City Beneath the Sea [One Hour to Doomsday] ** (1971, Stuart Whitman, Robert Wagner, Rosemary Forsyth, Richard Basehart, Joseph Cotten, James Darren, Paul Stewart) – Classic Movie Review 8941

Director Irwin Allen’s lively 1971 sci-fi action adventure TV movie City Beneath the Sea is helped by lots of familiar television star faces (Stuart Whitman, Robert Wagner, Rosemary Forsyth) and movie stars on the way down (Richard Basehart, Joseph Cotten, James Darren, Paul Stewart) in stalwart turns. But it mostly makes the grade thanks to the lavish production and its adequate script.

This TV movie series pilot is a remake of the 1969 TV short City Beneath the Sea, Irwin Allen’s failed pilot for a show that was meant to replace Star Trek. The screenplay is written by Star Trek producer John Meredyth Lucas and the film won an Emmy for best special effects.

In Irwin Allen’s story, future colonists inhabit an underwater city called Pacifica. But life isn’t always easy in Pacifica, the world’s first undersea colony, in the 21st century, what with an attack by aliens, problems with the waterworks and the humdrum human rows that always slow down disaster movies. The colonists have to defend their city against the hostile alien forces. The film is set in 2053. The opening credits prologue is JUNE 12, 2053 THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.

Also in the cast are Robert Colbert, Susana Miranda, Burr DeBenning, Sugar Ray Robinson, Whit Bissell, Larry Pennell, William [Bill] Bryant, Robert [Bob] Dowdell, Edward G Robinson Jr, Tom Drake and Sheila Mathews as Blonde Woman (actually Irwin Allen’s wife, Sheila Allen).

City Beneath the Sea was promoted to British cinemas as One Hour to Doomsday, and also had a theatrical release in West Germany, Austria and France.

The main Tritan Control set was re-dressed and painted black for the Ape Training Centre in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972).

City Beneath the Sea [One Hour to Doomsday] is directed by Irwin Allen, runs 98 minutes, is made by Motion Pictures International, Kent Productions, and Warner Bros Television, is released by National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1971) (US) (TV) and Anglo-EMI Film Distributors (1971) (UK), is written by John Meredyth Lucas, is shot by Kenneth Peach, is produced by Irwin Allen, is scored by Richard LaSalle and designed by Rodger E Maus and Stan Jolley.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8941

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