''The Neptune Factor'', also known as ''The Neptune Disaster'', is a 1973
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
film directed by
Daniel Petrie
Daniel Mannix Petrie (November 26, 1920 – August 22, 2004) was a Canadian film, television, and stage director who worked in Canada, Hollywood, and the United Kingdom; known for directing grounded human dramas often dealing with taboo subject ...
, featuring underwater
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...
by Paul Herbermann. The film's
special effects
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wo ...
utilized underwater photography of
miniatures with actual marine life.
Plot
Marine scientists prepare to leave their
underwater ''Oceanlab'' after an extended stay performing oceanographic research. An underwater earthquake interrupts their plans. Dr. Andrews (
Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian-American actor. He earned two Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his roles in '' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942) and ''Madame Curie'' (1943). Pidgeon also starred in ...
) enlists experimental sub captain Adrien Blake (
Ben Gazzara
Biagio Anthony Gazzara (August 28, 1930 – February 3, 2012) was an American actor and director of film, stage, and television. He received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Drama Desk Award, in addition to nominatio ...
) to survey the damage and rescue the
oceanauts. He brings along Chief Diver "Mack" MacKay (
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine (; born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but relaxed voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular perfor ...
) and Dr. Leah Jansen (
Yvette Mimieux
Yvette Carmen Mimieux (January 8, 1942 – January 18, 2022) was an American film and television actress. Her breakout role was in '' The Time Machine'' (1960). She was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards during her acting career.
Early li ...
), fiancée of one of the scientists.
Blake finds the lab has been ripped from its moorings and has tumbled down an unexplored, deep ocean trench, presumably intact. With the lab's reserve air supply dwindling, the team descends into the unexplored trench and finds an incredible
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
populated with monstrously oversized fish.
After surviving encounters with unfriendly denizens, they find the lab partially intact, the surviving scientists breathing from scuba tanks and fending off giant, hungry eels. Diver Moulton sacrifices his life distracting the eels in order to enable the others to be rescued. The submarine returns to the surface with the two rescued scientists.
Cast
*
Ben Gazzara
Biagio Anthony Gazzara (August 28, 1930 – February 3, 2012) was an American actor and director of film, stage, and television. He received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Drama Desk Award, in addition to nominatio ...
– Commander Adrian Blake
*
Yvette Mimieux
Yvette Carmen Mimieux (January 8, 1942 – January 18, 2022) was an American film and television actress. Her breakout role was in '' The Time Machine'' (1960). She was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards during her acting career.
Early li ...
– Dr. Leah Jansen
*
Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian-American actor. He earned two Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his roles in '' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942) and ''Madame Curie'' (1943). Pidgeon also starred in ...
– Dr. Samuel Andrews
*
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine (; born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but relaxed voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular perfor ...
– Chief Diver Don MacKay
*
Donnelly Rhodes
Henry Donnelly Rhodes (December 4, 1937 – January 8, 2018) was a Canadian actor, known professionally as Donnelly Rhodes. He had many American television and film credits, probably best known to American audiences as the hapless escaped convic ...
– Diver Bob Cousins
*
Chris Wiggins
Christopher John Wiggins (January 13, 1931 – February 19, 2017) was an English-born Canadian actor.
Career
He started out as a banker in his home country before he began his acting career in Canada, where he moved in 1952.
Wiggins is probably ...
– Captain Williams
*
Michael J. Reynolds – Dr. Hal Hamilton
*
Leslie Carlson – Brigs, Triton Radioman
*
Stuart Gillard
Stuart Thomas Gillard (born April 28, 1950) is a Canadian film, writer, producer and television director. He is best known for directing the films '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III'' (1993) and '' RocketMan'' (1997). He also wrote and directe ...
– Diver Phil Bradley
*
David Yorston – Diver Stephens
Production
Sandy Howard, a film producer from the United States, brought the idea of ''The Neptune Factor'' to David Perlmutter and
Harold Greenberg, who chose to produce the film. Howard wanted the film to be made in the United States, but Greenberg was able to have the film shot in Canada. The film was based on an original story by writer Jack DeWitt. Gazzara and Borgnine's casting was announced in August 1972. The movie has a subtitle of "An Underwater Odyssey".
The film was shot from 25 September to 16 December 1972, on a budget of $2,500,000 (). The
Canadian Film Development Corporation
Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in ...
contributed $200,000 to the film's budget under the demand that
Daniel Petrie
Daniel Mannix Petrie (November 26, 1920 – August 22, 2004) was a Canadian film, television, and stage director who worked in Canada, Hollywood, and the United Kingdom; known for directing grounded human dramas often dealing with taboo subject ...
be the director.
The nature of the ''Oceanlab'' underwater facility bears a resemblance to real-world projects of the 1960s such as the
ConShelf Two project of
Jacques Cousteau, NASA's
NEEMO
NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, is a NASA analog mission that sends groups of astronauts, engineers and scientists to live in the Aquarius underwater laboratory, the world's only undersea research station, for up to three ...
, and the US Navy
SEALAB.
Release
The film was released on 26 June 1973, in Ottawa. The film premiered in Florida in May 1973 and grossed $203,000 in its first four days.
[
]
Reception
''TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news.
The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008.
Corpora ...
'' gave the film one out of 5 stars, stating that while its underwater photography was well done, the film was predictable, the characters stereotypes and the story lacking. The ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' also praised the photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...
, but found little else of value in the film.
See also
* List of American films of 1973
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
* '' Sealab 2020'', a 1972 animated series about a futuristic underwater research base
References
Works cited
*
*
External links
*
*
*
*
Entire film on YouTube
* – Discussion of the special effects techniques used in the film.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neptune Factor, The
1973 films
1970s disaster films
1970s science fiction films
20th Century Fox films
Canadian disaster films
Canadian science fiction films
English-language Canadian films
Films scored by Lalo Schifrin
Films directed by Daniel Petrie
Films set in Nova Scotia
Films shot in the Cayman Islands
Science fiction submarine films
1970s English-language films
1970s Canadian films