Shop Battle Beneath the Earth/The Ultimate Warrior DVD at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee. Directed by Montgomery Tully. With Kerwin Mathews, Viviane Ventura, Robert Ayres, Peter Arne. A Chinese general goes berserk and has a system of tunnels dug all the way from China to USA, under the Pacific Ocean. The man who has discovered this is locked up because they think he is insane. US Navy soldiers go underground to repel the invaders.
For Digression Week, we go back to 1968 and what might make a good double feature companion to Beneath the Planet of the Apes
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. MGM's British arm created Cold War potboiler with Marines battling a private Chinese army who tunneled under the Pacific with lasers (!) so they can plant nukes our key defense sites. Battle Beneath The Earth (BBE) was released in the UK in 1967 and in America in 1968. It stars Kerwin Mathews, famous as the swashbuckling Sinbad in Columbia's 7th Voyage of Sinbad ('58).
Quick Plot Synopsis
Arnold is institutionalized because he hears digging underground. His sister seeks the help of Navy Commander Shaw. A string of coincidental cave-ins suggest that Arnold might have been right. With advanced listening devices, and the entire country being quiet for a hour or so, the Navy figure out the network of tunnels. Exploring one of them, off a coal mine, reveals a chamber full of atomic bombs and some chinese workers. Shaw and his men kill all the workers and disarm all but two of the bombs. Rogue Chinese general Lu is displeased that his plan to subdue America has been set back. He orders more bombs. Meanwhile, the Navy have reverse-engineered Lu's laser boring technology. A team, including the shapely Tila Yung as the geologist, descend a Hawaiian volcano shaft to intercept the bomb train. They find the tunnel, but Arnold is ambushed and captured by Lu's men. He is brainwashed into betraying the whole squad into getting captured. Shaw, Tila and others escape. Arnold sacrifices himself to distract the search parties. Shaw, Tila and Sgt. Mulberry ambush the train's guards, steal their uniforms, then hijack the bomb train. Lu and his men give chase, but a few grenades collapse the tunnel behind the train. While Lu's men dig away the debris, Shaw rigs up one of the bombs to blow up in 10 minutes. He, Tila and Mulberry run away. When Lu's men break through, they hear the bomb will explode and run away. Lu, alone, cannot disarm it, so sits down to be blown up. Shaw, Tila and Mulberry make it to the surface in time to watch the Bikini Atoll test explosion. As Shaw puts a tend hand on Tila's shoulder, they watch the mushroom cloud morph into a golden sunset. The End.
Why is this movie fun?
BBE is like a cross between the Batman TV series, a low-budget James Bond, and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters ('66). The premise, the action, the sets, the props -- it's all so comicbook that it can't help but be fun.
Cold War AngleHere, it's not the commies, but an independent General who gets control of nukes. Cold War weapons stockpiles become the tools of a rogue tyrant-wannabe. His master plan was to disable both sides (East and West), then become master of the re-building world.
Notes
Tunnel-phobia -- Writer 'L.Z. Hargreaves' (pen name for the producer, Charles F. Vetter) chose a topic familiar to British culture -- fear of invasion by tunnels. The British worried about being invaded by tunnels from France since Napoleon's day. During the British 'Invasion Scare' literary period (1870-1918), when the British weren't worrying about ship-borne invaders, they were worrying about them tunneling under the channel. Novels like 'England in Danger' and 'The Battle for the Channel Tunnel' fed those fears. There's even a story in Adelaide's 'The Mail', March 30, 1946, about fears that the Nazis were digging a tunnel into England in 1941. The text describes scientists in old drainage tunnels, listening with headphones for any sound of enemy digging. Just like in BBE!
Evil Underground -- The trope of bad guys underground has its history in sci-fi as well. In Invaders From Mars ('53), the martians dug extensive tunnels and used them to abduct humans. The giant mutant ants in Them! ('54) were fought by the army in tunnels. In '63, The Slime People dug tunnels and invaded.
