Reviews & Ratings for
Underwater! More at IMDbPro »

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

24 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
The figure and natural wonders of Jane Russell in her last film for Howard Hughes..., 30 October 1999

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"Underwater!" is a routine treasure-search adventure with Jane Russell (Theresa) in love with Richard Egan (Johnny) diving with him and with Dominic (Gilbert Roland), his best friend, in the deep blue water of the Caribbean looking for bars of gold lost in the wreck of a Spanish sailing ship...

The essential point of the film is not the legendary treasure shared in part with an unscrupulous 'bandido' named Rico (Joseph Calleia) but a nice shot worth to be remembered: Jane Russell in her distinctive particular one-piece red bathing-suit moving underwater in front Sturges' camera...

With a great Latin music score, and the blessing of Father Cannon (Robert Keith) for winning his gold cross, and with Lori Nelson (Gloria), the owner of the beautiful boat in love with Dominic, the film photographed in SuperScope and Technicolor, imparts a special Latin flavor, serving one and only purpose, the figure and the natural wonders of Jane Russell in her last film for Howard Hughes...

Ironically another pin-up girl, and another 'Jane' was about to be born, the screen goddess Jayne Mansfield.

16 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Pioneer Movie, 15 October 2005
Author: arturo-27 from United States

I enjoy this movie very much and try to watch it periodically. As someone who took up SCUBA diving the year before this movie was made, I'd like to call attention to the fact that it is the first full length feature movie in which SCUBA was used. In fact, it was so early in the development of equipment that the tanks that they were using were smaller than the 72 cubic foot tanks that became standard for steel tanks.(There were other sizes.) Also, note the two hose regulators that are all but obsolete, the early flipper designs, and the primitive back packs. To some, the story may seem a little corny, but so were early aviation pictures and early submarine pictures. This considered, I think that the movie deserves look.

14 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
The sunken treasure, 4 January 2006

Author: jotix100 from New York

Howard Hughes was a producer that had a lot of talent for discovering beautiful women that went on to have better careers with other vehicles than the ones he decided to create for them. That seems to be the case of this John Sturges' 1955 film "Underwater!" in which the curvaceous Jane Russell starred for the last time for Howard Hughes.

The film is a curious one. We are introduced to Johnny and Dominic, two underwater divers who are searching for those sunken ships in the Caribbean, especially this one, not too far from Cuba. As they stumble into the old Spanish galleon, they find a man that appears to be a sort of pirate awaiting for them because it's obvious they are after those treasures.

As Johnny and Dominic go back to Cuba, we are introduced to Theresa, Johnny's wife, who is dead set against spending money chasing his dreams. But when Dominic meets Gloria, by chance, she tells him about the yacht she has been left with by a departing old flame. So the four friends, and a priest who knows about those sunk ships, go in search of the riches trapped underwater.

The film doesn't bring anything new to this film genre. In fact, it's pretty tame stuff we see in a predictable story we know how it will end. The best reward for the viewers of "Underwater" is the beautiful Jane Russell at her best. She was one of the sultriest women working in films during those days. The problem is the male stars who give by the numbers performances. Joseph Calleia is the only one that shows any spunk as the man who wants the riches from under the sea.

13 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Classic Film For 1955, 16 October 2005

Author: whpratt1 from United States

This was the last picture that Howard Hughes, Executive Producer, would produce with Jane Russell. Howard produced "The Outlaw" with Russell years ago and it was a big success because it was baned by many Christian churches, because too much cleveage was exposed by Jane R. In this film, Jane Russell,(Theresa Gray),"Young Widow",'46, appears mostly in a bathing suit and shows off her body in all the right places and was the wife of Richard Egan,(Johnny Gray),"Untamed",'55, who had a great addiction to trying to find treasure and was down on his luck and just got married; so he was looking for a big find. Gilbert Roland, (Dominic),"Sonora",69 was also a skilled diver who also desired to find sunken riches from the deep coral reefs. Lori Nelson,(Gloria),"The Naked Monster",'05, was a cute petite blond friend of Dominic and played a rather dumb role. In 1955, scuba diving was a new feature and underwater films were of great interest to the public. There even was a priest who went along on the boat, who had great interest in religious relics that had sunken into the sea. There is some exciting scenes which captured the audiences of the 50's; it is truly a great Classic Film.

13 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
...oops....not that I was looking for this, but.., 15 October 2006

Author: macknife-2 from rowley ma

...about 10 minutes before the end of this fun movie, the lead actors are struggling underwater, when all of a sudden Richard Egan (..or his stunt double) reaches across the front of Jane Russell (..or HER stunt double) to free her from some impeding disaster, and as he pulls away his hand he pulls down her bathing suit ever so briefly and exposes the right nipple...

THIS is what HDTV wide screen technology can do..stuff that got by the editors years ago is now there for detailed and easy to see review.....DVDs make it even easier, but you have to catch UNDERWATER on cable..(..of course you can Tivo it and freeze frame whatever...)

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Great Underwater Adventure of Treasure Hunters, 16 November 2012

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The scuba diver partners Dominic Quesada (Gilbert Roland) and Johnny Gray (Richard Egan) are treasure hunters that are seeking for sunken treasures in the Caribean waters. When they find evidences of the Seventeenth Century galleon Santo Bello in the bottom of the sea, they raise money and an adequate boat and they sail to the spot with Johnny's wife Theresa Gray (Jane Russell), the boat's owner Gloria (Lori Nelson) and Father Cannon (Robert Keith), who is an archaeologist, to recover the treasure.

They find the galleon located in a dangerous location on the edge of a cliff and they use a winch to try to hold it in position. Meanwhile they feel threatened by greedy shark hunters but they leave them in an island. When Theresa is trapped in the debris of the sunken vessel, Johnny and Dominic have difficulties to rescue her. But when they return to they vessel, they have a surprise.

