Destination Inner Space

source: Destination Inner Space

With a longtime feud going on between commander Scott Brady and crew member Mike Road, it's going to be a tough journey for scientific experiments going on at the bottom of the beautiful briny sea and research doctors Gary Merrill and Sheree North. An alleged space craft that looks like the size of one of the hubcaps in "Plan Nine From Outer Space" flies over their sea station here, and while at first assuming that it belongs to the Russians, the crew soon finds out otherwise when they take what looks like a large couch pillow back into their sea station that somehow amongst earthly oxygen starts to get bigger. Soon, it explodes open, and a giant creature appears to terrorize them, making Road regret bringing it back on board. His feud with Brady has to explode to a head as well, as Road blames Brady for the death of crew members on a submarine they were both on years before, but the truth is much deeper than that as Road must come to terms with. It takes teamwork to deal with a monster like this, and as Merrill demands, Brady and Road must put aside their differences in order to fight this creature that seems indestructible. For once, the monster isn't silly looking, even though it's obviously made out of rubber. In fact, it's actually pretty scary looking, and the color photography helps bring out the details used in creating it. Only the special effects of the alleged Russian spacecraft with the ability to travel through deep ocean waters cheapens the look of this late in the game sci-fi monster movie that utilizes a few well established human conflict to create some tension and add a story that is both believable and touching. There is a scene towards the beginning with Brady and North that is definitely showing sexual harassment at work, and Wende Wagner, as the expedition photographer, must put up with some of that as well. But these women show that they are able to stand up for themselves against even the most vile of harassment circumstances, so they command respect here rather than demand it, and the men actually come out of this expedition learning something, not only about how to deal with monsters from outer space, but how to deal with women in a close space and how to get past conflict with co-workers where truth is not always what it appears to be.

Underwater thrills with a sea creature mixed with personal human dramas. The sea creature is the true star of this flick and he can be seen in colour for once, unlike the older Creature From The Black Lagoon monster which was in B&W. I like this Destination Inner Space a lot but the underwater miniature effects are terrible and the human conflicts are well performed but take up just too much screen time. In some ways this film could be described as the the other side of the coin to the Voyage to to the Bottom of the Sea TV series of the day (which Gary Merrill even appeared in once). In VTTBOTS producer Irwin Allen demanded no small talk or human drama of this sort in the monster episodes. Also, VTTBOTS won Emmy Awards for the outstanding submarine miniature effects which leave the Destination Inner Space miniatures for dead! But this is beginning to sound like a bashing of DIS, no it is not, I love the movie, but I just wish to point out that I like VTTBOTS more.

While the movie offers many standard Sci-Fi,B-Movie moments, several good aspects are evident. The action sequences, especially underwater scenes were filmed well,and diving enthusiasts may notice Wende Wagner's performance as vital to their success. Wende had appeared in a "Flipper" episode around same time frame, and her scuba performances are excellent. While I haven't seen this movie in many years(can't find it anywhere);the diving scenes still are memorable.

Watching this film always reminds me of the much superior "The Thing (from Another World)", the wonderful 1951 Howard Hawks movie about an alien terrorizing an Arctic base. Here, the setting is an underwater research lab, staffed by naive scientists and accompanied by the steel-jawed Commander Wayne (Scott Brady). The gill-man alien does a great job of menacing the crew throughout the whole movie. Naturally, Commander Wayne knows it's a kill-or-be-killed situation, while the befuddled scientists sort of stand around. The alien tries to duplicate itself (a la "The Thing") but the Commander of course saves the day at the end. The shopworn script borrows heavily from "The Thing", the gill-man is less than convincing (you can see where the air tank is hidden), and the special effects--if you want to call them that--are just horrible. The miniatures are among the most unconvincing in movie history. Besides Brady, well-known stars Gary Merrill and Sheree North are among the cast, along with several unknowns. The stars must have needed the money, I guess. Watching this film is better than a trip to the dentist, but that's about it.

Lots of cheesy fun but what's really cool is that Mike Road did the voices for the animated series' characters Race Bannon (JONNY QUEST), Reed Richards (FANTASTIC FOUR) and Zandor (HERCULOIDS). So for fantasy fans everywhere, we can put a face with that heroic "manly man" voice we grew up with in the 60s.

