At the Earth's Core 1975

Pellucidar

The world is hollow, you say? An absurd idea! But at one time many believed this to be the case. Some still do.

Edmund Halley is most famous for the comet named after him. He also thought the earth was hollow, a theory he proposed in 1692. The biggest push for the idea, though, came from John Cleves Symmes, who published a pamphlet in 1818 describing how access to the interior could be achieved by traveling through openings at both the north and south poles. Symmes even petitioned the U.S. Congress to fund an expedition to "Symmes Hole"! Alas, Congress wasn't interested.

By 1913 scientists were pretty much in agreement that "the earth is neither hollow nor stuffed with sawdust" (as one of them wrote) but the idea of another world beneath our feet was too good to let die, so in that year Burroughs resurrected the hollow earth in At the Earth's Core. David Innes and Abner Perry build a giant mechanical prospector with which they hope to uncover vast mineral deposits far beneath the surface. On the "Iron Mole's" first trip, however, they discover that their vehicle can't be steered! Death seems certain, for doesn't everyone know that the center of the earth is a molten mass of white-hot magma?

Instead what Innes and Perry discover is that the earth's crust in only 500 miles thick and that the inner surface is inhabited. This is the land of Pellucidar, a place where dinosaurs roam through the jungles, and where saber-toothed tigers hunt the mastodon and mammoth. A tiny sun, the molten core of the earth, hangs in the center of the heavens, shedding perpetual daylight upon Pellucidar. Because the sun never sets, because it is always* now*, there is no such thing as time in Pellucidar! Stranger still, because Pellucidar rests on the inner side of the earth's crust, there is no horizon. The land curves* upwards*, as if you were standing on the inside of a gigantic bowl.

Humans dwell in Pellucidar as well, stone-age men and women who must fight to survive in this savage world. Even worse, these people have been made slaves of the Mahars, a race of intelligent but sinister reptiles who look upon humans as nothing more than beast of burden ~ or as tasty snacks in one of their ghoulish ceremonies!

The struggle of David Innes and Abner Perry to free humanity from the Mahar tyranny is only the beginning of their adventures in Pellucidar. There are a total of seven books in this exciting series, in which Edgar Rice Burroughs takes you on journeys across savage seas infested with plesiosaurs and other hungry creatures, to mountains where pterodactyls roost, and to lands where every waking moment is a struggle to survive. Even Tarzan visits Pellucidar, taking a ride on a dirigible through "Symmes Hole" at the North Pole! So take a journey, via Iron Mole or dirigible, and discover for yourself the wonders, the terrors, and the excitement of Pellucidar!

The complete Pellucidar series!

At the Earth's Core
Pellucidar
Tanar of Pellucidar
Tarzan at the Earth's Core
Back to the Stone Age
Land of Terror
Savage Pellucidar








At the Earth's Core - 1976 - 90 Minutes -90 minutes too long

At the Earth's Core
or At the Earth's Whore.

Year Of Release: 1976
Running Time: 90 Minutes
DVD Released By: MGM: Midnite Movies
Directed By: Kevin Connor
Writing Credits: Edgar Rice Burroughs (novel), Milton Subotsky
Filming Location: Unknown

Starring: Peter Cushing, Doug McClure, Caroline Munro, Cy Grant, Godfrey James, Sean Lynch, Bobby Parr, Michael Crane

Tagline: They're in it DEEP now!

Alternate Titles:
Edgar Rice Burroughs' At the Earth's Core (1976) - (UK: complete title)

Interesting Bits of Trivia:
Actor/stuntman Bobby Parr who played the Sagoth Chief, lost a finger during a fight
sequence with Doug McClure that went wrong.

In the first place please bear in mind that I do not expect you to believe this story.Nor do I expect to believe this movie.It was made a very cheap budget,with guys in suites as Dinosaures.Don't expect Jurassic Park.Don't even expect lizards with flills like Irwin Allen's Lost World.No,expect Puffinstuff.

David Innes.


Cast Of Characters
Dr. Abner Perry: Victorian Era inventor who builds this drilling machine thingy called "The Mole". He appears a bit scattered a lot of the time but man can he shoot a bow.

David Innes: An American business man who's invested himself heavily in Dr. Perry's drilling machine. He used to be Dr. Perry's worst student, but now he's financing the "Mole" project and he's teamed up with the old Doc. He's very slick with the ladies, and for some reason, he bears a striking resemblance to Doug McClure and Bowen Tyler of The Land That Time Forgot. I wonder why that could be?

Princess Dia:She's Dian the Beautiful,in the novel.They must have Dian sounded too white bead or normal and gave the idiotic name Dia.Either or the Burrough Corporation was changing by the letters in novel and they could afford any more ''n''. She's a BABE and obviously works all low budget movies of the 197o's! She may not have much in the line of a formal edumacation, but when you got someone who's this incredibly beautiful, and who's a princess to boot! - I don't think having deep conversations with her will be the first thing that would come to mind.


