|
|
 |
Journey to the Center of the Earth
 |
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Find all by 20th Century Fox
Directed By: Henry Levin
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Theatrical Release: October 12, 2008
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
|
Retail Price: $14.98
Online Sale Price: $12.99
Save $1.99 Today!
* Price is subject to change.
This item qualifies for
Free Super Saver Shipping! |
Starring: Pat Boone, James Mason, Arlene Dahl, Diane Baker, Thayer David
The accent is on fun and fantasy in this film version of Jules Verne's classic thriller that stars James Mason, Pat Boone, and Arlene Dahl. With spectacular visuals as a backdrop, the story centers on an expedition led by Professor Lindenbrook (Mason) down into the earth's dark, threat-laden core. Members of the group include the professor's star student, Alec (Boone), and the widow (Dahl) of a colleague. Along the way lurk dangers such as kidnapping, death, sabotage by a rival explorer, and attacks by giant prehistoric reptiles. But they also encounter such magnificent wonders as a glistening cavern of quartz crystals, luminescent algae, a forest of giant mushrooms, and the lost city of Atlantis. Remaining faithful to Verne's story, this is a sweeping adventure that offers enough thrills and entertainment to satisfy every explorer in the family.
User Submitted Journey to the Center of the Earth Reviews
September 12, 2008
awesome
one of the best movies out there. if you love sci-fi then this one is for you.
September 11, 2008
The Still-Entertaining 50s Sci-Fi/Adventure Classic
I remember this movie vividly from my childhood and its frequent TV reruns, this one and the 1954 classic--whaddaya know, also starring James Mason, and adapted from Jules Verne--20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Both are classics with giant monsters, super-cool fantasy vistas, and good, red-blooded adventure. This film endures to this day as largely harmless family fare; my 10- and 12-year-olds even enjoyed it.
The story: there's a big hole, and some intrepid European scientists crawl on down inside following a mythical path, and just to see what's down there. It's magnificent, spooky, dangerous, and thrilling, and an evil competitor, monsters and Atlantis are thrown in, too.
Set in the late 1880s, this film now seems to be a late 50s homage to a far more simple and clearly more respectful time, before world wars and before Communism, when the British Empire was king, er, emperor. Mason is fantastic here as the stiff upper everything Sir Oliver Lindenbrook, coming off his turn as the wonderfully smooth yet purely cruel foreign bad guy in the classic North By Northwest.
Our bad guy in this film is just too perfect. Poor Thayer David is the wonderfully pompous Count Saknussem. Physically, he's chubby, with beady eyes, and tight bad guy lips, reminiscent of Telly Savalas' ultra-slimy Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The count has got a bad haircut, pressed flat to his round heat. He's got that spoiled man-child look, with the outdated high-waisted pants to emphasize his girth. He's a brat boy all grown up, taking what he wants, with no remorse over how he gets it. One of the best parts of the movie is when he starts in on the typical bad guy monologue, and accuses Mason's Sir Oliver of being so bourgeois, which makes the count a commie, no less. Given its 1950s setting, you can't help but think it was intentional. So, in the battle of capitalism versus communism, who do you think is going to win? I could feel Ike smiling down on us from his white-bread heaven.
Arlene Dahl is massively hot throughout this film, with that long, often piled-up red hair, her strangely, mysteriously unidentifiable accent, not quite Icelandic but so sexily foreign (she was originally from Minne-sohta, don'cha know). Her makeup and wardrobe are impeccable throughout, tiny of waist and big of bosom. She was a magnificent 30 when she made this film. Strangely, she often comes across in the movie as physically bigger than Mason, who was 5'11½", but she was 5'6". Maybe it's the force of her character, or maybe it's all that balled-up hair.
The interplay between Mason and Dahl's characters is fun to watch, if anything as a 1950s interpretation of late 19th century courting rituals. I mean, how hot was it in 1959 to have Mason order her to remove her corset? A man ordering a woman to remove a part of her fundamental underclothing, and then her remain without it for the remainder of the voyage--whoa. We even get the money shot; the sadly doomed Gertrude the duck dragging the still warm unspeakables through the mysterious underground depths (at which the men smile both good naturedly and knowingly).
