Hello Down There (1969)

The greatest movie ever!

Absolutely amazing

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This was fun back when it was released. Watching it now I find it even more delicious. It's a potent dose of 60s nostalgia. The Ivan Tors team did one comedy previous to this (Birds Do It with Soupy Sales), but here everything clicks into place. The excellent cast really helps keep this afloat- with sure-footed timing and affable charm. The production values are top-notch- with excellent effects and the sort of superb underwater action you would expect from the Tors team (Lamar Boren and Ricou Browning). The underwater house is great- it's everything I wanted from a house as a kid. Really quite ridiculous and all the better for it.

OK, I like the movies from this time period. I love the funny/goofy/ hippie stuff. This one takes the cake! It's so fun to watch, it's one of my absolute favorite movies ever. This movie is worth watching just for the music. The songs are so catchy! I have sung them in my head all my life since I was a little girl from seeing this movie just once! I'm so glad it's available on DVD now. I watch it over and over. It's another one of those comforting movies. The story is cute, has a little "drama" (lol!) I like that 70's way of dancing that Janet Leigh does! The kids are in a band "Harold and the Hangups" and I love the parts where they "jam". It's so very fun. Oh-the part where Tony Randall sings a song is also very catchy and fun! Very fun to see a young Richard Dreyfuss! A must see for all. Classic.

We watched Hello Down There one evening (surely it was a Friday, so there was no school the next day), all huddled on the bunk beds in the back bedroom, a water cooler set on the dresser beside the TV.This was an incredible fantasy of a family living underwater.As others have pointed out, it was virtually an all star cast.Among them, Lou Wagner as Richard Dreyfuss' brother. Wagner would go on to be the little scientist on CHiPs in the white overcoat.And Hennie Backus, Jim Backus' widow, as their mother. She appeared on Gilligan's Island as a native woman, mother to the obese native girl who loved Gilligan.Here, she marches in and terrorizes poor Charlotte Rae.The Green Onion was designed like it would be ideal for a TV series. Had this movie came out in the early sixties instead of '69, you can bet there would have been episodes and seasons available on DVD as well.Plotwise, everything just flowed. From the visit of she who would be Gladys, the de-pressurizing of the leg, the sensational shark attack, the harmless songs (and yes, we too sang the Goldfish song for years and still do).Just too much fun.Rare moment to see Ken Berry as a villain as well! For some reason, the movie bogged in the sneaking out to get the song to Roddy McDowell. It just loses its feel of underwater existence. Perhaps had it gone in reverse and McDowell and Backus and Charlotte been trying to get to the Green Onion and Randall, Leigh and Dreyfuss had to rescue them instead, thereby keeping the Onion at centerstage where it belonged and had been for all of the previous movie, this thing would have been even more of a classic.As it is, it is a big fave.We watched it years ago, well into our twenties, my sibs and I, and found it puzzling.Now, I got a copy of my own and just watched it. Terribly loved it.My sister still sings the goldfish song to her teen aged children.

A favorite movie from childhood. Good clean fun, for the whole family. Packed with a cast of stars, this movie invites you to come along and tour the cool house under the sea. The kids have a rock band, it's hard to get the glug song out of your head. There are many good family films offered in today's times, but older films like Hello Down There out to be part of what's offered to kids and families today. Some may say that Hello Down There is 'behind the times' and the movies out today are so much more advanced with special effects and computer generated images. I think that's part of why it should still be aired, to remind us of simplicity and how movies are still excellent without having all the added special effects. I have searched high and low to purchase a copy of this movie for my video library, but it is not available. I would love to see this movie aired again so all of us can re-live it's charm and hilarity!