Review of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961) by Robert B — 24 Apr 2009

Ok very dated by today's standards, the spfx always reminds me of Toho sci-fi flicks of the same era. My kids always wonder when Godzilla is going to pop out of an iceberg. Storytelling's pace is unusual butgets up to speed as the film progresses.

Walter Pidgeon is always solid as the scientist/ commander in these type of Cold War 50/60's scifi romps. An interesting note about the Van Allen radiation belts catching fire from a meteor plot. The film was inspired by a news article were the USA military was conducting high altitude nuclear explosions / tests (aka rainbow bombs) testing the effects of electromagnetic pulses and there was a proposal before then President Kennedy to explode a nuclear bomb inside the Van Allen radiation belts.

The scientists theorized that the bomb could a) cause an EMP that would travel along the belt and wipe out electrical equipment world wide, b) do nothing or c) fry every living thing on Earth. President Kennedy cancelled the project.