User reviews

This film is supposedly based on a Poe work (which is quoted a couple of times) and the writer himself is mentioned(a character even finds a vintage edition of his writings), but it strays far from the source material.

It is a mildly interesting flick with a spooky manor house atop a cliff, secret passages, sea creatures and a chicken of dudious gender named Herbert.

Price does a fine job--even though it is an uninspired character. Overall, I'd say this film is worth watching if you happen to catch it on the tube, and you have an hour and a half to waste.

WAR GODS OF DEEP contains fantastic adventures full of sea-monsters in a lost continent placed underwater . Set on the Cornish coast in 1903 , the film starts when a body is washed ashore on a remote seacoast nearly a little town , it causes an investigation by an American young named Ben Harris (Tab Hunter). He goes to a house where the dead had been an advocate and encounters tracks that indicate the gorgeous Jill (Susan Hart) may be in deadly risk . Establishing menace and seeing off a suspicious strange monster like a gill-man that he trapped in the act of robbing a portrait of Jill , but he gets escaped . In the overnight Jill is abducted and Ben and Harold (David Tomlinson ) chase him . Finding a tunnel system going under the sea , as they walk across a dangerous rout . The duo discovering an underwater band of smugglers who never age residing in a lost underwater city along with their gill-man slaves . The group of people find inhabitants of the lost world that are ruled by one megalomaniac named Sir Hugh (Vincent Price) who's discovered the secret of eternal life but is desperate to avoid his world being destroyed by an eruption caused by a relentless volcano . Sir Hugh governs over the gill-men as slaves and wishes to rule the human beings and the creation a totalitarian state .

Based on Edgar Allan Poe writings with interesting screenplay by Charles Bennett . This fantasy picture displays thrills , weird sea monsters , lively pace and fantastic scenarios located undersea . Vincent Price is the real star of this production and its chief attribute , similar to his role as ¨Robur the conquer¨ . The tale is silly and laughable , but the effects and undersea scenes are quite well . Among the most spectacular of its visuals there are deeply shrouded caverns full giant sculptures in Persyian style . Some illogical parts in the plot are more than compensated for the excitement provided by Vincent Price acting and the sea-monsters appearance , though they are sometimes a little bit shoddy . Vincent Price is well accompanied by a decent main cast as David Tomlinson , Tab Hunter , Susan Hart and notorius secondaries as Henry Oscar and John Le Mesurier.

It packs a cheesy underwater city with mediocre matte painting . Filmed in glimmer and colorful cinematography by cameraman Stephen Dade on location in Cornwall Coast , Cornwall, England , Pinewood Studios , Iver Heath , Buckinghamshire , England, UK (studio). Thrilling and stirring musical score by Stanley Black . The motion picture was produced by American International (James H Nicholson , Samuel Z. Arkoff) in average budget and middlingly directed by the classic director Jacques Tourneur in his final feature movie . He was an expert on terror cinema (Cat people , Curse of the demon, I walked with a Zombie) and adventures (Flame and the arrow) . ¨City under the sea¨ will appeal to youngsters who will swallow it whole and they'll feel convulsed in their armchair and of course Vincent Price fans.

As I watched this film I kept imagining kids in the year 1965 watching this at Saturday afternoon matinees and thinking this was the coolest thing they had ever seen in their lives. What more could you ask for: a handsome and likable hero in Tab Hunter, a stunningly beautiful leading lady, the delightful David Tomlinson as comic relief, the masterfully sinister Vincent Price as the villain, an undersea world filled with mysterious and treacherous caverns, monstrous mer-men, and a nearby volcano threatening destruction at any moment. That's a pretty good Saturday afternoon if you ask me. And if you can approach this film in that way, allowing for the time and place in which it was made to inform your judgment, I think you'll find this a very enjoyable picture. For the most part it looks great (especially when one considers how tightly AIP held their purse strings in those days) if a bit dated by today's standards, but that too can be part of the fun.

