Pat Boone, while hindered with a faux Scottish accent does a decent enough job playing the dependable McKuen. James Mason's stern manner makes for the perfect taciturn Lindenbrook. Things hit the right note with this great cast. 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' was an immense undertaking for its time and required every known trick in the book to pull it off including practical sets, miniatures, matte paintings, animation, superimposed elements, and forced perspective shots. This film earned three academy award nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Sound, and Best Special Effects - and it's easy to see why. Step by step we watch our scientists march into the unknown and face any number of dangers that are brought to life in this fantastic production. 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' is a very determined and plodding film. As the trio descend deeper and deeper into the unknown, danger meets them at every turn in the form of falling rocks, underground floods, gigantic prehistoric monsters, and even an ancestor of the great Arnie Saccnuson. Along for the great undertaking is the young McKuen, the widow of a rival scientist Carla Goetabaug played by Arlene Dahl, and the handy Icelandic Hans Belker played by former Olympic Athlete Peter Ronson. By an accident of science, Lindenbrook discovers the rock's hidden secrete, a plumb bob baring the signature of the explorer Arnie Saccnuson who disappeared into the depths of the earth hundreds of years before.ĭetermined to follow in Saccnuson's footsteps, Lindenbrook plots his own expedition to become the first man in recorded history to reach the center of the earth and return to the surface. Lindenbrook is instantly taken to the object dubbing it a "scholar's choice." But the intrepid professor's curiosity is insatiable and is determined to learn why this traditionally light rock is so heavy. The young Alec McKuen, Pat Boone, spotted a curiously heavy piece of lava rock and found it to be a suitable gift for his favorite professor. Newly knighted world-renowned Scottish geologist Oliver Lindenbrook, James Mason, is given a simple gift that will change his life and the known course of geological science. Years later it still holds my fullest attention. My personal favorite has long been Henry Levin's 1959 adaptation of 'Journey to the Center of the Earth.' Everything from the great cast headlined by James Mason to the rich art direction to the beautiful Bernard Herrmann score lit up my young eyes and ears the first time I saw it. Rider Haggard, and Arthur Conan Doyle have proved to be inspiration for numerous cinematic and television adaptations. Hollywood has long had a love affair with 19th century adventure novels. "The greatest mystery is right here, right under our feet!" All these delights and more are available on this Twilight Time release by way of a brand-new 4K restoration. Highlighting the perilous exploits is Bernard Herrmann’s titanic score (available here as an isolated track), a landmark masterpiece of fantasy film music. Braving exploding volcanoes, tumbling rockslides, and flesh-eating reptiles, James Mason stars as a courageous if irascible geologist, Pat Boone as his indomitable young assistant, and Arlene Dahl as a lovely widow who becomes an invaluable colleague on their voyage of discovery. Jules Verne’s classic adventure tale about a band of intrepid explorers descending to the hidden reaches of our world is brought to the screen in phantasmagoric CinemaScope® with Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959). “An excellent science fiction fable…an underground picaresque… a thrilling adventure untrammeled by cheese, melodrama, or ludicrous tribes of extras.” “One of the very best Hollywood adventure movies, with lots of monsters, underground oceans, sinister villains, and touches which would have delighted Jules Verne himself.”
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