
[1959]
DIRECTED BY: Henry Levin
RELEASE DATE: 01.08.2005
AWARDS: Nominated for 3 OscarsĀ®.
STARRING:
Danger and wonder at the Earth's core! The accent is on fun and fantasy in this film version of Jules Verne's classic thriller stars James Mason, Pat Boone and Arlene Dahl. With spectacular visuals as a backdrop, the story centres on an expedition led by Professor Lindenbrook (Mason) down into the Earth's dark core. Members of the group include the professor's star student, Alec (Boone) and the widow (Dahl) of a colleague. Along the way lurk dangers such as kidnapping, death, sabotage by a rival explorer and attacks by giant prehistoric reptiles. But they also encounter such magnificent wonders as a glistening cavern of quartz crystals, luminescent algae, a forest of giant mushrooms and the lost city of Atlantis. Remaining faithful to Verne's story, this is a sweeping adventure that offers enough thrills and entertainment to satisfy every explorer in the family.
Near the end of the movie, when Alec (Pat Boone) is trapped in the tree at the convent, he falls and grabs one of the nearby sheep to disguise his nakedness, you can see the shorts he is wearing.
Fox gave the green light to this big budget CinemaScope production partially on the basis of the success of the recent Jules Verne adaptations, Walt Disney's "20000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954) and Michael Todd's "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1956). As with those earlier films, the heavy cost proved to be a good investment resulting in a big hit at the box office.