If you like your Westerns underwater you'll probably go for this one. It's even got a cast of veteran Western actors with the presence of Gilbert Roland and Richard Boone on hand. They portray rival sponge divers in the Gulf Coast waters of Florida, with offspring (Robert Wagner and Terry Moore) destined to fall in love as the story progresses.
What you have to do here is overlook a number of inconsistencies in the story, including those involving the mechanics of the human body. While Roland's character Mike Petrakis dies from the ill effects of surfacing too quickly from a tragic dive, son Tony (Wagner) engages in a similar dive later in the story, is brought to the surface even more quickly, and never even gets a single spasm. As for how he got away from that octopus, you just have to take it on faith.
The relationships of the characters also didn't seem to remain consistent. Case in point was bully Arnold (Peter Graves) beating up on Tony because girlfriend Gwyneth (Terry Moore) was falling for the younger guy, but simply taking it in stride by the end of the picture when the two hook up for good. Sure, Tony saved his life, but the hunky dory feeling between the two just didn't square with me.
What I really couldn't wrap my head around was the price these sponges brought when hauled back into shore - twenty two thousand dollars for a boat load! In 1953!?!? Maybe I'm missing something here; there must have been some basis for those numbers but it just doesn't compute with me.
Most reviewers here cite the underwater photography as cutting edge, however what I saw, though competent enough, was not that spectacular. Filming in color would have been something new for the era, but everything I saw in the print I just viewed was pretty much shades of blue, and rather washed out at that. I guess I'm sounding a fairly negative note here with my review which I don't mean to be. The story is an OK one offering a venue you don't get to see too often. It's worth a single viewing to catch the young Robert Wagner in an early starring role.
Other than that, my best takeaway from the picture was the sign in the seaside restaurant where a number of scenes took place - 'You hook em, We cook em'. Sounds like a plan to me.
What you have to do here is overlook a number of inconsistencies in the story, including those involving the mechanics of the human body. While Roland's character Mike Petrakis dies from the ill effects of surfacing too quickly from a tragic dive, son Tony (Wagner) engages in a similar dive later in the story, is brought to the surface even more quickly, and never even gets a single spasm. As for how he got away from that octopus, you just have to take it on faith.
The relationships of the characters also didn't seem to remain consistent. Case in point was bully Arnold (Peter Graves) beating up on Tony because girlfriend Gwyneth (Terry Moore) was falling for the younger guy, but simply taking it in stride by the end of the picture when the two hook up for good. Sure, Tony saved his life, but the hunky dory feeling between the two just didn't square with me.
What I really couldn't wrap my head around was the price these sponges brought when hauled back into shore - twenty two thousand dollars for a boat load! In 1953!?!? Maybe I'm missing something here; there must have been some basis for those numbers but it just doesn't compute with me.
Most reviewers here cite the underwater photography as cutting edge, however what I saw, though competent enough, was not that spectacular. Filming in color would have been something new for the era, but everything I saw in the print I just viewed was pretty much shades of blue, and rather washed out at that. I guess I'm sounding a fairly negative note here with my review which I don't mean to be. The story is an OK one offering a venue you don't get to see too often. It's worth a single viewing to catch the young Robert Wagner in an early starring role.
Other than that, my best takeaway from the picture was the sign in the seaside restaurant where a number of scenes took place - 'You hook em, We cook em'. Sounds like a plan to me.