ASSAULT ON A QUEEN

I waited 52 years to see ASSAULT ON A QUEEN (1966).

It wasn't worth the wait.

Oh, sure the one sheet looks great and the concept is can't miss: use a WWII era German U-Boat to hijack and rob the Queen Mary ocean liner. Sounds good, right?

The film has good genes. The screenplay is by none other than Rod (TWILIGHT ZONE) Serling from a novel by Jack (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) Finney. It stars Frank Sinatra, the smoking hot Virna Lisi, Richard Conte, Alf Kjellin (who?) and Tony Franciosa. But still, given all that appears to be going for it on the surface, ASSAULT sinks to the bottom fast.

Sinatra plays a deep sea diver for hire who is contracted by wealthy treasure hunters Lisi, Kjellin and Franciosa. While searching for sunken treasure the team stumbles upon an intact German U-Boat from World War II. They decide to salvage the vessel and then, once they have it on the surface, they get the wild idea to use the sub to play pirate and stick up the Queen Mary. That's the exact same idea I would have if I ever salvage a WWII submarine.

Sinatra joins the gang reluctantly, lured more by Lisi's abundant charms than the promise of material riches. They plot an elaborate heist scheme which, of course, goes wrong. The really bad guys (Kjellin, Franciosa and Conte) perish while Sinatra, Lisi and Sinatra's buddy, Errol John, survive.

Although produced by Paramount Pictures, the studio clearly didn't put a lot of money into this effort. I suspect the bulk of the budget went to pay Sinatra's salary and the studio must have figured that he had enough star power to sell enough tickets to turn a quick profit on what is basically a B movie. The special effects are on the level of an episode of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and much of the action is filmed on sound stages rather than the open sea.

ASSAULT ON A QUEEN is yet another one of those 1960s action/adventure films that I desperately wanted to see when I was a kid. But alas, the poster and high concept were all sizzle with the picture delivering very little steak.

Thumbs down.