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Films: J is for...

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

This isn’t the Cushing/McClure Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation At The Earth’s Core (the one with those pterodactyl things that made a backwards noise when they blinked), nor is it the Italian version with Kenneth More, whatever the hell that one was like. And it’s clearly not Rick Wakeman’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth on Ice. An altogether better proposition, this is the original ’50s version with James Mason and, er, Pat Boone, with impressive Technicolor stalactite caves, and less impressive iguanas with stuck-on rubber fins.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. George White

    October 9, 2020 at 10:27 am

    The 70s Italian Journey is actually Spanish, from hack JP Simon, of such trash as Pieces and Supersonic Man. It has a kind of Doctor Who feel, with More and his companions (dubbed by Christopher Guard and Deborah Watling) encountering a time traveller (American-born Spanish-based exploitation regular Jack Taylor) who turns out in a paradox to be the old man who givesthem the map at the begnning. Also has a Kong-alike gorilla, pilfered from the original novel.

  2. Sidney Balmoral James

    October 9, 2020 at 5:30 pm

    There are some rather too realistic shots of iguanas/ dinosaurs in distress in this film – I suspect not all of them came through filming unscathed. If only the same could have been said of Pat Boone.

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