Around the World Under the Sea (MGM) (1966)

YOU'VE NEVER SEEN A PICTURE PILING UP AS MANY THRILLING ADVENTURES AS MGM'S “AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA” If ever a motion picture was replete with episodes which hold audiences rooted to the edge of their seats it is Ivan Tors’ new production for MetroGolwyn-Mayer, “Around the World Under the Sea.” This deep-sea adventure, filmed below the surface of ocean waters off the coasts of Florida and the Bahamas, concerns the expedition of a submarine to spots in the seven seas, where its crew can plant sonar devices along giant faults in the earth’s crust and over cones of volcanos so that seaquakes and subsequent tidal waves can be predetermined. Playing scientists who specialize in various marine techniques are Lloyd Bridges, Shirley Eaton, Brian Kelly, David McCallum, Keenan Wynn and Marshall Thompson. “Around the World Under the Sea,” filmed in Panavision and Metrocolor, has at least eight awesome and thrilling sequences, One of them serves as the picture’s climax. The submarine, christened Hydronaut, finishes its mission by dropping a sonar device on the edge of an active underwater volcano, As the submarine approaches, the mouth of the volcano glows red and rumbles. The drop is made but the volcano erupts and belches fire through ocean waters. So violent is the explosion that on the surface an entire island is blown to bits and sinks beneath the ocean. A second exciting sequence follows the eruption. A giant avalanche of rocks, dislodged by the eruption, slides down the uneven slope at the ocean’s floor. The submarine is caught in the slippage and is trapped. The action that ensues is spine-tingling since it shows how the scientists in the trapped submarine use plastic explosives to blast it partially free, and now Lloyd Bridges swims outside to sever a cable with an underwater flare. Another hair-raising scene takes place when Keenan Wynn is attacked by a giant moray eel, a sea monster bigger than the entire submarine. Wynn is saved and the eel is moving in to impede the submarine when Lloyd Bridges swims towards it in a scuba outfit and thrusts a time bomb into the eel’s mouth where it explodes, killing the serpent. Still another sequence shows the tense journey to a sunken ship to secure a cargo of germanium transistor crystals worth four-million dollars, During this sequence, the picture introduces an underseas suit of the future. It is a bulbous, air-inflated diving suit that was titled “The Monster” because it looks like one. Another highlight is more amazing than shocking, This sequence takes place in a huge bell in which Keenan Wynn lives at the bottom of the sea with all the comforts of a penthouse— hi-fi, television, telephones, green garden and a laboratory where rabbits learn to breathe underwater and shark embryos are hatched. Then there is the adventure which opens the picture. Brian Kelly is in a scubasphere deep in the ocean, making studies through glass windows when a group of whales, each as big as a box car, coming charging through the area and one of the great mammals bumps into the sea satellite, rolling it over and over and creating a huge crack in its shell. The first sonar mechanism planted by the submarine’s crew also creates a breathtaking scene. The crew learns that the depth to which they must go is 30,000 feet below sea level. The sub has been tested for no more than 26,000 feet, yet they take the chance of diving to the ocean floor where the pressure is eight tons per square inch, And what of the eighth wonder of “Around the World Under the Sea”? It involves shapely Shirley Eaton, who won worldwide fame by appearing as a gilded body in “Goldfinger.” In the new Ivan Tors production she goes swimming — in a bikini. This is intriguing enough, but while underwater she loses the top to that skimpy outfit! Marshall Thompson, Brian Kelly, Lloyd Bridges, David McCallum, Keenan Wynn and Shirley Eaton, making up the crew of a submarine, contact Washington, D. C., from the ocean floor and are informed that they have successfully planted a sonar warning device from the sub. The scene is from MGM’s thrilling Ivan Tors production, **Around the World Under the Sea,’ ’ filmed in Panavision and Metrocolor largely below the surface of ocean waters off the coasts of Florida and the Bahamas. The picture was produced and directed by Andrew Marton. Still 5314-56 Around the World Under the Sea Mat 3-B McCALLUM DOES OWN UNDERWATER STUNTS David McCallum, one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, devoted his weeks of free time between the end of last season’s “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” television production and the beginning of work on the 1965-66 episodes, starring in a rugged new Metro-GoldwynMayer picture, “Around the World Under the Sea.” The Ivan Tors underwater adventure-drama was filmed on locations off the coasts of Florida and Nassau. Along with Lloyd Bridges, Shirley Eaton, Brian Kelly, Keenan Wynn and Marshall Thompson, McCallum spent most of his time before the cameras in a scuba outfit, getting his oxygen through a face mask, “Diving to great depths under the sea and observing the amazing marine life