The Amazing Captain Nemo (1978 aka The
Return Of Captain Nemo/Feature
Version of TV Mini-Series/Warner Archive DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: C
Alongside
adaptations of Jules Verne’s original novels 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Mysterious Island,
the character Captain Nemo has surfaced in places Verne could have never
imagined, even when Atlantis was involved.
This included a low-budget animated series and his use in the book and
not-so-good film of The League Of
Extraordinary Gentlemen. But one you
may not have seen or remembered seeing is a 1978 TV mini-series version that
was also cut into a feature-length version and is a howler all the way: The Amazing Captain Nemo.
Original
shown as The Return of Captain Nemo,
this was produced Irwin Allen at the point he moved from interesting genre
producer to upscale exploitation with films like The Swarm and When Time Ran
Out. This version is meant to
capitalize on Star Wars, but looks
more like the Gil Gerard Buck Rogers
or Disney’s The Black Hole (1979,
also loosely based on 20,000 Leagues
Under The Sea) as Nemo (José Ferrer) turns up in modern times to battle a
mega-villain (Burgess Meredith in his Rocky
glory while his Penguin appearances on the 1960s Batman were all over syndicated TV) professor bent on causing a
nuclear war so he can take over the world.
Of
course, this was the plot in the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me and this production (they hired Lamar Boren,
who shot the sequences on that film to do the ones here, to be Director of
Photography for the whole production) as well as 1965 Bond film Thunderball if that helps. Warner Bros. now had a production deal with
Allen and may have hoped this would be a TV series, but that did not work out
and this edition was theatrically released since it was shot in 35mm to begin
with.
Other cast
on board includes Mel Ferrer, Horst Buchholz, Lynda Day George, Warren Stevens,
Richard Angarola, Peter Jason and Anthony Geary, adding to the craziness. The visual effects and some of the robot
voices are also a hoot, while fans of Voyage
To The Bottom Of The Sea (reviewed elsewhere on this site) will notice the
Nautilus is really the original model of the Seaview repainted copper for this
project. A curio worth a look, The Amazing Captain Nemo is the Star
Wars imitator that did not join Battlestar
Galactica or Buck Rogers as
imitators doomed to cancellation. It
arrived dead in the water.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image may be soft at times and the print here
may show its age, but the color is decent, though the many visual effects are
more obvious than ever. Boren lost some
control to the visual effects department on this one. The Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono is also not bad
for its age, but seems especially dull since the space operas of today have
multi-channel sound and this has recycled sound effects. Allen veteran Richard LaSalle does the
amusing score. The only extra is a
trailer for this cut.
You can
order this and other Archive releases at this link:
www.warnerarchive.com
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Nicholas Sheffo
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