At the Earth's Core (1976)

Director:

Kevin Connor

Writers:

Edgar Rice Burroughs (novel)
Milton Subotsky (writer)

Release Date:

July 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Adventure | Fantasy

Tagline:

They're in it DEEP now!

Plot:

A Victorian scientist and his young American backer set off in their new earth-boring machine with a short test on a Welsh mountain...

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Eccentric | Giant Monster | Beautiful Woman | Lizard Monster

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Doug McClure	...	David Innes
Peter Cushing	...	Dr. Abner Perry
Caroline Munro	...	Princess Dia
Cy Grant	...	Ra
Godfrey James	...	Ghak
Sean Lynch	...	Hoojah
Keith Barron	...	Dowsett
Helen Gill	...	Maisie
Anthony Verner	...	Gadsby
Robert Gillespie	...	Photographer
Michael Crane	...	Jubal
Bobby Parr	...	Sagoth Chief
Andee Cromarty	...	Girl Slave

Also Known As:

Edgar Rice Burroughs' At the Earth's Core (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M (TV rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Iceland:12 | Spain:T | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1987) | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

Actor/stuntman Bobby Parr lost a finger during a fight sequence with Doug McClure that went wrong.

Quotes:

Dr. Abner Perry: You cannot mesmerise me! I'm British!

Movie Connections:

Edited into Fantastic Dinosaurs of the Movies (1990) (V)

Silly sci-fi effort is sometimes a real hoot.

Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation in which Doug McClure (who was in a couple of similar 1970's genre entries) and a hilariously daffy Peter Cushing play Victorian era scientists who burrow into the inner earth in a giant mechanical "mole" and encounter a primitive civilization that is terrorized by some ridiculous looking monsters.

This kind of reminded me of some of those old 'Spider-Man' (the 1967-1970 animated series) episodes where he'd go beneath the Earth or to remote locations and encounter a non-stop variety of truly wacky creatures. The creatures in this movie are so absurd that I got a lot of laughs out of them. I'm not sure if the film-makers intended this film to be so funny, but that's the way that it ends up. Yes, an adaptation of this story probably could have been better with a bigger budget and better production values, but at least if it's good for laughs - even unintentional ones, that counts for something.

McClure is merely passable, but Cushing was fun in his hammy performance, and Caroline Munro is as always an alluring bit of eye candy.

The sets, special effects, and photography fare a little better than the creature work - this film was moderately interesting to look at.

Overall, I kind of liked it basically because it *was* so darn silly. At least nobody in the cast seems to be taking themselves too seriously.

5/10