was a tremendous experience,” he says. THE ADDITIONAL SCENE AND PLAYER AMATS, SHOWN IN THE COMPLETE CAMPAIGN MAT ON ANOTHER PAGE, MAY BE ORDERED SINGLY. So enthusiastic was the actor that he insisted on doing all his own underwater stunts. However, this is nothing new for McCallum, who refuses “doubles” for the dangerous action he performs in the “U.N.C.L.E.” series. “My idea is that you’re getting well paid for acting,” is the way he puts it, “and that you ought to give a producer his money’s worth,” McCallum has always had a practical view of show business. “When I first began acting I looked younger than I actually was and it was something of a handicap as far as getting a variety of roles was concerned, So I played all the ‘old man’ parts I could, with the help of make-up, of course.” His role in “Around the World Under the Sea” gave him a change of pace. While he plays an electronics genius who specializes in marine mechanisms, he is also a guy who has an eye for the ladies. And when he makes passes at the girl in this picture, he is reaching for a truly luscious plum. Shirley Eaton is the actress whose body was adorned only by a coat of paint in “Goldfinger.” ROMANCE Shirley Eaton, the gilded girl of *“Goldfinger,”’ and Brian Kelly enact the romantic principals in MGM?’s thrilling Ivan Tors underwater adventure, “Around the World Under the Sea.’’ Around the World Under the Sea Still-5314-44 Mat 1-B ONE OF FILM'S BREATHTAKING EPISODES Lloyd Bridges thrusts an explosive into the mouth of a giant moray eel which is attacking a submerged submarine in one of the thrill scenes of MGM’s breathtaking underwater adventure, ‘*Around the World Under the Sea.’ Others in the all-star cast of the Ivan Tors production are Shirley Eaton, Brian Kelly, David McCallum, Keenan Wynn, Marshall Thompson and Gary Merrill. It was filmed in Panavision and Metrocolor largely below the surface of ocean waters off the coasts of Floridaand the Bahamas, under the direction of Andrew Marton. Still 5314-81 Around the World Under the Sea Mat 2-D A total of 25 compact volumes on life with Lloyd Bridges have been written to date. They constitute a human interest record of the quarter-century of years that make up the happily-married actor’s life. The author is his wife, Dorothy, who has no intention of offering them for publication. Actually, the books are diaries, one for each year of their marriage. Dorothy Bridges expects to limit any “outside” reading of the volumes to three persons — their daughter and two sons. The latest tome covers Bridges’ exploits under the seas for a movie camera. He recently starred with Shirley Eaton, Brian Kelly, David McCallum, Keenan Wynn and Marshall Thompson in the Ivan Tors-MGM adventure-spectacular, “Around the World Under the Sea.” During the making of the movie in Florida and off the shores of the Bahamas, Mrs, Bridges spent several weeks with Lloyd on location. Some wag has said that much Bridges has gone under the water in recent years, and there is more truth than pun to the statement. For four years he starred in the television series, “Sea Hunt.” The episodes comprised a total of 156 adventures, in all of which Bridges went scuba diving. The Bridges children, Beau, 22, Jeff, 15, and Cindy, 11, have joined their father in adopting skin diving as a hobby. Dorothy Bridges, who was an English major at U.C.L.A. when she and Lloyd met at the rehearsal of a college play, admits that everyone in the family can swim better than she. “Lloyd was born and raised in northern California and learned to swim as a small boy,” she says. “It was a natural for him to take on the underwater television series. We live at Malibu Beach and I am used to seeing all the rest of the family take off into the surf and dive under.” As a student, Dorothy planned to make a career of writing, but she has been too busy raising a family. So she has let the 25 volumes of her diary fulfill her ambition. The early diaries contain many details of a rugged life as Lloyd battled to carve himself a niche in show business. Dorothy modeled hats and sold gloves and Lloyd worked as a LLOYD BRIDGES’ LIFE (IN 25 VOLUMES) delivery man between bit roles. Because Bridges stuck to his guns to become the actor he wanted to be, he and Dorothy have not discouraged the acting ambitions of their children. “The acting bug has bitten the two boys,” says Bridges. “Beau recently had a leading role in William Inge’s play, ‘Family Things, Etc.’ Jeff, a student at University High School, wants to go on Shirley Eaton, Lloyd Bridges and Brian Kelly enact three of the scientists making up the crew of the Hydronaut, a globecircling submarine in MGM’s thrilling Ivan Tors underwater adventure, ““Around the World Under the Sea.” Around the World Under the Sea Still 5314-3 Mat 1-A the stage after graduation. He already has had some experience, having toured with me through New England in ‘Anniversary Waltz.’ ” Bridges now has another television series, “The Loner.” It keeps him out of the water and on dry land because the setting is the early West. “But, after making ‘Around the World Under the Sea,’ I’m afraid I’m going to miss all those beautiful sights under the ocean’s surface,” he says.