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10
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Guest
Review by Lucas
Micromatis |
MGM
adds another AIP/Vincent Price opus to its Midnite
Movies line with the release of War-Gods
Of
The Deep, one
of Price's more elusive fantasy films.
After a series of mysterious
occurrences in a seaside village — culminating in
the abduction of Jill Tregillis (pretty but bland
Susan Hart, who would appear alongside Price later
the same year in Dr. Goldfoot
And The Bikini Machine) by a fish-man — mineral
specialist Ben Harris (Tab Hunter) and artist Harold
Tiffin Jones (Mary Poppins'
David Tomlinson) descend into the mysterious underwater
city of Lyonesse to rescue her. There, they encounter
a race of gill-men led by "the Captain" (Price)
and his band of smugglers, kept alive for 100 years
by the strange properties of the undersea city's
air. The Captain's world is in danger of destruction
by a nearby volcano; unless Harris and Jones can
find Tregillis and escape, they too face death by
either the destructive forces of an impending volcanic
eruption or at the tyrannical hands of the Captain.
Another in the 'pseudo-Poe' series,
with only the most tenuous of connections to the
author's works (Price evocatively narrates Poe's
poem "City Under the Sea" at various points throughout
the film), War-Gods
is a disappointing would-be actioner let down by
wooden performances and a lethargic script. Both
Hunter and Hart are bland in the lead roles, while
Tomlinson displays his knack for out-of-place comic
relief while paired with an insufferable hen for
the length of the picture. (Named Herbert, the bird
gets special mention in the end credits!) Even Price
appears unusually leaden in his customary villain
role, conveying a weariness that seems sadly all
too real. Although only 85 minutes, the film moves
at a crawl; even the climactic underwater pursuit
drags on at a snail's pace. Coming from Jacques
Tourneur, director of the classic Curse
Of The Demon, the lackluster final product is
surprising.
This is not to say that there
are no good touches in War-Gods.
The undersea sets, in spite of a low-budget, are
actually quite lavish looking with different styles
of architecture worked throughout, such as Roman-style
columns and pillars and what look like Egyptian
hieroglyphics on some of the walls. The underwater
photography, while unspectacular, is competently
handled. That said, many of the miniature shots
are unconvincingly photographed and the gill-men,
looking like shabby cousins to the Black Lagoon
creature, disappoint.
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As
I've come to expect from MGM, War-Gods
Of The Deep looks gorgeous, with the exception
of a couple of scenes bearing noticeable print damage
that resembles jagged vertical lines. The DVD sports
the usual theatrical trailer as a bonus.
For Vincent
Price buffs and Poe completists only.
11/24/01 |
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