MovieChat Forums > Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) Discussion > VTTBOTS TV series was better than VTTBOT...

VTTBOTS TV series was better than VTTBOTS movie.

posted 11 years ago by flapdoodle64
4 replies | jump to latest

In full disclosure, I admit, I never made it to the end of VTTBOTS the movie. I tried most recently about 3 years ago. The premise is of course ridiculous, but worse was all the over the top scenery-chewing characters, particularly Michael Ansara and Joan Fontaine, and the gratuitous interpersonal conflicts set up in order to fill screen time...classic bad IA, right up there with IA's version of Lost World.

Also, the Capt. Crane in the movie seems like a dope, David Heddison was a lot better. Heck, no disrespect for Walter Pigeon, but Richard Basehart was a better Adm. Nelson as well.

Even the silly eps from S3 and S4 are better than the movie version.

This is kind of rare, in that usually the movie is better than the series...think of MASH, or Private Benjamin, or The Bad News Bears. Not so for VTTBOTS.

[–] StuOz 11 years ago

Yes, the series is better than the movie.

It happened with Adam West BATMAN as well, the 1966 Batman series is better than the 1966 Batman movie.
Also with Stargate: the Richard Dean Anderson episodes of Stargate were an improvement over the original film.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] masatief 11 years ago

I agree with you! The movie version is a disapointment!

[–] ddc300 11 years ago

I agree regarding movie vs. series. Looking at the movie today, it does not date itself well. Two reasons: (1) the dopey 'jazz sequence' with the Chip Romano character playing a trumpet while Barbara Eden danced a la 'The Charleston' and (2) some of the corn-ball dialogue. I did like the fact that there were women staff members of the sub (Joan Fontaine), giving Irwin alittle foresight into the future of the armed services.

I also thought that Walter Pigeon 'sleep walked' through the role of Admiral Nelson. Richard Basehart clearly mastered the role and really brought the Adm. to life more than Pidgeon's dull, and aloof portrayl. Alot of folks may not be aware that David Hedison was Irwin Allen's original choice of Capt. Crane for the movie, but Hedison turned down the part since he just did "The Lost World" for Irwin the year before and didn't want to get 'type cast'. Robert Sterling wasn't bad, but as someone else pointed out, he came off as kind of a dope. To me Sterling played him as bit of a 'tight-ass'. Funny how the movie went from having an young Italian Chip Romano and the series ended up with white-bread Chip Morton. I kinda liked Frankie Avalon's Exec Off. He was one of the few characters ,besides the Chief and Kowalski (Kowski) that had any depth to the characters.

And of course the movie can't hold a candle to the revamped "Voyage" series when the flying sub was added along with the assortment of sonic and laser weapons, something the movie never had.