****SPOILERS**** Among the great underwater scenes in the movie "Below the Sea" what you also get is a chance to see Fay Wary's as rich socialite Diana Tempelton's cleavage which a year later would have been banned by the Hollywood Code or Hayes Commession when it came into effect. Fay or Diana is attacked together with her photographer friend Burt Jackson, Paul Page, by a giant octopus and has deep sea diver Steve McCreary, Ralph Bellamy, risk his life saving both of them. McCreary at first had no use for Diana in feeling that as a women she was hampering as well as endangering the crew but later fell in love with her and forgot all about it. Diana was in fact sponsoring an expedition under the sea to photograph the sea life that has never been seen by human eyes and almost ended up getting killed because of it. As for McCreary he was only interested in recovering some 3 million dollars in gold that was sunk together with German U-Boat 170 in 1917 that the German U-Boat Captain Von Boulton now calling himself Karl Schlemmer, Fredwrick Vogeding, wants to get his greedy hands on. But as much as Schlemmer hates it he'll need an expert deep sea diver like Steve McCreary to do it and split the gold with.Knowing what a back stabbing creep Schlemmer really is McCreary still goes along with his plan to recover the gold in that he's the only person who at first knew where it is together with the remains of U-Boat 170. But in he end the master back stabber Karl Schlemmer did himself in together with the 3 million in gold bullion by leaving, after having him drugged, McCreary out of the loop and on board. That as he and his floozy partner Lily, Esther Howard, went after the underwater gold on their own without the services of an expert deep sea diver like Steve McCreary. ****SPOILERS**** As things soon turned out the gold ended up at the bottom of the sea together with Karl Schlemmer but Steve McCready ended up with something or someone far more precious. The girl who at first had no use for but since fell in love with,as well as ended up saving her life, the beautiful as well as rich Diana Tempelton. Now how's that for a trade off!P.S In her having to be saved from the grip of a giant octopus in the movie "Below the Sea" actress Fay Wray was soon to end up in the crutches of "King Kong" which was released less then two week later.

Ralph Bellamy looks uncomfortable playing a tough deep-sea diver instead of his usual dork-who gets-dumped. He is Mac McCreary, a pipe chomping man of action in this one. His sneaky partner is Karl Shlemmer, former German U-Boat captain, who knows where the gold is and doesn't plan to share it with anybody. Fay Wray is the rich babe who finances the expedition on a boat that looks like a royal yacht. Then there is Lily, a tough waterfront babe who adds little and somehow gets lost along the way. If you can believe all this, how about Miss Wray--rich, beautiful, educated--falling for hunky but dumb, poor, and inarticulate Bellamy? The ending (HERE'S THE BIG SPOILER) is reminiscent of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre when the almost retrieved gold falls back into the ocean, never (for unexplained reasons) to be found again.

Something about a U-boat that sinks with a million dollars in gold bullion. After the war, the skipper enlists the help of an amoral floozie and an expert underwater diver (Ralph Bellamy) to retrieve the gold. They inveigle their way into the crew of a ship that is on a scientific expedition, with Fay Wray a prominent scientist and underwater photographer. The ship sails to the location of the gold. The scientists go about photographing underwater beasts from their diving bell while the undercover gold seekers continue their conniving. Bellamy, a thorough scoundrel, finds himself strangely attracted to Fay Wray. And who wouldn't? Bellamy must have seen her in the previous year's "King Kong," popping up out of the water en déshabillé, tumbling out of her torn slip. The libidinous swine.Fear not, though. He teaches her how to use his diving suit -- one of those old-fashioned encumbering types with a round metal headpiece, now replaced by SCUBA gear. In return, she teaches him how to be a gentleman.Towards the end of this shipboard romance/adventure, the German skipper and the amoral floozie double cross Bellamy by drugging him, then setting off to recover the gold and make an escape by themselves. Meanwhile, below the sea, the diving bell containing Fay Wray and some inconsequential male member of the cast is attacked and brought into lethal embrace by a giant octopus. Bellamy recovers from the drug in time to don his suit, drop to the sea floor, and amputate the octopus's arms with a cutting torch. He and the others barely escape. But the German doesn't escape at all. A loop of the heavy retrieval chain wraps around his ankle and when the trunk of gold falls apart, everything is yanked overboard. Full fathom five, the skipper will now guard the gold buried in mud for all eternity, while Fay Wray will live happily ever after with Ralph Bellamy, at a point in his career when he was capable of getting the girl.I felt kind of sorry for the octopus. Did you ever see a movie in which an octopus was presented in a positive light? No. No, you didn't. On a beach near Pago Pago a recently speared octopus (fe'e) was thrown into my lap. There it lay, too pooped to move, but flashing different colors in a frantic but futile effort to match its surroundings, an agony that lasted almost five minutes. I would have released it, having been in its position a thousand times myself. I'm convinced that they have feelings too. Later, it was unceremoniously boiled stiff and then eaten in chunks dipped into its own ink. There's not enough to this movie to either recommend it highly or to criticize it harshly. It must not have taken long to write since the plot progresses by the numbers. But it's kind of fun to watch the ship at sea. I would guess those scenes were shot off Catalina. Bellamy tries on a gruff, half-articulate personality that doesn't seem genuinely his, and Fay Wray is shrill but beautiful.Not a masterpiece but a diverting Hollywood product of the early 30s.

Having made it a point to see all the available Fay Wray films that have survived, I can tell you with certainty that you will never see her looking more beautiful than in her role, here. A radiant presence in a world of dangerous characters, she plays a moneyed adventuress bankrolling a 'scientific' expedition to document marine life. Unknown to her is the real purpose of her crews' intentions. Surprises abound in this 'A' title from Columbia Pictures. I had a hard time telling the full scale from the miniature set. And for humor, Fay lectures Ralph Bellamy about becoming a gentleman, as he descends a ladder, and she'll lean WAAYY over to make sure she has his attention. Another delight from the pre-code era. Highly recommended.