''The Return of Captain Nemo'' (theatrical title: ''The Amazing Captain Nemo'') is a 1978 American

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 ...

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...

television miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. " Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

directed by Alex March and

Paul Stader Paul Stader (February 13, 1911 – April 10, 1991) was an American actor, assistant director and stuntman. Life and career Stader was born in Neosho, Missouri. He attended at the University of Kansas, where he played football and practiced sw ...

(the latter directed the underwater sequences), and loosely based on characters and settings from Jules Verne's 1870 novel ''

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre- ...

''. It was written by six screenwriters including Robert Bloch and has been considered an attempt by producer

Irwin Allen Irwin Allen (born Irwin O. Cohen, June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was an American film and television producer and director, known for his work in science fiction, then later as the "Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genr ...

to duplicate the success of his ''

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea ''Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'' is a 1961 American science fiction disaster film, produced and directed by Irwin Allen, and starring Walter Pidgeon and Robert Sterling. The supporting cast includes Peter Lorre, Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, M ...

''.

Overview

During naval exercises in 1978,

Captain Nemo Captain Nemo (; later identified as an Indian, Prince Dakkar) is a fictional character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne's science-fiction classics, ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' ...

(played by

José Ferrer José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime, w ...

) is found in

suspended animation Suspended animation is the temporary (short- or long-term) slowing or stopping of biological function so that physiological capabilities are preserved. It may be either hypometabolic or ametabolic in nature. It may be induced by either endogen ...

aboard his submarine ''

Nautilus The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in ...

'' beneath the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. Revived by members of a modern-day US Government agency, Nemo is persuaded to rescue United States interests and in so doing battles with Professor Waldo Cunningham, a

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or " insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly a ...

played by

Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...

. Not originally aired as a movie, it was divided into three parts ("Deadly Blackmail", "Duel in the Deep" and "Atlantis Dead Ahead") expanded somewhat with about 45 minutes of additional footage over the three episodes to become a very brief action series. Sometimes described as a "miniseries", it was intended to be the first story-arc in an ongoing serial. Ratings were dismal, and the series never materialized. Instead this proved to be Irwin Allen's final foray into weekly science fiction television. Robert Bloch makes no mention of the series in his autobiography (''Once Around the Bloch'') but commented on it in an interview: "I did an episode for a show about five years ago which was an abortive attempt at a science-fiction series (editor's note: ''The Return of Captain Nemo''). The network gave the go-ahead on it, and they were going to do a four-part story. They assigned each individual episode to a different writer. You had four writers working, neither one of them knew what the other ones were doing, and they had a three-week deadline! And it went off the air after those first four weeks." Bloch's segment (co-written with Larry Alexander) was titled "Atlantis Dead Ahead" although in the theatrical release there are no titles for individual segments of the story. ''The Return of Captain Nemo'' was a co-production between Irwin Allen Productions and

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

. It was originally shown in the United States as a three part miniseries (60-minutes each episode) on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

from March 8–22, 1978 and portions of the three-episode series were then re-edited into a 102-minute version released theatrically overseas as ''The Amazing Captain Nemo''.

Cast

as Professor Waldo Cunningham *

Mel Ferrer Melchor Gastón Ferrer (August 25, 1917 – June 2, 2008) was an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He achieved prominence on Broadway before scoring notable film hits with ''Scaramouche'', '' Lili'' and ''Knights of the Roun ...

as Dr. Robert Cook *

Horst Buchholz Horst Werner Buchholz (4 December 1933 – 3 March 2003) was a German actor who appeared in more than 60 feature films from 1951 to 2002. During his youth, he was sometimes called "the German James Dean". He is perhaps best known in English- ...

as King Tibor of Atlantis * Tom Hallick as Tom Franklin * Burr DeBenning as Jim Porter *

Lynda Day George Lynda Louise Day George (born December 11, 1944) is an American television and film actress whose career spanned three decades from the 1960s to the 1980s. She was a cast member on '' Mission: Impossible'' (1971–1973). She was also the wife ...

as Kate *

Warren Stevens Warren Albert Stevens (November 2, 1919 – March 27, 2012) was an American stage, screen, and television actor. Early life and career Born in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, Stevens entered the United States Naval Academy in 1937 but was medical ...

as Miller *

Med Flory Meredith Irwin Flory, known professionally as Med Flory (August 27, 1926 – March 12, 2014), was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and actor. Early years Flory was born in Logansport, Indiana, United States. His mother was an organist a ...

as Tor (silver android) * Anthony McHugh as Radio Operator * Randolph Roberts as Helmsman * Richard Angarola as Trog (leader of Atlantis Great Council) * Anthony Geary as Bork (an Atlantean) * Stephen Powers as Lloyd *

Yale Summers Yale Summers (July 26, 1933 – May 6, 2012) was an American actor and producer, whose credits included the 1960s CBS television series, ''Daktari'', with Marshall Thompson. Summers was heavily involved with the Screen Actors Guild. He was a ...

as Sirak (an Atlantean)

Episodes

Awards

In 1978, ''The Return of Captain Nemo'' received two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Any Area of Creative Technical Crafts. These were for

Frank Van der Veer Frank Willard Van der Veer (June 2, 1921 – January 7, 1982) was an American optical and visual special effects artist who won (and shared) a Special Achievement Academy Award at the 49th Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects for the film ''Ki ...

(optical effects) and L.B. Abbott (special photographic effects).

References

* Wingrove, David.

Science Fiction Film Source Book ''The Science Fiction Film Source Book'' is a book by David Wingrove published in 1985. Plot summary ''The Science Fiction Film Source Book'' is a book consisting of list of science fiction film plot summaries, with information about producers, di ...

(Longman Group Limited, 1985)

External links

*
''The Return of Captain Nemo''
at

TV Acres TV Acres was a website collecting information about characters, places, and things that have appeared on American television programs broadcast from the 1940s through today.Charles Bowen"TV Acres Covers the Cultural Landscape Of Our Time" ''Edito ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Return of Captain Nemo, The 1978 films 1970s American television miniseries 1970s science fiction adventure films American science fiction adventure films Films based on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Films produced by Irwin Allen Films scored by Richard LaSalle Films set in 1978 Films set in Washington, D.C. Films set in San Francisco Films set in Atlantis Films with screenplays by Robert Bloch CBS original programming Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Underwater civilizations in fiction Warner Bros. films 1970s American films