-- and, hey, why not, Terry-Thomas. Someone else (I think) suggested Price took the role TOO serously, and as it wasn't written very well, it came across as bland, and they felt a more over-the-top madman performance would have been better suited.
There's 3 things that bug me about the film. First, I can't stand totally unreasonable characters. They try to add some sympathy or pathos to "The Captain" by bringing up his dead wife in the portrait, but for most of the film, it's clear he's just INSANE, as none of his actions in the story make any damn sense at all. Second, a minor point, but when John Le Mesuir is explaining the escape plan, my mind starts to to shut down. It's too complicated, and you never get a real sense of how the tunnels are laid out. Third, and everyone online feels this way, the "chase scene" is the most boring underwater sequence ever put to film.
With all the blatent influences on hand--
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, MASTER OF THE WORLD, nobody mentioned
THUNDERBALL, which came out the same year! That's often knocked for the "boring" underwater fight, but that's a high-speed roller-coaster ride compared to the action sequence in this thing. Cutting it to the bone would have helped.
I also got very confused when I saw them return to "the temple", as I thought they'd walked from there to the rest of the place (maybe they did and it was blocked off by guards?). THEN, they find the exit blocked, and decide to get back into the diving suits. I had to THINK about it too much to understand, WHY are they putting them back on when they just got them off? But after they leave, the exit apparently becomes un-blocked... or maybe Price knew a different one... as HE walks up a stairway straight to the surface, where he dies of old age in the sunlight, like
DRACULA.
Someone else suggested a giant octopus atacking the city might have helped... funny thing, on my tape, I also have Amicus'
WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS, which does feature a giant octopus, other giant monsters, AND, Doug McClure! There's apparently a DVD with both
CITY IN THE SEA and
AT THE EARTH'S CORE. Apart from wondering how someone managed to put out one package with both an AIP and an Amicus together, I have a feeling
WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS is a slightly better "fit".
"Also I'd say, viz linked review, Masque of the Red Death shows a good movie can be made from a slimline source -- and Pit and the Pendulum -- I think the Poe originals are about 10 pages or something (read them years ago; Pit may be even shorter) -- just vignettes really." MASQUE is 3 pages. Amazing! The FIRST time I saw the film, I thought it was really slow and padded out. But over the years, it has continued to grow on me, and a few viewings ago (it's really become a perennial for me), I came to think of it as not only a masterpiece, but a genuine "WORK OF ART".
PIT AND THE PENDULUM is also a blast. One friend of mine ranks it as his favorite of the set. I hadn't realized it at first, but apparently the plot of the film was made up from bits of various POE stories all thrown together.
"Surprising how bloodless Tourneur's direction is..." Charles Bennett, they say, wrote the screenplay, but, producer Louis M. Heyward, who took over once Corman left, felt the SICK COMPULSION (here we go again) to keep adding and changing the screenplay while they were shooting. Tourneur was apparently PISSED, and Vincent Price, who had more respect for Bennett AND Tournour, was also not pleased. Heyward was involved in
THE OBLONG BOX, CRY OF THE BANSHEE, MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN... someone online said every one of his films feel like first drafts, like they just hadn't worked out all the logic of the plots.
This is funny, as the middle of
WAR-GODS..., where they're talking with Price and looking out the window over the lost sunken city, began to remind ME of an episode of
LOST IN SPACE ! And how many times have I said the 3rd season stories ALL feel like they were shot from first-draft scripts, as if, with just a LITTLE more care, they could have been so much better.
Something only mentioned in ONE review I found, was that David Whittaker ALSO contributed to the script, but apparently, only the odd bits of dialogue, and mostly, the more clever ones. But this did nothing to help the plot itself. Whittaker was (if memory serves) the original story editor on
DOCTOR WHO, and contributed some scripts during Patrick Trroughton's time on the show.
"Comedy of Terrors, a bit later, I'll defend vigorously" You'll defend it later? That one was made earlier (I think). Almost painful to watch in spots, but still good for some sick laughs. "Is there no morality left in the world?"
Final thoughts... the bit where they got from the house on the cliff, down thru a hidden passage, and find the "temple" where someone is about to be executed, seems like it may have influenced
INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. If so, Spielberg was swiping from a 3rd-rate movie. Also, the house on the cliff, the hidden passage leading to danger UNDERWATER, also cropped up in "
O'RYAN GANG AND THE DEEP SIX", in
NEW GODS #4.
