City Under the Sea (1965)
Released Stateside as War Gods of the Deep, City Under the Sea is one of those AIP productions that straddles genres. Based very loosely on Poe's poem The City in the Sea, yet it's certainly more fantasy than it is horror and has a real Jules Verne steam punk vibe to it.
Directed by the great Jacques Tourneur, City Under the Sea is a moderately pacy affair with some terrific underwater filming. Vincent Price is excellent as always, Tab Hunter is a little stiff around the edges but makes for a decent-ish hero and Susan Hart does the eye candy in peril part rather well. British actor David Tomlinson's blundering buffooniness isn't needed but he doesn't really let the side down. And then there's Herbert... the chicken! It doesn't get more steam punk than a chicken in a Victorian diving helmet.
City Under the Sea is a worthy effort and sits proudly, at least with me, in the AIP/ Poe/ Price arsenal of chillers.
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