We rented a glass-bottom boat, we got farther from shore
Obviously I am not at Readercon, but on the other hand I may have fixed our central air: it required a new filter, a section of insulation, and a quantity of aluminum tape, but the temperature in the apartment has in fact followed the thermostat down for the first time all week. Fingers crossed that it stays that way.
Although its state-of-the-art submarine is nuclear-powered and engaged in the humanitarian mission of planting a chain of seismometers around the sunken hotspots of the globe, Around the World Under the Sea (1966) plays so much like a modernized Verne mash-up right down to its trick-photographed battle with a giant moray eel and its climactic ascent amid the eruption of a newly discovered volcano that it should not be faulted for generally shorting its characters in favor of all the techno-oceanography, but Keenan Wynn grouches delightfully as the specialist in deep-sea survival who prefers to spend his time playing shortwave chess in a diving bell at the bottom of the Caribbean and the script actually remembers it isn't Shirley Eaton's fault if the average heterosexual male IQ plummets past the Marianas just because she's inhaled in its vicinity, but the MVP of the cast is David McCallum whose tinted monobrowline glasses and irritable social gracelessness would code him nerd in any era, but he's the grit in the philanthropy with his stake in a sunken treasure of transistor crystals and his surprise to be accused of cheating at chess when he designed and programmed the computer that's been making his moves for him. If the film of The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) had not made its inspired change in the nationality of its aeronautical engineer, McCallum could have knocked the part out of the park. "No, you don't get one," he almost gets the last word, distributing his sole precious handful of salvage among his fellow crew with the pointed exception of the captain played inevitably by Lloyd Bridges: "You blew the bloody submarine in half."
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spatch and I have seen four films now by the husband-and-wife, director-and-editor team of Andrew L. and Virginia Stone and on the strength of Ring of Fire (1961), The Steel Trap (1952), The Decks Ran Red (1958), and just lately The Last Voyage (1960), the unifying theme of their pictures looks like pulp logistics. So far the standout has been the nail-biter noir of The Steel Trap, whose sprung ironies depend on an accumulation of individually trivial hitches in getting from L.A. to Rio that under less criminal circumstances would mount to planes-trains-and-automobiles farce, but Ring of Fire incorporates at least two real forest fires into its evacuation of a Cascadian small town, The Decks Ran Red transplants its historical mutiny to the modern engine room of a former Liberty ship, and The Last Voyage went the full Fitzcarraldo by sinking the scrap-bound SS Île de France after first blowing its boiler through its salon and smashing its funnel into its deckhouse without benefit of model work. The prevailing style is pedal-to-the-metal documentary with just enough infill of character to keep the proceedings from turning to clockwork and a deep anoraky delight in timetables and mechanical variables. Eventually I will hit one of their more conventional-sounding crime films, but until then I am really enjoying their clinker-built approach to human interest. Edmond O'Brien as the second engineer of the doomed SS Claridon lost his father on the Titanic, a second-generation trauma another film could have built an entire arc out of, and the Stones care mostly whether he's as handy with an acetylene torch as all that.
We were forty-four minutes into Dr. Kildare's Strange Case (1940) before anything remotely strange occurred beyond an impressive protraction of soap and with sincere regrets to Lew Ayres, I tapped out.
Although its state-of-the-art submarine is nuclear-powered and engaged in the humanitarian mission of planting a chain of seismometers around the sunken hotspots of the globe, Around the World Under the Sea (1966) plays so much like a modernized Verne mash-up right down to its trick-photographed battle with a giant moray eel and its climactic ascent amid the eruption of a newly discovered volcano that it should not be faulted for generally shorting its characters in favor of all the techno-oceanography, but Keenan Wynn grouches delightfully as the specialist in deep-sea survival who prefers to spend his time playing shortwave chess in a diving bell at the bottom of the Caribbean and the script actually remembers it isn't Shirley Eaton's fault if the average heterosexual male IQ plummets past the Marianas just because she's inhaled in its vicinity, but the MVP of the cast is David McCallum whose tinted monobrowline glasses and irritable social gracelessness would code him nerd in any era, but he's the grit in the philanthropy with his stake in a sunken treasure of transistor crystals and his surprise to be accused of cheating at chess when he designed and programmed the computer that's been making his moves for him. If the film of The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) had not made its inspired change in the nationality of its aeronautical engineer, McCallum could have knocked the part out of the park. "No, you don't get one," he almost gets the last word, distributing his sole precious handful of salvage among his fellow crew with the pointed exception of the captain played inevitably by Lloyd Bridges: "You blew the bloody submarine in half."
