Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Henry Levin

Writers:

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

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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mary Brady	...	Kirsty (uncredited)
Alan Caillou	...	Rector (uncredited)
John Epper	...	Groom (uncredited)
Edith Evanson	...	Innkeeper (uncredited)
Alex Finlayson	...	Professor Bayle (uncredited)
Mollie Glessing	...	News Vendor (uncredited)
Frederick Halliday	...	Chancellor (uncredited)
Kendrick Huxham	...	Scots Newsman (uncredited)
Owen McGiveney	...	Shopkeeper (uncredited)
Molly Roden	...	Housekeeper (uncredited)
Ivan Triesault	...	Professor Peter Göteborg of Stockholm (uncredited)
Red West	...	Bearded Man at Newspaper Stand / University Student (uncredited)
Ben Wright	...	Paisley (uncredited)
Peter Wright	...	Laird of Glendarick (uncredited)

Directed by
Henry Levin

Writing credits
Jules Verne		(novel "Voyage au centre de la Terre")
Walter Reisch		(screenplay) and
Charles Brackett		(screenplay)

Produced by
Charles Brackett	....	producer

Original Music by
Bernard Herrmann

Cinematography by
Leo Tover		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Stuart Gilmore
Jack W. Holmes

Art Direction by
Franz Bachelin
Herman A. Blumenthal
Lyle R. Wheeler

Set Decoration by
Joseph Kish
Walter M. Scott

Costume Design by
David Ffolkes

Makeup Department
Ben Nye	....	makeup artist
Helen Turpin	....	hair stylist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Hal Herman	....	assistant director

Art Department
Harold Michelson	....	illustrator (uncredited)

Sound Department
Warren B. Delaplain	....	sound
Bernard Freericks	....	sound
Joel Fein	....	sound re-recording mixer (uncredited)

Special Effects by
L.B. Abbott	....	special photographic effects
James B. Gordon	....	special photographic effects
Emil Kosa Jr.	....	special photographic effects

Editorial Department
Leonard Doss	....	color consultant

Music Department
Ken Darby	....	music associate
Lionel Newman	....	conductor: songs

Other crew
Lincoln Barnett	....	technical advisor
Peter Ronson	....	technical advisor
Bernard Schwartz	....	assistant to producers

Production Companies

• Cooga Mooga
• Joseph L. Schenck Enterprises
• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (as Twentieth Century-Fox)

Distributors

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1959) (USA) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox (1959) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox (1960) (France) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1965) (USA) (TV) (original airing) (pan/scan)
• CBS/Fox (1985) (USA) (VHS) (pan/scan)
• Fox Video (1991) (USA) (VHS) (pan/scan)
• Carlotta Films (1999) (France) (theatrical) (restored version)
• CBS/Fox (USA) (laserdisc)

Other Companies

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation  registered trademark of CinemaScope

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

Color:

Color

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:

The professor's name in the original novel (French language) was Otto Lidenbrock. In the movie it was changed to Oliver Lindenbrook. A more drastic change had already been made with the first (anonymous) English translation of the novel when the Professor's surname became Hartwig.

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:

Hans Belker: [in Icelandic] The woman in room number 29, she said she wants to talk to you.
Sir Oliver Lindenbrook: Tell him to stop jabbering and go shopping.
Alec McKuen: What about lamps.
Hans Belker: [in Icelandic] The woman in room number 29, she said...
Alec McKuen: Ah, lamps... lamps. What about... ah... picks?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Descent (2005)

Soundtrack:

My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose

Jules Verne's vision, wonderful if somewhat flawed.

In this day and age when relations between France and America are not terribly cordial, one of the uniting factors in the past has been the popularity of author Jules Verne. If I had to guess I would say he was the most popular French author in the USA and has been that for some many decades now.

His books set firmly in the 19th century offered a wonderful vision of things to come that our own deep seated curiosity will lead us to find. Someone out there correct me if I'm wrong, but the very international Mr. Verne never had a French hero in any of us books. Science to him was not the property of one nation or man, but something that should benefit us all.

His characters for Journey to the Center of the Earth are from Scotland, Sweden, and Iceland. And the story begins in Scotland with Geology Professor James Mason getting a piece of unusual lava rock from student Pat Boone, thereby setting in motion a chain of events that will take them to Iceland and a passage deep into the earth's bowels.

James Mason heads a fine cast and does very well by the part of Professor Oliver Lindenbrook, geology professor and explorer. The film opens at the University of Edinburgh. I am told that even today Edinburgh has kept it's historic traditions and look. The film does capture it in it's opening sequences.

Arlene Dahl, Swedish, plays the widow of a Swedish professor who was a rival to James Mason and sought to beat him to the opening passage in Iceland. He's murdered and she has inherited all the equipment her husband has bought that James Mason needs and she blackmails him into taking her along. Of course that works out just fine for both of them.

Also along is geology student Pat Boone. Now maybe someone who was a Scot should have played Alec McCowen, but Boone was in his heyday as a teenage idol, a clean cut Elvis. That sure brought in the teenybopper trade. Boone is a pleasant singer and he sings a Robert Burns poem set to Jimmy Van Heusen's music.

Thayer David is the descendant of a Count Arne Saknussem who originally found the passage and David wants to keep it for himself. He's our villain and he follows our intrepid explorers into the earth.

Peter Ronson is our native Icelander and since he speaks no English, Arlene Dahl comes in handy as a translator. The most ridiculous part of the film is Ronson's insistence on bringing his pet goose along. I mean, really, what did he think would happen if they ran short of food?

Verne's vision of a hollow Earth with an inner sea is not exactly accepted today. But that doesn't stop from making this a most entertaining piece of cinema.