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"Fred ... Where exactly is this house?"
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Now that I'm rapidly reaching the point where I can define my life with more decades being behind me than ahead of me, I've found myself throwing the net further back into the waters of my misspent youth, hoping to catch and latch onto something that'll stir up and reinforce some fading memories before they chuck off into some obsolete neuron stream never to be heard from again -- and that's why my Netflix que has been inundated lately with many matinee tales of yore like Jack Arnold's Hello Down There. Co-directed by his old Creature from the Black Lagoon buddy, Ricou Browning, and produced by Ivan Tors, who, along with Browning, brought us Flipper, the film that follows is a whole can of stoopid -- stoopidly awesome! -- as a kooky inventor volunteers his wife and kids -- and the kid's band -- to spend 30 days underwater in his new, state-of-the-art-n-swanky aqua-pad to prove to his boss that it's a viable solution for global overcrowding. Mayhem, shark attacks, and some groovy tunes ensue...
Ladies and Gentlemen ... Harold & His Hang-Ups.
E'yup. That's Richard Dreyfuss.
(Video courtesy of Mr. Aubrey.)
Hello Down There (1969) Ivan Tors Productions :: Paramount Pictures / P: Ivan Tors, George Sherman / D: Jack Arnold, Ricou Browning / W: John McGreevey, Frank Telford / C: Clifford H. Poland Jr. / E: Erwin Dumbrille / M: Jeff Barry / S: Tony Randall, Janet Leigh, Jim Backus, Kay Cole, Gary Tigerman, Lou Wagner, Ken Berry, Roddy McDowall, Charlotte Rae, Richard Dreyfuss
Artist: Norman Saunders
