- This article is about the original film. For the spin off TV series, see Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was a science fiction film produced and directed by Irwin Allen and released in 1961. The story was written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennet. Walter Pidgeon starred as Admiral Harriman Nelson, designer/builder of USOS Seaview, a futuristic nuclear submarine, with Robert Sterling as Capt Lee Crane, and Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, Michael Ansara and Peter Lorre. The theme song is sung by Frankie Avalon, who also has a part in the film. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 385 × 599 pixels Full resolution (400 × 622 pixel, file size: 109 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Movie poster advertisement for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - © 1961 20th Century Fox For an article about a film, the original theatrical advertisement...
Irwin Allen (June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was a television and film producer nicknamed The Master of Disaster for his work in the disaster film genre. ...
Irwin Allen (June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was a television and film producer nicknamed The Master of Disaster for his work in the disaster film genre. ...
Irwin Allen (June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was a television and film producer nicknamed The Master of Disaster for his work in the disaster film genre. ...
Charles Bennett (2nd August, 1899 - 15th June, 1995) was a British playwright and screenwriter, probably best known for his work with Alfred Hitchcock. ...
Walter Pidgeon Walter Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian actor. ...
Joan Fontaine (born October 22, 1917) is a Japanese-born British actress, who became an American citizen in April 1943. ...
Barbara Eden (born August 23, 1934 in Tucson, Arizona, USA) is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for her starring role in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. ...
Peter Lorre (June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964), born Ladislav (László) Löwenstein, was an Austrian-Jewish stage and screen actor and director, who later became a naturalised US citizen. ...
Robert Sterling, born William Sterling Hart (November 13, 1917 – May 30, 2006), was an American film and television actor. ...
Michael Ansara (born April 15, 1922) is a stage, screen and voice actor. ...
Winton Hoch (1905 - 1979) was originally a lab technician who contributed to the development of Technicolor before becoming a cinematographer in 1936. ...
Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the major American film studios. ...
July 12 is the 193rd day of the year (194th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is the television series sequel to the 1961 film, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. ...
Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...
Irwin Allen (June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was a television and film producer nicknamed The Master of Disaster for his work in the disaster film genre. ...
1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ...
Walter Pidgeon Walter Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian actor. ...
Richard Basehart Admiral Harriman Nelson was a fictional US Naval officer first played by Walter Pidgeon in the 1961 Science Fiction movie, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and later played by Richard Basehart in the 1964-1968 TV series of the same name. ...
Seaview, a fictitious privately-owned nuclear submarine, was the setting for the 1961 movie and 1964-to-1968 ABC television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. ...
Alvin in 1978, a year after first exploring hydrothermal vents. ...
Robert Sterling, born William Sterling Hart (November 13, 1917 – May 30, 2006), was an American film and television actor. ...
Joan Fontaine (born October 22, 1917) is a Japanese-born British actress, who became an American citizen in April 1943. ...
Barbara Eden (born August 23, 1934 in Tucson, Arizona, USA) is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for her starring role in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. ...
Michael Ansara (born April 15, 1922) is a stage, screen and voice actor. ...
Peter Lorre (June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964), born Ladislav (László) Löwenstein, was an Austrian-Jewish stage and screen actor and director, who later became a naturalised US citizen. ...
The theme music of a radio or television program is a piece that is written specifically for that show and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits. ...
Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American actor and teen idol in the 1950s and early 1960s. ...
Plot The plot involves the Van Allen radiation belt catching fire, causing a world-threatening global heat wave. The Van Allen belt fire is literally causing the sky to be on fire all over the world. The fire is making the world's temperature rise alarmingly each day. If this steady rise in heat is not stopped it will soon end all life on Earth. The skyfire is caused by meteors piercing the Van Allen belt. The fire begins while the new and state-of-the-art atomic submarine Seaview is on diving trials in the Arctic Ocean along with a team of observers onboard.The purpose of the observers is to appraise the new submarine while its builder puts it through its trial runs. These runs end abruptly when icebergs start falling on the Seaview. The futuristic submarine surfaces and its crew learns about the skyfire. Van Allen radiation belts The Van Allen Radiation Belt is a torus of energetic charged particles (plasma) around Earth, held in place by Earths magnetic field. ...
Temperature difference in Europe from the average during the European heat wave of 2003 A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity. ...
