It wasn't Cheryl Ladd, but Jane Russel, who was featured in the book
Dive, the complete book of skin diving[/B] by rick and barbara carrier (the book jacket is all small letters, so I did the same here). It doesn't mention the movie's name, but it was by R.K.O. Pictures. Does anyone know the name of the movie, which had to have been made before 1955 (the publication date of the book)?
John[/quote]
I believe the movie you're talking about is called, simply, Underwater! (the exclamation point, I think, is part of the title). It's got the most ridiculous scene of Ms. Russell's diving double and the leading man's double kissing underwater.
I consider myself a bit of an authority on the topic of vintage scuba movies. There's lots of obscure B-movies that might be of interest. Here are the ones I can think of off the top of my head:
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea (obvious, but I mention it for the sake of completeness)
Thunderball (likewise)
Easy Come Easy Go (Elvis Presley plays a former Navy diver searching for sunken treasure of the coast of California, and single handedly proves not everyone looks good in a beavertail!)
The Catalina Caper (late 60's "teen" film with Tommy Kirk, a few scenes with divers using Voit gear)
Shark (the infamous Burt Reynolds picture which allegedly featured a real shark attack on screen)
The Deep (another obvious one, but again, mentioning it for completeness purposes)
Tentacles (Italian made Jaws rip off, a staple of cable TV during the 80's and 90's, divers are using Technisub gear)
Waves Of Lust (ostensibly a softcore picture, also Italian made, and again feature that cool Technisub gear from the late 70's)
Shark's Cave (another late 70's picture featuring Technisub gear...this movie actually made more sense to me when I saw with a dubbed over German audio track than it did in English...and I don't speak German!)
The Deadly Jaws (German film, I think, again from the late 70's, one of the actors is a Hans Haas, Jr!)
Shark Hunter (Franco Nero vehicle, again from the late 70's, and again featuring Technisub gear)
Up From The Depths (yet another Jaws knock off, with a couple cool scuba scenes, including a woman diving naked)
L'Ultimo Squalo, aka
Great White, aka
The Last Jaws (notorious Italian Jaws knock off, Universal actually sued to keep it out of American theatres...ironic, since the end of Jaws 3-D is essentially a rip off of the finale of this picture)
Killer Fish (a good scuba scene in the middle of this film, with one of the weirdest continuity errors I've ever seen, when Karen Black's regulator hose keeps switching back and forth...some shots it comes over her left shoulder, other shots it's her right shoulder)
Dayton's Devils (late 60's or early 70's heist picture starring Leslie Nielsen and Lanie Kazan, the lead actors spend all of the last 15 or so minutes in scuba gear...those who care to notice such things will appreciate how nice Lanie looks in her black and yellow beavertail)
Barracuda (great, low budget film, ostensibly another Jaws knock off, but with an interesting plot twist...this one has some good scuba scenes, music from electronic music legend Klaus Schulze, and it's recently been issued on DVD)
The Neptune Factor (a so-so early 70's film, with divers searching for an underwater laboratory that's gone missing in an earthquake...the good news is the very sexy Yvette Mimeux is one of the divers. The bad news is Ernest Borgnine is also a diver in this film! Has some of the ridiculous shots of "giant killer" fish, which were quite obviously filmed in an ordinary, garden variety fishtank.
Around The World Under The Sea (a mid 60's picture, made by Ivan Tors, and starring Bond Girl Shirly Eaton, Brian Kelly of Flipper fame, Lloyd Bridges, David McCallum, Keenan Wynn, and Marshall Thompson as scientists travelling around the world to install earthquake detection equipment on all underwater faultlines...again there's a ridiculous shot of an ordinary moray eel that's meant to look like a "giant", but there's also lots of double hose and single hose regs, twin tank rigs, and beavertail wetsuits galore. And there's a couple scenes where double hose regs mysteriously turn into single hose regs in mid dive! Behind the scenes footage of this movie was recycled in an episode of Flipper, which was also produced by Ivan Tors).
Captain Nemo And The Underwater City (late 60's film, with divers wearing the most ridiculous looking dive gear, with tanks fitted with sort of quasi antique ornamental type housings, and wetsuits that are dressed up in sequined exteriors...stars Chuck Norris and another Bond Girl, this time Luciana Paluzzi).
The Underwater City (I'll throw this one, though none of the "underwater" scenes were actually filmed underwater, the "divers" are still seen wearing scuba gear, complete with beavertail wetsuits)
I know there's a bunch more out there, and I know I'm surely leaving some out, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head)
There is some really neat-o old gear in it.
