Also Known As:
Sub-A-Dub-Dub
Tagline:
"A combo of scuba dupes rock up a storm in a mad pad under the surf!"
Plot:
Is it really better down where it's wetter, as animated crabs suggest? That's what Tony Randall intends to find out when he signs his family up to live in his experimental underwater house, in an attempt to convince his skeptical boss Jim Backus that the model is feasible. Randall's wife Janet Leigh is terrified of water (which, after Psycho, is understandable), but concedes anyway. So do the shaggy ruffians in Harold And The Hang-Ups, an anonymous, faintly hippie-ish pop-rock outfit that includes Randall and Leigh's fresh-faced progeny, plus a young Richard Dreyfuss. The gang soon learns that the life aquatic can also be la vida loca, thanks to sharks, technical malfunctions, professional competition, dancing sea creatures, cheap animated sequences, and a wacky comic-relief seal. Even worse, a hurricane threatens to end Randall's experiment prematurely. But everything works out in time for the band's big closing underwater performance on The Merv Griffin Show.
Key scenes:
Housekeeper Charlotte Rae shimmies in a disturbingly suggestive fashion to the band's non-threatening brand of bland, poorly lip-synced pop-rock. In another scene, Dreyfuss and the gang break out of a creative funk by improvising a tame love song to a goldfish, in the process winning the attention of slang-spitting boy-band guru Roddy McDowall, who becomes their manager. When Rae later spies a chirping, gregarious dolphin while out in a rowboat, she stares at her liquor bottle, exclaiming "They must be putting LSD in this stuff!" In a simultaneous attempt to woo his wife and lead his progeny down a more fogey-friendly musical path, Randall treats the house to some of his own inimitable retro musical stylings. "It really turns me off!" chirps the group's drummer.
Can easily be distinguished by:
It's virtually alone in the underwater-house rock 'n' roll family-comedy subgenre.
Sign that it was made in 1969: Randall cheerfully pronounces "the perfect kitchen" as the ultimate solution to "every maiden's prayer."
Timeless message:
Placing one's family in mortal danger is a great way to cultivate teamwork and togetherness.
Memorable quotes:
Griffin introduces Harold And The Hang-Ups by assuring the audience that the band's manager is "stoned on these shouters," finding them to be "mellow yellow, turned-on, and groovy!"
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