After World War I, the movie industry
hundreds of films from the silent era right up to the Second World War about
the Germans being horrible miserable spies and the impact of such a large war
and damaging war. Some films came out fantastic (such as The Big Parade) some films just tried to too hard. Below
the Sea is one of those films that just tried too hard.
The
film begins in 1917 during World War I. A German submarine and its crew have
chests filled with gold bars on board. The submarine is destroyed by an enemy
torpedo. Only the captain Von Boulton and one crew member survive. Von Boulton
and the man swim to shore. The man pulls out a map that he had drawn of the
submarine’s coordinates. Von Boulton pushes the man over the edge of the
mountain so he can have the map and the gold all to himself.
Years
later Von Boulton is now going as Captian Schlemmer. He has been living in a
port town. He wants a diver/ recoverer named Steve McCreary (Ralph Bellamy) to
help him obtain the gold since Steve has all the equipment. Schlemmer has no
intentions of splitting the gold with Steve he plans on getting rid of Steve
and make it look like an accident. The ship they are on gets caught in a storm.
Steve is furious with Sclemmer because he is supposed to be captain and he is
not on deck. Schlemmer refuses to give up the coordinates to the submarine. The
ship goes down and Schlemmer and Steve are the only ones to survive. One night
when Schlemmer is passed out, Steve finds the map. When the German wakes up to
find half his map is missing Steve tells him they are partners now they split everything
50/50.
A
young rich woman named Diana Templeton (Fay Wray) is sponsoring a voyage to the
submarine. Steve is not crazy about Diana at first. She tries to make him
smile, he eventually does after he kisses her. He tells her he only did it
because he was expecting her to stop. Diana is determined to go down in the
water. Steve will not let her go down in suit. To spite him Diana goes down in
a diving bell. The next day she goes down in the suit. Steve is angry at her so
teach her a lesson he messes with Diana’s air supply. Diana almost dies. The
whole crew blames Steve for trying to kill Diana. He says she is the one who
should be apologizing because he told her not to go down in the suit.
Steve
goes down to the submarine. Schlemmer’s girlfriend Lilly snuck aboard the ship.
She help Schlemmer drug so he could not get to the gold. Schlemmer goes down to
the submarine while Steve is knocked out on the ship. Meanwhile, Diana and her
photographer go down in the diving bell to take photographs and some film
footage. A giant squid attacks the diving bell. The crew tries to bring up the
diving bell but the squid keeps pulling it down. The large sea creature pulls
so hard it severs the diving bell from its chain and also its air supply.
Steven manages to defeat the squid and gets the diving bell to the ship.
And
honestly this is the end of the film. If you are wondering what happened to the
main story Steve tells everyone that Schlemmer will never find his gold. The
gold is buried under tons of mud.
This
was the first film I have ever seen Ralph Bellamy play a character that was
rough and tough. I am so used to seeing him in his later films as that aw
shucks guy who loses the girl to Cary Grant. I think Bellamy became more
attractive and awesome as this rough and tumble character! Fay Wray was not bad
at all. Her character was almost unnecessary but she did a good job with the material.
Below the Sea starts off interesting but
then the romance angle just completely takes over and ruins it. Once Diana
starts wanting to go down in the diving bell the story gets away from its
original plot. The whole main story with Schlemmer wanting to get to the gold
just disappears. As I said in the beginning of the post this film just tries too
hard to make the Germans look bad and greedy and then just drops that entire
angle. The story is unfinished and
leaves you asking what the hell happened to Schlemmer. Below the Sea is worth watching once. TCM aired the film try to
catch it if the station airs it again.
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