User Reviews

U.S. rubber stock must have tripled with the creatures here from the land of the lost. Giant reptiles (or birds) which roam the middle of the planet looking for cavemen snacks are some of the silliest creatures to pop up on movie screens in decades. With middle earth having English speaking cavemen in addition to other walking creatures obviously wearing pig masks, there's a lot for these creatures to snack on.

With Peter Cushing and Douglas McClure invading the earth's core aided by Cushing's boaring device, they find themselves trapped in this nightmare world where Cushing's biggest horrid seems to be not able to have a decent cup of tea. The creatures allegedly have mind control ability over the pig people, but perhaps it's all those gigantic magic mushrooms located all over this strange universe.

Based on a Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, AT THE EARTH'S CORE provides little more than means to escape and give your brain a rest. A Victorian scientist Dr. Abner Perry(Peter Cushing)invents a giant burrowing machine, which he and his American partner(Doug McClure)use to corkscrew their way deep into the earth to explore what mysteries it may hold. They soon discover a lost world of subhuman creatures having conflict with prehistoric monsters.

Cushing comes across as an absent minded professor to the point of being annoying. Instead of being a bold adventurer, he comes across effeminate. On the other hand McClure overacted enough to make himself also laughable. Caroline Munro plays the pretty Princess Dia that refuses to leave her world near the center of the earth. Also in the cast are: Godfrey James, Cy Grant and Michael Crane.

There is something about Doug McLure's appearance in a movie that is a warranty of wretchedness. His DG initials are like a special cinema-certification, that comes somewhere before 'U'.

Cushing, on the other hand, seemed to suffer from both a dilatory agent and poor judgement of his own. He did excellent work in the Hammer movies as Dr Van Helsing. I'v seen him do a very passable Sherlock Holmes in 'Hound Of The Baskervilles'. And his magnum opus was probably Grand Moff Tarkin in the first 'Star Wars'. The only man but the emperor who could tell Darth Vadar to 'stop bickering' and get away with it. But - crikey! - he's done some turkeys. There was that lamentable 'Daleks' movie for one. And here's another.

There's a machine that's been hijacked from Tracy Island. It's a cylinder with a screw at the front and traction devices at the sides. I'm surprised Jerry Anderson didn't sue for plagiarism. Maybe he was bought-off. Yet if the movie is any guide, they can't have paid him much.

It's 1976 and we're still playing about in latex romper-suits.

That's about it really. Some movies have an entertainment value in the 'so bad it's good' category. This one doesn't even manage that. It wouldn't even entertain kids. 'Crash Corrigan's' stuff from the 1930's has got more going for it.

How many of these lost-world/center-of-the-earth style movies did they make in the late 60s and early 70s? I swear I think I've seen a dozen or more. In At the Earth's Core, Dr. Abner Perry (the great Peter Cushing) and David Innes (Doug McClure) set off for an experimental ride in their earth digging machine, the Iron Mole. Something goes horribly wrong (and doesn't it always!) and the pair find themselves miles beneath the Earth's surface in a strange and unusual world. This underground world is ruled by some ridiculous looking pterodactyl-like creatures that make slaves of the local human inhabitants. It's the usual story from here on out – defeat the creatures, get the girl, escape, and generally save the day.

As much as I hate rating a movie a wishy-washy 5/10, that pretty much sums up my feelings of At the Earth's Core. I mean parts of the movie are bad and parts of the movie are good. On the bad side you've got the really awful special effects and a whole "been there, done that" feeling to much of the movie. As bad as the rubber-suited pterodactyl men look, they pale in comparison to what I'll call the saber-toothed hippo and the giant fire-breathing frog. You've also got Doug McClure trying in vain to play the hero. It doesn't work. On the positive side you've got Peter Cushing hamming it up like I've never seen before and a sense of fun about the whole thing. It never takes itself too seriously. Just let yourself go with the silliness. Another positive I feel compelled to mention are the outfits worn by Caroline Munro. Too bad she disappears for about 2/3 of the movie. So in the end, the good and bad sort of cancel each other out and I'm left with a completely average movie. And that, at least in my way of rating movies, is just what a 5/10 is – an average movie.

After their relative success with THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, Amicus were quick to run out this unofficial 'sequel' to that film, although a year later the proper sequel, THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT, turned up. AT THE EARTH'S CORE in fact is reminiscent of Jules Verne stories like JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH, although it is supposedly from a story by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The low-rent action and outrageous imagery make this film a must for any '70s fan. The decade's influence is clear, as a number of native tribesmen sport fetching afros!

