Destination Inner Space (1966)

The scaly, webbed digited girl was scared, lost and being threatened with being filleted by locals when Nebuleena found her on Callisto Spacedock. She must have crept aboard a freighter out of curiosity. Nebuleena rarely does anything bad to anyone good, but rarer still does anything without pay. But the Ran system is only a twenty light year round trip, and the tears in the frightened girl's frog-like eyes would've moved the coldest of hearts. Since then, on the ocean planet Skylla, they've fought off mega-squid, had to escape enslavement to sharkmen, been caught in a violent tempest, and got the cargo hold waterlogged. Still, when she found the girl's grateful family, they paid her well. There are crates of fish all over the Silver Swift.

Nebuleena puts a peg on her nose, activates the stardrive, and the Silver Swift leaves the Ran system behind.

In folded space, time and space mingle, and a journey of light years can be achieved in hours. There are signals here, too, leaked into space centuries ago and frozen in time; echoes of an Earth long lost to memory, but accessible to a spaceship's scanners. Let's see what Nebuleena finds in the abyss...

Premise

With profound, but very human, egocentrism, we name our world after the bits of it on which we're inclined to live, the earthy bits, not after the wet bits that comprise two thirds of its surface. It's on one of these wet bits that US Navy Commander Wayne arrives at an Institute of Marine Research ship as Destination Inner Space opens. He's been called in with urgency to deal with an unstated situation in Sealab, on the ocean floor. The ship's skipper smugly talks of how 'hairy' it can get in Sealab, himself having spent a long weekend there. The commander brought with him an excess of smug, though, and talks of serving aboard a submarine cruising beneath an ice cap. Having established the superiority of his penis, Commander Wayne leaves for the diving bell. A young radio operator sets up foreshadowing by stating to the skipper how happy he is to be on the ship and not beneath the water. Yes, they'll be perfectly safe there...

Sealab is a cruciform facility that looks to be about a metre across,  but it's charming enough as the little diving bell arrives on a string... I mean, cable.

Wayne is greeted by medical officer Dr James, marine biologist Dr Rene Peron, and cook Ho Lee, who apparently doubles as bellhop when visitors arrive, perhaps because he's Chinese. He doesn't even get a proper introduction.

In the control room, project director Dr LeSatier shows Cmdr Wayne an unidentified contact on the radar scope that's been buzzing the Sealab of late, and is the reason for his presence.

Two other crew are in a minisub to get a better look; ex-navy diver Hugh Maddox and photographer Sandra Welles. They return and enter Sealab through a moon pool, with Maddox insisting on grabbing Welles' arm to yank her out in a manner that doesn't seem to have been asked for, required, or even particularly helpful. They bicker like a married couple, and it seems Maddox has got their lives together all planned even though Welles has no interest in Maddox and has vehemently made that clear. Cmdr Wayne is getting on better with some flirting with Dr Peron.

Thrilling news; the mystery vehicle's a flying saucer... or floating saucer. Like most flying saucers, the interior is an almost bare round room, because even in space, nobody sells furniture to fit round rooms. In this clearly aquatic model the room contains a moon pool, and the walls are lined with small triangular doors. From one of these emerges a triangular block of ice with a cylinder frozen within.

It turns out Cmdr Wayne and Maddox have history, from serving aboard a sub called Starfish. As they wetsuit up to investigate the now stationary saucer, they aggressively confront each other about the past. It seems Wayne closed and sealed a hatch to prevent the Starfish from flooding, trapping Maddox with some other crewmen in a flooding compartment. Maddox blames Wayne for the deaths of those men, but as Wayne points out, Maddox somehow got out. But, as Dr Welles and Dr LeSatier join the conversation, by far the most attention grabbing aspect of the scene is Cmdr Wayne's continual attempts to stretch the clearly far too short strap of his dive cylinder around his stomach. Dr Welles has a wetsuit that looks less substantial, is checkered and leaves her arms bare, for apparently no reason other than it's sexier and more feminine.

When they emerge through the moon pool in the alien saucer, Cmdr Wayne grabs Welles' arm and yanks her out in a manner that doesn't seem to have been asked for, required, or even particularly helpful. In the saucer, the strange cylinder has defrosted, and Maddox decides to take it back to Sealab. They enter the moon pool to leave, and Wayne grabs Welles' arm to lower her down in a manner that doesn't seem to have been asked for, required, or even particularly helpful.