"Underwater!" is a naive popcorn movie with a great adventure of treasure hunters. The attractions of this film are basically the underwater filming and Jane Russell, but it is entertaining in a rainy afternoon on DVD. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Alforje do Diabo" ("The Devil's Saddlebag")

13 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
no sunken chests here!, 16 February 2004

Author: ptb-8 from Australia

Screened recently in national television in Australia, and on a Saturday afternoon so all 19 million of us could goggle at it in the daytime, the press release for the TV week magazine exclaimed: No Sunken treasure for Gilbert Roland, but oh boy, check Jane's sea Chest!.....now how could anyone miss that. Not ever seen in 3D here we have had to make do with that. Snazzy cossies and bubbling romance, this sensational lung stretcher cost as much as A STAR IS BORN but hasn't endured like Judy did. Jane is as gorgeous as ever and the film is fish tank pretty. Watch it and love it. No wonder poor RKO went bust too.

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Colour or B&W ?, 18 December 2006

Author: (esmorr) from Melbourne, Australia.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I taped this film one day recently when I came across it on TV. The interesting thing is that the version I saw was b&w, and when I looked at the intro credits it said 'color by Technicolor'! Then I looked it up on this site, and I found that it was released in colour, but no mention of a b&w version!

I enjoyed the film, but I was thinking at the time how much better it would be in colour. The underwater scenery would be even more fantastic! Love the music, it's really catchy with a great beat, and the storyline isn't bad. I always enjoy the films from this era, and this is no disappointment. Now I'm looking out for the colour version!

7 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
What about the time you tried to corner the avocado market!, 21 June 2006

Author: sol from Brooklyn NY USA

**MINOR SPOILERS** Midly entertaining sunken treasure adventure movie that's only kept afloat by it's star Jane Russell, Theresa Gray, who's constantly competing in the movie with the breath-taking Caribbean scenery off the coast of Cuba. Finding some underwater artifacts that suggest their from a Spanish Man of War it's decided by the sunken-ship treasure hunters Johnny & Dom, Richard Egan & Gilbert Roland, to get a bigger boat to go back out at sea to recover the hundreds of gold bars and box-loads of priceless gems submerged there.

It takes a while for Johnny to first get his wife Thereas to go along with his, what seemed to her, water logged plan. It's then that Lady Luck struck him and Dom when looking to rent a 50 foot boat from this guy Robinson they finds that he checked out of town and left his boat over to his totally land-locked minded young secretary Gloria, Lori Nelson, who's more then willing to let the two treasure hunters use it.

There's a number of unexpected event happen to the quintet with a local padre Father Cannon ,Robert Keith, coming on board who's only interested in recovering a life size solid gold Virgin Mary statue studded with diamonds to be returned to her rightful owners in the little church in Panama where she originally came from. Later there's this boat-load of shark hunters headed by the scuzzy-looking Rico, Joseph Caileia,looking for garbage from John's boat to use as bait to attract the underwater predators. Rico smells a rat, or a gold bar, when John tells him he and Dom are only looking for underwater rocks to be studied by the professors and students at Havana University.

The movie "Underwater" comes to it's very predictable conclusion when after reaching the underwater sunken treasure site Johnny is left by himself with Dom suffering from the bends. It's then when we finally get to see Theresa or actress Jane Russell, who we earlier briefly saw in a swimsuit, put on her bathing suit and dive underwater to help and possible save her husband, Johnny, from either drowning or getting eaten up by sharks. Theresa for all her efforts gets stuck in the sunken ships wreckage where we then have Johnny making it back to the boat to get her an extra oxygen tank. You wonder why all this was really necessary when Theresa has those two giant natural air supply tanks that can easily keep Theresa breathing for at least a week!

With Johnny and Theresa as well as Dom who heroically came to both their aid, risking his life doing it, back on the boat their again confronted by the shark-hunters who were disarmed and left on shore by Johnny & Dom just a while earlier. We then have another boring battle between them and Johnny & Dom which ends with everybody shaking hands and becoming friends> This happens when one of the shark hunters got very religious, which quickly affected the rest of his crew-mates, over the the fact that all this violence was over a golden statue of the Virgin Mary the mother of the Prince of Peace!

Nothing that you wouldn't expect or want in a movie like "Underwater", except hoping to see a lot more of Jane Russell in a tight swimsuit, with a happy ending without anyone in the film getting killed. With the most seriously injury among the cast being that they got a bit wet under and between the ears and,in the case of Dom, a very bad case of the Caribbean cramps.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Not quite deep enough!, 11 May 2007
Author: Juha Hämäläinen from Finland

This was the first film seen in theaters as a widescreen presentation in Finland in the fifties. So much for the film history, because the video version I saw was in 1.33:1 format leaving a lot of the visual underwater spectaculars out of the picture. Not that it might have helped much the otherwise lackluster presentation. The underwater photography of scavenging a sunken treasure does look great and very well done for its time. But above the surface there are the all too static scenes made in a studio with painted skies and wind machines. The dialog and acting are stiff and more like posing instead of running smoothly along the story. Not that the plot is much of a help either. A bit more care for the script would have been needed for a working balance next to the well executed underwater scenes and such ambitious plans for marketing tricks like underwater screenings with aqualungs for the press. The whole story is very slow moving and largely without excitement until the final fifteen minutes. Only then is the movie finally able to fill some of the expectations that have been promised all along with claustrophobic mood, shark danger and Jane Russell stuck in a favorable position in open red swimming suit. John Sturges was usually a very capable director, but this time his skills have probably been too tied under the command of the producer Howard Hughes. I'm sure they didn't really mean the whole movie to sink like that.

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

Add another review

Related Links