This isn't a B-flick. It's worse, it's a C-flick. Sea-flick? See? Now that my really bad joke is out of the way, I can say this movie is one really bad joke on the audience. To say that the science is flawed is an understatement. (The specimens in the biology lab will die without air?!? They're a sealab; their purpose is to study water-breathing life!) The bombast-filled score is nothing more than stale leftovers from the 1950s, straining at almost every moment to add suspense where none exists. The sets are among the least convincing I've ever seen and the special effects are laughable. The "giant" spaceship and the sealab look like the 12-inch miniatures they probably were. The rubber-suited monster is not scary at all even when poor bluescreen matting makes it look several times larger that life. Worst of all, it commits the cardinal sin that distinguishes truly bad movies from the classics like "Plan 9 from Outer Space," it's no fun. It makes Irwin Allen's "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" series look like "Star Wars." Even the eminently forgettable "DeepStar Six" and "Leviathan" were an order of magnitude better than this. It's almost enough to make me rent "Sphere" and finally see the second half. Almost, but nothing's quite that bad.

Watching "Destination Innerspace" again after so many years, one instantly notices how low this film's budget must have been. Also upon re-inspection, a few new qualities emerge. Namely, the unintentional laughs. Previous reviews have already noted the outrageously tiny-looking miniatures, and how some of the music cues (borrowed from the B-classic "Angry Red Planet") are not exactly subtle. Oh, and the sight of Gary Merrill trying to subdue a big, walking large-mouthed bass is certainly hard not to find amusing now. Such sad but funny indicators of low budget film-making aside though, what does still seem to work about this little movie is the premise: a monster preying on humans trapped in a confined space, which is basically how "Alien" works. Only here, we have an underwater facility "subbing" for the space tug Nostromo and being stuck on the ocean floor is not a bad setting if you're making a claustrophobic thriller. One sequence to admire is the alien ship's arrival on the scene. Watching as it soars directly over the sea lab, with the addition of sound effects giving voice to it's engines the space craft actually becomes kind of impressive. It's rather neat the way it "buzzes" the installation with it's nervous crew watching from inside. Clearly, they had the right idea here, and with a little more money this could have been a first rate sci-fi thriller. One can also definitely defend the sequence where the crew attempt to lure the alien creature into a booby trap of spear guns. It's rather suspenseful as the hero, Commander Wayne, using himself as bait, bangs on a metal door and waits forcing the viewer to sit and wait there with him for the monster's inevitable appearance. Speaking of Commander Wayne, this guy emerges as quite an enjoyable hero, and playing him like John Wayne underwater, Scott Brady is so well cast in the role that he really elevates the occasionally soggy proceedings to a level it never would have achieved without his capable presence. His smart alec, tough guy lines are funny, too like when he tells a cynical female marine biologist, "You listen to me, beautiful. I grew up with a couple of sisters, and let me tell you something: a brother doesn't always tell a sister "everything". Shove that under your microscope and study it awhile." In fact, Commander Wayne has a snappy answer for just about everyone on board: Dopey scientist: "do you realize the importance of this, Commander?" Wayne: "I realize the danger we're in." Dopey scientist again: "We've been cut-off from topside. Something must have happened to their communication equipment." Wayne: "More likely something happened to them. It's not a great script, nor is it brilliantly directed, and there are sure lapses in the pace here and there. All quite true. Still, this ancient sci-fi flick does achieve a modest measure of suspense. With the addition of an appealing star, some very funny lines and some unintentionally funny fx's, well, you could do worse than introduce your child to this enjoyable little monster movie.

Commander Wayne (Scott Brady) travels to a research facility on the ocean floor to study an unidentified object. Wayne spends most of his free time being overly aggressive with the two beautiful, female scientists. He also does a lot of yelling. The real fun begins once the crew -finally- enter the alien craft. They discover a container resembling a greyish watermelon. Once this container is taken back to the sea lab, it grows and hatches! In no time, a hideous creature is on a murderous rampage! Actually, the monster isn't bad at all. Far from drab, it has psychedelic red fins. The crew must fight for their lives, accompanied by the soundtrack from ANGRY RED PLANET. DESTINATION INNER SPACE is quirky, 1960's sci-fi at its best...

The most I can say in favor of this film is: it could have been worse. Gary Merrill turns in a good performance, and Wende Wagner is both photogenic and obviously comfortable in scuba gear; but it's all downhill from there. The plot is thin, the special effects are awful, the dialog is consistently stiff and corny (especially for the women), and the other performances vary from bad to awful (except for the parrot perched on the shoulder of the Chinese cook, which does manage to squawk convincingly). Worst of all: the "music", which tries desperately to evoke mystery, but is instead almost laughably bad by the standards of any era. Had it instead been even half competently composed, this film might conceivably have rated a C- instead of a sometimes excruciating D-. The science in Hollywood SF films generally tends to be - well, inaccurate, to be as kind as possible - and here will offend the sensibilities of anyone scientifically literate. Having said this, I suspect anyone who saw this movie as a kid might well enjoy a walk down memory lane (which seems to account for the higher ratings here), and it is indeed interesting to see Mike Road. Mr. Road did a great job with the "Race Bannon" voice characterization for "Jonny Quest", but here is painfully wooden and two-dimensional.