Assault on a Queen

1966
Approved
1h 46m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A motley crew of treasure hunters plan to rob the cruise-liner RMS Queen Mary, using a recovered WW2 German submarine.A motley crew of treasure hunters plan to rob the cruise-liner RMS Queen Mary, using a recovered WW2 German submarine.A motley crew of treasure hunters plan to rob the cruise-liner RMS Queen Mary, using a recovered WW2 German submarine.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.6/10

1.3K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
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.

Goofs
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.

Quotes
Mark Brittain: She's so deep in my gut, we breathe together.

Connections
Referenced in You're a Big Boy Now (1966)

User reviews28

Review

Featured review

4/10

German Technology?

The former Navy military and friends Mark Brittain (Frank Sinatra) and Linc Langley (Errol John) are hired by the treasure hunters Vic Rossiter (Anthony Franciosa), Rosa Lucchesi (Virna Lisi) and Eric Lauffnauer (Alf Kjellin) to dive seeking a sank boat with a treasure. Mark finds a World War II German submarine instead and they decide to recover the submarine to heist the Queen Mary. The mechanic Tony Moreno (Richard Conte) joins the team and they use the submarine that is partially sailing to lure the Captain of the Queen Mary to steal the safe. Will their plan work?

"Assault on a Queen" is an adventure with a silly premise. The idea of recovering a submarine after twenty years sank in sea waters is stupid and practically impossible. Sailing an old submarine with a small unexperienced crew is also terrible. Last but not the least, the lack of chemistry between Frank Sinatra and Virna Lisi destroys any chance of a successful romantic pair. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Assalto a um Transatlântico" ("Assault on a Transatlantic")