When you consider that this movie is directed by the great Jacques Tourneur, stars the legendary Vincent Price and is based on a poem by the master of the macabre, Edgar Allen Poe; it's a huge disappointment. Considering the quality of the talent involved, this film really should have been a lot better. However, despite the fact that it's a long way from brilliant, the film isn't bad either and fans of any combination of the three major players will no doubt find something to like about it. The film begins in familiar Poe and Price territory, with the great actor reading the beginning of the poem on which the film is based against a backdrop of the ocean hitting the sandy shores. The story follows two men that follow a group of fish-men down a back passage of an old in house in search of the girl that the monsters have kidnapped. The men follow them to a lost city that has been engulfed by the sea, and discover a world of intrigue as they learn about the society of never ageing smugglers that they have stumbled upon.

It's the story telling aspect of the story that makes the film struggle. It's very uneven, and huge chunks are spent on rather boring elements such as an extremely overlong underwater chase sequence. However, when the film is good, it's very good. Vincent Price delivers a great performance as the ruler of the underwater kingdom. Price is an absolutely great actor who has to prove nothing to nobody and one reason for that is because no matter how bad the film is, Vincent Price always gives you a reason to watch. The effects are a little silly, especially when you get to see the half-fish, half-men up close, but things like that add to the charm of classic B-movies, and so it's easy to let it go. The story itself is very good, and despite the fact that it's only a poem, Poe manages to inject all the malevolence that has made him immortal in the eyes of everyone that knows anything about literature. The film also includes a tribute to the great author by way of a section which includes a first edition of his works. This film certainly isn't brilliant, but it's not bad either. I certainly recommend it to fans of Price, Poe or Tourneur.

Most of the time when a film is held up in release you know the studio has lost faith in it. Made in 1963 according to the Citadel film series book on Vincent Price the film did not come out until 1965.

It wasn't a terrible film, but it was exceedingly dull in spots and exceedingly stupid in one aspect. Of course anything with Vincent Price being sinister will have some good points.

Set in Cornwall at the turn of the last century, the City Beneath The Sea is about a local legend of a lost city off the coast that became lost during an earthquake. Some might call it Atlantis, but the locals use the Arthurian legend name of Lyonness.

Young heiress Susan Hart disappears and her lawyer and a visiting artist find a secret passage from her home. Tab Hunter and David Tomlinson play the pair of hunters respectively.

Folks originally lived there adapted and became water breathing gill men. How later arriving humans like Vincent Price and his pirate crew subjugate them is never explained and is beyond me. But one thing does happen these folks live very long like the inhabitants of Shangri- La. And they have the same weakness that those Shangri-La characters do.

In a much better film, Journey To The Center Of The Earth one of the characters carried his pet goose until the villain ate him. I thought that was a stupid plot gambit then and I think David Tomlinson carrying the pet rooster Herbert was even more ridiculous. After a while his silly twit Englishman got downright annoying.

Vincent Price's fans might show a little strain with this one.

A couple of respectable elements assemble here for a decent fantasy feature: source material from master of horror Edgar Allan Poe, a capable director in Jacques Tourneur, and the consistently amusing film star Vincent Price. While ultimately it lacks the imagination, budget, and style to be anything more, it's still acceptable entertainment of this kind.

Ben (Tab Hunter) is an American living on the Cornish coast at the turn of the 20th century. When mysterious forces kidnap area resident Jill (Susan Hart), on whom Ben is sweet, he sets out after her, with the doddering artist Harold (David Tomlinson) in tow. (Oh, and not to forget, Harolds' pet rooster Herbert.) They soon discover a strange underwater civilization, ruled by the domineering captain (Price). The captain, upon being led to believe that Ben is a professor of immense knowledge, wants to pick his brain on what to do in the event of a cataclysmic volcanic eruption.

As part of the package, the captain and his men exploit local "gill men". They're NOT as cool as the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but the masks aren't bad either, and they're not bad characters. Considering that A.I.P. probably controlled expenses a lot, the sets and production values are still respectable enough. The movie is shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is fairly colourful. The score by Stanley Black is also nice. Tourneur gets down to business quickly and the pacing & editing are adequate. Most of the cast & crew credits are saved for the end.

Hunter is a handsome and engaging hero. The beautiful Hart is a likable enough heroine. Tomlinson handles all of the comedy relief duties and is delightful. John Le Mesurier is excellent as helpful old Reverend Ives; Henry Oscar, Derek Newark, and Roy Patrick co-star. Price is magnetic as always as our villain, and the lines from the Poe story flow off of his tongue with the greatest of ease.

