Just
Keep Swimming
Well,
I gave you all a choice on what to induct to honor the late Sid Haig and for a
while, it was close although one film was leading most of the way, but two days
before closing, this film came in from 0 votes and won the whole damn poll.
The
movie we are talking about is Beyond Atlantis and it is one of the few films
that was made in the Philippines during the 70s that is a family picture. But
originally, that wasn’t the case. Originally, it was going to be a film where
our treasure hunters find an underwater city and everyone, including the women,
were topless. That of course didn’t happen for two reasons. The first was money
and the second was because of Patrick Wayne, John Wayne’s son who they were
able to get for this film, but it had to be family friendly or he would have no
part in it. So cross out the entire topless women idea. With that out of the
way, they were also able to get George Nader to the film. George Nader, now
where have I heard that name before.
John
Ashley is also in this movie and while also a producer, he was almost the
director of this film as well, but decided acting, producing, and directing
this film that they wanted to be ambitious, was too much for him so the
directing honors went to Eddie Romero. To round out the main cast was Leigh
Christian, Lenore Stevens, Vic Diaz, and or course since this entire induction
is in his honor, Sid Haig.
Now,
I know some of you are waiting for me to ring up Cyndi Seidelman at Game Show
Garbage….I mean, Game Show Gumbo, for some info about Patrick Wayne since he
did do some game show hosting duties, but that stuff happened after this film
so I will wait. Now let’s get into this induction.
We
start this film with a woman named Syrene being sailed to an island.
And
we get the title screen as well.
The
man who sailed her there is a man named Manuel.
Meanwhile,
they are being watched by people with fish like eyes.
Manuel
unloads the cargo that Syrene brought with her. When Manuel asks for his pay
for this trip, she gives him a very small pouch.
Manuel
thanks her for the payment and leaves the island on his boat. Of course, we
then see the fish eyed people come towards Syrene and help her with the luggage
as she is this tribe’s princess. She goes to the main base and meets her kingly
father, Nereus.
Nereus
tells his daughter they caught an intruder on the island.
Nereus
says that according to the laws of their people, he must die. The intruder
tries to run away, but a fish eyed man kills him with a thrown spear to the
back.
And
that’s the end of that scene as we go to 70s Filipino civilization as we see
some attractive women give what looks like a pimp the money they made.
Manuel
arrives back to civilization and he immediately heads to a bar. He goes over to
a bunch of guys that includes the pimp from less than a minute ago and asks
about a guy named Quintero. The pimp tells him there was a change in management
and Quintero is dead so the pimp is now in charge. The pimp’s name is East
Eddie as there is a West Eddie too (but we never see him in this movie). Manuel
then tries to sell Eddie the pouch which has pearls in them, that go for a bit
of money on the market.
Eddie
pays Manuel 500 pesos and wonders where he got the pearls from, but Manuel only
says he got it from an islander from an island he does not know the name of
(oh, he does…but you know he isn’t giving that info up). Eddie gives him some
extra money for having an honest face and tells him if he finds any more of
those pearls, then to sell them to East Eddie.
We
then see some cock fighting.
Eddie
arrives at this event and meets with a guy who works for him named Logan, who
loses money on this cock fight.
Logan
is able to get East Eddie to get him out of trouble for having no money to pay
for the lost bet. The two then talk while Eddie is getting some hardcore
massages.
Eddie
asks if Logan can fence it and Logan says he can do so easily. The two talk
about a deal where they can find the source of the pearls and split the money, although
it has to be three ways as Eddie has another person that he wants to work on
this job since he knows the islands. Logan tries to get him to not use that
person so they can split it 50-50 (Logan is very greedy in this film), but
Eddie is insistent. That third man is this man.
Actually,
this character is Vic Matthias, a guy who owns a boat. He and Logan have some
history, although it does not stop Vic from accepting the deal to charter him
and Eddie to the island for a third of the profit for him and his first mate. Logan
then plays blackjack and meets with a woman who overheard the conversation
between Vic and Logan in Kathy Vernon.
She
wants to speak with Logan at her place tomorrow morning, which Logan agrees to.
Of course, talks are cut short as this casino was apparently illegally run and
the law man has come by to bust the joint.
The
two almost get busted, but Logan fights off the cops and they run while
confirming the plan for tomorrow. Tomorrow comes and they meet at a museum
where Kathy reveals what she knows about the planned voyage that may not be
legal. She also wants in on the trip, but doesn’t want any of the money since
she is a researcher who wants to find some people from an ancient civilization
who she thinks are the source of the pearls.
We
go to the boat and everyone gives Logan guff for Kathy being here too, but
Logan quickly explains that she kind of knows everything about their planned
trip and only wants to discover a lost tribe of people and doesn’t want in on
the pearls.
