IMDb lists the date for this as 1939. However, Netflix says 1931. Well, judging by the lady's hairstyle and clothes, 1931 looks to be about right and 1939 cannot possibly be the date. Perhaps the film was made in 1931 (or so) and sat on the shelf for most of the decade--only to be released in '39. Who knows? Regardless of the date, one thing that is hard to deny is that this is a cheap and pretty lame movie. It begins with a prologue that tells us that they're using a lot of crappy stock footage in the first portion of the film. Well, they didn't say 'crappy', but at least they acknowledged the film was original--and very grainy. It shows the sinking of an Allied ship by a German sub. And, because a ship's captain (Alan Hale) disobeyed orders and stopped to look for survivors, he got himself in HUGE trouble and was drummed out of the US Navy.
Years pass. Now Hale is hired for a job, but there is LOTS of trickery and deceit going on--and it's hard to know exactly who's working for who. You know that Hale MUST be a good guy (it's the formula), the skinny skeletal guy is the villain and, here's the ridiculously unbelievable part, the captain of the sub who sank the boat at the beginning of the film is also aboard!! And, it all has to do with a silly plot involving cheating a lady out of her inheritance.
None of "Phantom Submarine U67" makes a lot of sense, and the lady is a TERRIBLE actress. The film also is pretty talky and dull as well. As for the other merits of the film, the direction was static and the scene involving divers early in the film is hilariously bad! That's because it is VERY obvious that they superimposed the actors on an 'expensive underwater set'--which was, in reality, a cheap 10 gallon aquarium!! You can even see the tropical fish swimming about in this home aquarium!! Overall, dumb and silly from start to finish--but not quite bad enough to satisfy bad movie buffs!
