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The Amazing Captain Nemo (& big co-hits?); Irwin Allen epic and others of its ilk.
Topic Started: Jan 11 2014, 10:18 PM (227 Views)
CliffClaven
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Finally picked this up in a Warner Archive sale. If you derived snarky pleasure from "Lost in Space," you'll derive snarky pleasure from "The Amazing Captain Nemo."

Released in 1978 (where?), this is a pasteup of a three freestanding episodes meant to launch a series. The central idea is that a frozen Captain Nemo is thawed just in time to deploy the Nautilus against a mad scientist with a super-sub of his own. No sign of Irwin Allen's name on the DVD -- I checked online to confirm it was originally one of his.

You doubt any of the small army of writers listed on the credits read Verne's book or even saw the Disney movie. This Nemo is friendly, good-tempered and businesslike in a crisis. The man who despised governments and sunk warships on general principle pleasantly accepts orders from US Naval Intelligence (which equally casually rehabs the Nautilus and places a full crew under Nemo's command). There's no shock or dislocation despite being on ice for a century. He doesn't even need to be brought up to speed on technology. When somebody shows him a phone and describes it as "this device", I expected -- in vain -- some sarcasm from Nemo. Jose Ferrer doesn't mock his lines or camp them up; nor does he try to conjure depth where none is provided. He's an old pro, performing with an air of assured professionalism that's sorely missing almost everywhere else.

The villainous Professor Cunningham is played by Burgess Meredith as an absent-minded academic gone psycho. With rumpled hair and loose sweater, Meredith plays for laughs while being just plausible enough. His comic madness is a nice contrast to Ferrer's sensible Nemo, and the two of them provide the only non-ironic pleasures.

Lynda Day George is the token female, a pretty young nuclear physicist. There are a few lines about that new-fangled Women's Liberation, which evidently means she can be as bland and unfocused as the two young Navy officers who officially co-star with Nemo. Perhaps they're all talented actors doomed by having to play this script straight. I felt embarrassed for the Council of Atlantis.

Meredith's sidekick is a towering goon in a gold helmet (Or is that his face? He's never introduced or explained.). He has some lame ESP and is limited to lines like "Kill the aliens" or "Prepare to fire". At the very least I expected somebody would have to fight with him; no such luck. Meredith also has robots: guys in gold scuba suits and featureless masks shuffling around sillily. They exist for a couple of scenes where Nemo and company blast ray guns at them.

The writing is almost literally cartoon level -- and I don't mean good cartoons. Plotting is weak and inconsistent, the science is absurd, and most of the characters are either paper thin or total cyphers. Was this meant to be a kids' show? The sets are pleasantly goofy, full of bright colors and low-budget glitz, and the two miniature subs are . . . cute. "Master of the World" with a bit more money. We also get the scuba-diving equivalent of fistfights.

Affable, irony-rich garbage for anyone who remembers the 60s-70s. I'm thinking this must have looked dated even in 1978, despite a few signs they knew about Star Wars. If you really want a happy, kid-friendly Nemo, I'd recommend "Captain Nemo and the Underwater City."
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