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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sargasso Sea Saga From Hammer!, April 23, 2001
The first half of this movie is straight adventure-at-sea: the seedy captain of an old rust-bucket illegally carries a cargo of high explosives; his motley crew are a mutinous lot; the passengers are all on the run from the law or their sins; and incompetence causes the ship to almost founder in a typhoon. But instead of sinking it becomes lost in the Sargasso Sea, trapped by entangling seaweed.The second half is pure fantasy, with sea monsters, carnivorous kelp, a lost civilization living on derelict ships, descendants of the Spanish Inquisition still practicing their medieval profession, and a rebellion brewing among the slaves. In short, a swashbuckling saga of the bizarre kind, done up in the usual Hammer style, making low-budget movies look lavish on the screen. I saw this movie at the old Paulo Drive-In in 1968. The drive-in has been gone now for about 20 years but I still remember it and some parts of this movie quite well. I remember the green-eyed monster with its obscene maw, and the big-breasted girl Sarah (Dana Gillespie) walking on the kelp bed with two big balloons on a harness supporting the weight of her very own two big balloons! And, of course, I remember Hildegarde Knef, still very lovely at the age of 43 when this movie was made. And apparently she's still active in films today, at the grand old age of 75! And probably still lovely, too! But evidently Dana Gillespie and her big balloons retired from the industry in 1990, the year of her last movie role. So I was glad to see this movie again, on DVD, to refresh my memory, and with extra "adult" footage that it didn't have when I first saw it. Don't buy this DVD thinking that you're going to see any "adult" scenes, though! You're not! There's no nudity at all here and the sex is suggested, not shown. Unfortunately, also, the image quality is not the best. Many scenes are dark and murky. But the image is still sharp enough and the sound is good. Bonus features are the standard chapter index, trailer, TV spots, and Hammer films promo. Not bad, but only a Hammer film fan would love it. A little pricey, too, for what it offers.
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