At the Earth's Core (1976)

Director: Kevin Connor

Starring: Peter Cushing, Doug McClure

Run Time: 89 mins

Certificate: PG

 

Plot Outline: A Victorian scientist and his rich American engineer and financial backer test out a new machine called the Iron Mole which can drill into the Earth's crust. They hope to find untapped resources beneath the Earth's surface but what they find instead is a cavernous world of gigantic monsters, primitive human slaves and winged monsters that rule over this kingdom.

The Review: Unfortunately At the Earth's Core never really convinces anyone of its good intentions to bring life to the Edgar Rice Burroughs story. Instead we get bombarded with horrible giant plastic monsters, men in rubber suits and cheap explosions on miniature sets. The second Burroughs adaptation brought to life by Amicus Studios, it's clear that the budget was even lower for this than it was for The Land That Time Forgot. But who really cares? This is perfect Saturday afternoon entertainment for kids (and adults who watched it as kids!) as it's fun, stupid, has not-so-scary monsters, the plot isn't overly complicated and there's lot of silly action. It's a fine nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up on this type of film.

Obviously the plot is based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs story but that's probably about as close to the source material as you're going to get here. The opening scenes in which the Iron Mole is constructed and then heads into the Earth do define the Victorian fantasy pulp era to a tee but then as soon as they get out of the machine and into this acid-tripped world, the film goes off into uber-cheese mode. They then spend the rest of the film going from one scrape to another, getting captured, escaping, being captured again, being attacked by ridiculous-looking monsters and then maybe getting captured again. It's all in good fun though and it's harmless and juvenile fun. I don't know how much actors would have cost to hire in those days but I bet the budget was blown on the trio of Peter Cushing, Doug McClure and Caroline Munro . They are all decent genre actors and were definitely above the material presented to them here. Peter Cushing is on top form as usual and his presence alone lifts this film from its gloom. His performance is slightly twisted from his usual cool, calm and reasonable man of science. He's more eccentric this time as if he were playing Dr Who again and the performance does get a bit irritating at times in a "granddad who won't shut up" kind of way. His fish-out-of-water scientist character is a little goofy but it's good to see him play against type for a change. Doug McClure is his usual gung-ho self in this type of film where he just fights and beats up anything that stands in his way. He makes a decent action hero though - he's a believable "everyman" like Bruce Willis was in Die Hard - someone caught up in the wrong situation. McClure usually has an annoying habit of understanding the native people in these films almost instantly, despite the fact they speak different languages. But here the natives speak well-preserved English and communication is not really much of a problem. It's clear to see where these two characters will fit into the film - McClure will be the one busting skulls and going from sticky situation to sticky situation whilst buying time for Cushing to figure it all out scientifically. Caroline Munro is the princess, bearing some amazing oil-soaked cleavage but little else (although when you look as good as this, I don't see the reason to have any other purpose in a film).