If you can put up with Pat Boone's pathetic excuse for a Scottish accent and the fact that it takes them nearly an hour to get underground, Journey to the Center of the Earth holds up pretty nicely for a 2+ hour hunk of late 1950s family fare. It's got the great James Mason, the increasingly attractive Arlene Dahl, the appropriately contemptible Thayer David, some interesting sets and the sort of animal special effects the Humane Society no longer lets filmmakers get away with.
Sir Oliver Lindenbrook (James Mason) is a geology professor in Edinburgh, Scotland. When a gift from one of his students, Alec McKuen (Pat Boone), turns out to be a clue to the fabulous mysteries under the surface, he sets off to Iceland to find a passageway to the planet's core. He's joined on this adventure by Alec and Carla Goteborg (Arlene Dahl), the wife of a murdered rival, with a gigantic Icelander (Peter Ronson) and his pet duck tagging along. But this race to discovery also has the villainous Count Saknussem (Thayer David) doing anything he can to foil Lindenbrook's expedition and claim the scientific glory for himself.
Fortunately for Lindenbrook and company, the Earth in this movie is not comprised of miles and miles of impenetrable rock surrounding a cauldron of molten lava. No, this underworld is an unending series of cave and passageways that get more strange and wonderful as they go along. There's luminous algae, giant mushrooms, dinosaurs, a subterranean ocean and even the lost city of Atlantis. Very little of it makes a lick of scientific sense but it all looks appealing. With the strong personalities of Mason and Dahl, the beefcake of Boone and Ronson and occasional heart-tugging glances back at Jenny (Diane Baker), the girl Alec left behind to go on this journey, this film maintains a pretty good level of energy and while it may be corny and cheesy by modern standards, it never comes close to boring.
This is the sort of Hollywood blockbuster that was designed and meant to appeal to everyone in the audience from 8 to 80, not 18 to 30. So you've got the pet duck along for comic relief and it even figures into a couple of important plot points. The good guys are so unrelentingly noble and wholesome that even Count Saknussem, who kills Carla's husband, works his own servant to death and shoots Alec, is quickly forgiven his transgressions. The special effects top off at iguanas with big fins glued to their backs and a salamander that appears to have been painted red to pass for a giant chameleon. No one in the story is a wise-cracking smartass and the whole thing ends with the triumphant heroes being serenaded by an adoring crowd. If any of that stuff puts your teeth on edge, Journey to the Center of the Earth is not for you.
If you'd like a pleasant, inoffensive and never insultingly stupid movie to take up a couple hours of your day, something you can simultaneously watch with the youngest of kids and the oldest of grandparents, this will be just what the doctor ordered.
Sir Oliver Lindenbrook (James Mason) is a geology professor in Edinburgh, Scotland. When a gift from one of his students, Alec McKuen (Pat Boone), turns out to be a clue to the fabulous mysteries under the surface, he sets off to Iceland to find a passageway to the planet's core. He's joined on this adventure by Alec and Carla Goteborg (Arlene Dahl), the wife of a murdered rival, with a gigantic Icelander (Peter Ronson) and his pet duck tagging along. But this race to discovery also has the villainous Count Saknussem (Thayer David) doing anything he can to foil Lindenbrook's expedition and claim the scientific glory for himself.
Fortunately for Lindenbrook and company, the Earth in this movie is not comprised of miles and miles of impenetrable rock surrounding a cauldron of molten lava. No, this underworld is an unending series of cave and passageways that get more strange and wonderful as they go along. There's luminous algae, giant mushrooms, dinosaurs, a subterranean ocean and even the lost city of Atlantis. Very little of it makes a lick of scientific sense but it all looks appealing. With the strong personalities of Mason and Dahl, the beefcake of Boone and Ronson and occasional heart-tugging glances back at Jenny (Diane Baker), the girl Alec left behind to go on this journey, this film maintains a pretty good level of energy and while it may be corny and cheesy by modern standards, it never comes close to boring.
This is the sort of Hollywood blockbuster that was designed and meant to appeal to everyone in the audience from 8 to 80, not 18 to 30. So you've got the pet duck along for comic relief and it even figures into a couple of important plot points. The good guys are so unrelentingly noble and wholesome that even Count Saknussem, who kills Carla's husband, works his own servant to death and shoots Alec, is quickly forgiven his transgressions. The special effects top off at iguanas with big fins glued to their backs and a salamander that appears to have been painted red to pass for a giant chameleon. No one in the story is a wise-cracking smartass and the whole thing ends with the triumphant heroes being serenaded by an adoring crowd. If any of that stuff puts your teeth on edge, Journey to the Center of the Earth is not for you.
If you'd like a pleasant, inoffensive and never insultingly stupid movie to take up a couple hours of your day, something you can simultaneously watch with the youngest of kids and the oldest of grandparents, this will be just what the doctor ordered.