At the Earth's Core

Starring:Doug McClure, Peter Cushing, Caroline Munro, Cy Grant, Godfrey James, Sean Lynch, Keith Barron, Helen Gill, Anthony Verner, Robert Gillespie, Michael Crane, Bobby Parr, Andee Cromarty
Director: Kevin Connor
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Customer Reviews:

Subterranean hokum at it's finest!.......2007-02-12

War-Gods of the Deep aka The City Under the Sea scared the heck out of me me as a very small kid, but then I did live in a coastal town that was rumored to have it's own sunken town... Vincent Price and his immortal band of smugglers living in a somewhat mislocated Babylonian city under the Cornish stretch of the English Channel didn't have the same effect this time, but Jacques Tourneur's vaguely Poe-inspired subterranean/underwater adventure is still a fun romp thanks to superb production design which makes the film look ten times more expensive than it probably was and great Scope photography with a good use of color from Zulu's Stephen Dade. It's not a masterpiece, but it's a brisk and enjoyable period adventure with more than a passing nod to both Journey to the Center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Plus it has David Tomlinson sharing a diving suit with a chicken while pursued by gill men, and not many films can say that.

Aside from a couple of moments of negative damage the 2.35:1 widescreen transfer is surprisingly good. The only extra is the US theatrical trailer.

At the Earth's Core is an inspired companion piece, catching just the right tone for the appropriately named Burroughs' pulp adventure about Victorian inventor Peter Cushing and the inevitable Doug McClure ending up in the underground world of Pelucidar and battling its evil telepathic fighting dinosaurs. It's men in monster suits time, which is a lot more fun than stop-motion or CGI if you're willing to suspend your disbelief, and if you're not there's always Caroline Munro's cleavage to look at. Aside from what may well be Peter Cushing's worst performance, an irritating but dottier rehash of his movie Dr Who ("You can't mesmerize me, I'm British!"), it's easily the best of the John Dark-Kevin Connor-Doug McClure fantasy adventures, surprisingly well directed and boasting an atmospheric use of color. Never especially good at exterior scenes, Alan Hume's photography gains immensely from the control a studio set gives him (the film was shot entirely on soundstages) to paint a luridly vivid world worthy of a pulp novel cover. Not high art but definitely great Saturday matinee fun.

The only extra is the US trailer - which sells it as a horror film! - but the film has a very good widescreen transfer, although there is briefly a slight tramline in one scene at the end.

Price, Cushing and McClure!.......2005-11-12

This Beneath-The-Surface themed double feature from MGM is pretty mediocre. Neither film is really bad, but neither are anything to write home about either. War Gods Of The Deep starts things off. Basically Tab Hunter(who looks like an early prototype for Casper Van Dien) and David Tomlinson(with a pet chicken in a picnic basket) go searching for Susan Hart, who has vanished from her bedroom. Finding that old reliable secret passage behind the bookshelf they find themselves going deeper and deeper into a cave til they end up in a city beneath the sea ruled by Vincent Price. Price kidnapped the girl coz she looks like his late wife(how's that for original?) and I'm assuming he wants to get jiggy with her. He's also stressed coz an underwater volcano is a ticking timebomb that will destroy his beloved city. Price sees our heroes as meddling pains in the ass, so he decides to execute them though he doesn't keep them very well guarded coz they seem to just venture out whenever they want to. The first hour's a bunch of scenes of Price talking about his civilization and such. Finally are heroes are let out into the ocean with scuba gear and are hunted by Price's soldiers as well as the gill men that lurk around the city. These horrifying gill men are nothing more than guys in torn clothes and obvious rubber masks. The Creature From The Black Lagoon is much more believable. Price does alright with what he's given. He's always a decent villian even if the movie isn't all that decent. Hunter is typical tough guy and Tomlinson and his rooster are the comic relief characters. Not bad but far from good. Actually, kinda boring. The second feature, At The Earth's Core, is the better of the two, but that's not saying much. It's another collaboration between director Kevin Connor and star Doug McClure(The first being The Land That Time Forgot). McClure and Peter Cushing have one of those neato machines with the giant drill on the front that allows you to burrow through the earth. Well, somewhere in the middle, they get stuck and find themselves in a prehistoric kind of world very similar to the "Before Time" films. The center of the earth is pretty much a jungle with a red/pink sky and a cave. Lots of red lighting and lots of lava in this film. The primitive humans(that speak english) are slaves to evil pterodactyl men who control an army of neanderthal type goons(who have a bizarre way of speaking. You know the sound it makes when you are listening to a cd and you hit the FF button?). The visuals and monsters in this movie are at about Godzilla level. The arrival of the badazz McClure sparks a slave revolt and soon everyone's had it up to here with these pterodactyl schmucks. It may sound like cheesy B movie fun, and it is, but it's also a bit more boring than it should be. Cushing is the comic relief this time as an absent minded english scientist. He's got that "Oh, My!", "Oh, Dear!" reaction to everything. A very far cry from his Frankenstein portrayal for sure. Caroline Munro is there just to look hot like she always does. Not bad if you're a fan of rubber monsters and lava. Though I'm sure Edgar Rice Burroughs would want the negatives burned if he saw it. Both films are 2 and a half stars at the very best, but they both beat watching infomercials at 4am.

Average customer rating:

A fun movie from the '70s with McClure battling more silly monsters
It's All About Princess Dia
Silly Fun
Entertaining and a classic.
Another classic!

