Review: The Neptune Factor

Workers/scientists on an underwater lab are hit by an earthquake and sent to seemingly unreachable depths. To the rescue comes Ben Gazzara and his new submarine called the Neptune. Also on hand are Ernest Borgnine (as the lab’s head diver), Donnelly Rhodes (as another diver), and Yvette Mimieux, whose character essentially serves to be the other scientist in the room while Mr. Science Guy (AKA Walter Pidgeon) does all the talking, thinking, and all-round science stuff.

 

Cheap, largely uninteresting 1973 Daniel Petrie (“A Raisin in the Sun”, “Sybil”) underwater saga is so depressingly acted (especially by the no-namers and one or two more familiar players) and mundane that even though the climax is patently absurd and inadequately explained, the audience is glad that the whole damn thing is actually moving at last. Sure, the FX are cornball and the science barely there (and hardly plausible), but it’s the only part of the film where any goddamn thing happens, and it sure is an interesting development, at least.

 

The cast looks interesting on paper, but looks can be deceiving. Unfortunately, Gazzara is a bit dull (Paging Charlton Heston!...Hell, get George Kennedy in here!), Pidgeon has the whole geriatric pursed lips thing going on that prevents me from ever liking the guy’s work (even when young he still looked old), and Mimieux condescends to the material throughout, keeping a single expression on her face- one that suggests that someone has farted, and she’s not quite sure that it wasn’t her. Borgnine provides the only life and gravitas, but he’s not given enough to say or do (even his diving scenes are done by- a much slimmer looking- stunt double).

 

Scripted by Jack DeWitt (the cult western “A Man Called Horse”), for die-hard underwater movie fans (are there any?), this Canadian cheapie sure ain’t no “Fantastic Voyage”, folks.

 

Rating: C

 

 

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