The Incredible Petrified World (1957)

User Rating:

3.1/10   

Director:

Jerry Warren

Writer:

John W. Steiner (writer)

Release Date:

1957 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

See women trapped in fantastic caverns at the center of Earth!

Plot:

Four adventurers descend to the depths of the ocean when the cable on their underwater diving bell snaps...

Plot Keywords:

Castaway | Woman Reporter | Friendly Rivals | Underwater Cave | Low Budget Film

Cast

John Carradine	...	Prof. Millard Wyman
Robert Clarke	...	Craig Randall
Phyllis Coates	...	Dale Marshall
Allen Windsor	...	Paul Whitmore
Sheila Noonan	...	Lauri Talbott
George Skaff	...	Dr. J.R. Matheny
Maurice Bernard	...	Old Man in the Caverns
Joe Maierhouser	...	Jim Wyman
Lloyd Nelson	...	Wilson, Sonar Man
Harry Raven	...	The Captain
Milt Collion	...	Hank
Robert Carroll	...	Narrator
Lowell Hopkins	...	Reporter
Jack Haffner	...	Jimmy, Reporter

Runtime:

70 min | USA:64 min (DVD)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Colossal Cave Mountain Park, Vail, Arizona, USA

Company:

GBM Productions

Trivia:

The film remained unreleased for several years until it was put on the bottom of a packaged double feature with another Jerry Warren film, Teenage Zombies (1959).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the characters are trapped undersea in the diving bell, they simply leave by climbing up to a hatch, supposedly at the top of the bell. Such an action underwater would immediately flood the bell. Yet, not even a drop of water enters the bell when they exit.

Quotes:

Dale Marshall: [to Lauri] You just listen to me, Miss Innocent. There's nothing friendly between two females. There never was. There never will be.
Lauri Talbott: Sorry you feel that way. I was hoping we could help each other.
Dale Marshall: You don't need help - neither do I. Not as long as we have two men around us.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "In the Cellar: The Present (#2.4)" (2009)

An incredible non movie.

When this film was released back in 1959 to an appalled public, one newspaper reviewer described it as "an incredible petrified movie." Since then, that description has been used over and over to appropriately describe this movie. The plot is about undersea explorers testing a new type of diving bell and the discovery of a vast network of air filled under sea caverns. Inside the caverns they discover an old man who had found his was into the caverns years before. Nothing happens in this film. Its just talk (all of which is not any good) with no thrills what so ever. Nothing! The posters for this film promised undersea thrills and a giant octopus. No giant octopus! No! Not even one measly stock footage octopus to enliven this dull film. The undersea "thrills" are scant. This film was so boring I couldn't wait till it was over. This may just be the worst movie Jerry Warren ever made. As bad as Jerry Warren's other films are, at least something happens in those.