Kathy
is allowed on the boat and Eddie wants to leave before the whole damn city
boards them. They set sail.
Of
course the first place they have to go is the village where Manuel is, to rough
him up in hopes that he gives out the location of the island.
Manuel
is forced to give up the location of the island and we immediately set sail for
that island. They arrive at the island to see it abandoned, although the smoke
from the fireplace is warm so it means the villagers went into hiding. Kathy
goes to take some pictures of some of the statues.
As
dark is coming, they decide to go back to the boat and rest the night.
Meanwhile, we get the first of many segments involving underwater swimming.
The
next day, Vic and Logan go underwater and more swimming occurs.
On
the island, Eddie goes to explore with Kathy and a bunch of his men. Unfortunately
for Eddie, he springs a trap and falls through a hole.
In
this trap is a crap load of crabs that attack Eddie.
They
eventually get the crabs off Eddie and get him out of the pit. Eddie’s response
is to shoot at the pit and faint because those crabs left quite the marks on
him. After that………
Of
course, Vic and Logan see all the swimming and Syrene hints that they should
come to them. Once they get on shore, Syrene asks what they are doing on her
island. Logan reveals that they are looking for pearls. Vic says that they don’t
want to cause any trouble, just get some pearls and get out of there. Syrene
asks what would happen if all the pearls on the island belong to someone else. Vic
says there must be more pearls and no one is going to keep them from looking. Syrene
says she will show them to the pearls. Vic wonders how she can stay underwater
with no gear, but that is all interrupted when Eddie, Kathy and Eddie’s men
come over talking about what they went through.
Syrene
apologizes and says they must have fallen into a storage pit that they use to
keep food. Kathy says that pit wasn’t there last night and Syrene just says
that Kathy is mistaken. Suddenly, the villagers surround our outsiders. Syrene
then says that she welcomes them as a spokesman for her people to the island of
Atari.
Nereus
comes and welcomes them to the island and reveals that Syrene is his daughter. He
tells them that they should stay at the guest huts. So you remember that whole
thing about intruding on their island being punishable by death? Well, you have
more memory than they do.
Meanwhile,
a villager cuts the line to their boat so it drifts away.
The
first mate of the boat tries to go back, but is attacked and killed.
They
have a funeral for the first mate who they believe just drowned. Afterwards,
can you guess what is next?
As
Syrene surfaces, Logan is wondering if they can trust her. Vic says they don’t
know, but they might as well go anyway. Then it is more swimming to get some
pearls.
Meanwhile,
Kathy goes out exploring the woods and meets a villager with a goat.
She
goes up to the villager who throws the goat into the water. Unfortunately for
the goat, that water is filled with piranha (or cannibal fish as this film
calls it).
Except
piranha are not called cannibal fish. A certain species of lancetfish are
called cannibal fish.
The
villager also tells her to mind her own business when she starts asking
questions or she will not be welcome on this island. Back on the boat (I guess
at some point, they got the boar back), Logan is ecstatic about finding a
number of pearls on the island. Eddie is also extremely happy with the pearls. He
says that since they got 10 minutes of air left, they need to go back down and
get more pearls.
Kathy
does some more exploring and sees that there is another mask like the one at
the museum.
Kathy
is about to touch it, but Nereus shows up and yells at her not to touch it. A
villager is about to come at Kathy, but Nereus tells him to leave her alone. Nereus
tells Kathy that she needs to be careful when exploring the island as there are
places she should not be at. He also tells her to stay at the guest huts and
beaches.
Back
at the hut, Vic and Eddie think they should leave now, but Logan wants to get
more pearls. They talk about what they want to spend on the pearls and Vic then
leaves to ask Kathy if she wants a refill of coffee.
Kathy
starts to piece together that she thinks the inhabitants on this island are
descendants of the lost city of Atlantis. Of course, Vic finds this news hard
to believe. Vic asks about the fish eyes and Kathy can only guess it is from
inbreeding or the environment causing it. If it is incest, Vic then wonders why
Nereus and Syrene don’t have them. Kathy then just says she is just making
guesses as she doesn’t know nearly enough about them and says she will find out
because she must. And then guess what is next. Come on, you’ll never guess.
Yep,
Syrene, Vic, and Logan are once again getting more pearls.
And
then….this might need some explaining. Remember when I said that the original
idea was of topless men and women in an attempt to make this an exploitation
film, but the only way they could get Patrick Wayne is they had to make this
more family friendly. And I said at some point, this will come back to
basically make this film confusing? Well, here it is. Nereus tells Syrene that
she must mate with one of the men to continue their civilization.
Yep….and
while Syrene has some qualms about doing this, Nereus says she better choose
quickly or he will have all of the outsiders on this island killed.
