Λｔｏｍｉｃ░Ｓｕｂｍａｒｉｎｅ░ＵＳＳ░Ｓｅａｖｉｅｗ🌟  When the Earth is threatened by a burning Van Allen Radiation Belt, U.S. Navy Admiral Harriman Nelson plans to shoot a nuclear missile at the Belt, using his experimental atomic submarine, the Seaview.   It might seem a little old hat today, but we've been through 3 or 4 or  more generations that have seen the United States Navy become an atomic fleet of submarines and surface carriers.   It was only seven years earlier, in 1955 that the U.S.S. Nautilus was launched as our first atomic submarine.   In homage to that wonderful visionary Jules Verne who foresaw atomic power one hundred years earlier the Navy named it after that famous undersea ship of Verne's great novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The nuclear submarine was a wondrous thing in 1961. The idea of a nuclear power submarine was the brainchild of Admiral Hyman Rickover. Rickover was a tough minded SOB. who usually got whatever he wanted by any mean necessary including bullying.   Hard to believe that the gentlemanly Walter Pigeon could play him, but he did and well as Admiral Harry Nelson, the ersatz Rickover.  What's happened here is that the Van Allen radiation belt that surrounds the Earth has caught fire and temperatures are climbing all over the world.   The planet is doomed, but Walter Pigeon's got an idea to save it.   Fire a missile and seed the belt with more radiation, kind of a nuclear backfire and the blaze will end.   A lot of people are telling him it won't work, but Pigeon brushes them all aside.  The only two who have faith in him are his assistants played by Peter Lorre and Barbara Eden.   But our intrepid admiral pushes through.   Of course the U.S.S. Seaview encounters all kinds of obstacles along the way, but that's the rest of the story.   The cast does very well for itself and young Frankie Avalon as a junior officer comes off rather nicely. Frankie sings over the title credits, but during the movie plays a trumpet.   Avalon in fact was a trumpet virtuoso and a singing career was an afterthought.   The fickle finger of fate. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea still a nice science fiction adventure even though it is dated. I found the role of Robert Sterling as Capt. Lee Crane a bit confusing.  He fought the Admiral many times over the Admiral's orders.  This would never happen on a real US atomic or any other kind of submarine or warship.  This movie in 1961 would lead to the TV series - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.  Which left any bounds of imagination or reality, but then again this is science fiction and it is what we most all love. Forgive me movie fan only near 70 year later I am still in lust, ummm I mean in love with Barbara Eden.  I still have "Dreams" with Jeanie... Stars:   Walter Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, Robert Sterling   and many other fine actors.    A bit of movie trivia. 01:  The model and interior sets of the submarine cost producer Irwin Allen $400,000, so he was naturally quite keen to get some further use out of them. Since the film was a hit, he was able to convince ABC-TV to turn it into a series, which became the longest-running one he ever had.  02:  During production, Irwin Allen asked the Navy for advice to help in making the film. However, the Navy refused because its nuclear program was just beginning in 1961 and was top secret. They didn't want any information getting to the Soviet Union.  03:  Walter Pidgeon, who played Admiral Nelson in the movie, and Richard Basehart, who played Admiral Nelson in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964), both died within a week of each other.  04:  During the "Seaview's" first dive, a sound effect from The War of the Worlds (1953) is used in the main control room. It is the sound of a Martian War Machine powering up its heat ray.  05:  Sub hunting Seaview is Skipjack class attack sub.