At the Earth's Core
Starring: Doug McClure , Peter Cushing , Caroline Munro , Cy Grant , and Godfrey James
Director: Kevin Connor
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

The Land That Time Forgot/The People That Time Forgot
The People That Time Forgot
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
One Million Years B.C.
Journey to Center of the Earth

ASIN: B00005O06Z
Release Date: 2001-11-20

Amazon.com

High adventure and hooty special effects make At the Earth's Core a colorful camp treat. Doug McClure plays David Innes, the brawn to Dr. Abner Perry's brains. The two have developed the Iron Mole, a vehicle that bores through solid rock. A test run goes too well and before you know it they're neck-deep in scantily clad cave women and telepathic lizard-birds. Peter Cushing has a good time playing against his usual type as the absentminded Professor Perry, while McClure sticks to cigar-chomping macho swagger. Older kids will enjoy the colorful sets and fire-breathing animals, while adults will get a kick out of the hilariously outdated gender politics. At the Earth's Core is well worth turning off your brain and taking a look. DVD version includes the original trailer and French and Spanish subtitles. --Ali Davis

Customer Reviews:

A fun movie from the '70s with McClure battling more silly monsters.......2006-04-28

In the late 1970s Doug McClure made a career out of movies like this. Starting with THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT in 1975 he managed to come out with one such movie a year until WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS in 1978 (curiously titled on the Amazon catalog as WARLORDS OF THE DEEP). And this effort is the second in the "series" (the sequel to LAND, THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT was a 1977 release).
Essentially they follow much the same formula, in essence a group of people from a past era discover an unexplored realm, mingle with an undiscovered people and battle some of the cheesiest monsters ever committed to celluloid.
In this effort McClure plays David Innes, an American who agrees to back a Victorian scientist (played wonderfully by horror veteran Peter Cushing) in his experiment to bore into the side of a mountain in Wales. Sounds simple enough, except they misjudge the power of their contraption (the Iron Mole) and end up at the center of the Earth among a group of people enslaved by giant birds.
The mere physics aside this is a pure popcorn B-movie, but it is a lot of fun too. I'm a sucker for center of the earth movies, whether that be the classic James Mason version of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH to the 2003 thriller THE CORE. So, perhaps it should be no small surprise that I have a fondness for this movie.
Of course there's also the power of nostalgia. I never saw this movie in the theater (though I did catch WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS there), but I saw it when it arrived on television. I must have been about 10 years old. In other words - I was too young to care about the physics that tell us that the center of the earth is pure molten, swirling lava. And too young to care that the giant birds were clearly just people in giant costumes, but not too young to notice that Caroline Munro was incredibly attractive. It's not surprising that the next year she would be appearing as a femme fatale in the James Bond movie THE SPY WHO LOVED ME.
Yes, Munro is a real attraction for this movie, but I also enjoyed the performances of Cushing and McClure in what is 90 minutes of 1970s camp. Overall it's worth a spin and the DVD includes the original theatrical trailer.

It's All About Princess Dia.......2006-03-28

'At The Earth's Core' is sci-fi silliness from '76. There is absolutely no reason why anyone would want to watch, or own this film. Well, maybe one reason and that reason would be CAROLINE MUNRO! Yes, the beautiful Brit who played the sexy Margiana in 'The Golden Voyage of Sinbad' three years earlier is back as the scantily clad Princess Dia and she looks as incredible as ever.

Watch Princess Dia in her two piece loincloth run from the dumbest looking bunch of blow-up dinosaurs and giant, woman eating, telepathic birds you've ever seen. Make no mistake about it, this DVD is for Caroline Munro fans only, a silly but lovely guilty pleasure to be sure.

Silly Fun.......2005-12-30

It is impossible to confuse this movie with anything serious. Doug McClure is adventurer David Innes, who accompanies Dr. Abner Perry (Peter Cushing) on a journey into the earth's core. Once they pair reaches the interior of the earth, they discover that everyone speaks English, except for the telepathic Meyhas, who communicate telepathically to the accompaniment of sound effects that clue you in to what is happening.

Suitable to a movie of this type, one of the people that David and Dr. Perry discover is Princess Dia (Caroline Munro, who also appeared in the James Bond movie "The Spy Who Loved Me" the year after this movie was released, both Dr. Phibes movies, and "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad," among others). Princess Dia is suitably undressed for the occasion, providing incentive for David and Dr. Perry to upset a status quo that appears to have existing for thousands of years.

In addition to the Meyhas, which are bird-like lizards, are other critters that appear to have some vague connection to dinosaurs, or perhaps I would be more accurate in saying that many of the creatures have vague connections to dinosaurs. Other creatures appear to be completely fictional. The environment seems to be a jungle, in a movie set sort of way.

This movie is a genuine cheese-fest, and yet it is enjoyable if you disconnect it from Edgar Rice Burrough's original story and watch with your brain mostly disconnected. Or you could make fun of it as you watch it (which is what I tend to do). If you have enjoyed other movies filmed about the same time using a similar style, "The Land That Time Forgot (1975)" and "The People That Time Forgot (1977)," this one will be a must-have for your collection.

Entertaining and a classic........2003-07-21

This movie starts good, but it get static, silly and stiff toward the mid-end of it. Overall: Fair to Good.

Another classic!.......2003-07-02

When I was a kid, Doug Maclure movies were a Sunday afternoon tradition. Giant rubber dinosaurs and paper mache monsters. Awesome!!! Still as much fun to watch today as they were 20 years ago.

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