Back in the fifties it was a man's world underwater. Drink all night and dive deep all day, smoke till the lugs are turned on your hard hat helmet. Look out for the giant octopus under every reef. This month's quiz is about a movie that immortalized the fightin' and feudin' sponge divers of Florida. Made in 1953 this black and white movie starred Robert Wagner and Gilbert Roland and was directed by Rob Webb.

BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF. Harvard Lampoon Magazine called the film the third worst movie ever made. Divers won't agree with the critics, aside from its embarrassing 50s morality story, this is a decent underwater story and an essential part of anyone's permanent Blood 'N' Bubble video collection.

This is the tale of the Greek dive community competing against boat based spongers in a drive to harvest what is a dwindling resource. There is violence, good hard hat scenes (by 1953 standards) and a truly chilling scene where a diver dies from decompression sickness. The sponge divers scorned the use of depth gauges and watches, the length and depth of a dive is determined

by how abundant and deep the sponge crop is. The hard hatters stayed under until all the sponge was clipped and hauled up. The dive rules were broken and workers got hurt. Bringing a distressed diver to shore took several agonizing hoursto fight the effects of Caisson's Disease, the injured man was packed in ice. In the movie, the half frozen patriarch of the hard hat diving family dies screaming.

The son of the iced stiff (played by a baby faced Robert Wagner) dives in his father's place on the dreaded 12 Mile Reef. Aside from an attack by a laughably bad model giant octopus, the filmed reef scenes are worth watching 50 years later.

One last word about Beneath the 12 Mile Reef. The film was made in the Florida Keys using the new process called CinemaScope. Essentially the technique was to use wide angled screens and stereo sound. This movie was one of the first to get mass distribution to theatres that had the proper screens and as a result the film was a strong box office winner. It is estimated that the picture took in over $5.7 million and cost far less than a million to make. The film is still taking in money now that it has been rereleased on video (so dive into those reject bins at Roger's Video).

Bubble Rating 3 1/2 Bubbles