The viewer may not enjoy this quite as much as they'd like to, but it remains watchable for most of its 85 minute run time.

Sadly, director Tourneurs' final feature film.

Seven out of 10.

An underwater city off the coast of Cornwall is threatened with destruction by a long-dormant volcano currently glowing with rising lava; however, this doesn't stop the self-appointed ruler of the city from executing his minions and threatening to kill an American professor and his sidekick after they infiltrate the waterlogged palace looking for a kidnapped woman. After American International Pictures hit pay dirt with their string of profitable beach party movies in the early 1960s, they expanded to more sophisticated fare such as "The Raven" and "The Masque of the Red Death", both adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe. "War-Gods of the Deep" is also credited with being based on Poe by way of his poem, "City in the Sea", but 'inspired by' seems more accurate as there is nothing on the screen that Poe would be proud of. Although the art direction is good and the set designs surprisingly elaborate for A.I.P., the screenplay, full of banal dialogue, is a deadly cataclysm. Vincent Price is quietly menacing, but his character is given the short shrift; he doesn't seem to know what he's doing, whom he's killing, or how long his city has left to survive. As the hero, Tab Hunter still sounds flat and angry--his voice has no modulation--but he works hard at developing a no-nonsense personality to give the movie some bearings; ultimately, he's defeated by the cheapjack climactic battle, mostly staged underwater (with clueless close-ups of Hunter and his co-stars standing in front of a blue screen wearing huge diving helmets). There's hardly any plot development, action scenes and stock footage are sloppily thrown together and, for comic relief, we get overaged pixie David Tomlinson and his pet hen. *1/2 from ****

From what I know about screen writing the more credited writers a film has the worse the narrative is supposed to be . I genuinely think this is nonsense and perhaps CITY UNDER THE SEA is proof of this . It's a movie that has three people involved in he screenplay but is far more entertaining and involving than a great number of films I've seen that have only one screenwriter

First of all let's get the bad points out of the way . You don't need a University degree to know that there's no volcanoes off the coast of Cornwall which seems to be included to set up the ending and the back story of the gillmen are conspicuous by its absence . Also if you're a fan of Poe and you watched this movie expecting it to be an accurate adaptation of one of his works then you'll almost certainly feel cheated . The casting of two American characters in two lead roles to appeal to an American market does seem forced , especially when you've already got a well known American actor as the film's villain . Hammer films didn't bow to this type of casting so I've no idea why it's done here

In fact CITY UNDER THE SEA plays very much like one of the better Hammer productions concentrating on atmosphere rather than gore . When the film concentrates on this aspect it is genuinely frightening as early in the film when one of the gillmen prowls around the house . I must have been about seven years old when I saw this scene and remember being terrified by it . I saw this scene again earlier today and was not disappointed which is a great compliment coming from me . It's a film that is not Oscar worthy but is great entertainment nonetheless

City Under the Sea is directed by Jacques Tourneur and written by Charles Bennett and Louis M. Heyward. It stars Vincent Price, Tab Hunter, Susan Hart, David Tomlinson and John Le Mesurier. Filmed in Pathecolor it features music by Stanley Black and cinematography by Stephen Dade.

Inspired by the Edgar Allan Poe/Roger Corman/Vincent Price series of films, with some Jules Verne flavourings, City Under the Sea turns out to be a disappointment and a far from fitting farewell to cinema for Tourneur. A shame because visually it's a treat for the eyes with its striking set designs and character clobber.

Derived as an idea from Poe's poem The City in the Sea, the story just isn't interesting enough. It's based in olde Cornwall, England, and finds Hunter (dull) and Tomlinson (out acted by his chicken companion) discovering an underwater city when Hart (err, she is just there!) disappears from her room via a secret passage. Turns out the city is presided over by an unhinged Price (on auto-pilot but still engaging enough) who believes Hart to be the reincarnation of his long dead wife. There's some gill men ancients, a smuggling back story, ageless oxygen and a volcano just waiting to explode in the finale. What transpires is a load of talking and nothing much happens until the expected chase and explosive ending that really isn't worth the wait.

