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)

Before Luke Skywalker, there was Doug McClure...

His John Dark-Kevin Connor fantasy adventures were a mainstay of Summer holiday movies in the days before Star Wars: they weren't masterpieces, they didn't boast state-of-the-art special effects, but they were exactly what an audience of kids wanted from a film back in the mid 70s.

At the Earth's Core catches 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. This time the puppets are gone in favour of men in monster suits, which is a lot more fun 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 mesmerise 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 colour. 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 matinée fun.