Trailer—Evil in the Deep

source: Evil in the Deep

This film essentially begins with a small group of five treasure hunters getting together to search for a sunken Spanish galleon off the coast of Jamaica. To find the galleon they first have to locate a nearby cave that the Spanish may have used to deposit some of their gold coins and once that's found they can then use current technology to help them detect the sunken ship. What they don't know is that a couple of other treasure hunters are carefully monitoring their progress and they have no scruples when it comes to acquiring the gold all to themselves. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film had all of the ingredients necessary to be a successful picture with a decent cast, an interesting plot and beautiful scenery to work with. Unfortunately, the slow pacing, basic script and the semi-documentary manner used negated all of the good points. So essentially, the gorgeous island scenery and the beauty of Cheryl Ladd (as "Zappy") were essentially wasted. In short, this was a rather dull film and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

On October 15, 1971, aeronautical engineer Stephen Boyd (as Hugo Graham), computer expert David Ladd (as Joshua "Josh" Owens), and market analyst Chuck Woolery (as Victor "Vic" Spivak) receive a call from beautiful blonde Cheryl Stoppelmoor (as "Zappy"). She must have asked them to "Jump the Shark!" because they immediately leave San Francisco for more dangerous waters. In Jamaica, they hook up with blond teenager Darby Hinton (imaginatively cast as "Darby") and Rosey Grier (as "Asper"). Then, the team scuba dives for a 200-year-old fortune in sunken gold. Insert plenty of cheesy, sleep-inducing narration with music. It's impossible to believe director Virginia Stone approved of this consistently boring, choppy film, which looks like it was edited by a blind squirrel in a dark room. It's interesting only as a chance to see the cast in swimsuits. Mr. Boyd approaches middle-age in great form. Mr. Ladd looks model perfect (though the camera doesn't really find him much). Mr. Woolery looks thin in scenes with Rosey Greer. And, Mr. Hinton shows why he won a 16 Magazine "Adonis of the Month" page. But, the winner is Ms. Stoppelmoor, who deliciously busts out of her bikini - she and David were an attractive mix. ** The Treasure of Jamaica Reef (3/75) Virginia L. Stone ~ Stephen Boyd, Cheryl Ladd, Darby Hinton, David Ladd

In the scenes under water, this movie came across as one of those bad films we had to watch in school--poor audio, home-movie quality video, bad new age music, boring narration. But the plant and animal life in the sea was amazing, and quite well photographed. And when the "treasure" was changed from buried gold to coffins on a sunken ship, I thought the photography of the wreck was also good. Once we got out of the water, the underwater scenes seemed like a masterpiece. I was starting to wonder (since I arrived late) whether this was a college or independent project where someone followed around a group of friends. No, there were villains, and no documentary would have had scenes with only the villains. It was a pleasure to see some potential for conflict, because at least these people could act, unlike our heroes. Cheryl Ladd had beautiful long blonde hair and looked good in a bikini, though she usually wore more, which was a shame. If her character was supposed to be intelligent or have special skills, I couldn't tell. For the ladies, Darby Hinton usually wore only a swimsuit. I will say that the quality of the music improved at times, because it sometimes included fine classical piano in the style of Ferrante and Teicher or Roger Williams. Even the alien noises that usually dominated might be considered quality by the coffee house poetry crowd. And the narration also seemed to improve. The only good writing seemed to be the narrator's, bordering on poetic at times. I do need to single out one scene. In a James Bond movie, this type of situation is a staple and often spellbinding. Here, it was poorly executed, poorly edited, and quite confusing. I finally realized what was going on, but in a good movie it would be obvious. This could have been quite a fascinating movie. Instead, it probably should have stayed buried.

"The Treasure Of Jamaica Reef" has some interesting attributes. It has a once in a lifetime cast - what other movie has Cheryl Ladd, Darby Hinton, Rosey Grier, Chuck Woolery, and Stephen Boyd all together in one movie? The movie also boasts an unusual musical score, mostly electronic music. Also, the narration and the direction frequently give the movie a documentary-like feeling. All this stuff does make the movie interesting here and there, but as a whole, is the movie entertaining? Unfortunately, it isn't. The best I can say for the movie is that it has some nice underwater photography. It's a real slow-moving movie, and even in a couple of instances when it realizes things are boring and adds some action, it still isn't that exciting. Another problem is that the characters are really thin, and it's hard to care about their treasure quest. Though the movie doesn't sink like a stone, it's definitely very waterlogged.

My main problem with this movie is the sound track. The sound track on this movie sounds like it was recorded with a portable tape recorder. The punches sound like people slapping their hands together . Also the cheesy piano music sounds like lounge music.

I picked up a copy of this movie on VHS last year (2008) as it looked interesting after reading the cover, I was certainly wrong about that! I found this to be one of the most boring movies I've ever seen, very slow moving and poor quality too. But, it has one good point, excellent underwater photography which kept me watching it. Not a bad cast too, including Stephen Boyd (Fantastic Voyage), David Ladd and Cheryl Ladd. A boring 75 minutes, worth watching only for the underwater photography. Rating: 2 stars out of 5.

The original working and first release title (co-feature with "Witch Mountain") by Buena Vista was "Secrets Of Jamaica Reef". Cheryl Ladd was credited as Cheryl Stoppelmoor, because that was her name when working on the film. She met David Ladd -=on=- this film and married (after his divorce) later! Not that the film is any better for it, but the original was almost totally filmed on location in Jamaica. It was 'spiced up' with later 'additions' such as those commented upon by the first review. Daily'd, Sync'd and Edited in Jamaica. JA - Production Sound Mixer

This has got to be, without a doubt, the worst movie I have ever seen! I tried watching it for a little 70's nostalgia....but it was just too bad (I'll stick to movies from the 40's and 50's thank you!). The soundtrack was nothing but annoying noise...the writing bland; the story was absurd (Yeah...like this group of doofuses could even walk down a street without getting mugged, much less find a treasure!) and the acting made the Brady Bunch seem Shakespearian by comparison! If I had walked in on this movie, I would've thought it was a skit making fun of 70's movies...only it's not funny. I was wishing all the characters would just get a good case of the bends and disappear!