Price and the visuals ensure it's not a total wash out, but all told its pretty ordinary. 5/10

If I could talk like Vincent Price could I would talk to myself all the time, out loud and I would probably get an MC Job or be a radio announcer. That guys voice was like audio gold. War Gods of the deep began with the narration that only Vincent Price could manage to deliver. He was a treasure and he is missed. The movie fits a model of the time period this was created. Do not expect any more than that and you will have an enjoyable time. I enjoyed the nostalgic vibe and the somewhat campy and predictable presentation. Not the worlds most advanced movie or soundtrack but it was fun if you let it be what it is and go with it a little bit. It did not try to be pretentious, it allowed Vincent to be who he is and do what he did best. The "Hen" was named Herbert...soooo...you see where this is going. But, A good time can be had, we enjoyed this.

Back in 1803, Vincent Price and his band of smugglers had discovered an undersea kingdom off the English coast. In 1903, they are still down there, ageless, and lording it over the resident "gillmen." Price then kidnaps a woman from above who resembles his long-dead wife, which leads Tab Hunter and his pet-rooster-obsessed artist sidekick to come looking for her... Anyway, that's the setup of what turns out to be a rather hokey affair. A tiresome and cheesy movie, featuring only-adequate FX and some very lame comedy, "War-Gods of the Deep" (1965) is something of a labor to sit through. Part of the problem is that events and backgrounds are never adequately explained, and what explanations we do get (e.g., the inhabitants' immortality) are patently ridiculous. The layout of the underwater kingdom is impossible to grasp, a real problem toward the film's end. And the three-way underwater battle between Hunter's band, Price and his crew, and the gillmen is also impossible to follow; possibly the dullest, most confusing underwater sequence I've ever witnessed. Compare this scene to the thrilling and quite lucid underwater duke-out in that same year's "Thunderball." Geez! It's hard to believe that director Jacques Tourneur is the same man who gave us such horror classics as "I Walked With a Zombie," "Cat People" and "Curse of the Demon." What WAS he thinking here? Anyway, this mess is for Uncle Vinny completists only. It's better than a Dr. Goldfoot movie, but not by much!

When a body is washed ashore on the coast by a small English village it sparks an investigation in the mind of Ben Harris. He visits the home where the deceased had been a lawyer and finds clues that indicate that the beautiful Jill Tregillis may be in danger. Seeing off a mysterious figure who he caught in the act of stealing a portrait of Jill leaves him in no doubt and he stays the night. In the night Jill is kidnapped and Ben and Harold pursue. Finding a tunnel system going under the sea they investigate but find a hidden world controlled by one man who has found the secret of eternal life but is desperate to prevent his world being destroyed by a volcano.

I taped this film by mistake when I wanted to watch `City Beneath the Sea' which was on a day after this. Realising my mistake I watched it anyway as I noticed it had Vincent Price and was based on a work by Edgar Allen Poe. The film starts with a bit of a gothic feel to it but quickly it becomes surprisingly straightforward. The mysterious `fishmen' are quickly replaced as the focus by The Captain and his crew, personally I felt that to make a different species of man and then sideline them was pointless – where they did they come from for goodness sake!?

The Captain and his age-old crew are interesting but nothing can be fully explained as to how they really managed to set up down there as well as they did and it quickly becomes just a bunch of men living in caves as opposed to a city beneath the sea! There is no real feeling of mystery here and the end result is that it falls a little flat for the most part. The attempts at escape late on in the film lose excitement due to being quite slow and filmed in clunky diving suits, happily the return of the fishmen add some fluidity to events. The underwater filming is quite good considering, although the regular close-ups of the actors' eyes in the helmets would only convince a child that they were really in the water!

Price is always a good villain but here he lacks threat – even when he executes people, he seems to be in full control but without that masterful stroke of eccentricity that many of his better performances have had. Hunter is quite a dull lead and even seems out of his depth (sorry) when acting alongside the support cast, let alone Price! Hart is pretty and Tomlinson adds value with some comic touches (especially at the start of the film). An actor as well known as John Le Mesurier shouldn't be wasted but really is – he still has to give his usual pottering character but is still badly cast and underused. The fishmen are suggested as the monsters of the piece by the first 10 minutes but are revealed to be toothless, given little screen time and handled as easily as a hooked salmon.

