Assault on a Queen
Duke Ellington, the film's composer, had to leave scoring the film to go on tour. Van Cleave and Frank Comstock were brought in not only to orchestrate the film but to finish the score and arrange the material. In the end, only five of Ellington's cues survived, with the rest being from the arrangers. Sadly, the master tapes to the score have been lost to time and the full extent of what Elliongton recorded that was not in the film will never be heard. In June 2016 Dragon's Domain Records released the score as heard in the film, but from monaural music stems, since the aforementioned master tapes no longer exist.,When the submarine is beneath the Queen Mary and the liner starts her engines and propellers, a technician's hand is clearly visible shaking the stern of the U-Boat model back and forth in the prop wake. This may not be apparent on the pan/scan version, but is obvious on the new Blu-Ray hi-def transfer.,Mark Brittain: She's so deep in my gut, we breathe together.,Referenced in You're a Big Boy Now (1966),Assault on a Queen offers an intriguing, albeit far-fetched, caper on the high seas. To say "far-fetched" is a bit of an understatement really. Clearly all of the scenes underwater were shot in a pool (you can clearly see the sides of the pool). In addition, the scenes towards the end of the film are almost laughable. Still, since this film was not filmed with our modern technology, its understandable that some of these features are not up to snuff. However, there are far too many holes in the plot to make up for the lack of sophisticated filming. From the timetables used by the crew to the strategies to the final scene everything is just too hard to believe. The acting does not enhance the film either, making each character a bit predictable and wooden.

Pros: Incredibly interesting narrative idea. Cons: Tired acting, unbelievable plot and low quality stunts. 5/10.,