spatch and I have seen four films now by the husband-and-wife, director-and-editor team of Andrew L. and Virginia Stone and on the strength of Ring of Fire (1961), The Steel Trap (1952), The Decks Ran Red (1958), and just lately The Last Voyage (1960), the unifying theme of their pictures looks like pulp logistics. So far the standout has been the nail-biter noir of The Steel Trap, whose sprung ironies depend on an accumulation of individually trivial hitches in getting from L.A. to Rio that under less criminal circumstances would mount to planes-trains-and-automobiles farce, but Ring of Fire incorporates at least two real forest fires into its evacuation of a Cascadian small town, The Decks Ran Red transplants its historical mutiny to the modern engine room of a former Liberty ship, and The Last Voyage went the full Fitzcarraldo by sinking the scrap-bound SS Île de France after first blowing its boiler through its salon and smashing its funnel into its deckhouse without benefit of model work. The prevailing style is pedal-to-the-metal documentary with just enough infill of character to keep the proceedings from turning to clockwork and a deep anoraky delight in timetables and mechanical variables. Eventually I will hit one of their more conventional-sounding crime films, but until then I am really enjoying their clinker-built approach to human interest. Edmond O'Brien as the second engineer of the doomed SS Claridon lost his father on the Titanic, a second-generation trauma another film could have built an entire arc out of, and the Stones care mostly whether he's as handy with an acetylene torch as all that.We were forty-four minutes into Dr. Kildare's Strange Case (1940) before anything remotely strange occurred beyond an impressive protraction of soap and with sincere regrets to Lew Ayres, I tapped out.
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Edmond O'Brien as the second engineer of the doomed SS Claridon lost his father on the Titanic, a second-generation trauma another film could have built an entire arc out of, and the Stones care mostly whether he's as handy with an acetylene torch as all that. Wait what? They invent that amazing backstory and then don't use it much? ... Though I can see that if you're going to sink an actual ship for real for real, maybe your IRL preoccupation with timetables and mechanical variables would focus more on acetylene torch aptitude than tragic backstory.
Way to go on fixing the air conditioning! My big mechanical fix was that I bought coolant for the healing angel's overheating car, woo. But maybe it counts that I biked to get it?
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I didn't have my heart set on lycanthropy or anything, but forty-four out of seventy-seven minutes is a long time to wait for even a little abnormality!
Wait what? They invent that amazing backstory and then don't use it much? ... Though I can see that if you're going to sink an actual ship for real for real, maybe your IRL preoccupation with timetables and mechanical variables would focus more on acetylene torch aptitude than tragic backstory.
In fairness, it does color his clashes with the captain of the Claridon, who he feels isn't rating the safety of the passengers highly enough over the reputation of the line. There are all sorts of neat little character touches in the film, most notably the resourceful, compassionate heroism shown by characters least stereotypically signaled for it—Woody Strode as the boiler room crewman who chooses the stranger's family he just might be able to save over the liner he definitely can't, Bill Wilson as the tenacious, not after all walk-on kid originally dismissed as "Beat generation." It's just that the most three-dimensional thing in the film is the minute-by-minute realities of the disaster and everybody's responses to it. It's gripping! It is not the same order of priorities as disaster movies which invest in their characters before the crisis hits. The crisis has already hit before the credits of The Last Voyage are done.
Way to go on fixing the air conditioning! My big mechanical fix was that I bought coolant for the healing angel's overheating car, woo. But maybe it counts that I biked to get it?
It counts! I am glad the car will no longer suffer heatstroke.
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This is fascinating! I'd never thought about it, but you're right of course about disaster movies, and this sounds like a really excellent other way of approaching it.
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I unironically like the Stones as filmmakers! There's always something off-kilter about their takes on the pulpiest tropes—I love the moment in The Decks Ran Red where the mutineers fail to convince the rest of the crew to follow them in their plan to murder the officers and scuttle the ship for the salvage rights because frankly it strikes them as kind of stupid, topped only by Dorothy Dandridge looking like eye candy right up until she turns out to be the film's secret weapon, an even better ally than James Mason with his back to the wall could have asked for. They just really care about how things happen, which is a fascinating angle to build successful films that aren't all puzzles out of.
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I am a sucker for movies set at sea, but have seen relatively few set on big ocean liners! I feel multiple Titanic movies may only half-count.
(I took the expected psychic damage from Titanic (1997) when it came out. My mother showed me A Night to Remember (1958) as an antidote. I found and loved S.O.S. Titanic (1979) on my own time last year.)
This trait (character flaw?) was nurtured early on by the only two movies that I ever saw in the theater with both my parents, The Poseidon Adventure and Tora! Tora! Tora!. Dad wasn't much of a movie person, but he had good reason to see T! T! T! since he was a Pearl Harbor survivor, having been a seaman on the USS Raleigh (CL-7), docked at Ford Island on 12/7/41 with a couple of months left on his enlistment but subject to the "or for the duration" clause.
Especially if it was personal history, I am glad the film worked for him.
Anyways, I love The Last Voyage and it was a good excuse for Woody Strode to shed his shirt (again).
He makes that neckerchief a statement.
(The statement is: "I am Woody Strode and I am hotter than anyone else in this picture.")
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May I also recommend Juggernaut (1974)? Just check out its cast list! And I think I may have seen the Rod Serling-scripted Assault on a Queen (1966) but I'll be damned if I can remember anything about it.
