I am unsure whether I had watched this as a kid, which I recall turning up on prime-time Italian TV during the early 1980s, so I opted to check it out now regardless as part of my ongoing tribute to Sir Christopher Lee.
This tied in with two current movie-making fads: the disaster film and the juvenile adventures (of which director Connor already had a few under his belt); in fact, the narrative involves an ocean liner sunk by a German U-boat at the start of WWII whose remains are discovered by an exploratory sub some 40 years later (evoking parallels also with the contemporaneous, Malta-shot RAISE THE TITANIC {1980}). The thing is that, having gone down with over 1000 passengers, over 300 of them are found to be still living - not to mention having fostered a new generation which have obviously never set foot on dry land or experienced the natural warmth of the sun! However, it gradually begins to transpire to the rescuers that these people do not exactly want to be saved from their current predicament; indeed, under Lee's God-like leadership, they have set up a microcosmic (if self-styled) state...where there are even outcasts from the system relegated to the depths of the wreck!
So far so intriguing, but the script - pardon the pun - sinks under the weight of its various themes, which not only prove inconsistent (the passengers are supposed to hate the Nazis and appear genuinely glad that Hitler got defeated after all, but Lee's stern authority over them is no less Fascistic and, chillingly, comes with its own 'final solution'!) but also rather silly (as I said, the renegades seem to have strayed in from one of Connor's epics about lost civilizations!). Aiding Lee is a way over-the-top Frank Gorshin, incessantly mugging his way through the proceedings in what feels like a mix-up of the acting styles of James Cagney and Barry Fitzgerald! To be sure, some notable actors are involved: Eddie Albert, Alex Cord, Robert Forster and Mark Harmon constitute the salvage team, while also on board the "Goliath" are the likes of old-timers John McIntire (as a senator carrying a much-coveted vital document) and a sadly arthritis-ridden John Carradine (as a former star of swashbuckling flicks), and Emma Samms and Duncan Regher among the youngbloods. Interestingly, this has the further distinction of including in its cast three performers who had or would subsequently incarnate the iconic vampiric figure of Count Dracula, i.e. Carradine, Lee and Regher (in THE MONSTER SQUAD {1987})!
All in all, the TV-film is generally enjoyable, albeit uninspired - at 192 minutes, it is also decidedly overlong, with the busy climax fatally moving at a snail's pace rather than generating the requisite excitement!
This tied in with two current movie-making fads: the disaster film and the juvenile adventures (of which director Connor already had a few under his belt); in fact, the narrative involves an ocean liner sunk by a German U-boat at the start of WWII whose remains are discovered by an exploratory sub some 40 years later (evoking parallels also with the contemporaneous, Malta-shot RAISE THE TITANIC {1980}). The thing is that, having gone down with over 1000 passengers, over 300 of them are found to be still living - not to mention having fostered a new generation which have obviously never set foot on dry land or experienced the natural warmth of the sun! However, it gradually begins to transpire to the rescuers that these people do not exactly want to be saved from their current predicament; indeed, under Lee's God-like leadership, they have set up a microcosmic (if self-styled) state...where there are even outcasts from the system relegated to the depths of the wreck!
So far so intriguing, but the script - pardon the pun - sinks under the weight of its various themes, which not only prove inconsistent (the passengers are supposed to hate the Nazis and appear genuinely glad that Hitler got defeated after all, but Lee's stern authority over them is no less Fascistic and, chillingly, comes with its own 'final solution'!) but also rather silly (as I said, the renegades seem to have strayed in from one of Connor's epics about lost civilizations!). Aiding Lee is a way over-the-top Frank Gorshin, incessantly mugging his way through the proceedings in what feels like a mix-up of the acting styles of James Cagney and Barry Fitzgerald! To be sure, some notable actors are involved: Eddie Albert, Alex Cord, Robert Forster and Mark Harmon constitute the salvage team, while also on board the "Goliath" are the likes of old-timers John McIntire (as a senator carrying a much-coveted vital document) and a sadly arthritis-ridden John Carradine (as a former star of swashbuckling flicks), and Emma Samms and Duncan Regher among the youngbloods. Interestingly, this has the further distinction of including in its cast three performers who had or would subsequently incarnate the iconic vampiric figure of Count Dracula, i.e. Carradine, Lee and Regher (in THE MONSTER SQUAD {1987})!
All in all, the TV-film is generally enjoyable, albeit uninspired - at 192 minutes, it is also decidedly overlong, with the busy climax fatally moving at a snail's pace rather than generating the requisite excitement!