Ra: Ra is one of those characters who starts out as a jerk, but then turns out to be a pretty cool guy and becomes friends with David. He's courageous, strong, and honorable. He's also the leader of one of the tribes. Unfortunately, he was cursed with one negative quality - his hair. Dude, seriously, that nappy hair is just way funky. I know it's the 70's and all but that thing's really gotta go. It looks like some kind of a clown wig or somethin'.

Gak: Gak is kind of a father figure and the leader of one of the other tribes. He doesn't do much and doesn't have a huge part in the movie. He probably just hung out at the catering truck most of the time downin' the chow.

Hoojah the Sly One: What a weasel this guy is. Besides being a general scumbag, he's also ugly, devious, treacherous, lecherous, and has breath that could knock a roadkill skunk off a crap wagon. And those are just his good points! Oh and ladies, by the way... He's available!

Jubal the Ugly One: This is one big dude, and he doesn't smell any better than Hoojah. Have you ever seen one of those movies where there's a really big dude with a really big club who tries to beat everyone over the head with it? Well, you're about to see another one. Jubal wants Dia for his mate real bad. He may be ugly but he's not blind. Well actually he is in one eye, but you can read about that in the "What The Hell???" section. David had to fight him to win the right to claim Dia as his own. Fortunately for David, he was contracted to work through the end of the film, and unfortunately for Jubal, he wasn't.



The Plot
When Dr. Perry invents a huge drilling machine,the Prospector or Iron Mole,as David Innes call it, with the help of a rich American businessman and former geology student by the name of David Innes, he couldn't have know what adventure awaited them.

When the drilling machine goes out of control, Dr. Perry and David find themselves in a strange underground world, below the earth's mantle.My biggest complaints at the time were events that were changed from the book and how small the world of Pellucidar felt.It looks small,like the stupid planet set the Classic Star Trek series.And Irwin Allen jungle don't help much.I mean,they try with lighting and say it's inside a big cave,but the fantastic stuff you of Pellicidar written in the books and seen comics,isn't here.This Pellicidar was small.

With a lava sky providing light and heat, and strange creatures and vegetation all around them, David and Dr. Perry begin exploring this strange underground realm, only to find that there's a race of humans living in this strange place, and they're being enslaved and used for food by a sentient race of psychic pterodactyls called the Meyhas.2) The cavemen look like hippies. Ghak the Hairy One and his kin should have been Frazetta-esque muscle-builders. Check out the guy talking to Doug McClure. He looks like Gab Kaplan from Welcome Back, Kotter! I agree with Ghak should saying every once awhile.Hey David I got a Joke for you.Two Pellicidarian walk into a cave.

1) The Sagoths were supposed to be apemen not pig-men. Having grown up on The Planet of the Apes films, this seemed a real let down. This may be one of the reasons they didn't do the sagoths that way. I suspect it was more likely budget.They may have tried to the Sagoth's look like Victoian Era British,but they should more monkey like.
Captured, and taken to Pellucidar, the Meyhas' underground empire, they set out to free the slaves, and themselves from the evil that has dominated this underground realm for untold generations.


What The Hell???
1. The drilling machine's got a really nice interior. Wood paneled dash board, comfy chairs, nice brass handles on the controls. Very sweet indeed.
2. I'm wondering how they expected to turn this thing. They're trying to steer it while it's digging through solid rock, but it's like long and straight. How are they supposed to turn it? Seems to me that all it should be able to do is go in a straight line.This is pretty actuate to ERB wrote.After some of the story he wrote gets muddled in alot of quick,jump of stuff writting.Burroughs was William Shakespear,but neither he a hack.He knew how usually to keep things going and wrote as if he was your dear old Uncle telling an adventure of his from some other time and place.
3. When David and Dr. Perry are first underground, they encounter a big dinosaur beast thing that chases them through the underground jungle. There's several funny things here. While they're being chased, Doc turns around and starts flipping his umbrella open and closed at the beast saying "Shoo! Shoo!" Then David sends Doc up a tree to get away from this huge thing. Then David lures the thing away and ends up running into a pit of quicksand. All to get away from a duck birb bill dinosaur beast they they could have outrun with four gammy legs and two pair of crutches with only minimal effort. I mean, this thing was totally slow.1) The Sagoths were supposed to be apemen not pig-men. Having grown up on The Planet of the Apes films, this seemed a real let down. This may be one of the reasons they didn't do the sagoths that way. I suspect it was more likely budget.They may have tried to the Sagoth's look like Victoian Era British,but they should more monkey like.
4. When Doc and David are captured by the Segoths and chained up with the other human prisoners, they meet Dia. As I stated above, Dia is gorgeous! But somebody please tell me - Why do all these people speak English?
5. Why did the Segoths let Doc keep his umbrella? They were quick to steal David's watch, but let Doc keep his umbrella. I guess he'll be using it to kick some butt in a later scene or something.
6. When the Segoth lead the prisoners into Pellucidar, they have to walk through a lava fall curtain. The curtain stops flowing when the bridge is lowered. How the hell could they #1 be so close to the lava without it killing them, and #2 walk over this stone bridge without burning the ever living crap out of their feet?

