View source for Battle Beneath the Earth (1967 film)

''Battle Beneath the Earth'' (1967) 

==Summary==
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"The greatest adventure on Earth... is ''under'' it! An incredible battle is raging right under your feet!"  A rogue Chinese general goes berserk and has a system of tunnels dug all the way from China to USA, under the Pacific Ocean! Wherever there is an important military base, he places atomic bombs.

==Details==
[[File:Battlebeneaththeearth 1967film.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Promotional image for ''Battle Beneath the Earth (1967 film)''...]]
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* Release Date:  1967
* Country/Language:  UK/USA, English
* Genres/Technical:  Sci-fi, Thriller
* Setting:  [[Hollow Earth]]
* Runtime:  1 hr 31 min  
* Starring:  Kerwin Mathews, Viviane Ventura, Robert Ayres
* Director:  Montgomery Tully
* Writer:  Charles F. Vetter (as L.Z. Hargreaves)
* Producer/Production Co:  Reynolds-Vetter Productions Ltd., Charles Reynolds, Charles F. Vetter
* View Trailer: ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dVu2KLtEYA link])
* TVTropes: "([https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YellowPeril Yellow Peril])"
* Wikipedia:  ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Beneath_the_Earth link])
* IMDB Page:  ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061387/ link])
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==Ratings==
===[http://www.mpaa.org/film-ratings/ MPAA Ratings]===
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* Rated:  Not Rated (perhaps equivalent to a "PG" for mild Violence)

Expect to provide parental guidance for mild violence in addition to the (relatively subtle) racist "Yellow Peril" theme.

===Tentacle Ratings===
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not based on a Lovecraft story and contains no specific Lovecraftian elements even
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isn't based on Lovecraft story and doesn't have the right mood; one tentacle only 
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depending on if Lovecraftian monsters are present, the mood and atmosphere are
suitably Lovecraftian in tone, and if the work is particularly accurate and true to
the spirit of the original story.
* _____ (Zero Tentacles: Unrated for Lovecraftian Content)
* S____ (One Tentacle:  Debateably Lovecraftian; has almost no direct connection to Lovecraft's work)
* SS___ (Two Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; vaguely similar in tone, could be a very loose adaptation)
* SSS__ (Three Tentacles: Lovecraftian, was probably written by Lovecraft himself.)
* SSSS_ (Four Tentacles: Unusually Lovecraftian; written by Lovecraft, a remarkably faithful adaptation)
* SSSSS (Five Tentacles: definitively Lovecraftian; everything you'd expect from a Lovecraft adaptation and more)
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A rough [[Tentacle Ratings|measure]] of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
* S____ (One Tentacle:  Debateably Lovecraftian; has almost no direct connection to Lovecraft's work)

Not very Lovecraftian, but the invasion-from-a-Hollow-Earth angle is perhaps suggestive.  This movie could perhaps be converted into a fun RPG scenario, though one might suggest dropping the Cold War political angle and aging "Yellow Peril" theme, and replacing it with a more suitable villain (subterranean Lovecraftian horrors, cultists, etc.)  [[Richard Sharpe Shaver]]'s [[Dero]]s would fit the bill nicely, though Lovecraft's own hints of long-buried horrors lurking in the [[Hollow Earth]] are also intriguing: "...out of the earth... the black spirits of earth, mouldy and shadowy, and full of dim rumours picked up in caverns beneath forgotten sea-bottoms..." - ''[[The Call of Cthulhu (fiction)]]''

''Note:  This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of 
how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.''

===Reviews===
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Review Links:
* Review by Andrew Borntrager at Badmoviesdotorg (2/4 Slimes) ([http://www.badmovies.org/movies/battlebearth/ link])
* Review by Graeme Clark at The Spinning Image (4/10 Stars) ([http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=4835 link])
* Review by Brian Lindsey at Eccentric Cinema ([https://web.archive.org/web/20140911093022/http://www.eccentric-cinema.com/reviews2010/battle_beneath.htm link])
* Review by Marty McKee at Johnny LaRue's Craneshot ([http://craneshot.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/raging-right-under-your-feet.html link])
* Review by Richard Schieb at The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review (2/5 Stars) ([http://moria.co.nz/sciencefiction/battlebeneaththeearth.htm link])
* Review by Dave Sindelar at Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings ([https://fantasticmoviemusings.com/2016/05/01/battle-beneath-the-earth-1967/ link])


==Synopsis (SPOILERS)==
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{{spoiler|
A rogue Chinese general goes berserk and has a system of tunnels dug all the way from China to USA, under the Pacific Ocean! Wherever there is an important military base, he places atomic bombs.
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==Notes==

===Comments, Trivia, Dedication===
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===Associated Mythos Elements===
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(A list of notable Lovecraftian creatures, tomes, Great Old Ones, characters, 
etc. that appear in the film/show/etc.  It helps to specify if it just takes
the form of general "name-dropping" (someone mentions "Yog-Sothoth!", but 
Yog-Sothoth doesn't actually appear; a random creepy tome in the background
is labeled ''Necronomicon'' but never actually appears, a character is wearing
a Miskatonic University sweatshirt but the school never makes an appearance...)
Remove any sections that do not apply.  Note that some unnamed monsters may be
considered "stand-ins" that are effectively the same as specific Lovecraftian
monsters, though the film never makes that explicitly clear - for example, a
standard-issue Gill-Man from "Creature from the Black Lagoon" might be labeled
a "Deep One" for the purposes of this Wiki, even though any resemblance is
probably unintentional.  Vaguely/generically "Lovecraftian" elements might 
include [[Human Cultist]]s, [[Tentacle Monster]]s, ''[[Necronomicon Ex-Mortis]]'',
and the mysterious outer/astral dimension we might call the [[Other Side]]....)
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* settings: 
** [[Hollow Earth]]
** [[Quake Wars]]
* races - substitute anything appropriate for the Rogue Chinese army: 
** [[Dero]]s
** [[Ghoul]]s
** [[Faerie]]s
** [[Serpent People]]
** [[Cthonian]]s
** [[Shoggoth]]s
** [[Dark Young]]/[[Star Spawn of Cthulhu]]/[[Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua]]


===Keeper Notes===
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interpretations; unofficial humorous or eccentric versions; identification with 
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* Alternative_theory.  ([[source]])  
This section is more commonly used on YSDC Wiki pages for suggesting ways to
adapt the film to use as a Call of Cthulhu scenario; the Keeper Notes section 
might include multiple such suggested adaptations.
* (One/two sentence story inspired by the film, starring investigators.)
TIP:  Film plots are often difficult to adapt into RPG scenarios; try having
the investigators arrive after the events from the movie have started happening
or have already happened to NPCs, and leave the investigators to piece together
the clues to find out what happened.  Adaptations of film plots to RPG scenarios 
almost always benefit from changing cosmetic details around until the exact story
is no longer easily recognizable, by changing the setting, descriptions of monsters,
character names, and that sort of thing.
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* The investigators stumble upon a secret war being waged under our very feet, a nightmare invasion from the [[Hollow Earth]] which the investigators must try to stop before it is too late!
* The investigators are psychic warriors recruited into the [[Hollow Earth]] front of the secret [[Quake War]]s, a battle against unseen Mythos horrors waging war upon the surface world from below.
* The investigators become aware of a subterranean horror (such as [[Cthonian]]s) tunneling beneath major cities, preparing to wage destruction and woe upon the surface cities....


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[[Category:Film:General]]
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[[Category:Film:CultsCultists]]
[[Category:Film:HollowEarthLittlePeople]]
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