Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Henry Levin

Writers:

Jules Verne (novel)
Walter Reisch (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

29 January 1960 (West Germany)

Genre:

Adventure | Family | Romance | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

A fabulous world below the world

Plot:

An Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth's center.

Plot Keywords:

Volcano | Iceland | Expedition | Professor | Icelandic

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 1 win

Cast

Pat Boone	...	Alexander 'Alec' McKuen
James Mason	...	Sir Oliver S. Lindenbrook
Arlene Dahl	...	Carla Göteborg
Diane Baker	...	Jenny Lindenbrook
Thayer David	...	Count Saknussem
Peter Ronson	...	Hans Belker
Robert Adler	...	Groom
Alan Napier	...	Dean
Gertrude the Duck	...	Gertrude

Also Known As:

Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth
Trip to the Center of the Earth

Runtime:

132 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Icelandic | French | Italian

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System) | Dolby SR (re-issue)

Certification:

USA:Approved | Brazil:Livre | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Iceland:Unrated | UK:U | USA:G (1969) | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Carlsbad Caverns National Park - 3225 National Parks Highway, Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Cooga Mooga

Trivia:

Pat Boone didn't want to make this film but was talked into it by his agent. Years later he stated he's glad he did it because of the regular residual checks it brings in and because it's the movie he'll probably be best remembered for.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Hans wakes up on the beach and is shouting for Gertrude, there is no echo. When the rest of the party is shouting for Hans, there is an echo.

Quotes:

Alec McKuen: [after discovering Professor Göteborg dead in his hotel room] Why didn't they tell us at the desk?
Sir Oliver Lindenbrook: Hotels rarely advertise the fact that there are corpses lying around.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Phineas and Ferb: Journey to the Center of Candace (#1.22)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose

Great Adventure Despite Bloated Script

The great James Mason is superb as a geology professor who heads a party of five (four people and one duck) on a perilous journey into the depths of the earth. While the film's screenplay may have been a true cinematic rendering of the source novel by Jules Verne, I could have wished for a film with more subterranean adventure and less prefatory fluff.

The film's first 45 minute segment sets up the film's premise, but it takes place totally above ground, and could have been condensed to 10 or 15 minutes. There's lots of professorial bantering; a youthful Pat Boone croons his sweetheart; and he and the professor duel against adversaries in an unnecessary subplot.

But once the explorers finally get underground, the viewer is in for an absorbing cinematic experience, despite a bloated script that has the cast chattering incessantly. Cinematography and special effects effectively convey the physical surroundings as a forbidding, downward trending labyrinth characteristic of a giant cave.

The sets are elaborate and imaginative, though the "mushroom forest" is a tad too "magical"; I kept waiting for Dorothy, Toto, and the cowardly lion to drop by and say hello from the set of the Emerald City.

From start to finish the film has good acting, and there's plenty of humor. And the sound effects and grim music are terrific. The organ music, in particular, lends a strikingly Gothic touch to the nether world look of the sunken city.

Despite a too talky script, this 1959 film deserves to be watched multiple times by kids of all ages for its timeless adventure and sense of discovery.