The Atomic Submarine - (1959)

The Atomic Submarine is a movie that is for B-movie fans only, as if you couldn’t tell from the title. It involves a crew in the North Pole searching for the cause of the destruction of several of their ships. Pretty quickly they find out it’s an alien, who dwells in the sea.

 

(Spoilers) So they ram their sub into the UFO, climb aboard and find the alien who looks very similar to the aliens from The Simpsons. He says his plan is to take over the planet, but first take several humans back to his home for experimentation…basically, the world’s most typical alien plan. Also like every other alien movie, the UFO tries to return to his planet, but is blasted away before it can leave orbit. And everyone’s happy, forgetting that there’s an entire planet of these things that will probably check up on the absent scout. But the movie’s over, so who cares. (Spoilers end)

The characters are pretty basic, but the two main characters have a difference of world views. The scientist Dr. Neilson, is a pacifist, and doesn’t want anymore nuclear weapons to be made. In contrast, Lt. Commander ‘Reef’ Holloway gives all the typical pro-military patriotic speeches, and is disgusted with Neilson’s pacifism. The movie portrays both sides in a fair portrayal, until the end where Neilson basically says pacifism doesn’t work on hostile alien monsters. I don’t know if he viewed the communists in the same light, but it was probably the director’s intention. I don’t know about the message, but it’s some character development, which is appreciated.

 

The direction is very typical of the genre and era. Slow placed, lots of techno babble in rooms filled with fake computers, and then all the action happens in the last 10 minutes. But that’s what you pay for, plus you get a great ending when they finally get on the UFO. The alien effect is great, because it’s just a big eyeball with tentacles. Classic. The music is also classic 50’s sci-fi, which it refers to as “Electro-Sonic” in the credits. If any of this sounds good to you, or just the title is appealing, you’ll like it. Get a bunch of B-movies, throw this in the middle of the marathon, and enjoy.