Back at Sealab they discover the cylinder is growing, in spite of being apparently inanimate. It gives off ultrasonic waves that threaten to smash a bottle of acid. Dr Wilson, who's had little to do up to this point, at least takes up a position with the cylinder on the table in front of him that makes it seem he, of all the guys, has the most impressive penis. Then he drops the bottle of acid and flees the room with his ears full of ultrasound and his lungs full of acid fumes. Wayne and Tex (you won't know him long enough to justify further description) don gas masks to go in the lab and clean the mess, but Tex is attacked by a six foot humanoid sea monster that emerged from the cylinder. Cmdr Wayne decides three's a crowd, leaves and seals the lab with Tex and the creature inside. Maddox draws parallels with the traumatic event they experienced on the Starfish, further straining their working relationship.

The creature escapes back to the ocean and goes on a jaunt to the ship above, slaying its smug crew. Without the ship pumping air to Sealab, their breathing privileges will be limited.

Wayne finally confronts Maddox with the obvious truth, that on the Starfish, Maddox had scarpered through an escape hatch but, out of panic, locked it once he was inside, preventing the other men from escaping. He admits to all this, and to his feelings of guilt since it happened, which he'd covered up with his anger towards Wayne. This prompts the most bizarre reaction from Welles. '... until a minute ago I couldn't find much in you I really liked. Now, I think I could fall in love with you.' Really?! This is easily the most improbable thing in this whole movie about a six foot, aquatic, extraterrestrial monster emerging from a metre long cylinder.

The crew continues to fight for survival, with what weapons and traps they have available, against the powerful extraterrestrial gill-man. They're also well aware that the walls within the saucer are lined with little triangular doors, each containing currently frozen cylinders and putative sea monsters. The saucer, they decide, must also be destroyed.

The lack of oxygen from the support vessel on the surface is largely ignored. Similarly, a supposed disease carried by the creature is barely mentioned and is easily dealt with.

Equally perplexing is the crew of the support ship at the beginning of the film making ominous comments about being in Sealab. The skipper says it gets hairy and that Cmdr Wayne might soon wish to be back in a submarine under arctic ice, and the radio operator states his pleasure at getting the job on the surface rather than in Sealab. When we get to Sealab, prior to the attacks by an alien gill-man about which nobody could have known, the place seems a perfectly pleasant environment. It makes one wonder what other adventures have been had by this crew, and whether they'd have made for a better movie.

Cast and Crew

Francis D. Lyon won an Oscar for editing noir sports movie Body and Soul (1947), and had directed a number of films, mostly westerns and adventure dramas, when he co-founded United Pictures Corporation. Destination Inner Space and Castle of Evil were his first two movies for that company, and they were filmed back-to-back in fourteen days. 'I don't recommend this hurried approach as a practice, because quality has to suffer,' he's written. Indeed. When Cmdr Wayne struggles to get his breathing gear strap around his girth, or Maddox unconvincingly confesses to his past cowardice, or Welles looks as though she's lucky her arm's still socketed, it's hard not to wonder whether time for another pass or two at those scenes would have been beneficial. In spite of that, Lyon's direction manages to squeeze some tension from this low budget production.

Scott Brady, who plays Cmdr. Wayne, also starred in Castle of Evil. He'd already established himself in film and television, often in westerns. His own experience in the US Navy may have helped him portray Cmdr. Wayne, but it's far from being his best work.

Mike Road plays diver Hugh Maddox, and frankly, he has more presence than anyone else in the cast. This is largely due to his command of his voice. It's not surprising, then, that in spite of his many television roles stretching back to the forties, it's as a voice actor for cartoons that he's best known. Probably his most prominent roles were as Race Bannon in Jonny Quest (1964-1965), and Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic in The New Fantastic Four (1978), but if you were a child watching cartoons in the sixties through to the eighties, you'll have heard his rich tones many times. Unfortunately, there's nothing he can do to make the subplot of his history with Wayne remotely plausible.

Gary Merrill plays Dr LeSatier. From 1950 to 1960, Merrill had been Mr Bette Davis, having co-starred with her in All About Eve and married her on the day of his divorce from Barbara Leeds. He had many film and television roles, but retired from acting in 1980. He belongs to the roster of actors who've portrayed Bruce Wayne/Batman, due to his role in The Adventures of Superman (1940-1951) radio series early in his career.

