This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Here's a middling B-movie yarn hampered by long, boring periods of inactivity and the lack of a budget which reduces the supposedly thrilling undersea action to what looks like a model submarine being floated around in a fish tank while someone flashes a torch at it. All right for undemanding fans of the genre, but anybody looking for thrills and adventure would be advised to seek elsewhere. THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE is, at best, a passable thriller which offers the bare minimum of suspense. The plot, which is very mysterious at first, soon descends into non-action with a few simple events and situations (sub chases saucer around ocean for an age before finally confronting it) being dragged out to fill the entire seventy-two minutes, which still feels like quite a long haul.Director Spencer Gordon Bennet - king of the serials - directs with a no-frills style, cutting between exposition, dialogue and action. He has no time for atmosphere build-up or the like, which makes for a very static-looking movie. The actors are fine in their roles - especially Arthur Franz and Brett Halsey (RETURN OF THE FLY) - but once again their characters are boringly predictable military and scientist guys who have the usual petty squabbles seen a zillion times previously, and well telegraphed with it. The photography of the interiors is great, though, with good use of the black and white colours (especially in the pitch black interior of the flying saucer, as our heroes tramp up a white-lit pathway; an excellent idea, cutting costs of production yet creating a spooky-looking interior with it).Unfortunately, it's a shame that the miniature effects are less than impressive, as without much meat on the story it's the effects you are left looking at. Thankfully the film concludes with the appearance of a large, ugly, hairy one-eyed octopus alien. THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE isn't really that bad, and has a few good moments (including violent-for-the-time scenes of men being radiated to a crisp and getting crushed in closing doors) worth sitting through for, but it remains indistinguishable from all the rest without anything really good to make it stay in your memory.

It's all here; the flying saucer, atomic submarines, overbearing narration, stock footage, terrible effects and cheap sets. This is B movie writ large. It has an interesting premise, no doubt about it, and must have been a real draw back in 1959. Unfortunately, the rest of the components of the movie doesn't come close to delivering on it.The story is simple enough, the newest atom sub investigates terrible disasters befalling ships and subs in the arctic, only to discover it may well be an alien intelligence at work. We get lots of bombastic narration, a sure sign of a poor screenplay, and it's slapped over lots of stock footage of several submarines which in no way resemble the models or sets. The model work is uncommonly poor, probably due to the difficulty of simulating underwater and under ice vistas on a budget smaller than a kids allowance. It's charming and interesting to look at, but still poor and never conveys any real scale.As for the acting and script, we have several faces familiar to 50's B movie fans, and they do what they can with a sub par script. The supposed conflict between the 'hero' and the son of his mentor is so forced that you wonder why no one just slaps him or sacks him on the spot. They actually look a little embarrassed delivering the lines. The sets are pretty sparse too, both in looks and number. You could count the locations on one hand, not including the fish tank used for the special effects, with the UFO being particularly minimalist. The scene with the young guy piloting the mini sub in particular stands out as there are no controls for him to work, so he plays with a graph pen while 4 guys in frogmen gear stand around watching him struggle to improvise.All things considered it's no classic, but that won't stop genre fans watching it to the end. It's a bit slow and a bit rubbish, but it's heart is in the right place and you want to like it despite it's flaws. Go see it for free at the Internet archives and see for yourself.

Submarines and ships begin disappearing at an alarming rate near the Arctic Circle. The crew of the Tiger Shark, an atomic submarine, is sent to investigate. They discover a mysterious craft they name the Cyclops because of its one "eye". When the submarine's torpedoes prove worthless against the Cyclops' defenses, the decision is made to ram the strange craft. The Tiger Shark appears to have been successful in "killing" the other craft, but it's now stuck in the Cyclops' outer hull. A team is sent to enter the dormant looking craft to try to free the submarine. But the Cyclops isn't as dormant as it first appears. The men find an alien being very much alive and still determined to take over the world.Overall, The Atomic Submarine is a fun little movie. I see that a lot of people focus on the less than realistic looking miniatures. Why let something like that ruin the rest of the movie? As I've stated any number of times, I find a certain charm to the low budget special effects found in movies like The Atomic Submarine. I'll cut 'em more slack than I will today's big budget, heartless, CGI effects. Instead of the effects, my problems with the movie lies in the very slow first act and a controversy between two of the characters that feels forced. But once the submarine enters the Arctic waters, things pick-up and it moves at a good, entertaining pace form here on out. The interior shots of the alien ship are especially creepy. It may all be lights, shadows, and noise, but that doesn't make it any less effective. It's downright spooky! The acting is about what you expect from a mostly veteran cast that includes Dick Foran, Tom Conway, and Arthur Franz – nothing terrible, but nothing outstanding. The exception is Brett Halsey whose constant pout is a bit much at times. I was excited to see Joi Lansing's name in the opening credits, but soon discovered that her screen-time was limited to about 5 minutes. Finally, I appreciate the chances screenwriter Orville Hampton took with the plot. The idea of an undersea UFO is quite novel as far as I know.

I knew very little about THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE as the opening credits rolled . I was led to believe it was grade z rubbish with a cult following and it's very easy to see how this reputation came about The film starts in the recognisable future where atomic submarines are used as vehicles of commerce and we're shown via some laughably unconvincing special effects of a submarine meeting its doom . Words fail me as to how bad the footage is as a toy submarine in a fish tank is destroyed and this stock footage is continually used throughout the film . It should also be noted that shipping mysteriously disappearing as the first stages of an alien invasion had been used as a premise for John Wyndhams watery masterpiece The Kraken Wakes from a few years earlier and you can't help thinking that TAS was heavily influenced by this intelligent apocalyptic classic Unfortunately both director Spencer Gordon Bennet and screenwriter Orville H Hampton also seem to have been inspired by Ed Woood . Early into the film we're hit over the head by the most intrusive , melodramatic and badly written voice over possible . In screen writing classes you'll be informed that obvious voice over is poor voice over but the narrator goes well beyond bad by referring to things we never see happen on screen . For example we're told that the crew are apprehensive as they sail towards the North Pole which is strange considering most of the crew are unaware what their mission is and are under the impression that it's a routine mission and that problems involving irritation makes themselves felt amongst the crew which is not something that ever appears on screen . Note also the pythonesque map that shows lots of squiggly lines of the submarines route When the sub gets to the bottom of the mystery that a flying saucer is responsible for the sinkings the story does pick up and shows some imagination on the part of the film makers . The basic set of the saucer interior is so effective simply down to the simplicity of the set and Bennet does manage to manage to bring an eerie other worldliness to the mis en scene . The alien itself might seem some what laughable resembling a cross between a penis and a sock puppet but its mission to either kill or kidnap the crew in order to experiment upon them does again mirror the aims of the aliens in The Kraken Wakes and despite the grade z production values these scenes are relatively chilling and one wonders why the rest of the movie couldn't reach this standard All in all this is a very flawed SF adventure . It is very memorable but frequently for the wrong reasons which makes THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE one of the most uneven films you will see . It's very good in places but if you're not a fan of sci-fi B movies you'll not want to watch this but if you're a fan it's a pleasant time waster