Seaview, a fictitious privately-owned nuclear submarine, was the setting for the 1961 movie and 1964-to-1968 ABC television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. ...
The Admiral and his friend, Commodore Emery, than do a lot of calculating. Then they lead a group to a UN emergency meeting with a plan to extinguish the orbiting flames. Once they are at the meeting, the Admiral tells the delegates that if the heat increase is not stopped, his calculations show that the "Earth has a life expectancy of about three weeks". He then explains about the plan that he and the commodore have come up with to save the day. They want to use a missile fired at the right point and time to extinguish the skyfire. This missile would be aimed at the burning Van Allen belt from the Marianas Trench. Only the Seaview can fire the missile correctly. This goes over the head of chief scientist and head delegate Zucco (Henry Daniel). At Zucco's urging, Admiral Nelson (Pidgeon) and Commodore Emery (Lorre) are shouted down at the UN emergency meeting. The Admiral remains convinced his plan is the right one. He and the Commodore return to Seaview and order the crew to set sail. The submarine races to the Pacific to launch the missile from the Marianas Trench. Trouble for those on board the sub begins when it emerges there is a saboteur amongst them. But is it the rescued scientist, Miguel Alvarez (Ansara), or the stress-observing psychologist, Dr. Susan Hiller (Fontaine)? The Mariana Trench is the deepest known submarine trench, and the deepest location in the Earth itself. ...
German supply train blown up by the Armia Krajowa during World War II Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening an enemy, oppressor or employer through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction. ...
The plot from here on is driven by a race against the clock as Admiral Nelson tries to reach the Marianas Trench in time. The story bars his way with one disaster on top of another: a minefield, a hostile submarine, a giant octopus, a near-mutiny and a religious fanatic. Polish wz. ...
Giant Octopus may refer to the following: Octopuses of the genus Enteroctopus Colossal Octopus or lusca, a cryptid This is a disambiguation page — a list of articles associated with the same title. ...
Mutiny is the act of conspiring to disobey an order that a group of similarly-situated individuals (typically members of the military; or the crew of any ship, even if they are civilians) is legally obliged to obey. ...
Fanaticism is an emotion of being filled with excessive, uncritical zeal, particularly for an extreme religious or political cause, or with an obsessive enthusiasm for a pastime or hobby. ...
Near the end of the film the saboteur is revealed to be Dr. Hiller; she then falls into the sub's aquarium during a fight and is eaten by a shark that the sub's marine biologist Commodore Emery (Lorre) has on board for research purposes. “Aquaria†redirects here. ...
Orders Carcharhiniformes Heterodontiformes Hexanchiformes Lamniformes Orectolobiformes Pristiophoriformes Squaliformes Squatiniformes Symmoriida(extinct) Sharks (superorder Selachimorpha) are fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton[1] and a streamlined body. ...
Marine biology is the scientific study of the plants, animals and other organisms that live in the ocean or any other body of water. ...
Eventually, despite the efforts of the religious fanatic Alvarez to prevent it, the sub launches a nuclear missile into the belt, extinguishing the fire and saving the world. The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ...
Technical Background The name of the film is an inversion of a phrase popular at the time, concerning the exploration of the Arctic Ocean by nuclear submarines, namely, "a voyage to the top of the world." No large submarine can reach the ocean floor in the high seas and safely return.
The film submarine's design is unique in that it features an eight window bow viewport which provides panoramic undersea views (in the novel of the film by Theodore Sturgeon the windows are described as "Transparent hullplating", a process developed by Nelson as "X-tempered herculite"). The bow/nose also has a shark-like bottom flare,and the stern has extended V-shaped wing tail surfaces. In the film,the USOS Seaview (United States Oceanographic Survey) is under the authority of Nelson and the Bureau of Marine Exploration. The novel mentions the bureau as being part of the U. S. Department of Science. Theodore Sturgeon (February 26, 1918 Staten Island, New York – May 8, 1985) was an American science fiction author. ...
At the time that Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was made the Van Allen Radiation Belts had only recently been discovered. Much of what this movie says about them is made up for the film. Discoveries that have been made about the Van Allen Belts since clearly invalidate what the film says: the Van Allen Belts (actually somewhat more radiation-dense portions of the magnetosphere) are made up of sub-atomic particles trapped by the Earth's magnetic field in the vacuum of space which cannot catch fire. A magnetosphere is the region around an astronomical object in which phenomena are dominated or organized by its magnetic field. ...
