Old science fiction film about people being turned into aquatic monsters

Question

I remember watching a movie on TV many (40+) years ago. I believe it was in black and white but it may have been in color. The only salient points i can remember was that it was an adventure type flick, taking place for the most part underwater.

There were submarines and undersea caves. I also believe that some Navy or at least some kind of military officers were involved. The main plot line (assuming I'm remember correctly) involved some evil scientist bent on world domination by turning people into water-breathing monsters.

I also seem to remember that at the end our hero and heroine had started the process of turning into these monsters but were saved and turned back to human at the last minute by being "dried out."

Anyone got any ideas about this movie?

Answer 1

Due to @Lexible's comment and link I tracked down the movie. it's The Terror Beneath the Sea.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A high tech sub tracks a target sub. It's all demonstration by the navy for a super homing torpedo. During the tests, the silhouette of a swimming man flashes across the monitors. Journalist duo, Ken (Chiba) and Jenny (Peggy Neal), go scuba diving to check it out. Jenny encounters a silvery gill-man, takes a picture, but drops her camera. The navy doesn't believe her. Ken and Jenny go looking for the camera, but find an undersea cave full of air. They also find several sliver gill-men who capture them. They awaken in the modernistic lab of the sinister Dr. Moore who always wears sunglasses. He bombasts about the world of the future starting with his city under the sea and his army of water cyborgs. He demonstrates how humans are transformed into the aquatic cyborgs. Some gas, some colored lights, some time-lapse photography and finally a lung-gill transplant. Violá! WaterCyborg. Meanwhile, the navy found Jenny's camera and the picture of the gill-man. Now the search is on. Dr. Moore wants Ken to join his new world order, but he and Jenny try to escape. For that, Dr. Moore sentences them to becoming his next WaterCyborg. They start the process enough to give both Ken and Jenny some waxy patches on their hands and faces. Further morphing is interrupted when the navy's sub has found Moore's hidden city. A battle ensues between Moore's clever seeking missiles and the sub's also clever moves and devices. In a last desperate move, the sub's commander launches his super torpedo. This manages to cause enough damage that Moore's city begins to fail. The damaged equipment means the water cyborgs go nuts, turning on their human masters. Many fights ensue. The atomic reactor goes critical AND has a handy countdown timer to doom. Moore and his henchmen prepare to escape in a pod, but Ken stops them for some hand-to-hand combat. Just when it looks like Moore will kill Ken, Moore is killed by Professor Howard (another abductee). Ken, Jenny and the professor don't know how to launch the escape pod, but a not-quite-dead Moore tries to kick them out and escape, thereby revealing the hidden panel. This time Moore is really dead. Ken, Jenny and Howard are rocketed to safety just as the city blows up. The navy finds them. Jenny is distraught over her disfigurement, but while she was unconscious, professor Howard reversed the early gill-man-ism and she's pretty again. She and Ken walk the beach in the sunset (in their scuba gear). The End

I hate answering my own question but I don't know how to give @Lexible credit.

Answer 2

You mean Screamers? From 1979?????

Lieutenant Claude de Ross, a military doctor, and a few newly escaped convicts are shipwrecked on a mysterious tropical island. They soon come across a strange couple: the sadistic Edmund Rackham and the beautiful Amanda Marvin. The doctor finds out that Amanda's father, professor Ernest Marvin is a mad scientist who is experimenting on horrible human-fish mutations. While Professor Marvin is convinced that he's doing his research for humanitarian motives, Rackham has other plans, since he has discovered an incredible secret lying beneath the island.

Answer 3

It sounds a little like an episode of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", called "The Amphibians". There are a couple of scientists who have been working on a process to adapt humans to living underwater, providing them with artificial gills. Parts that match your description:

1. Submarine (the Seaview - a futuristic sub) and an underwater habitat (the scientists' lab)
2. Military - the Seaview is partially crewed by the U.S. Navy
3. The transformation process causes the subjects to feel superior to humanity, and they're plotting to take over the world (naturally)
4. It's a first season episode, therefore black and white

What doesn't match up:

1. I don't remember there being any undersea caves
2. the transformation doesn't cause much of a change in appearance (except for the artificial gills sticking out of the sides of their necks)
3. There was a process of changing people back to normal but it wasn't a "drying out" process