Such a frustrating disappointment

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

If it wasn't for the title or the movie trailer I would of turned off the movie at the start. Very Slow moving beginning sequence with ample chatter and a kilt clad Pat Boone. Eventually our group of explorers make their way to Iceland and descend on wondrous features of our world within. James Mason as Sir Oliver Lindenbrook is the leader of this far fetched expedition. Actor, the lovely red-head Arlene Dahl plays the perfect self assured female lead and interpreter for her hand named Hans. In this film Dahl and Mason have a special chemistry as she complains and wants to leave the expedition in a heated argument, having Sir Lindenbrook call her a carriage as they both realize the humor and impossibility due to their circumstances. The heavy in this film is the Count Saknussemm played by the husky Thayer David who wants to derail the group's plans for discovering the Center of the Earth and the lost City of Atlantis. Saknussemm and his aid capture a stray Alec who was presumed lost from his party due to a sink hole but is reunited with his party. Noticible is the gradual loss of clothing on actor Pat Boone as toward film's end he's down to wearing tattered shorts which he looses in a tree on Italian Convent grounds. Somehow this movie holds your interest and you wonder if Pat can save his clothes.

Oliver Lindenbrook (James Mason) is an Edinburgh based scientist who has recently been knighted after becoming Edinburgh's greatest scientist. One of his students Alec McKuen (Pat Boone)purchases a piece of lava for Mr Lindenbrook. Lindenbrook is intrigued by this piece of lava and accidentally discovers that the piece of lava that he's acquired may have originated from a volcano in Iceland which may be directly linked to the 'centre of the earth'. Determined to find out if this piece of lava did originate at the centre of the earth, Lindenbrook and McKuen head off to Iceland, but they encounter many problems along the way.Whilst I did enjoy this film on the whole I must admit the start of the film was a little bit cheesy, twee & sickly-sweet; the weird bit at the start where all Lindenbrook's students are singing to him, the early scene involving McKuen and Lindenbrook's daughter Jenny (Diane Baker). This scene contained some really cheesy and mushy dialogue (it actually made me cringe). Then just after that he started singing to her - ughh!!. Was all this really necessary? Thankfully, after these few cringeworthy early scenes the film does settle down and the adventure soon begins...One thing I liked about this film is that it was a lot of fun - the interaction between the characters was great, the chemistry was good between the principal cast and they all shared good camaraderie. Mason & Dahl were particularly good and you could see that there was a definite power struggle for leadership between the two of them. The film is also slightly sexist in that Lindenbrook initially won't allow Goetabaug to accompany them merely because she's a woman - I think that people need to remember that this film was made in 1959 where sexism and equal rights weren't as prevalent as they are now. I'm not condoning the sexism, but merely stating that it wasn't an uncommon thing in this era. There is a positive spin on this though because Gotabaug for the most part was portrayed as being bright and fairly resourceful rather than a clichéd bimbo or damsel in distress.The only other minor issue relates to food; about 2/3 of the way into the film it's mentioned that they've been travelling for 256 days (which is roughly 9 months), yet they only have a handful of provisions at the start of the journey which begs the question; did they really have enough supplies for 9 months? Even by rationing your intake, I think you'd need more supplies than you'd be able to carry. These issues didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the film, but I couldn't help but think about them during the running time.This is an excellent adventure film and despite the glaring lack of logic within one aspect of the narrative it was still a lot of fun and it also contained some great dialogue and a few memorable characters. It's only really spoilt slightly by its cheesy/sickly-sweet start, but if you can get past the first 15 minutes it's absolutely first-rate.

Was much better when I saw it in 1959, when I was 10. I bought the VHS tape several years ago when my son was young believing he would enjoy it as much as I did when I was his age. He was bored to tears with it. The part that sticks in my mind was the part with the dinosaurs in it. They were obviously live lizards, impressive for the time, but I never understood what kind they were. It looked to me the one was actually stabbed with a spear. I figure it was illegal in 1959 to actually harm animals while filming a movie.It also looked to me that they were actually/really feeding off an other dead lizard, not trickery. Anybody have any ideas?

I would have no hesitation in saying that this version of Jules Verne's story is better than the big budget 2008 version. The cast in this one (featuring James Mason as Professor Lindenbrook, Pat Boone as as McKuen, Arlene Dahl as Carla Goteborg and Peter Ronson as Hans were, I thought, better than the '08 cast, and the story was tighter than that one. And yet, while better than than the '08 version, I still found watching this to be a rather ho-hum type of experience. Setting science aside, and acknowledging this to be a piece of sheer entertainment, some of the adventures that take place under the earth are pretty good and the effects aren't bad. The "dinosaur" scenes might just feature normal lizards with some fins attached and made to look huge worked reasonably well, and there was even a pretty fine piece of acting from Ronson (who played the Icelandic guide) when Hans discovered his beloved pet duck Gertrude slaughtered and confronted the man who had done the deed. I actually found that scene tense. At the same time I sensed no real chemistry between Mason and Dahl, which made the end of the movie feel a bit forced and unnecessary.The introduction to the story (as Lindenbrook begins to put together the expedition) for me went on too long and could have been quite shortened. Frankly, the musical numbers from Pat Boone also seemed out of place and added little. Yes, it's better than the '08 version of the story - which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement. But, for me at least, it still doesn't pack enough of a punch to be considered in any way a classic. (5/10)