Quick Plot Synopsis
Arnold is institutionalized because he hears digging underground. His sister seeks the help of Navy Commander Shaw. A string of coincidental cave-ins suggest that Arnold might have been right. With advanced listening devices, and the entire country being quiet for a hour or so, the Navy figure out the network of tunnels. Exploring one of them, off a coal mine, reveals a chamber full of atomic bombs and some chinese workers. Shaw and his men kill all the workers and disarm all but two of the bombs. Rogue Chinese general Lu is displeased that his plan to subdue America has been set back. He orders more bombs. Meanwhile, the Navy have reverse-engineered Lu's laser boring technology. A team, including the shapely Tila Yung as the geologist, descend a Hawaiian volcano shaft to intercept the bomb train. They find the tunnel, but Arnold is ambushed and captured by Lu's men. He is brainwashed into betraying the whole squad into getting captured. Shaw, Tila and others escape. Arnold sacrifices himself to distract the search parties. Shaw, Tila and Sgt. Mulberry ambush the train's guards, steal their uniforms, then hijack the bomb train. Lu and his men give chase, but a few grenades collapse the tunnel behind the train. While Lu's men dig away the debris, Shaw rigs up one of the bombs to blow up in 10 minutes. He, Tila and Mulberry run away. When Lu's men break through, they hear the bomb will explode and run away. Lu, alone, cannot disarm it, so sits down to be blown up. Shaw, Tila and Mulberry make it to the surface in time to watch the Bikini Atoll test explosion. As Shaw puts a tend hand on Tila's shoulder, they watch the mushroom cloud morph into a golden sunset. The End.
Why is this movie fun?
BBE is like a cross between the Batman TV series, a low-budget James Bond, and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters ('66). The premise, the action, the sets, the props -- it's all so comicbook that it can't help but be fun.
Cold War AngleHere, it's not the commies, but an independent General who gets control of nukes. Cold War weapons stockpiles become the tools of a rogue tyrant-wannabe. His master plan was to disable both sides (East and West), then become master of the re-building world.
Notes
Tunnel-phobia -- Writer 'L.Z. Hargreaves' (pen name for the producer, Charles F. Vetter) chose a topic familiar to British culture -- fear of invasion by tunnels. The British worried about being invaded by tunnels from France since Napoleon's day. During the British 'Invasion Scare' literary period (1870-1918), when the British weren't worrying about ship-borne invaders, they were worrying about them tunneling under the channel. Novels like 'England in Danger' and 'The Battle for the Channel Tunnel' fed those fears. There's even a story in Adelaide's 'The Mail', March 30, 1946, about fears that the Nazis were digging a tunnel into England in 1941. The text describes scientists in old drainage tunnels, listening with headphones for any sound of enemy digging. Just like in BBE!
Evil Underground -- The trope of bad guys underground has its history in sci-fi as well. In Invaders From Mars ('53), the martians dug extensive tunnels and used them to abduct humans. The giant mutant ants in Them! ('54) were fought by the army in tunnels. In '63, The Slime People dug tunnels and invaded.
Crazy Casting
Battle Beneath The Earth Download Torrent
-- One of BBE's quirky charms is the weird casting choices. Martin Benson ( a tall square-jawed British actor) plays General Chan Lu. Peter Elliot plays his evil scientist sidekick. Both have their eyes vaguely made up to look oriental. Both talk with a hint of a Charlie Chan accent. Very few actual asians play the chinese. Since the story is supposed to be taking place on America's west coast, the several other British actors speak with thick 'American' accents, which they don't always keep. Arnold is the most notable.Seriously? -- Several little things in BBE can leave the viewer asking the screen, 'Seriously?' The squad of regular Marines which Shaw leads, each just happens to know how to disarm a Mark 3 atomic bomb. Wow. They're well trained. Tila, the trained geologist, didn't know that molten rock would burn her up. What? Add to that, that Tila doesn't wear underwear beneath her jumpsuit? Huh? But the poster did promise viewers some deep cleavage. And, the best of all, Shaw, Tila and Mulberry are able to outrun the blast of an atom bomb with just a 10 minute head start. At a good full run, that would put them about two miles away. That sounds safe enough.