Afterwards,
Vic, Logan, and Eddie talk about the haul they now have and how it will make
them lots of money. Of course, Logan still wants more. Logan says that even if
the tribe has issues with them robbing them blind, they can take care of all of
them with the firepower they have. Vic doesn’t want to murder anyone over
pearls. Eddie finally tells the two to stop as this arguing isn’t getting them
any place. Logan then accuses Vic of planning to double cross them and getting
a bigger share than promised by coming back and getting more. Vic tells Logan
that he is losing his mind and Logan has to be restrained by Eddie. Eddie then
reminds them that they are all equal partners. Eddie says he has the deciding
vote and he votes they stay for now. Vic then puts a line on the crate holding
all the pearls and says once they reach that line, they should all have shares
of $50,000 worth and when that happens, he is done.
That
night, Syrene looks over a sleeping Vic as she obviously wants him to let her
mate with him. He wakes up and wonders what is wrong, which he says nothing.
She
then tries to make her move and show Vic that she loves him. She also wants to
leave the island so she can be a real woman and not a tool for the survival of
the tribe. Vic is thankful for her feelings towards him, but he sadly cannot
return those feelings to her because he does not love her, but he is still
willing to help her get off the island. Syrene runs off, upset about the
rejection.
The
next morning, Vic walks down the beach and talks with Kathy. Kathy wants to
leave the island soon since she is starting to get afraid of the place, but she
isn’t sure she should leave just yet. Vic tells her that there is nothing that
says she can’t come back since with all the knowledge she has gained about
these people, she should have no problem getting a research expedition to come
back here. Kathy invites Vic to be a part of it and Vic says she might need a
bigger boat to carry all the equipment needed for the research. Kathy still
wants him to go and we see that the two are in love with each other.
And
they go swimming while Syrene watches on, knowing that Vic loves someone else.
The
next scene after that is her getting smacked around by a villager for not
choosing someone to mate yet while telling her she must mate.
Nereus
comes in and tells them to stop beating up on his daughter and then tells
Syrene calmly that she must mate.
The
next day, Syrene tells Vic and the others that she has a final place where they
can get pearls. They all agree to have Vic and Logan go with her so you know
what that means.
Oh
and Logan then passes out as he ran out of air and tried coming up way too
fast, which ultimately ruptures his eardrums. That is why if you scuba dive,
you cannot swim up fast because if you don’t have someone to help you get back
in that situation, you will drown.
Vic
and Syrene take Logan back to the beach to breathe and get better while the two
of them continue to look for more pearls. That is when Syrene starts swimming
sexily around Vic.
She
puts him in a trance and while she is making out with him, two villagers put a
net over the two before the scene goes to black. Yep….they just implied that
Syrene raped Vic.
We
go back and Vic is now back on the beach and Kathy wakes him up. She wonders
what happens and of course, he doesn’t know. And if you are wondering if this
will ever be resolved somehow, nope. Vic just got raped and this film is going
to move on.
So
they start packing to leave, but Kathy decides to do some more investigating
back to where the piranhas were and of course, she gets caught in a net that
was booby trapped.
Vic,
Logan, and Eddie hear Kathy’s screams and go to save her before she falls in
and gets eaten by the fish.
But
this was all a distraction so the villagers could make sure they never leave
the island by getting rid of the boat. Logan and Vic are about to have another
argument when thankfully, they get bailed out by Manuel and his friends who
also have a boat and snuck onto the island.
And
Manuel will help them for a small share of the pearls. Since they are in no
room to negotiate, they agree to his terms. They then decide that since they
can’t stroll down to Manuel’s boat since they are probably being watched, they
need a diversion and what is that diversion.
Then
they just stand there and just shoot at the natives that are coming at them.
Well,
it is a diversion for Kathy and Eddie who run to Manuel’s boat. Unfortunately,
they get separated because there are villagers after them and Eddie has the
bright idea of leading the villagers to chase him as Kathy runs off on her own.
Vic
decides to run off and also help Eddie and Kathy. Vic then fights a villager
and throws the villager into the piranha.
Kathy
runs alone by a nearby pond and Syrene attacks, attempting to drown her
competition to Vic.
So
in this fight in the water between a regular petite woman and a woman who can
somehow breathe longer underwater, who wins? If you predicted Syrene, you would
understand logic….but you would also be wrong as Kathy ends up strangling Syrene
to death.
Vic
helps Kathy up and leaves with her to get Manuel’s boat. Syrene’s body is found
by the villagers and Nereus, who is visibly upset that his only daughter and
way to keep his tribe alive is dead before she could give birth to the future
of the tribe.
As
all the outsiders prepare to leave on Manuel’s boat, the villagers and Nereus
have a funeral march for Syrene.
Logan
decides to be a piece of shit and grab the net of pearls from Syrene’s body.
