Underwater!

The most remarkable thing about this Jane Russell movie - the first film in SuperScope - was that it actually had its world premiere underwater in a headline-grabbing stunt organised by ace publicist Russell Birdwell, the man who once engineered the search for Scarlett O'Hara. The star of the premiere, though, was not the buxom Miss Russell, but a young and then unknown starlet called Jayne Mansfield, who proved that she could fill a swimsuit even better than Russell herself. Mansfield wasn't even in the movie and ended up with a Warner Bros contract. The film itself is interesting enough: John Sturges eventually took over the directorial reins from Nicholas Ray, resulting in some fine subaqua photography, but not even Sturges could do much with the routine plot. Nevertheless, veterans Gilbert Roland and Richard Egan are pleasant to watch, but the presence of young Lori Nelson was a sure sign that the days of Russell's stardom were drawing to a close.