Just Plane Crazy -- For fans of Cold War era jets, there is a brief air show fly-over (the usual stock footage effect to suggest military readiness). In the flyover, you'll see in the first row, a B-66 Destroyer, a B-52 Stratofortress and a B-47 Stratojet. They are followed by an F-86 Sabre , a B-57 Canbera, and a F-101 Voodoo. Quite the sampler platter of planes! (If one cares about such things)
Bottom line? BBE is 'lite', absurd entertainment, not thoughtful science fiction. Watch it as a movie version of a Batman episode, or a Get Smart episode with no jokes. If you do, it can be fun. BBE is a thoroughly B-grade film, so a fine double feature companion for Beneath the Planet of the Apes
. MGM's British arm created Cold War potboiler with Marines battling a private Chinese army who tunneled under the Pacific with lasers (!) so they can plant nukes our key defense sites. Battle Beneath The Earth (BBE) was released in the UK in 1967 and in America in 1968. It stars Kerwin Mathews, famous as the swashbuckling Sinbad in Columbia's 7th Voyage of Sinbad ('58).
Quick Plot Synopsis
Arnold is institutionalized because he hears digging underground. His sister seeks the help of Navy Commander Shaw. A string of coincidental cave-ins suggest that Arnold might have been right. With advanced listening devices, and the entire country being quiet for a hour or so, the Navy figure out the network of tunnels. Exploring one of them, off a coal mine, reveals a chamber full of atomic bombs and some chinese workers. Shaw and his men kill all the workers and disarm all but two of the bombs. Rogue Chinese general Lu is displeased that his plan to subdue America has been set back. He orders more bombs. Meanwhile, the Navy have reverse-engineered Lu's laser boring technology. A team, including the shapely Tila Yung as the geologist, descend a Hawaiian volcano shaft to intercept the bomb train. They find the tunnel, but Arnold is ambushed and captured by Lu's men. He is brainwashed into betraying the whole squad into getting captured. Shaw, Tila and others escape. Arnold sacrifices himself to distract the search parties. Shaw, Tila and Sgt. Mulberry ambush the train's guards, steal their uniforms, then hijack the bomb train. Lu and his men give chase, but a few grenades collapse the tunnel behind the train. While Lu's men dig away the debris, Shaw rigs up one of the bombs to blow up in 10 minutes. He, Tila and Mulberry run away. When Lu's men break through, they hear the bomb will explode and run away. Lu, alone, cannot disarm it, so sits down to be blown up. Shaw, Tila and Mulberry make it to the surface in time to watch the Bikini Atoll test explosion. As Shaw puts a tend hand on Tila's shoulder, they watch the mushroom cloud morph into a golden sunset. The End.
Why is this movie fun?
BBE is like a cross between the Batman TV series, a low-budget James Bond, and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters ('66). The premise, the action, the sets, the props -- it's all so comicbook that it can't help but be fun.
Cold War AngleHere, it's not the commies, but an independent General who gets control of nukes. Cold War weapons stockpiles become the tools of a rogue tyrant-wannabe. His master plan was to disable both sides (East and West), then become master of the re-building world.
Notes
Tunnel-phobia -- Writer 'L.Z. Hargreaves' (pen name for the producer, Charles F. Vetter) chose a topic familiar to British culture -- fear of invasion by tunnels. The British worried about being invaded by tunnels from France since Napoleon's day. During the British 'Invasion Scare' literary period (1870-1918), when the British weren't worrying about ship-borne invaders, they were worrying about them tunneling under the channel. Novels like 'England in Danger' and 'The Battle for the Channel Tunnel' fed those fears. There's even a story in Adelaide's 'The Mail', March 30, 1946, about fears that the Nazis were digging a tunnel into England in 1941. The text describes scientists in old drainage tunnels, listening with headphones for any sound of enemy digging. Just like in BBE!
Evil Underground -- The trope of bad guys underground has its history in sci-fi as well. In Invaders From Mars ('53), the martians dug extensive tunnels and used them to abduct humans. The giant mutant ants in Them! ('54) were fought by the army in tunnels. In '63, The Slime People dug tunnels and invaded.
