Blood "N" Bubbles
The History of Diving In the Movies.
The Italian title of this month's Blood 'N' Bubble movie is clearly readable in this theatre poster. The movie is called Squaliand it is obvious that the movie is about killer sharks, divers and exploding submarines. If you have your reading glasses on you should be able to make out the name of the two principal stars, Lee Majors and Pamela Hensley.Squali was never released in North America for a very good reason. Filmed originally in English, the feature was shown on television in 1977 as a two-part episode for a popular long running sci-fi TV show. Can you name the series?
Answer
When the Six Million Dollar Man started its fifth season in September 1977 it ran the two-part episode called Sharks. Thanks to reader John Patterson (an avid Six Million Dollar Man fan) for the low down on the show! Patterson wrote to say that "Several Six Million Dollar Man two-parters were either re-aired as TV movies, or given theatrical releases abroad Squali is one of them!"
As you may recall Steve Austin (Lee Majors) is part-man and part-robot. He has x-ray vision, super strength and a heart of gold. In Sharks/Squali he is sent by the US government to investigate a nuclear submarine that had an unusual power failure. As he descends, he is surrounded by sharks. He manages to elude the man-eaters and reach the sub. Our hero is captured by the sub captain, Morgan Grayland and put in an underwater cave. Trained sharks prevent Navy frogmen from reaching the sub, and one very large shark makes sure that our bionic hero doesn't escape either.
The cast includes William Sylvester, Stephen Elliott as Morgan Grayland, Greg Walcott as Alex Parker, Marc Alaimo (Deep Space Nine), Pamela Hensley (Buck Rogers) and Lee Majors. The show was written by Arthur Weingarten and directed by Alan Levi.