Cast Walter Pidgeon Walter Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian actor. ...
Joan Fontaine (born October 22, 1917) is a Japanese-born British actress, who became an American citizen in April 1943. ...
Barbara Eden (born August 23, 1934 in Tucson, Arizona, USA) is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for her starring role in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. ...
Peter Lorre (June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964), born Ladislav (László) Löwenstein, was an Austrian-Jewish stage and screen actor and director, who later became a naturalised US citizen. ...
Robert Sterling, born William Sterling Hart (November 13, 1917 – May 30, 2006), was an American film and television actor. ...
Michael Ansara (born April 15, 1922) is a stage, screen and voice actor. ...
Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American actor and teen idol in the 1950s and early 1960s. ...
Publicity photo for Toomey Regis Toomey (August 13, 1898 - October 12, 1991) was a film and television actor. ...
Actor John Litel in Two Dollar Bettor (1951) John Litel (December 30, 1892 - February 3, 1972) was a film actor. ...
Howard McNear (January 27, 1905 – January 3, 1969) was an American film, television and radio character actor. ...
Henry Daniell (March 5, 1894, London – October 31, 1963) was an English actor, best known for his villainous screen roles, but who had a long and prestigious career on stage as well as in films. ...
Mark Van Blarcom Slade (b. ...
Other media The success of the movie led to the 1964-1968 TV version on ABC, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. During the run of the series this film was remade as an hour in length episode. The episode was written by Willam Welch and was called The Skys on Fire,The Skys on Fire. Many of the scenes in the movie became scenes or even episodes in the Television series. See also: 1963 in television, other events of 1964, 1965 in television and the list of years in television. For the American network television schedule, please see 1964-65 American network television schedule. ...
See also: 1967 in television, other events of 1968, 1969 in television and the list of years in television. For the American network television schedule, please see 1968-69 American network television schedule. ...
The American Broadcasting Company ( oftenly known as ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ...
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is the television series sequel to the 1961 film, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. ...
In June 1961, Pyramid Books published a novelization of the feature film by Theodore Sturgeon. The book was reprinted several times during the 1960s. Collectors be aware that one of those reprintings has Richard Basehart and David Hedison pictured on the cover. The book is still about the Walter Pidgeon film. For collectors who want a novelization of the Tv series you should find City Beneath the Sea. That book uses the TV characters but should not be confused with either the tv episode or the later Irwin Allen flim of the same name. Theodore Sturgeon (February 26, 1918 Staten Island, New York – May 8, 1985) was an American science fiction author. ...
The Sturgeon book is based on an early version of the movie script. The book has the same basic story as the movie. The book also has a few characters that were not shown in the film and some additional technical explanation. Some scenes are different from the film.
The original 1961 cover shows a submarine meeting a fanged sea serpent. Neither the submarine nor the sea serpent appear anywhere in the novel or the film.
In 1961 Dell Comics did a full color adaptation of the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie. The comic book has a few publicity stills of the movie plus a section on the history of submarines. In the comic book the admirals first name is Farragut instead of Harriman.
Similar films Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was made at a time when nuclear submarines were very new. They must have seemed like futuristic Science Fiction come to life. In addition to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, futuristic submarines were the heroic subject of two other Science Fiction films made in the same era. Those two similar films were the American made The Atomic Submarine and the Japenese made Atragon. The Atomic Submarine is a 1959 science fiction film directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet. ...
Atragon (海底è»è‰¦ - Kaitei Gunkan, Undersea Battleship) is a 1963 Toho tokusatsu film based on the 1899 novel Kaitei Gunkan by ShunrÅ Oshikawa and the illustrated story Kaitei Okoku (The Undersea Kingdom) by Shigeru Komatsuzaki, who also served as visual designer for the film. ...
Several years prior to the making of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Peter Lorrie starred in another submarine fantasy film, Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ...
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a 1954 film starring Kirk Douglas as Ned Land, James Mason as Captain Nemo, Paul Lukas as Professor Aronnax and Peter Lorre as Conseil. ...
External links |
Feeds |
Contact