Like any film, there is good and bad present in The Atomic Submarine. Being a science-fiction film from the late 1950’s, you can be assured that the special effects would not be the greatest you would ever see and in that you would be right, though to be fair, the alien actually looks quite good and is not just another man in a suit of some sort.   What is really good about this picture is that the story is engaging enough so that no matter the detriment that those effects might have incurred, their impact is lessened and you are able to ultimately enjoy the film as a whole.

The plot of said movie involves aliens that have situated themselves beneath the waves of the ocean near the Arctic as they attack various ships causing them to be destroyed. As that is a perfectly untenable position and nobody can afford to have their vessels sailing the ocean’s bottom, the USS Tigershark is sent out to deal with the threat by any means necessary.

The story of this particular film is interesting as it does something a little different instead of the usual UFO type of movie that was seen many times over. Having it take place within the ocean and aboard a submarine was a novel idea, though why aliens whom you would assume were technologically superior would choose to target the Earth in this manner is a little strange to say the least. One of the best scenes to be had in the entire film was near the end of the movie when the aliens are making good their escape and the crew aboard the sub modify one of their torpedoes to act as a surface to air missile, thereby ending the threat. That being said, there was little that was very exciting about the film until they actually boarded the flying saucer and the tension started to build exponentially.

The cast was all right and included Dick Foran, Tom Conway and Arthur Franz among their number, but Oscar-worthy their performances were not. It made for hard viewing during parts of it, not only because of the actors, but in part due to the script. It is a shame that certain elements could not have been improved upon, though you do realize that they did the best they could with their budget so it is thankful that the story still managed to make the film palatable, but when it comes to science-fiction movies, there are far many that are far better.

2.5 out of 5