Although the film is cheaply made (it employs VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA-style shaking cameras to simulate movement), on the plus side it is a fast-paced adventure tale which never lets up and gives in to characterisation or depth of any sort. In essence it's a series of fight scenes, which take the form of monster vs. monster, man vs. man, man vs. monster. Tacky, ludicrous and awful, this is truly the nadir of British cinema. But...it manages to be exciting, hilarious and a damned good ride through a strange, psychedelic prehistoric land, enlivened by strong performances from two genre veterans.

AT THE EARTH'S CORE has a number of spaced-out, obviously drug-induced sequences which are hilarious to watch. The first is the bit where Peter Cushing, no less, is being chased through the cardboard jungle by a giant bird man! I've seen some weird stuff in my time but this really takes the biscuit. The bird men are guys with huge rubber heads on, strange how they remain so motionless throughout the film. The second moment is when a group of people stop to watch some men in monster suits battle it out, kind of like a wacky GODZILLA moment which has been inserted in the film. For a start it's not for one minute believable or realistic, and also the bellowing noises these monsters make are hilarious!

More wackiness ensues when a psychic connection between the bird and rodent men is revealed, with the bird guys blinking their green eyes to give commands, these birds are truly strange and yet wonderfully artistic. Especially the noises that are made, which are strangely computerised! Another hilarious moment comes when Peter Cushing shoots a fire breathing, pincushion-like monster with some arrows, it falls off a cliff and explodes in a rib-tickling scene, so cheap and yet so comic. You probably have to have a weird sense of humour like me to appreciate these admittedly dodgy delights. Other merry moments include a caveman with a blatantly cardboard weapon and bird men flying around on visible wires.

You've probably grasped the kind of naïve charm this film holds for me by now, but the three main actors are also reasons to watch. Firstly we have low-budget British actress Caroline Munro as the token love interest in highly revealing costume, then there's Doug McClure as the American hero, sporting a disgusting striped jacket. McClure's charm is one which you have to view to really appreciate, but let's just say he's fun as the brawny, indestructible hero type. However it's Peter Cushing who steals the show, this time around being the comic relief, a major departure from his usually heroic or sinister roles. His doddering old man is a great creation, and his dialogue is along the lines of "they're so excitable, like all foreigners" and "You cannot mesmerise me, I'm British!" (reused from a similar line in HORROR EXPRESS). The novelty value of seeing him terrorised by these men in suits is great.

You wouldn't get away with tackiness like this in a film anymore, that's for sure. Cheap, with atrocious back projection; rubbery, cardboard, yet fun, AT THE EARTH'S CORE is one for the child in all of us - the child who truly appreciate the delights of bad film making.

This is just about one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. Maybe not a worst movie ever contender, but if you haven't seen that many bad ones, this could easily make your Top Ten Worst List. When you consider what was achieved in 1933 with the original "King Kong", you've got to ask yourself why anyone would stoop so low as to produce this debacle. Then, taking it one step further and realizing that the quantum leap to "Star Wars" the following year achieved a new level in sci-fi entertainment, this offering will make you laugh and cry at the same time.

Now let me ask you, what would possess the Professor (Peter Cushing) to bring along an umbrella as a prime piece of subterranean research equipment for the ride to the earth's core? OK, so it was useful in fending off the parrot/tyrannosaur (parrotosaurus?) in the early going, but come on. Somehow I don't think this is what Edgar Rice Burrough's had in mind when he wrote his tales of Pellucidar. He probably didn't have Caroline Munro in mind either as Princess Dia, probably the only redeeming factor to this whole escapade.

At least there was one bit of pseudo-scientific explanation that I got a kick out of; I'm always looking for one in films like this. That would have to be how the sky at the earth's core was really the underside of the earth's crust, explaining that ethereal pinkish glow. But try as it might, the story just couldn't hook me in a way to find anything at all interesting about Hoojah the Sly One or Jubal the Ugly One, much less those goofy half man, half pterodactyl creatures. To paraphrase the good professor - "You cannot mesmerize me, I'm paying attention!"

A scientist and a macho hero type burrow into the Earth in a mechanical mole, and find a hidden world where stone age humans are subjugated by hypnotic pterodactyls (yes, really).

At The Earth's Core sneaked in about half an hour before Star Wars rewrote the manual for fantasy cinema. So we don't have motion control, high quality travelling mattes, fantastic model work, state of the art make up, seamless interaction between real and fabricated backgrounds - no, what we have are blokes in rubber costumes, lurid set lighting, and unconvincing miniatures.

Thing is, it captures Edgar Rice Burroughs Pellucidar quite well. Oh, it's all terribly unconvincing (especially the pterodactyls, even more so when they indulge in wobbly flying on all-too-visible wires), but the original books are written in prose which is even more purple than some of the set lighting.

Peter Cushing and Doug Maclure play the two protagonists efficiently enough, and Caroline Munroe is beguiling. But then, she always was.