One of the things I did today while finishing another small cross-stitch project was watch a movie. This film was neither educational nor superiorly written. It was, in fact, a very guilty pleasure: Hello Down There! Social value: none. Nostalgia factor: A big 9. I remember dragging my dad to see this (I wasn't allowed to go to the movies alone) and it turned out he loved it, especially the line "She's talkin' to a fish!"

This one is in the silly Disney family film circa 1960 genre, about an underwater researcher who takes his aquaphobe wife, two teenagers, and the kids' two friends to live in an underwater home for 30 days to prove to his boss that people can live underwater. Boss of course has dollar signs in his eyes and wants to scuttle the project in favor of an underwater dredge that just might dig up gold. The family has various harmless adventures and of course, since it's an Ivan Tors movie, there are two cute dolphins named the Duke and the Duchess and a cute sea lion named Gladys.

And of course since it's the 60s, the teenagers and their friends have a rock group, Harold and His Hang-Ups, and they're trying to get a recording deal with a cool 60s mod recording studio director played by Roddy McDowall in his mod period. Their go-between is Charlotte Rae, the family's tippling maid.

Of note: Harold (who's one of the friends, not one of the family) is played, in one of his earliest movie roles, by Richard Dreyfuss. According to the IMDb, it was his fourth movie role, and only his second credited role.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:47:00 PM

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