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A (very) motley crew - consisting of down-on-his-luck diver Logan (John
Ashley), all-American hero/diver/skipper Mathias (Patrick Wayne),
scientist Kathy (Lenore Stevens) and gangster Eddie (Sid Haig) and his men
- sails to a remote island because they believe the reefs around the
island littered with shells containing the biggest pearls there are. What
they didn't expect (all but Kathy) is that the island is inhabitated by a
tribe of fishlike men, probably descendants of the inhabitants of
Atlantis, who can stay underwater for hours on end. At first the natives
react hostile towards the newcomers, even kill one of them, but eventually
Syrene (Leigh Christian), the daughter of the elder Pereus (George Nader)
agrees to even show them where the pearls are hidden ... but she has her
own motives: you see, Syrene has to mate with an outsider, and she has
picked Mathias to do the job. But when she asks Mathias nicely, he refuses
her advances, and rather has sex with Kathy, as Syrene has to witness
eventually.
So Syrene comes up with another plan to make him shag her: She tells
the men of another yet unexploited pearl-field ... but it's dangerous. And
really, when she goes down with Mathias and Logan, Logan can#t stand the
water pressure and passes out (but is saved from drowning). So now it's
only Mathias who is down there with Syrene, and she uses all her female
charm to makehim her mate ... and only after a good shag does he pass out
as well, but she gets him ashore with a bag full of pearls and a faint
memory of what had happened.
Soon enough, Mathias wants to leave, but by that point, Logan has grown
way too greedy and wants to exploit the area for good. But then the
natives grow hostile and sink their ship ... just a good thing that Manuel
the Barracuda (Vic Diaz) happens to come by on a boat and offer them safe
passage off the island - for a price.
But first Eddie figures he has to blow up the natives' temple (don't
ask why this was such a good idea) and then everybody has to engage in a
battle with the natives - including Kathy, who has to take on Syrene ...
and eventually she has to kill her in self defense. Seeing Syrene die
takes the fight out of the natives (don't ask why) and they lay down their
weapons just like that. Then they go on to give Syrene a sea-burial, but
when Logan sees dead Syrene covered with a net made of pearls, he, right
during the burial ceremony, robs the net at gunpoint - which Pereus freely
gives, because withthe loss of his daughter it has lost all its value ...
However, when they are safely aboard the boat back home, a fight over
the pearls erupts between our gang of heroes and Manuel the Barracuda and
his men ... and in the end, the box filled with pearls falls overboard and
sinksdown into the deepest sea, never to be seen again ...
Of course, this is a trashy, cheapish adventure movie with
sci-fi-/fantasy-elements thrown in for good measure as well as some
underwater scenes looking like cheap imitations of similar scenes in
Esther Williams films (really). So no, this film is not a genre classic,
but of course, if you like mindless B-adventure films you might find this
one amusing. And of course, at least Sid Haig and Vic Diaz turn in
performances as entertaining as could be expected from them.
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