In our never-ending search for submarine films, last night my wife Elahna and I watched Around the World under the Sea (1966) starring middle-aged Lloyd Bridges with his wet suit zipped to the navel. Much of the film concerns the sexual dynamics of having one sexy female scientist – Dr. Maggie Hanford – and five lusty men on a sub, that woman played by the Cockney blonde bombshell Shirley Eaton. At the time she was famous for being a Bond girl in Goldfinger; later she would star as a bisexual supervillain in The Million Eyes of Sumuru (also available on Amazon Prime Video). Lloyd Bridges gives a nice speech about how guys have to get used to working alongside gals, very progressive for 1966. When he yells “It’s an underwater volcano!” you can discern the deadpan comedic chops he would later display in Airplane! Also, fans of furry friends will love the two klutzy guinea pigs that Maggie brings on the around-the-world-under-the sea voyage.
But what does this have to do with climate change?
But what does this have to do with climate change?
This: if you really stretch it, Around the World under the Sea can be seen as a cagey commentary on humanity's response to global calamity -- in this case, a sudden rash of typhoons caused by undersea earthquakes and erupting volcanoes. No reasons for this change in ocean climate are given, no one even asks, and all aboard the Hydronaut! The big idea is to give people extra time to evacuate coastal cities (like that’s easy) by placing cheesy-looking sensors around the ocean floor. Lloyd Bridges assembles his team, including cantankerous Keenan Wynn and that guy from The Man from U.N.C.L.E., who’s also Maggie's ex-boyfriend. There’s a ridiculous encounter with an eel the size of the sub and a daring rescue of Shirley Eaton’s Nordic boyfriend by the hunky American who, by 1966 dramatic logic, becomes her new boyfriend.
So the crew drops its sensors and that’s pretty much that. Technology to the rescue, I guess, even though the typhoons keep coming and the semi-evacuated coastal cities are destroyed. Will monitoring events be enough for us? Will we settle for elaborate warning systems regarding the multiple threats of climate change? Real time, around-the-clock calamity data as a second-best for not doing much about it? Wind-him-up Wolf Blitzer blathering on and on and on about hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves – will that have to be enough?
Oh, by the way, cantankerous Keenan Wynn saves the guinea pigs when Lloyd Bridges blows up the sub to save it. It's that kind of movie.
So the crew drops its sensors and that’s pretty much that. Technology to the rescue, I guess, even though the typhoons keep coming and the semi-evacuated coastal cities are destroyed. Will monitoring events be enough for us? Will we settle for elaborate warning systems regarding the multiple threats of climate change? Real time, around-the-clock calamity data as a second-best for not doing much about it? Wind-him-up Wolf Blitzer blathering on and on and on about hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves – will that have to be enough?
Oh, by the way, cantankerous Keenan Wynn saves the guinea pigs when Lloyd Bridges blows up the sub to save it. It's that kind of movie.
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