There is to save the world, dear friends. T throws a nuclear bomb. A plan to be applied that only the USA can achieve. There's Frankie Avalon singing the opening song. What is happening? They lose a lot of time in words and controversy.
"Voyage to the bottom of the sea" is one of those super productions of the "20th Century Fox" that with a million and a half dollars (we are in 1961) of budget brings home seven million, also generating a TV series.
Written and directed by Irwin Allen (producer of "Towering Inferno" and who will also be executive producer of the series) with Charles Bennett acclaimed writer, it is obviously one of those catastrophic chapters that follows the wake of nuclear danger and the works of Jules Verne.
As said the Earth is in great danger because due to cosmic radiation the belt of Van Allen catches fire and overheats the earth. The solution is to shoot a nuclear missile at a specific time in the Marianne Islands to break the chain.
The brilliant idea is from Admiral Nelson (Walter Pidgeon) commander of a nuclear submarine that endorses the thesis of other scientists. A solution that does not satisfy everyone, including a large part of the UN council.
The hero, however, does not give up and completes his heroic mission, even though there are considerable controversies on the submarine.
A typical story of the genre with great potential, but remains trapped in a work that has more words than actions and special effects really normal, such as images of the overheated earth or the submarine.
It’s a problem that also the critics of the era underline although this movie became a great commercial success.
The merit of the success is to be attributed in part to a super cast composed by Walter Pidgeon already Dr.Mobius in "The Forbidden Planet", by the Oscar winner Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden (which we remember here for the series "Dream of Jannie ", Peter Lorre and Robert Sterling.