7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.6 |
Two scuba divers find a shipwreck which may contain undiscovered treasure, however, their attempt to salvage it is threatened by scavengers.
Starring: Jane Russell, Gilbert Roland, Richard Egan, Lori Nelson (I), Robert KeithDrama | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.00:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.00:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Not to be confused with the upcoming horror film of the same name (minus the exclamation point), John Sturges' Underwater! is a 1955 adventure flick and thinly-veiled attempt to showcase leading lady Jane Russell in swimsuits while her male co-stars dive for buried treasure. Beyond all that, is it any good? Not really, but the film's exotic setting and dutiful direction at least make it a decent -- albeit somewhat meandering -- way to kill just over 90 minutes.
There's really not much more to Underwater! that that and, while I usually admire the WYSIWYG approach, there's just not enough here to sustain the film's blatantly padded 99-minute running time. To its credit, director John Sturges makes use of some well-shot underwater footage (which was actually filmed at a brand-new underwater tank built for RKO Radio Pictures), while many scenic above-ground vistas were captured in Mexico and Hawaii. They work in tandem to give Underwater an exotic backdrop, but the story and script can't help but lag much further behind. Most first-time viewers will be able to predict all the danger and plot twists far in advance, and the persistent use of narration by Richard Egan's character almost routinely grinds momentum to a halt. Assuming you don't have any warm and fuzzy memories of this one from decades past, your best bet to enjoying Underwater! is to simply take it at face value; unlike what the film's protagonists discover, digging much deeper will only result in mild disappointment.
I'll say one thing about Warner Archive Collection's new Blu-ray, though: it looks like a million bucks, and even more so when you consider that
Underwater!'s last two domestic home video releases were on VHS and laserdisc. The sparkling restoration, sourced from a recent 4K scan
of the original camera negative and featuring a solid lossless audio track, plays to the film's limited strengths and allows us to be more fully
immersed in its exotic atmosphere. Unfortunately, the complete lack of extras hurts this one more than usual, so it's pretty much for established
fans only.
Underwater! was the first RKO production to be filmed in "Superscope", a short-lived but successful anamorphic format described by the invaluable Widescreen Museum as "The Rich Man's Poor Man's Version of CinemaScope" [please refer to page 3 of that linked article for a few words about the main feature]. As such, Warner Archive Collection's Blu-ray preserves Underwater!'s unusual 2:1 aspect ratio with a terrific new 1080p transfer sourced from a recent 4K scan of the original camera negative. The resulting image is perhaps the best this film has ever looked, possibly even beating most theatrical presentations. It's incredibly clean with outstanding image detail that fares the best above ground: any scenes captured in brightly-lit conditions reveal lots of textures and subtle details, along with well-saturated Technicolor hues that appear accurate from start to finish. Everything shot, well, underwater obviously looks quite a bit murkier and less impressive in direct comparison, but within those boundaries it's completely acceptable. No obvious signs of banding or compression artifacts could be spotted along the way, with the Blu-ray's high bit-rate and encode ensuring a very strong and stable image that clearly hasn't been touched by excessive digital noise reduction.
Obvious the film's mono sound doesn't yield as many thrills, but the Blu-ray's DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track at least preserves its one-channel roots. Dialogue and main effects are usually anchored in the center with very few hints of direction, although the (mosly unintelligible) underwater speech often flirts with a more spacious, echo-like presence. Fittingly, the original score by Roy Webb -- who spent most of his prolific career working for RKO -- is balanced nicely and, while somewhat limited on the high end, enjoys a pleasing dynamic range. No obvious source defects, drop-outs, or sync issues of any kind were detected along the way, rounding out the audio presentation nicely.
Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature and, like many recent WAC Blu-rays, are properly formatted with no ALL CAPS anywhere. Anther couple of releases like this and I'll stop mentioning it, honest.
Underwater! arrives on Blu-ray in a standard keepcase with titillating, poster-themed cover artwork and no inserts. Unfortunately no extras are included, not even the trailer...but I found it on YouTube if you're interested.
John Sturges' lukewarm Underwater! is a thinly-veiled attempt to show off its leading lady in a swimsuit, and it barely even does that right. But even discarding all the cheesecake, there's some entertainment value to be found here...even if most of the plot twists can be seen a nautical mile away. Although I can't imagine that most new audiences would fall for Underwater!'s limited charms, those with fond memories of this one will all least appreciate Warner Archive's new Blu-ray: it sports an outstanding new 4K-sourced 1080p transfer and lossless audio, even though the complete lack of bonus features prevents this from being a truly well-rounded effort. So yeah, test the water before you dive in.
1956
Limited Edition / Import
1940
1952
1937
1933
1942
Limited Edition to 3000
1954
1936
1957
1953
1951
Fox Studio Classics
1966
Warner Archive Collection
1955
1931
Warner Archive Collection
1944
1968
1965
Caboblanco
1980
Warner Archive Collection
1955
Warner Archive Collection
1958