Watching Dahl throughout the film, just when we're going to get the hot sex object payoff on the beach, to see Dahl spent and dripping wet, so thoroughly moist and exhausted after the sensual and tense struggle with the massive whirlpool at the very center of the earth, her makeup still so masterfully constructed, you can see how her arm has been so carefully placed and how the sand has been mounded up strategically to prevent any view of what I'm sure is magnificent cleavage. Sure, we can have Pat Boone without his shirt and most of his clothes for most of the film, even stark naked at the end, but we can't see what Arlene had to offer the eventually lucky Sir Oliver. Thanks, 1950s prudishness.
And what of Hans, the gold-toothed Icelandic yokel? He's a little bit comic relief, and a lot of pure manual labor. I guess on some level he represents the untamed depths of the planet itself, but he comes across most of the time as a smiling, jabbering dimwit. But man, does he love that duck.
Watching this film today, it's a little disturbing to see how the "giant lizards" are treated. Of course, they're just normal lizards, blue-screened into the shots to become the horrible giant monsters. When our heroes throw harpoons into the beast on the beach, it's painfully obvious that steel darts are being fired into the real studio lizard. And at the end, the red-painted (lead paint, probably) lizard in the Atlantis chamber gets overwashed with lava, which to my mind looks an awful lot like steaming-hot asphalt with red dye in it. Sure, they're just lizards, but it's also very plain to see that these critters are being maimed and/or killed. I'm reminded of the very seldom seen 1970s schlock-horror The Food of the Gods, with the gigantic bunnies and especially the up-sized rats being blasted--and I do mean physically blasted--as they climbed about on the miniaturized cabin; that's why you never see that one on television.
All in all, it's a fun film, fantasy and schmaltz all the way, and often just plain defying the laws of physics, with a score to match from the soaring symphony blast of discovery and adventure to the low-end warbles filling out the menace of the man-eating lizards. It's true family fare, even with the poor lizards being abused, where the happy ending is never in doubt and the bad guy soon enough gets what he deserves.
September 2, 2008
A good film version of Vern's book
I purchased this version of "Journey" to compare with the recent re-release. It held up well. Boone's role was weak but he was just cast for the fan appeal he'd bring being the current 1959 heart-throb. Mason, as usual, took the role seriouly and carried the sci-fi story along with assurance. The scene stealer though was the duck. This movie was a lot of fun to watch. It was solidly scripted, acted and the sets were awsome for 1959.
August 27, 2008
Classic video
I saw this movie on TV and wanted a good old fashioned adventure movie that the whole family could enjoy and the interest level is high for kids of all ages.
August 17, 2008
Jules Verne movie
Hard to find classic. Video most enjoyable, brings back childhood memories . Family enjoyed seeing the difference between sci-fi of today and of yesteryear !
August 12, 2008
Journey To The Center Of The Earth DVD
Still a great family classic. DVD format makes it all the better.
Fast delivery.
August 11, 2008
GREAT MOVIE
Journey to the Center of the Earth
All time favorite movie !! So glad to find it on DVD !!
Great memories !!
August 7, 2008
A terrific flic
I first saw Journey to the Center of the Earth on a Saturday afternoon at the Roxy Theatre in Pacific Beach, California. The movie was a profound visual experience to me and at the age of eleven made a lasting impression.
Based on a Jules Verne story of the same name, the movie is a fairly fast paced adventure. Though it moves a little slowly in the beginning, preliminary scenes build in drama and promise that much adventure is to be forthcoming.
It all starts with a lump of suspiciously heavy lava that is given to Professor Lindenbrook (James Mason) by Alec McKuen (Pat Boone) a student in one of his geology classes. The gift is from the class in recognition of Lindenbrook's recent knighting. Puzzled that the lava is heavier than it should be, Lindenbrook chips a small portion of the lava away only to find an object at the center of the sample. Eventually a plumb-bob is discovered with a message inside and that cryptic message ultimately sends Lindenbrook and young McKuen to Iceland for the journey of a life time. Of course, there is treachery along the way and other sinister forces at work. In the end the group who make the trip to the center of the earth grows to five; Lindenbrook, McKuen, and Carl Goteborg (Arlene Dahl) along with a large Icelander Hans Belker (Peter Ronson) and his pet duck, Gertrude (Gertrude). Though rather simplistic in what is conceived to be at the center of the earth, the movie is charming and certainly worth the cost of taking it home.
Some reviewers have been quick to point out the simplistic special effects. Given the fact that the movie was released in 1959 I think the criticism is uncalled for. For its time, Journey to the Center of the Earth has held up quite well and will entertain children and adults even today. There is very little blood, and no language that would make a parent blush, nor is there any overt sexual content.
