After the sucess of The Land that Time Forgot
(1975), the principle funders AIP quickly commissioned a second film
and so once again a novel of Edgar Rice Burroughs' was adapted. Written
in 1914, At the Earth's Core is one of a number of inner earth exploration stores, a genre made famous (although not started by) Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth
- to this theme Burroughs adds a far more complex story of tribes and
conflict within a dramatic and expanded landscape. Unfortunately the
Amicus production lacked the budget for such an epic tale, and the book
was considerably re-written by Milton Subotsky.
Fortunately
the end script is effective, and in many ways superior to the original
novel - gone is the cliché element that sees Innes and Perry as
the sole inventors and builders of this giant ship, instead it seems to
be a big industrial effort, equally the book's rather vague ending is
wrapped up in much more effective and dramatic cinema style. However,
the pacing is rather quick in many places and keeping the film to a 90
minute run time means that a lot of plot elements are rather hurried
over - the dramatic mole ride from the surface, excitingly described in
the book is quickly brushed over, as are all the explanations for how
life exists inside the world and just whereabouts it is. Compared to
the previous
Land that Time Forgot,
the script here is far more effective at explaining and characterising
the film's cast - Perry is a life long scientist (explaining his
ability to quickly learn the Mayar language and his recognition of the
various pre-historic flora), he is naturally eccentric, and although a
believer in brains over brawn, is prepared to use force if necessary.
Innes is a failed geologist, but from a rich background he had the
money to fund this project, explaining his presence here, and a large
man he is more concerned with brawn than brains. These better rounded
characters mean that there are some very tense scenes, and the audience
really cares about what happens to them.
After his rather generic direction of The Land that Time Forgot,
Kevin Connor gives a much better turn here. The low budget nature of
the production that was very evident in the previous film, is less
noticable here thanks to the complete fantasy setting, allowing for far
more creative design of sets and monsters - although still not as
impressive as the heights of Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion work, the
rubber suit monsters are well merged with the live action and do things
that stop motion would be hard pressed to achieve (see the fire-toad
below). The soundtrack is noticably strange, composed by Michael
Vickers (a member of British jazz group Manfred Mann) it is a light
synthesised score, often remniscent of Claudio Simonetti's score to
Italian fantasy film
Conquest
(1983), or Florian Fricke's work for Werner Herzog. It works well with
the other-worldly nature of the story, and provides a welcome break
from the repetitive orchestral scores of many earlier films.
Peter
Cushing was the obvious choice to play the eccentric English professor
and the role seems to have been perfectly written for him (as indeed it
probably was). Stealing every scene in the film, he is obviously
enjoying himself, flapping his umbrella at an approaching monster and
in the film's best line, proudly declaring
You cannot mesmerise me, I'm British!
before going cross-eyed. Doug McClure gives a surprisingly impressive
turn here, playing well alongside Cushing and suiting the rough and
tumble action scenes. The attractive, and scantily clad Caroline Munro
gives a decent performace as the native Princess Dia, but doesn't get
much to do. The rest of the cast are decent.
Ultimately
the entire film has the ambience of an early Doctor Who serial, and
probably could have worked as a third Amicus Doctor Who film, with some
minor alterations. Although rather rapidly paced, the storyline works
well, bolstered by a superb performance from Peter Cushing and some
decent direction that makes up for the low budget. Some good family
entertainment and a generally enjoyable film, although don't expect too
much. Recommended.
