Battle Beneath the Earth (1967)

A Chinese general goes berserk and has a system of tunnels dug all the way from China to USA, under the Pacific Ocean! Wherever there is an important military base, he places atomic bombs. ... See full summary »

Director:

Montgomery Tully

Writers:

Charles F. Vetter (story), Charles F. Vetter (original screenplay)

Stars:

Kerwin Mathews, Vivienne Ventura, Robert Ayres

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kerwin Mathews	...	Cmdr. Jonathan Shaw
Vivienne Ventura	...	Tila Yung (as Viviane Ventura)
Robert Ayres	...	Adm. Felix Hillebrand
Peter Arne	...	Arnold Kramer
Al Mulock	...	Sgt. Marvin Mulberry
Martin Benson	...	Gen. Chan Lu
Peter Elliott	...	Dr. Kengh Lee
Earl Cameron	...	Sgt. Seth Hawkins
John Brandon	...	Maj. Frank Cannon
Ed Bishop	...	Lt. Cmdr. Vance Cassidy (as Edward Bishop)
Bill Nagy	...	Col. Talbot Wilson
Sarah Brackett	...	Meg Webson
Paula Li Shiu	...	Dr. Arnn
David Spenser	...	Maj. Chai
Michael McStay	...	Bomb Train Commander

Storyline

A Chinese general goes berserk and has a system of tunnels dug all the way from China to USA, under the Pacific Ocean! Wherever there is an important military base, he places atomic bombs. US Navy soldiers go underground to repel the invaders.

---

Plot Keywords:

bomb | chinese | tunnel | laser | marines | 

---

Taglines:

An Incredible Battle Is Raging Right Under Your Feet!

---

Genres:

Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 May 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

Batalha Debaixo da Terra

Company Credits

Production Co:

Reynolds-Vetter Productions Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Last feature of Carl Jaffe.

---

Goofs

In the opening scene in the police car the back projection is shown flipped so that all the store names read backwards. This is probably because the scenes were shot in Britain, who drive on the left, but set in the USA, who drive on the right.

---

Quotes

Arnold Kramer: You fool! They're twenty years ahead of us! They've got tunneling machines! They're coming in under us and you sit there like an idiot!
Cmdr. Jonathan Shaw: Easy...
Arnold Kramer: Don't you understand they're after us? They're going to wipe us out!

---

Connections

Referenced in Deep Core (2000)

User Reviews

Like a "Thunderbirds" episode!...without the puppets.

I knew this movie was going to be silly but I tried to watch it as objectively as possible. In the beginning this still went well but as the movie progressed the story lost more and more credibility, which was not only due to the poor silly story but also due to the poor film-making in general.

The story is not just only silly in terms of its premise but it's also filled with some implausibilities and giant plot holes. Like for instance, why don't the Americans launch a full scale attack after they discovered the Chinese rouge army, that plans to explode nuclear bombs on (or under) American soil? Instead they send about a dozen man, of which some aren't even used to combat situations. And why do the Chinese transport a couple of nuclear bombs without even an escort? The more you start thinking about this movie and its story, the sillier it gets. Perhaps you should try to watch this movie without thinking too much. It's the kind of story material normally used in a simple "Thunderbirds" episode, in which they have to save the world in 20 minutes time.

The story is original and in its core it had potential. However the way everything is brought to the screen is far from impressive or credible. I mean when they basically use giant flashlights for laser-beams, it's hard to take this movie serious. Also throughout the movie they occasionally use multiple sequences multiple times, in some cases even three times the same shot! Due to money or time problems? Anyway, it doesn't do the movie much good.

And why aren't the Chinese main villains being portrayed by Chinese, or even just Asians for that matter. Instead they are now being portrayed by British actors, with make-up, which works far from convincing to say the least. But also the rest of the actors aren't much good. Hard to say if that's entirely their fault, since the characters that they have to play are also far from well developed or even interesting enough to follow.

Guess in a way it's one of those movies that is so bad that it becomes good. The movie still does has its entertaining moments but yet the way the movie is made as a whole makes sure that you can't help to laugh and cringe at this movie.

4/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/