Part of what makes this movie such a wonderful experience is the terrific soundtrack. Hermann Bernard captures the essence of what a trip to the center of the earth would be like by the use of moody and atmospheric music. The music is such a part of the experience that when I saw the movie Vertigo as an adult I immediately recognized a similarity between that soundtrack and that of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Well, why not? Both movies were scored by Bernard.
Obviously, Journey to the Center of the Earth is a product of a Hollywood of a different era; a different generation of filmmakers. Journey stands as a testament to better days as do hundreds of other films.
I highly recommend.
Peace
July 27, 2008
Childhood favorite that has held up
Quite simply, the greatest film ever. OK, maybe my favorite film. I used to pore through the Sunday television supplement in the paper hoping to see Journey To The Center Of The Earth listed.
Great Carlsbad Caverns scenery. James Mason portrayed the scientist as a brave leader. Pat Boone was actually good; he was given but one showcase song. Arlene Dahl was allowed to hold her own with the men. You cannot describe Journey as having a feminist outlook, but it certainly was better than The Time Machine. Peter Belker was good portraying a character who spoke only Icelandic (from what I understand, Icelandic is medieval Norwegian.) Who knows, he could have been speaking the language for all I know. Thayer David was a multi-dimensional villain. Pure evil would have been distracting.
There is action, adventure and Pat Boone takes his shirt off for an hour. There was romance and as a young child it was not too bad.
Who can forget Gertrude, the duck?
Over two hours, but it did not lose my attention.
July 11, 2008
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) Movie Review
An adventurous science fiction film, 1959's Journey to the Center of the Earth is perhaps the most accurate adaptation of the outstanding Jules Verne novel of the same name. With Academy Award-nominated special effects, stunning sets, and monstrous prehistoric creatures, the film is smartly paced and essential viewing for fans of the story. Much of the dialogue attests to its age, and the many excuses to squeeze star Pat Boone's singing into the film might lessen its chance of appealing to newer audiences, but as a nostalgic Harryhausen-esque venture, it doesn't disappoint.
In 1880 Edinburgh, Sir Oliver Lindenbrook (James Mason, who takes second billing) discovers a plumb bob buried in a piece of lava rock, with a written clue from an Icelandic scientist who believed that a world existed within Earth. He sends it away to an expert for closer examination, only to discover that that expert, Professor Goteborg, has scurried away to Snaeffels to begin a journey to reach the center of the earth on his own.
Intent on besting his competition, Lindenbrook embarks on his own mission of discovery, taking his good friend and student Alec McEwen (Pat Boone) along for the ride. Before their descent into a vast crater gateway even begins, murder and deception lashes out, revealing a traitorous competitor also vying for the discovery. Goteborg turns up dead, and his widow Carla (Arlene Dahl) demands to accompany the group. Joined by trustworthy muscleman Hans (Peter Ronson) and his pet duck Gertrude, the foursome set out to retrace a vanished scientist's steps to making history.
It's no musical, but Boone quickly starts things off with the love song "Red Red Rose" for his bride-to-be Jenny. There's evening singing to Lindenbrook as he is congratulated for his recent knighthood. And never is the opportunity missed for a quick song as the group descends the volcanic crater. Is any of this in the novel? Despite the capitalizing on singing talents, the film follows more closely to the source material than any other theatrical adaptation. Seemingly misplaced humor is also thrown in, as well as ample reserves of romance. But when the film finally gets to the world within the world, it's solid science fiction and adventure.
The sets are impressive and memorable (Carlsbad Caverns served as many of the backgrounds), with giant mushroom forests, an ocean of the underworld, and the crumbled lost city of Atlantis. More exciting still is the inclusion of monstrous lizards and prehistoric creatures. Rather than stop-motion, the special effects include adding prosthetics to real reptiles, and superimposing their humongous images over the wide shots of our tiny heroes.
There's always time for tea with this group, moments for breaking out into song, terribly annoying sound effects and booming music (especially when chased by reptilian horrors), unexplainable conveniences for survival, an Indiana Jones boulder chase, and the typical "woman falling on the ground during an escape." But Journey to the Center of the Earth is still entertaining fantasy in that it brings to life the ideas explored in the Jules Verne classic science fiction novel.
- Mike Massie
|
|