Crazy Casting
Seriously? -- Several little things in BBE can leave the viewer asking the screen, 'Seriously?' The squad of regular Marines which Shaw leads, each just happens to know how to disarm a Mark 3 atomic bomb. Wow. They're well trained. Tila, the trained geologist, didn't know that molten rock would burn her up. What? Add to that, that Tila doesn't wear underwear beneath her jumpsuit? Huh? But the poster did promise viewers some deep cleavage. And, the best of all, Shaw, Tila and Mulberry are able to outrun the blast of an atom bomb with just a 10 minute head start. At a good full run, that would put them about two miles away. That sounds safe enough.
Just Plane Crazy -- For fans of Cold War era jets, there is a brief air show fly-over (the usual stock footage effect to suggest military readiness). In the flyover, you'll see in the first row, a B-66 Destroyer, a B-52 Stratofortress and a B-47 Stratojet. They are followed by an F-86 Sabre , a B-57 Canbera, and a F-101 Voodoo. Quite the sampler platter of planes! (If one cares about such things)
Bottom line? BBE is 'lite', absurd entertainment, not thoughtful science fiction. Watch it as a movie version of a Batman episode, or a Get Smart episode with no jokes. If you do, it can be fun. BBE is a thoroughly B-grade film, so a fine double feature companion for Beneath the Planet of the Apes ('70). BBE also has a hunky hero, a doe-eyed babe, enemies living in tunnels, and a nuke underground which is blown up in the end.
---
Quick Plot Synopsis
Arnold is institutionalized because he hears digging underground. His sister seeks the help of Navy Commander Shaw. A string of coincidental cave-ins suggest that Arnold might have been right. With advanced listening devices, and the entire country being quiet for a hour or so, the Navy figure out the network of tunnels. Exploring one of them, off a coal mine, reveals a chamber full of atomic bombs and some chinese workers. Shaw and his men kill all the workers and disarm all but two of the bombs. Rogue Chinese general Lu is displeased that his plan to subdue America has been set back. He orders more bombs. Meanwhile, the Navy have reverse-engineered Lu's laser boring technology. A team, including the shapely Tila Yung as the geologist, descend a Hawaiian volcano shaft to intercept the bomb train. They find the tunnel, but Arnold is ambushed and captured by Lu's men. He is brainwashed into betraying the whole squad into getting captured. Shaw, Tila and others escape. Arnold sacrifices himself to distract the search parties. Shaw, Tila and Sgt. Mulberry ambush the train's guards, steal their uniforms, then hijack the bomb train. Lu and his men give chase, but a few grenades collapse the tunnel behind the train. While Lu's men dig away the debris, Shaw rigs up one of the bombs to blow up in 10 minutes. He, Tila and Mulberry run away. When Lu's men break through, they hear the bomb will explode and run away. Lu, alone, cannot disarm it, so sits down to be blown up. Shaw, Tila and Mulberry make it to the surface in time to watch the Bikini Atoll test explosion. As Shaw puts a tend hand on Tila's shoulder, they watch the mushroom cloud morph into a golden sunset. The End.
Why is this movie fun?
BBE is like a cross between the Batman TV series, a low-budget James Bond, and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters ('66). The premise, the action, the sets, the props -- it's all so comicbook that it can't help but be fun.
Cold War AngleHere, it's not the commies, but an independent General who gets control of nukes. Cold War weapons stockpiles become the tools of a rogue tyrant-wannabe. His master plan was to disable both sides (East and West), then become master of the re-building world.
Notes
Tunnel-phobia -- Writer 'L.Z. Hargreaves' (pen name for the producer, Charles F. Vetter) chose a topic familiar to British culture -- fear of invasion by tunnels. The British worried about being invaded by tunnels from France since Napoleon's day. During the British 'Invasion Scare' literary period (1870-1918), when the British weren't worrying about ship-borne invaders, they were worrying about them tunneling under the channel. Novels like 'England in Danger' and 'The Battle for the Channel Tunnel' fed those fears. There's even a story in Adelaide's 'The Mail', March 30, 1946, about fears that the Nazis were digging a tunnel into England in 1941. The text describes scientists in old drainage tunnels, listening with headphones for any sound of enemy digging. Just like in BBE!
