“You cannot mesmerize me! I’m British!”
Drake’s rating: I wonder what the mileage on one of those Iron Moles is like
Drake’s review: This is a movie that will always, in my mind, be inextricably linked with Star Wars. Back when I was a very young Mutant, I pestered my mother to take me see At the Earth’s Core at the local theater.* It honestly didn’t take too much pestering, as my mother was a fan of Peter Cushing, and she was always up for a fun science fiction romp. And this flick pretty much fits that bill, as it’s a silly but entertaining movie that sees Doug McClure once again entering one of the lost worlds created by author Edgar Rice Burroughs and fighting strange creatures while catching the eye of the beautiful princess.
Some eight months and one 1200-mile move later, I again approached her with the idea of taking in another Peter Cushing movie. Hey, if it worked once, right? Even better, this Star Wars flick that I was dying to see also featured Alec Guinness, one of her favorite actors from the Ealing Studios comedies of the late 1940s and early ‘50s.** Sure, she might have said no to Cushing, but there was no way she was going to pass up the chance to see a new Alec Guinness movie.
So it was that I saw Star Wars for the first time, and it was mind-blowing to see the difference between the two movies. Suddenly the styrofoam rocks and rubber-suited stunt men of At the Earth’s Core seemed so dated.
Well, OK, they probably seemed at least somewhat dated even in 1976. But that doesn’t mean that the second of the Amicus films to adapt a Burroughs novel to the screen can’t still be a good time, and for the most part At the Earth’s Core is a fun little flick that never takes itself too seriously.
This one starts off with scientist Abner Perry (Cushing) showing off the huge mechanical contraption that he calls the Iron Mole to the press of his native Victorian England. The device was funded by his former student, David Innes (McClure) and the pair plan on boring it down into the planet because what else are you supposed to do with a giant drill? Things go a bit haywire when the two make their journey towards the center of the Earth, however, and by the time they stop drilling Perry and Innes find themselves in a strange land filled with weird creatures and deadly dangers.
After all, they’re in a world created by Burroughs, and the man did not skimp on putting his heroes into dire straits.
And the straits are dire indeed for Innes and Perry as they get themselves captured by the Sagoths, a simian-like race who seem to be slightly more technologically advanced than the other humans that the pair encounter. Humans that are native to this land, called Pellucidar, but are nevertheless fluent in English because this movie is not going to spend its runtime having Innes and Perry take language lessons. Not when there are prehistoric monsters to fight!
Or at least stunt men running around in monster costumes. Which may look hokey, but I still find them preferable to the rubber dinosaurs of The Land That Time Forgot and its sequel. And yes, I did watch quite a few kaiju eiga when I was a kid, why do you ask?
The Sagoths turn out to be working for some other cats called the Mahars, though, and it’s these guys that are the real problem is Pellucidar. The Mahars are a bunch of telepathic lizard creatures who can kind of fly thanks to the wires hanging down from the roof of their big cave. I think we’re supposed to ignore those, though. Still, they pose a menace to Innes, Perry and the rest due to their mental powers, which mostly consist of close-ups on their glassy reptilian eyes accompanied by high-pitched sound effects.
It turns out that mind control is a pretty easy on the FX budget.
At the Earth’s Core is a corny, old-fashioned flick that keeps the action rolling along as Innes and Perry help to free the locals from Mahar control, fight dinosaur-adjacent monsters and rescue the ridiculously beautiful Princess Dia (Caroline Munro, Starcrash) from the evil giant Jubal. Granted, it’s no Star Wars and it lacks that film’s polish as well as its massive cultural impact. But it’s still fun watching Doug McClure punch Sagoths and to see Peter Cushing playing the loopy professor.
Sure, there are no Death Stars, but the Iron Mole is pretty cool. Even if it does go the wrong way.
*It was playing as a double-feature with Futureworld.
**I later learned that it was the casting of Cushing and Guinness that also sold Marvel Comics publisher Stan Lee on getting the rights to Star Wars when editor Roy Thomas approached him with the idea.
Intermission!
- The Iron Mole is pretty cool. It’s a very Steampunkian piece of machinery.
- There is a LOT of purple lighting in Pellucidar. Maybe it used to be a disco.
- Rubber monster suit! Run!
- David finds out he was supposed to claim Dia after fighting for her. Oops! Quite the barbaric faux pas.
- David escapes, and makes a friend. They bond over their desire to punch Sagoths.
- Dr. Perry must have minored in archery at Oxford.
- “You have defeated Jubal. Dia is yours.” The beginning of a healthy relationship.
- Perry is now teaching Archery 101 to the locals. That minor degree is really coming in useful.
- Lava trap! Justin put one of those in the Mutant Lunch Room after his snickerdoodles kept disappearing.
- Exploding eggs! Again, I have so many Mutant Lunch Room stories…