7. Why are all these big dudes letting the Sagoth push them around? The Sagoth are only about 5' 2" at the most and they look pretty weak. If they tried to push me around like that, I'd bitch-slap 'em into the middle of next week.


8. The prisoners are all eating, and what do I see in Doc's hand? A good sized pocket knife!!!! You mean to tell me that they couldn't have figured out some way to use it to help them escape a long time ago? That's almost like saying, "Oh gee, I almost forgot. I've had this gun in my pocket the whole time. I wonder if we can use it for anything?" Sometimes I wonder how smart Doc really is.

3) The Mahars, while accurate, aren't scary. Again, Mr. Frazetta set our expectation pretty high. What does a 13 year old know of the pressures of cheap film-making? I laugh now when I hear my own son complain about the film versions of Eragon and The Golden Compass. Human imagination and film-making, even in our CGI world, have a long way to go to meet up.
9. David finally fights the Sagoth and escapes to the outside where he's attacked by Ra for no reason. Now I've had crappy days before, but David just has no friggin' luck whatsoever.
10. While David and Ra are fighting, they end up rolling into this cave where Ra is attacked by some kind of man-eating plant creature. David saves his life and all of a sudden they're best buds. So they're sitting on the ground outside the cave, laughing together about what just happened, and all I can think is...who was doing these guys' hair? Most of the hair in this movie looks like bad wigs. By the way, Ra speaks English too. The cavemen look like hippies. Ghak the Hairy One and his kin should have been Frazetta-esque muscle-builders. Check out the guy talking to Doug McClure. He looks like Gab Kaplan from Welcome Back, Kotter! I agree with Ghak should saying every once awhile.Hey David I got a Joke for you.Two Pellicidarian walk into a cave.
11. Two guys in a cave together. They have to climb up a very steep cave wall into the Meyhas grotto. So Ra jumps up and starts climbing the wall and as he does, David puts his hand on Ra's butt just to "give him a little push". I don't know about Ra, but if I all of a sudden felt a hand on my butt, I'd have fallen off the wall.
12. When the Meyhas fly, they swing around like they're on wires and barely move their wings. I don't really care how they were flying, I'm just glad I wasn't standing under them while they were doing it. If you think seagulls are bad, you definitely don't want to be under one of these things when they're flyin' around.
13. I wonder if the wardrobe guy was allowed to take his seeing eye dog into the wig shop with him when he was buying the hair for this movie.