Evil Underground -- The trope of bad guys underground has its history in sci-fi as well. In Invaders From Mars ('53), the martians dug extensive tunnels and used them to abduct humans. The giant mutant ants in Them! ('54) were fought by the army in tunnels. In '63, The Slime People dug tunnels and invaded.
Crazy Casting
Battle Beneath The Earth Download Torrent
-- One of BBE's quirky charms is the weird casting choices. Martin Benson ( a tall square-jawed British actor) plays General Chan Lu. Peter Elliot plays his evil scientist sidekick. Both have their eyes vaguely made up to look oriental. Both talk with a hint of a Charlie Chan accent. Very few actual asians play the chinese. Since the story is supposed to be taking place on America's west coast, the several other British actors speak with thick 'American' accents, which they don't always keep. Arnold is the most notable.Seriously? -- Several little things in BBE can leave the viewer asking the screen, 'Seriously?' The squad of regular Marines which Shaw leads, each just happens to know how to disarm a Mark 3 atomic bomb. Wow. They're well trained. Tila, the trained geologist, didn't know that molten rock would burn her up. What? Add to that, that Tila doesn't wear underwear beneath her jumpsuit? Huh? But the poster did promise viewers some deep cleavage. And, the best of all, Shaw, Tila and Mulberry are able to outrun the blast of an atom bomb with just a 10 minute head start. At a good full run, that would put them about two miles away. That sounds safe enough.
Just Plane Crazy -- For fans of Cold War era jets, there is a brief air show fly-over (the usual stock footage effect to suggest military readiness). In the flyover, you'll see in the first row, a B-66 Destroyer, a B-52 Stratofortress and a B-47 Stratojet. They are followed by an F-86 Sabre , a B-57 Canbera, and a F-101 Voodoo. Quite the sampler platter of planes! (If one cares about such things)
Bottom line? BBE is 'lite', absurd entertainment, not thoughtful science fiction. Watch it as a movie version of a Batman episode, or a Get Smart episode with no jokes. If you do, it can be fun. BBE is a thoroughly B-grade film, so a fine double feature companion for Beneath the Planet of the Apes ('70). BBE also has a hunky hero, a doe-eyed babe, enemies living in tunnels, and a nuke underground which is blown up in the end.
---
By Brandon Adamson
This is a highly creative movie, that is underrated in my opinion. You know that old saying 'are you trying to dig a hole to China?' Well, the central plot of the film is that the Chinese have advanced technology and are secretly tunneling to the US to detonate nuclear bombs under America's cities in order to take over the country. The US military figures out the plot after they are alerted by one of their own ex soldiers who is thought to be crazy. Anyway, there ends up being a huge battle in these tunnels to determine the fate of the country.
The reason this movie is considered to be 'bad' by most is that many of the Chinese are played by white British actors who are made up to look Asian. The PC busybodies of today would probably ban this film if they actually had any curiosity that would lead them to be aware of the existence of obscure classics like this. Anyway, the actors being made to look Asian is a little bizarre and distracting, but it makes sense given that this film was made in 1967. At that time, China was mostly cut off from the western world and Western countries did not have good relations with China, especially after the Korean War. Britain in particular(where the film was made) had bad relations with China because of the dispute over Hong Kong. In fact, China had secret plans to invade Hong Kong the very year that this film was made but opted not to. So it follows then, that the film makers would not have had access to a pool of popular or known Chinese performers to fill these leading roles.
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Since China was so isolated, it left a lot of room for the story to speculate on China having some kind of advanced technological capabilities, since the nation was such a mystery. Who knew what sort of secret weapons the Chinese might have or what they could be up to?
If you can get past the casting choices and makeup, Battle Beneath the Earth is actually an imaginative and fun little movie. I've probably seen it over 30 times. It never really gets boring, and it offers a unique glimpse of how the Chinese were perceived by the West at a tumultuous period in history, just before they began to open themselves up to the world.
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Brandon Adamson is the author of 'Beatnik Fascism'
