''City Under the Sea'' (released as ''War-Gods of the Deep'' in the US) is a 1965 British-American

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...

horror science fiction film. It was directed by

Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including ''Cat People (1942 film), Cat ...

(his final film) and starred

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...

Tab Hunter Tab Hunter (born Arthur Andrew Kelm; July 11, 1931 – July 8, 2018) was an American actor, singer, film producer, and author. Known for his blond, clean-cut good looks, Hunter starred in more than forty films. He was a Hollywood heartthrob of t ...

, Susan Hart and

David Tomlinson David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson (7 May 1917 – 24 June 2000) was an English stage, film, and television actor and comedian. Having been described as both a leading man and a character actor, he is primarily remembered for his roles as authorit ...

. The plot concerns the discovery of a lost city beneath the sea off the coast of

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

. 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. The film was a period fantasy in the manner begun with

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's ''

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-J ...

'' (1954). The film attempted to capitalize on the series of

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

films that had been made by

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...

, starring Price. To this extent the film took the title of a Poe poem, " The City in the Sea", and attempted to exploit the Poe films' trend, even though the plot is only loosely based on the poem, with a recitation of the poem at the beginning of the film and a brief reprise at the end.

Plot

Around the turn of the century, American mining engineer Ben Harris is working on the Cornish coast in England when he finds a body washed up on the beach. Ben makes inquiries at the nearby hotel. While talking to the hotelier's daughter, fellow American Jill Tregellis, and an eccentric artist, Harold Tufnell-Jones, a mysterious intruder appears but disappears. Later that night Jill is kidnapped by gill men. Ben, Harold and Herbert (Harold's chicken) follow the trail through a secret door into the caves under the house where they are sucked into a pool. They emerge in a cavernous city on the ocean floor. The city was built by a race of ancients who survive only as a breed of gill men. The city is now inhabited by a group of smugglers led by the cruel and tyrannical Captain who hid down there in 1803 and due to the strange mixture of oxygen have not aged in over a century. However, the volcano that powers the city has become unstable. The Captain now imprisons them until Ben can come up with a means of maintaining it. Dan, one of the Captain's men who wishes to leave, offers to help the two escape, provided they use their influence to secure him a full pardon for his past crimes of smuggling. The Captain finds out and reveals that because of the gas they've breathed for so long, exposure to sunlight would cause them to age rapidly and die. Dan is then sent to the surface as a means of execution while Ben and Harold are granted an audience with Jill. Whereupon they meet Rev. Jonathan Ives, who had vanished several decades ago from the surface. The Captain is shown to be under the delusion that Jill is his deceased wife Beatrice, who he believes has returned to him. Realising that Ben and Harold are untrustworthy, the Captain decides to allow the Gill Men to sacrifice the two as a means to appease the volcano's wrath. While they await this, Jill and Ives free them and Ives instructs them all on how to escape the city. The three make it to the airlock and trek across the ocean floor to a cave, containing a tunnel that leads to the surface. The Captain and his men pursue them there, but frequent volcanic eruptions cause rockfalls that bury him and his men. Ben and his friends decide to return to the sea and attempt to reach shore on foot. The Captain meanwhile digs himself free and follows the tunnel to the surface, where the sunlight does indeed age him to death. Ben and the rest make it to shore and watch as the volcano erupts, finally destroying the city.

Cast

as Sir Hugh, The Captain *

as Harold Tufnell-Jones *

as Ben Harris * Susan Hart as Jill Tregillis *

John Le Mesurier John Le Mesurier (, born John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley; 5 April 191215 November 1983) was an English actor. He is perhaps best remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC television situation c ...

as Rev. Jonathan Ives *

Henry Oscar Henry Wale (14 July 1891 – 28 December 1969), known professionally as Henry Oscar, was an English stage and film actor. He changed his name and began acting in 1911, having studied under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Dram ...

as Mumford *

Derek Newark Derek John Newark (8 June 1933 – 11 August 1998) was an English actor in television, film and theatre. Career Newark began his working life as a soldier in the Coldstream Guards before joining the Royal Artillery. However, he wanted to beco ...

as Dan * Roy Patrick as Simon *Herbert as himself (Harold's chicken)

Production

Shooting took place in the United Kingdom. Charles Bennett says he wrote a good script and AIP wanted him to come to Britain to work on the script but would not pay his way. The script was rewritten in Britain by Louis M. Heyward. Bennett hated the changes and called the resulting film "the worst thing I was ever involved in." According to Susan Hart, Charles Bennett's original script was good but was heavily rewritten. She also says there was tension between producers Dan Haller and his British counterpart George Willoughby. Louis M. Heyward confirms this tension and admits to rewriting the script to add humour; in particular, he says he added the comic chicken and introduced the character played by David Tomlinson. Heyward says that Willoughby quit after these changes.

Reception

The film was released in New York on a double bill with '' Beach Blanket Bingo''. The reviewer for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' thought it was the better of the two movies, calling it "a briny safari".

Comic book adaption

* Dell Movie Classic: ''War-Gods of the Deep'' (July–September 1965)

References

External links

*
City Under the Sea
' a
DBCult Film Institute
* {{Jacques Tourneur 1965 films American International Pictures films 1960s science fiction adventure films British science fiction adventure films British fantasy adventure films Films directed by Jacques Tourneur Underwater civilizations in fiction Films adapted into comics British historical adventure films 1960s historical adventure films 1960s English-language films 1960s British films