Overall the quality of the film can be summed by the fact that the drama is all relying on the audience accepting a very active underwater volcano of the English coast. However once you get past this the delivery is quite flat and lacking in excitement to the extent that, by the time things come to a head, you'll not really be that bothered what happens.

A lost city beneath the sea is discovered off the coast of Cornwall. Vincent Price is the captain overseeing a group of sailors who have lived there for more than a century where the peculiar mix of gases has allowed them to extend their lifespan.

Allegedly, Vincent Price didn't see the script until six days before shooting began. He does not show up until 25 minutes into the film, and is not the main character. If you came to this film to see Price, you will, just do not expect him to carry the picture.

This one is as beautiful as any of the AIP films, despite not being well known, and having a plot that might leave some disappointed (it is, after all, a take off on the Atlantis legend mixed with "Creature From the Black Lagoon", but maybe not a smooth mixture). I thought the atmosphere really carried the picture, personally.

The female lead is gorgeous, though she appears far too briefly, and I like the concept of ultraviolet rays causing shorter lifespans, along with the negative consequences of immortality (forever is a long time).

The film is sometimes called "War Gods of the Deep", and sometimes takes the title of a Poe poem, "The City Under the Sea", and attempted to exploit the Poe films trend, even though the only connection is a recitation of the poem at the end. Since "City" is not one of Poe's well-known poems, this probably was not a problem.

Again, this movie is apparently not well known, as it does not appear in any of my reference books. And that is a shame. It has a good horror/sci-fi feel to it, beautifully shot, and stars Vincent Price. Deserves a lot more recognition than it has received, and I hope more people come to discover it.

This film shows a badly kept secret: how not to age regularly. It also shows in the end, in a masterful camera and special effects work, the sudden ageing of The Captain, thus proving that even men who do not age eventually become fools.

The film is under pare with similar B-films, possibly due to repetitive underwater scenes. As action scenes go, we've seen better, even by 1965 standards.

It has three important points in it's favour, though: the beautiful girl, shown as often as possible in daring low-cut decoletee dresses; the rich, historically accurate interiors of the isolated mansion; and the reproduction of the classic Cretan frescoes that help the spectator to have the feeling of time-travelling after the descent into the underwater grotto. Also, there is the opening reading of Poe's poem, "City In the Sea"... Ah, yes, as they say in the credits, «not to forget Herbert», a rooster that comes out of its basket at the most inappropriate moments for the owner, Harold - a Scott played tongue-in-cheek by David Tomlinson, thus adding a few surprise comic relief moments to a somber tale of mystery.

CITY UNDER THE SEA seems to have been tacked on to the end of the Roger Corman/Vincent Price Poe cycle, featuring Price narrating a few passages of the author's work over a vista of some choppy waves. It's supposedly based on some of Poe's writings, but it has more in common with same-era sci-fi flicks like DR WHO AND THE DALEKS and THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT.

It's a fairly enjoyable little movie, but it has zero depth and absolutely nothing going on beyond the action-adventure template. Vincent Price is at his hammy best as an age-old smuggler ruling over an undersea kingdom, and Tab Hunter is the square-jawed but wooden American hero. In terms of entertainment value, David Tomlinson (and his chicken!) and the cut of Susan Hart's dress supply most of that.

This movie certainly has a good pedigree in the form of Jacques Tourneur, the famed director of much fantastic fare, including NIGHT OF THE DEMON. He doesn't have a great deal to work with here, but he does ensure the sets look just that - fantastic - and he manages to incorporate some stock disaster footage fairly well.

The biggest flaw, I found, were the interminable underwater scenes that last for about twenty minutes towards the end. As in the same year's THUNDERBALL, they consist of people wandering around aimlessly for what feels like an age. Not much fun, although the monster masks are. The US title, WAR GODS OF THE DEEP, may be a bit of a misnomer for what is a genteel and completely old-fashioned sort of film.

An excellent movie in many regards, and an enjoyable use of time spent to view. Price is his normal outstanding and could give acting & voice classes to most of hollywood's 'actors'. Photography was excellent. The colors blend with the action/motions, not like the stark digital films of today. Good creativity with the plot, based on Edger Allen Poe's work how could it not be, even if some of it has also been seen in 20,000 leagues & Creature from the Black Lagoon. Brief synopsis: A 'Lost City of Atlantis' like subsea city, where people do not age if they remain, is endangered by a nearby active volcano. The subhuman creatures, like gill-men, are afraid & angry. Price must find out how to save his city or be destroyed by the gill-men or the volcano. Subplot: Price sees Hart, who is the identical image of his long lost love. Price has the gill-men kidnap Hart for himself and Hunter comes charging to the rescue. Enjoy!