Unfortunately, the two young ladies in the Sealab crew are given little to do besides screaming when the monster appears and being the romantic interest of the male leads, but the actors who play them are good. In the role of Doctor Rene Peron, actress, singer and dancer Sheree North brings maturity to Dr Peron's sassy persona. North had a prolific career before and after this movie on the small and big screens as well as on stage. As Sandra Welles, Wende Wagner shines. As an experienced diver and underwater stunt performer, she could have been born to play a role like this, but in a better film. She had a regular role alongside Van Williams and Bruce Lee in crime series The Green Hornet (1968-1969). Wagner was not a prolific actor, and has no screen credits after 1973. She had been close to Sharon Tate, who was among the victims of the Manson Family in 1969. She became an artist before cancer took her at the young age of fifty-five.

It's easy to look back from 2025 and say a movie in the mid-sixties shamefully under-used one of Hollywood's most talented and charismatic character actors, but that's how I feel about the role James Hong has here. As the Chinese stereotype chef Ho Lee, Hong is briefly set up as comic relief, before being forgotten about. Hong has a vast number of roles behind him, but is perhaps best known for Blade Runner (1982) and Big Trouble in Little China (1986), and continues to work into his nineties.

Actor and stuntman Ron Burke inhabits and brings to life the monster suit, and does fine in what must have been difficult circumstances.

Composer Paul Dunlap has been criticised for repeating much of his score for this film from his previous score for The Angry Red Planet (1959), and without watching them both side by side, there certainly are obvious similarities. On the other hand, given the schedule and budget of this movie, I'd congratulate anyone for some strategic corner cutting. The score fits the aquatic themes very nicely. Dunlap had a strong career through the fifties and sixties scoring many westerns, and turned to classical compositions later in his career.

Design

Destination Inner Space was made quickly and on a budget, but it still looks pretty good. The cross-shaped Sealab, while clearly a model, is a nice design, even if the interiors are flimsy looking. The flying saucer is pretty imposing as it glides through the water. The underwater photography is a joy, even if some scenes of divers travelling between Sealab and the saucer drag on too long.

But, there's only one thing that really matters in a monster movie; the big bad. Of course, humanoid amphibious fish monsters have a history, from world mythology, from literature, and from cinema. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) gave us the classic image, and it's inspired many others. Sometimes, these gill-men are prehistoric survivors, sometimes radioactive mutants. Here, we have the gill-man as extraterrestrial invader. Richard Cassarino is credited with its creation. He's also responsible for the titular monster from The Hideous Sun Demon (1958).  Cassarino went big and colourful with the creature from Destination Inner Space, with exaggerated aquatic features. I, for one, think it's my favourite of the gill-man inspired designs I've seen. It shouldn't be. Its bright colours and extravagant fins, flippers and big, grimacing face should be too daft for words. But I'm here for it.

Conclusion

Destination Inner Space lacks the tension of many classic films about isolated people under attack by monsters. The creature never feels mysterious enough, the characters never scared enough, and the environment never threatening enough.

In addition, the relationships are as convincing as the model Sealab in which they're supposed to be occurring. It doesn't feel right that Maddox would think the Navy wouldn't know what happened on the Starfish, or that he would try to bluff Cmdr Wayne, who'd clearly know the facts. Nor is Maddox's relationship with Welles realistic. He's mostly tried to force his feelings on her, and her sudden decision to warm to him is at odds with everything we've seen up to that point. The whole thing looks and feels like an episode of a 1960s TV show, and not a particularly well made one.

In spite of all these shortcomings, I enjoy Destination Inner Space. I like the daftness of it all. The premise has been done far better, but it's a fun time. Most of all, I like the crazy monster.

Nebuleena's Thoughts

'You'd think, with two-thirds of the world being ocean, they'd be room for humans and predatory sub-aquatic extraterrestrials to live harmoniously. But no! Also, was the alien in some kind of miniaturised suspended hibernation in the cylinder? Or, was this a newborn baby that the humans had taken as an egg from the environment it was supposed to have born in, and then attacked the moment it hatched?

'Anyway, the residents of Callisto Spacedock had better like fish. After ten light years with this stink, I couldn't face so much as a prawn.'

All screenshots of Destination Inner Space taken by me for purposes of review. If you dispute the fair use of these images, contact me at ptbyrdie@gmail.com.