(I took the expected psychic damage from Titanic (1997) when it came out. My mother showed me A Night to Remember (1958) as an antidote. I found and loved S.O.S. Titanic (1979) on my own time last year.)
A Night to Remember is a classic, as is the book. The earlier Titanic (1953) is definitely not a classic, but with Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, and Thelma Ritter, how could one not watch it? I've never heard of, or had totally forgotten, S.O.S. Titanic. Looking it up, I see that it was first broadcast about one month into my freshman year at college, a period when I wasn't watching much primetime TV. But it sounds worth checking out.
Especially if it was personal history, I am glad the film worked for him.
Dad did like T! T! T!. Pearl Harbor (2001), not so much. He said there was too much chaotic mindless running around and that in actuality everyone was well-trained on where to go during an alert. Dad was definitely more of a dry documentarian type rather than a fan of bloated and bombastic melodrama.
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I was just looking at that one because of its cast! Good to hear that the film itself lives up to them.
The earlier Titanic (1953) is definitely not a classic, but with Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, and Thelma Ritter, how could one not watch it?
I never actually have! I feel as thought it comes around rarely on TCM. Recommendation nonetheless accepted.
I've never heard of, or had totally forgotten, S.O.S. Titanic. Looking it up, I see that it was first broadcast about one month into my freshman year at college, a period when I wasn't watching much primetime TV. But it sounds worth checking out.
We watched the original TV version rather than the cut-down theatrical release and I loved it.
Dad was definitely more of a dry documentarian type rather than a fan of bloated and bombastic melodrama.
Relatable. The 1997 Titanic has excellent ship-sinking values and a very fine Thomas Andrews (my first time seeing Victor Garber as opposed to hearing him) and I chain-ate my way through pocketfuls of clementines in order to survive the romance.
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I did see part of a Titanic movie on television as a child, but I’m not sure which one. The only image that’s stayed with me after all these years is that of a doll, dropped to the floor in the rush to escape: we see it for a moment and then the little china face is crushed like an eggshell under the heel of the next fleeing passenger.
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I have seen three out of four of those! How was Pursuit to Algiers?
I did see part of a Titanic movie on television as a child, but I’m not sure which one. The only image that’s stayed with me after all these years is that of a doll, dropped to the floor in the rush to escape: we see it for a moment and then the little china face is crushed like an eggshell under the heel of the next fleeing passenger.
I can see why that image stayed with you. I don't remember it from S.O.S. Titanic, but I could have been distracted by David Warner.
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Not bad. Sort of a wartime-Ruritania story, in that Holmes and Watson are trying to smuggle the royal heir of a fictional ally nation home from the UK (where he’s been studying) so he can take the throne following the assassination of his father and prevent the intended overthrow. Mind you, the movie’s from 1945 so I’m not sure if the forces behind the assassination are meant to be read as nazis or communists. We only ever see the assassins sent after the young king, and they’re Greenstreet-and-Lorre knockoffs who could be working for anybody.
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The Stones' film I like best so far is The Night Holds Terror.
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Thank you! So far it's staying at the temperature we set it to! (Did we ever hear back from the property manager? We did not.)
The Stones' film I like best so far is The Night Holds Terror.
I will watch for that one! Someone at TCM seems to like their movies: I know Julie (1956) has come around at least once and I just didn't know to try it. They tend to have pretty normal one-line summaries and nope.
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I still need to see Midnight Lace! It came around this spring at a point where I was barely processing movies, which felt really unfair. It's got such a great supporting cast, too. I was reminded of it a few days ago on account of Roddy McDowall.
I have to say that morphing into an airplane thriller feels like the sort of thing a domestic noir by Andrew L. and Virginia Stone would do. Since TCM's one-line summaries are so often misleading, neither
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Around the World Under the Sea sounds delightful! Or at least delightful in parts -- does it come together, or just have a lot of deeply fun moments?
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Thank you! I'm hoping it holds: it will be obnoxious if we actually need the property manager for a problem out of my repair grade. But at the moment I am really enjoying the apartment being inhabitable.
[edit] So far, so good! I thought I should mention. I suppose it will be tested when the temperatures really start to climb, but not only is it keeping the air at a dehumidified survivable temperature, I seem to have ceased to have quite so many asthma attacks.
Around the World Under the Sea sounds delightful! Or at least delightful in parts -- does it come together, or just have a lot of deeply fun moments?
We found it majority-delightful! Its romantic subplot is a needless case of het pasted on nope, but otherwise it has cute model effects, tons of underwater photography, and an ensemble cast who look as though they are having fun. I mean it as a mark of affection that I started to refer to it as 20,000 Leagues in 80 Days.
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Delighted to hear it! All digits crossed for it to continue rising stalwartly to the occasion henceforth.
I mean it as a mark of affection that I started to refer to it as 20,000 Leagues in 80 Days.
I cracked up. Incredible, A+, no notes.