Destination: Inner Space (1966)

In 1966, before we ever had movies like "Abyss", "Leviathan", or "Deep-Star Six", viewing audiences who stuck around for the second feature at the drive-in were treated to "Destination: Inner Space". This is not to be confused with 1987's "Innerspace" with Dennis Quaid. While other sci-fi films from the era tend to concentrate on outer-space adventures or flying saucer invasions, this one stood out as an underwater invasion, albeit with only one antagonist.

It seems a marine biology lab is perplexed by the repeated appearances of some large submarine or other object appearing on their radar, then disappearing. They call in a Navy commander, Cmdr. Wayne, played by Scott Brady. He confirms that this is not a navy ship, nor any type known thus far. The team, including him, diving expert Maddox, and Sandra, don their gear and investigate. They discover the large form is actually an alien probe, kind of like a flying saucer. In fact it is referred to as a USO, or Unidentified Swimming Object.

The ship itself is a pretty good effect. The model is remote controlled and moves about pretty well. Unfortunately, the size of it wasn't conveyed very well, as in one scene when a small fish was caught on camera swimming by it, completely killing the illusion. Additionally, the film suffered in the area of miniature sets. The underwater lab is obviously small, but the movie was made on a minuscule budget.

At any rate, as our heroes discover, the alien ship contains a strange metallic rod emitting radiation. They obviously haven't seen movies like this, because they don't know to leave it alone, deciding instead to take it back to their lab. The rod grows in size, and when nobody is around, it hatches something. When the scientists come back to investigate, they discover the busted rod. This leads to one of the genuinely scary moments in the movie. As our intrepid scientist is looking around, the monster leaps out of a corner. I have to be honest, while the design of the creature is not super-scary, it did scare the bejesus out of me here.

The rest of the movie involves a couple of moral questions, a surprising feature in a 60's schlock film. The main scientist, Dr. Lasiter keeps butting heads with Commander Wayne. Lasiter wants to keep the monster alive and study it, as it presents an opportunity to learn about an advanced alien species. Naturally, Cmdr. Wayne wants to destroy it, because you know, he's in the military, and they like to blow stuff up.

In addition, we have some characterization going on, when we learn that Maddox and the navy commander have some secrets from their past, having served together before. They each blame the other for a tragic accident that killed several sailors years before. They eventually settle their differences, and commence to kicking alien butt. The crew also includes a love interest for our hero, in the form of marine biologist Dr. Rene Peron, played by the lovely Sheree North. North was primarily known for the fact that about ten years before this film, she was the studio's replacement for Marylin Monroe once Monroe started acting all Lyndsey Lohan-ish. Ironically, she herself would be replaced by Jayne Mansfield, but in this film she actually plays someone of some substance and not window dressing. That was handled by the other girl in the cast, the younger Wende Wagner, Maddox's love interest. She has little to do other than stand around, look pretty, and scream a lot.

I'm probably too harsh on Ms. Wagner. After all, she did her own stunts, and was a natural in the many scuba scenes, actually having been a certified diver and reputedly an expert surfer. There is plenty of underwater shenanigans going on, as the creature swims about back and forth to the lab wreaking havoc. The beast himself looks like a cross between a pirahna and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. While he is not as cool-looking as the aforementioned Creature, he is still more awesome than the monster from "Horror at Party Beach".

The monster is played with unholy relish by stuntman Ron Burke. Burke was an expert swimmer himself, and moved about underwater in a pretty menacing way. The creature shifts his head a little bit side-to-side, calling to mind a shark swimming along. The design incorporated a large hunch on the back for the fin, allowing Burke to breathe through standard scuba gear. While he was on land walking around he wasn't that scary; but underwater was a different story. Props to the design team and Burke for his performance.

This movie received almost no notice upon its release in 1966, but is getting some more recognition now among sci-fi/horror fans thanks to entering the Public Domain. It is well worth a look. I rate this movie 3 1/2 out of 4.