You really have to admire the marketing expertise of Samuel Z. Arkoff and the good people at American-International Pictures (AIP)! They had only just finished exploiting Edgar Allen Poe's Gothic horror stories via a hugely successful film series starring Vincent Price and directed by Roger Corman, and not even a year later they're back already to cash in on more Poe-related themes and monsters, only this time in combination with the fantasy and Sci-Fi elements of Jules Verne ("20,000 Leagues under the Sea", "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Around the World in 80 Days"). Now, in case you're thinking that the works and styles of Edgar Allen Poe and Jules Verne form a rather bizarre and illogical mix, you are quite right and thus "City in the Sea" is a primarily preposterous and dumb adventure film!

Vincent Price depicts "The Captain"; a villain too obviously modeled after the charismatic and mysterious Nemo in "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" and the relentless leader of a smuggling network that operates from an cavernous city-like lair underneath the sea, just outside the coast of Cornwall. The Captain and his henchmen have been there for more than 100 years, but they're not ageing as long as they remain in their underwater hideout because – and I quote – "it has something to do with the oxygen-composition here below". That's the type of blurry explanations we have to settle for in the script of this film… The Captain may be a tough and sinister bastard, but he's also heartbroken over the loss of his true love and hence he kidnapped her lookalike; the local beauty Jill Tregellis. American engineer Ben Harris, also in love with Jill, goes after her, along with a cowardly artist and his pet chicken (!) named Herbert. They have to rescue the girl from Vincent Price's army of gill-men, and in time before the underwater volcano erupts.

It's always even more difficult to acknowledge that a movie is bad when there are so many potentially good story lines. Based on the synopsis, you'll agree with me that "City in the Sea" features several interesting ideas – even if they are all derivative of other stories – but for some reason the whole film is rather dull and exaggeratedly talkative. There are plenty of nice set pieces and imagery, but they are hardly being used. The dialogues are tacky and the acting performances are quite dismal, with the exception of Vincent Price and – of course – Herbert the Chicken. Jacques Tourneur was definitely one of the most important horror directors of the previous century and he made several hugely influential classics, like "Cat People", "Out of the Past" and "Night of the Demon". It's a bit unfortunate that his career had to end with this seedy horror/Sci-Fi hybrid that can't even be referred to as entertaining.

Been years since I've seen this gem and recently watched it again. I find this one a fun and nice science fiction fantasy. Not true to the writings of Edgar Allan Poe - just loosely based on his work - but it is a neat film. There are a couple of references to Poe and his name is mentioned specifically but that's about the only connection.

Vincent Price is always great to watch - this film is no exception. The character Captain Sir Hugh is a mysterious man who runs "the city in the sea". He has plenty of help along with gill-men guards that patrol the waters. He has found the key to long life - the "fountain of youth" in a way - under the sea.

This one is a worthwhile watch if you are into Vincent Price, sci-fi, fantasy and films with underwater themes.

8/10

Remember watching this on the BBC as a child in the 70/80s - it seemed to be shown quite regularly? Kept me content as a youngster then, but rather suspect it wouldn't cut the mustard today - but a decent story non the less.

"War-Gods of the Deep" (1965)--cool title, dumb movie. Rarely does a movie fail this badly. Nearly everything this movie tries falls flat on its face. For example, David Tomlinson (from "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" and "Mary Poppins") is supposed to provide comic relief with his pet chicken from this otherwise serious story. Maybe we would have needed comic relief had the events been even remotely exciting, but they're not. But even if they had been exciting, Tomlinson's quirky character is not funny, just annoying. His attachment to his chicken is not endearing, it's foolish. Every plot line that is remotely interesting--an impending volcanic explosion, men who live forever underwater, an ancient civilization, a woman who looks like the captain's dead wife--are all inexplicably dropped. It's almost like the director and cast accidentally got hold of the outline of the movie rather than the actual script. Not fun, not funny, not exciting.