14. Speaking of no luck... David and Ra are going back to try and rescue the slaves and destroy the Meyhas.Which is easy since fly on strings,unlike the ones in Edgar Rice Burroughs original novel. They don't make it very far before they're captured by the Segoth again. Some days it just don't pay to get out of bed.
15. David is given a spear and made to fight this big slow hippopotamus lookin' dinosaur thingy while Ra is chained to a rock. At one point when the hippo beast pushes David back into the crowd of slaves, you see this one woman behind him start smiling and almost laughing as she catches him when he falls back. I guess she finds the threat of being eaten by a giant prehistoric hippopotamus with massive teeth amusing. I mean, it is amusing, but at least she could have stayed in character long enough to finish the scene.
16. After the fight, Ra breaks his chains and then uses them to strangle a Meyhas that is flying down to grab David. Now that's one strong dude!
17. David and Doc escape the caves and in no time, they come across Dia and Hoojah! What luck! Unfortunately they're attacked by a big fire breathing dinosaur toad. Doc comes to the rescue though, killing it with several arrows to the face and throat! Woohoo!!! Nice shootin' Tex! Um, wait a second though. Somethin' just ain't right here. Now, I don't mean to kill the celebratory mood or anything, but where the hell did he find the bow and arrows? Did I miss something?
18. Ok now this is getting ridiculous. They're walking through the jungle and they come across Jubal and Hoojah! Jubal has a badly messed up eye. It looks like the eye of that dude in Cannibal: The Musical, except that Jubal's eye wasn't squirting puss at everyone.
19. So David kills Jubal and now all of a sudden Gak and Ra come piling out of the woodwork right into the clearing where Doc, David, and Dia are standing. Where the hell did they come from???
20. When Segoths die by falling into molten lava, they make a lot of sparks.
21. Ra takes a knife in the back but keeps on goin'! Now that's one tough dude!
22. One of the black tribes' guys who just flashes on the screen for a second as he's shooting a Meyhas with an arrow, looks just like Samuel L. Jackson.
23. I didn't know Meyhas exploded when they die!?!?
24. David just happens to find his watch that the Segoth stole, just as the whole place is exploding and falling apart around them. What luck!
25. Ok, I know there's like lava all over the place and everything, but why is everything exploding? Lava isn't explosive. At least I don't think it is. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
26. David wants to take Dia back with him at the end. She says she can't go because she would be lost in his world. So David leaves her behind!!!! Dude!!! What, are you blind or somethin'????? Where are you ever going to score a girl that looks like that in the above-ground world? I'll tell you something. If I was there, I'd just beat the ever living crap out of him for even considering doing something that stupid. Oh man she's beautiful. *Sigh*
27. So they're getting ready to leave, and I realize something. How the hell did they get the Mole, which had no power and was only sticking part way out of the ground, fully the rest of the way out of the ground and up on an angled frame so that it could dig back down into the earth? I mean this thing literally had to weigh at least 20 tons. Not to mention the fact that it had no power. I mean, if the good Dr. could fix the stupid thing and restore it's power, then why the heck did they get stranded there in the first place?
28. As the movie ends, the "Mole" comes drilling up through the front lawn of the White House. I don't know about back then, but if they did that today, they'd be vaporized in about a half a second by all the secret service guys with rocket launchers. Apparently back then, the taxes were lower, so all they could afford was two guards hangin' out by the front gate who turn around and run away whenever they see something weird...because that's exactly what happened.

The Conclusion

At the Earth's Core is one of those movies you remember watching on Saturday afternoon TV when you were a kid. It's fun, it's stupid, it has dumb looking monsters with bad costumes, it's plot is weak, and weird things happen for no apparent reason and without any warning. It's everything a kid could possibly want in a Saturday afternoon flick.

This is one of those movies that make you glad you grew up during the 70's. For those of us who did, this is more of a nostalgia trip than it would be for say, someone who was born in the 80's or 90's who would watch this film and probably just think it's dumb and cheap looking. Those of us who grew up in the 70's and watched shows like "Land of the Lost" will have a far greater appreciation for this type of film.

Peter Cushing was great in his role as Dr. Perry. It must have been a bizarre character to play, because there were so many aspects to it. His was a very complex character and he pulled it off well. David, who was played by Doug McClure, well, I mean, dude...it's Doug McClure.Whoopie.I mean the guy was likable enough,but he come across to what I imagined as David Innes.He made a better Bowen Tyler to be of if it was done Carson Napier. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch any movie Doug McClure is in and you'll see the light. Dougie was born to act in these kinds of films.No Doug McClure needed to work and Amicus Productions had him there pay role. He lends just the right amount of cheese to the role while still being the tough guy. He ain't always the sharpest pencil in the box, but he somehow always seems to manage to survive and get the job done.

A lot of things didn't make sense in this film, as is evidenced by the large number of items in the "What The Hell???" section, but it just didn't matter. They could have had the Monkees pop out of a cave wall and start singing "I'm A Believer" and it wouldn't have hurt this film one little bit. It's just fun to watch. It's got a lot of action, cheesy monsters, hot chicks, and Doug McClure. What more could you possibly ask for? Oh, and by the way, the "Mole" is one really cool piece of hardware. I think you'll like it.
I could have asked something in the line of Star Wars-a bigger budget,not cheepo tv movie b movie drive crude budget and Indiana Jones action.Obviously they guy who reveiws this saw the movies and didn't the novels-which are better.Burrough,like Spielberg and Lucas understood action,adventure and giving the reader a fantastic setting for his characters to exist within.Amicus Production understood one Tarzan and Edgar Rice Burroughs sell-don't know why,but theres a buck to be made-hey Doug need a job-let roll film.

Doc Thompson

B-Movie Central's Rating: 5 Bees!
nay give maybe two Bees and call a guilty pleasure and not Star Wars or Indiana Jones.
Doc Thompson

Does the answer lie somewhere upon the bosom of the broad Sahara, at the end of two tiny wires, hidden beneath a lost cairn? I wonder.
And will they do a sequire.No,that can't adapt the next two or three books,because they had me leave Dia-Dia,who the fuck this Dia ?I was supposed to meet Dian the Beautiful.But I met dingy british gal,with buck teeth,from those Doctor Phibes movies.
PS.Wonder what Tarzan's doing.Probably hanging with Cheetah.
David Innes.

Who the fucks Cheetah ?
Tarzan.
David Innes.