''Hello Down There'' (rereleased in 1974 as ''Sub-A-Dub-Dub'') is a 1969 American
comedy
Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium.
Origins
Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...
-
adventure film
The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...
. It was produced by
George Sherman
George Sherman (July 14, 1908 – March 15, 1991) was an American film director and Film producer, producer of low-budget Western (genre), Western films. One obituary said his "credits rival in number those of anyone in the entertainment indus ...
and
Ivan Tors
Ivan Tors (born Iván Törzs; June 12, 1916 – June 4, 1983) was a Hungary, Hungarian playwright, film director, screenwriter, and Film producer, film and television producer with an emphasis on non-violent but exciting science fiction, underwat ...
Ricou Browning
Ricou Ren Browning (February 16, 1930 – February 27, 2023) was an American stunt performer, filmmaker and actor. A skilled swimmer, he was known for his innovative underwater stunt work, notably in the 1954 film ''Creature from the Black Lagoo ...
(underwater sequences). The
screenplay
A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...
Fred Miller must prove that his new design for an underwater home is viable by convincing his family to live in it for 30 days. His son and daughter are members of an emerging rock band, and they invite the two other band members to live with them during the experiment. Their temporary home, which Miller dubs the "Green Onion," is 90 feet below the surface of the ocean and is filled with modern appliances and amenities for housewife Vivian, all designed by Miller. A large opening in the floor provides direct access to and from the sea.
The group are soon joined by a live-in
seal
Seal may refer to any of the following:
Common uses
* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly:
** Earless seal, also called "true seal"
** Fur seal
** Eared seal
* Seal ( ...
named Gladys and a pair of dolphins that stay close at hand and fend off sharks. The family is confronted by many obstacles, including a rival designer from Undersea Development, Inc. who begins to cause problems.
Meanwhile, the band's single has gotten the attention of record executive Nate Ashbury, who wants to sign them. He books them for a televised performance on '' The Merv Griffin Show'' without first communicating with them. After learning that they are living under the sea, he schemes to bring Griffin and the TV crew down to the Green Onion, but the navy is alerted to the sound of the music and becomes suspicious.
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 3 October 1998) was a British-American actor whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across over 60 years. Born in London, he began his acting career as a child in his n ...
as Nate Ashbury
*
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss ( ; Dreyfus; born October 29, 1947) is an American actor. He emerged from the New Hollywood wave of American cinema, finding fame with a succession of leading man parts in the 1970s. He has received an Academy Award, a ...
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. From 1962 to 1986, G ...
as Himself
* Henny Backus as Mrs. Webster
* Pat Henning as Reilly
* Jay Laskay as Philo
* Bud Hoey as Mr. Webster
* Charles Martin as Chief Petty Officer
* Frank Logan as Captain
* Andy Jarrell as Radioman
* Lora Kaye as Lori Miller (Secretary)
Production
''Hello Down There'' was filmed from October to December 1967, with interior scenes shot at Ivan Tors Studios (now known as Greenwich Studios) in
Miami, Florida
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
. The underwater sequences were photographed at Ivan Tors Underwater Studios in
The Bahamas
The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...
. Tors had been successful producing a number of scuba-diving and animal themed television series, including '' Sea Hunt'' and '' Flipper''.
In 1974, the film was re-released as part of the "Paramount Family Matinee" series.
Reception
In a contemporary review for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', critic A.H. Weiler called the film an "amiable mishmash" and wrote: "Mr. Randall, looking woebegone and harried, berates his nervous spouse: 'You can't ignore 71 per cent of the earth's surface simply because it's under water.' In the case of 'Hello Down There', it should definitely be ignored."
A '' Daily News'' review was also lukewarm, calling ''Hello Down There'' a "typical, routine family comedy for general audiences" while praising the underwater photography as well as the seal and dolphins "... who seem to act more sensibly than the adults."
Critical appraisal
Biographer Dana M. Reemes, in his ''Directed by Jack Arnold'' (1988) writes:
Music soundtrack
The film features the following songs:
Home media
''Hello Down There'' was released on February 22, 2005 as a Region 1 DVD by Paramount Pictures. The film was made available again on June 25, 2013 as a manufactured-on-demand
DVD-R
DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are a collection of optical disc formats that can be written to by a DVD recorder and by computers using a DVD writer. The "recordable" discs are write-once read-many (WORM) media, where as "rewritable" discs a ...
through the online Warner Bros. Archive Collection.
See also
*
List of American films of 1969
This is a list of American films released in 1969 in film, 1969.
Box office
The highest-grossing American films released in 1969, by domestic box office gross revenue as estimated by ''The Numbers (website), The Numbers'', are as follows:
...
*Reemes, Dana M. 1988. ''Directed by Jack Arnold.''
McFarland & Company
McFarland & Company, Inc., is an American independent book publisher based in Jefferson, North Carolina, that specializes in academic
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tert ...
,
Jefferson, North Carolina
Jefferson is a town in and the county seat of Ashe County, North Carolina, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 1,622.
History
The North Carolina General Assembly created a special commission in 1799 to found a county seat fo ...