Assault on a Queen
by Jack Donohue
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Product details
Actor: Alf Kjellin, Anthony Franciosa, Frank Sinatra, Richard Conte, Virna LisiDirector: Jack Donohue
Cinematographer: William H. Daniels
Producer: William H. Daniels
Editor: Archie Marshek
Producer: William Goetz
Writer: Jack Finney
Writer: Rod Serling
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
Running Time: 106 minutes
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Audience Rating: Unrated
Publisher: Paramount
Studio: Paramount
VHS Movie Reviews of Assault on a Queen
Movie Review: There's a Lot You Can do with a Submarine
Summary: 5 Stars
Welcome to my review. This particular version of the movie Assault on a Queen(VHS) is ample yet rare so if you see it cheap grab it before somebody else does to sell it on eBay. I take it you don't jump over tall buildings in a single bound or lay down with lions but if you do then this movie will still impress you I'm sure. Take the world famous Steamship HMS Queen Mary and chances are you've never seen her. Or for that matter noticed her even in photographs. But she's real and big for her age and at the time of this movie well dressed and rich... to staggering proportions. Not at all what would come to mind for the most of us.
Frank Sinatra... my favourite male actor of all time plays an American, well, and in so doing gives this film some character that although appreciated is not without even support by the rest of the cast. He's a deep sea diver the kind you used to read about a lot in the sixties when everybody wanted a piece of eight, that's gold for the uninformed. So, he ends up with a group of treasure hunters and while he's down on the bottom of the sea... finds a German submarine. It doesn't escape his notice but gets a distant appreciation by the former World War Two leftenant. To cut out a lot of paragraphs extolling the mature presentation of the film I'll say the story is paced for everybody.
Put two and two together and you can see what a bunch of treasure hunters could do with U-boat right? Rob the Queen Mary naturally.
This movie is still after all is said and done a tragedy to me and although it's from 1966 in the last Century it's still my favourite and is well worth any price to finally have it at home in my meager collection.
Movie Review: assault on a queen
Summary: 5 Stars
a fascinating what if story for those interested in uboats and classic ocean liners in modern times.Movie Review: Jack Finney's Assault on a Queen with Ellington's Jazz!
Summary: 4 Stars
This novel and subsequent 1960's film is without a doubt, a very interesting, highly improbable, but very entertaining idea concerning a group of individuals looking to make a big score for various selfish reasons. Initially looking for a sunken gold catch from an old wreck, a hired diver (Frank Sinatra) discovers and inspects a German U-Boat, unreported and in apparent good conditon found on the ocean floor. The plot turns in the film as the adventurers decide to go for the U-Boat and see if it can be used to heist gold that is currently afloat by Robbing the Queen Mary on the high seas and using the sub as a weapon. The film is handled in a laid back manner. Sinatra plays a down and out semi-alcoholic adventurer, tired of war and all the rules. The film has atmosphere. There is a terrific Jazz score by none other than Duke Ellington. The underwater scenes are good and you are left with an overall good impression of an entertaining film. It is now almost forgotten among the Sinatra films but is actually one of his better acting performances as his personality works well with the character requirements. The book of course is different, as all films tend to lean to mandatory romance requirements and dramatic character confrontations and this includes the usual formula that British films seem to be able to do without. Recommended for an evening view, if you can find a copy. Movie Review: Like "Ocean's 11" at sea
Summary: 4 Stars
Adapted from a great book by Jack Finney (who wrote the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), "Assault" follows the exploits of a bunch of losers who hit the big time when they discover a sunken U-Boat, a german sub from WWII. Restoring the sub, they plot to use it in an unbelievable act of high-seas piracy. Setting their sights on the queen of the seas, the Queen Mary, they set out in their purloined sub to rattle disarmed torpedoes at it. The plot allows some lapses in credibility (though there's only the 5 would-be pirates, compared to the numbers it would take to run a real U-boat, but that's acceptable since nothing else goes right for them.The novel is worth a good read, but the film works its own groove - the genial soldier's of fortune of the book are replaced by a more flavorful mix, including Sinatra as the hero and the great Tony Franciosa as his rival in morality and for the love of Virna Lisi. The former U-boat ace, whose Nazi past was a wedge between him and the Americans in the book, doesn't seem so out of place among them here. Though the film junks the book's best premise of showing how these otherwise honest joes jump the line into the criminal world, it more than makes up for that with a snappy script by Rod Serling and a jazzy score by Ellington. You won't love these charachters, but you'll still be glued to them. By the time Tony Franciosa makes it aboard the Queen Mary in the uniform of an RN submariner, you'll be yelling at the screen "Leftanant! Leftanant!! There are no Liuetenants in the Royal Navy!"
Movie Review: Sinatra raises a German U-Boat to hijack the Queen Mary
Summary: 4 Stars
Frank Sinatra plays Mark Brittain, a former submarine officer, who joins rich Italian beauty Rosa Lucchesi (Virna Lisi) and her partners Vic Rossiter (Tony Franciosa) and Eric Lauffnauer (Alf Kjellin) in diving for lost treasure off the coast of Florida. When they discover a sunken German submarine, Luaffnauer the former U-Boat commander convinces the others to raise the sub and use it to hijack the Queen Mary. "Assault on a Queen" drags a little bit when they are restoring the sub, but the actual attempt at hijacking redeems the film. You know things are not going to work according to plan but you have to believe Sinatra's character is going to come out of this ahead. Still, you can never be sure. This 1966 film was directed by Jack Donohue and had a script by Rod Serling from the novel by Jack Finney. Final Note: The music for "Assault on a Queen" was by Duke Ellington.
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