The villagers want to kill him, but Nereus dejectedly tells the villagers to
let him take them since the pearls mean nothing to them now.
Kathy
is upset that she destroyed her entire life’s work by killing any way for this
tribe that was descended from Atlantis to continue to exist.
Vic
fights Logan to give the net of pearls back to the funeral march, but Eddie
comes in and shows his true colors as he also wants more money with the pearls.
Eddie
yells at him that this is all business. The funeral march heads to the sea and
goes under.
So
Logan falls asleep on the boat when he is suddenly awoken by Manuel and his
friends, who have decided to tie everyone up and now make a new deal that they
get most of the pearls and they get like 50 of them.
Eddie
and Logan attack Manuel. In the struggle, the pearls fall into the sea and are
all the way in the deep.
Logan
wants to get them, but he can’t go that deep without his eardrums rupturing
again. He wants to go get them with a new crew and with the only thing you
destroyed an entire civilization’s future for at the bottom of the ocean, what
does everyone do?
As
they all laugh and Logan talks about how unfair all of this is, this movie
finally ends.
This
movie was a bomb despite having a budget of $200,000 to $250,000, which John
Ashley attributed to the movie being PG, which was the only way they could get Patrick
Wayne.
As
far as the aftermath goes, not much happened. This would be George Nader’s last
film as he decided to retire in 1974 after sustaining an eye injury and
developing glaucoma. Sid Haig would continue to be in roles that type-cast him
before retiring to become a hypnotherapist in the 90s, before having returned
to acting and having a renaissance with guys like Tarentino and Zombie thanks
to the fact that while he was easily type-castable, he was always something
special and they respected him.
Patrick
Wayne was the only other person who had a notable aftermath and for that
aftermath, I decided to call in Cyndi Seidelman from Game Show Gumbo to talk
about him. Cyndi?
Absolutely.
After Beyond Atlantis, he’s do a lot of westerns and B-movies. In 1980, he
would host his own syndicated variety show called The Monte Carlo Show with
this thing as its mascot that he’d talk to every show.
And
yet people thought what would happen in 1990 would be the low point.
After
the cancellation of The Monte Carlo Show, he’d continue to do movies and on the
side do a lot of game shows like Hollywood Squares, Password Plus, and Bullseye
where he would drop the bomb that he’d been working with producers on hosting a
few game show pilots. Well, after years of doing more TV roles & movies such
as Young Guns, he got his hosting job where he’d become the host of Tic Tac
Dough in 1990. He has been constantly mocked for being one of the worst hosts
of all time for being insanely over the top and fake. But, all things turn out
okay as he’s now the head of the John Wayne Cancer Institute.
Thanks,
Cyndi. Now sadly, at almost every induction, it has to be mentioned that people
from this film passed away so let’s talk about that.
Kenneth
J. Warren (who I believe played that guy who got killed at the beginning, not 100% sure) died as the film came out at the age of 43 for unknown reasons. John
Ashley (who played Logan and was a producer) died at the age of 67 in 1997 from
a heart attack. George Nader (who played Nereus) would pass away at the age of
80 in 2002 due to a multitude of cardiac pulmonary failure, pneumonia, and
multiple cerebral infarctions. Eddie Romero (the director) passed away at 88 in
2013 from a cardiopulmonary arrest caused by a blood clot and prostate cancer.
Eddie Garcia (who played the first mate of Vic Mathias) died in 2019 at the age
of 90 from a severe cervical fracture. Sid Haig (who played East Eddie) died in
2019 at the age of 80 of respiratory complications caused by a lung infection
he got from vomiting in his sleep while recovering from a fall he suffered in
his house (all happening in the same month).
So
my final thoughts on this film. Yeah, this is a complete movie that wanted to
have that exploitation cake and eat it with a PG plate too. You could tell in
the film that this script needed a more exploitation feel with stuff like
prostitution, mating, man on women violence, and worse than that, rape. However
because of that need to be PG, all of that happens and then is just brushed to
the side, except the mating, which led to a rape, where that was brushed aside.
And let’s talk about the swimming. If I don’t ever see another person swimming
underwater, it would be glorious because this movie overuses the swimming to
the point of just straight out saying “Hey, we gotta pad this movie out so
enjoy this swimming.” The fish eye effects make the people sometime look like
ET, which would actually come out years later so just a coincidence. And the
worst part of this movie. Through most of it, it was just not entertaining. Maybe
this could have been a better film if it was an exploitation film, but this is
what we got so this movie will be completely forgettable.
And
with this induction done, that is it for the year. Now for 2020, we will be
doing the 2019 GINO Award and of course this year’s summer inductions will be
decided thanks to fan polls, among other things that happen. With that all
says, I hope you all have a Happy Holidays.
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