At the Earth’s Core *** (1976, Doug McClure, Peter Cushing, Caroline Munro, Cy Grant, Godfrey James, Keith Barron) – Classic Movie Review 6590

Director Kevin Connor’s popular 1976 sci-fi fantasy adventure At the Earth’s Core is the follow-up to his hit The Land That Time Forgot (1974), with the same star, Doug McClure, in a different role.

At the Earth’s Core sends us off to what is an incredibly lively – if perhaps not exactly the nicest – place to spend a vacation, what with all those dinosaurs, warring cavemen tribes and telepathic crow-creatures, the flying reptile Mahars.

Victorian scientist Dr Abner Perry (Peter Cushing) and his young American backer David Innes (Doug McClure) find that a test run of their Iron Mole drill excavating machine has taken them to a strange land within the Earth’s core where, mysteriously, the sun still shines and everyone of course speaks English.

David and Perry are captured by the Mahars, but young Dave falls for the lovely Princess Dia (Caroline Munro), whom he has to try to save from being a human sacrifice.

This Amicus-produced sci-fi adventure is adapted by screen-writer Milton Subotsky from Edgar Rice Burroughs’s 1914 novel At the Earth’s Core, which is the first book of his Pellucidar series. At the Earth’s Core is fairly basic and daft but still good fun, with amusing trick effects and a jolly cast playing it with their tongues firmly embedded in their cheeks. McClure and Cushing are good company on the journey.

Also in the cast are Cy Grant as Ra, Godfrey James, Keith Barron, Sean Lynch, Helen Gill, Robert Gillespie and Anthony Verner.

It is shot in Technicolor by Alan Hume, produced by John Dark, Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky, scored by Mike Vickers and designed by Maurice Carter, with special effects by Ian Wingrove.

It is made at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England.

Doug McClure returned again in 1977 for the direct sequel to The Land That Time Forgot (1974), The People that Time Forgot. Connor recalled: ‘Doug was a great asset.’

Keith Barron died on 15 November 2017, age 83. He plays Bradley in The Land That Time Forgot (1974) and Dowsett in At the Earth’s Core (1976).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6590

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