Journey to the Center of the Earth, derived from 1864 source material by French author Jules Verne, is an iconic adventure film that resides in the fun zone between known science and complete fancy. It premiered today in 1959 and starred James Mason, Pat Boone, and Arlene Dahl, who portray a set of intrepid explorers circa 1880 that travel to Iceland—a place we’ve spent some time and absolutely love—and plan to enter the Earth by lowering themselves into the stratovolcano Snæfellsjökull. They soon discover that there’s a competing explorer, as well as unknown parties willing to kill. They deal with those setbacks, but as Mason and his group consign themselves to the depths there’s someone dangerous on their trail.
This is an absurd movie, but it’s absurd fun. The speculative nature of what lies beneath the terrestrial crust is convincingly rendered thanks to fanciful sets, large scale matte backdrops, De Luxe color processing, and CinemaScope widescreen. When we say convincing, we mean it works because most of what you see is physically real, even if it’s largely plaster and paint. What didn’t work for us was cheesy-ass Boone as the movie’s shirtless sex appeal. Even the Pulp Intl. girlfriends thought he was too milquetoast (there’s a word you don’t see much anymore, but PI-1 did in fact utter it). For our part, we concentrated on Miss Dahl. Overall, Journey to the Center of the Earth is a good night of fun. Suspend disbelief and enjoy.
