At the Earth’s Core *** (1976, Doug McClure, Peter Cushing, Caroline Munro, Cy Grant, Godfrey James, Keith Barron) – Classic Movie Review 6,590

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.

Director Kevin Connor’s popular 1976 British sci-fi fantasy adventure film 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 fantasy adventure is adapted by screen-writer (and the film’s producer} 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. Apparently they were good company during production too. Kevin Connor said: ‘Cushing and McClure were a delight as usual and enjoyed working with each other.’

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

Kevin Connor recalled: ‘The script wasn’t the greatest but it had some fun sequences. We devised a colour scheme for Pellucidar that was a mauve-orange backdrop. Most of the film was on one huge stage and therefore the colour was very controllable. We had a lot of fire and some small explosions on the set, plus bubbling eggs blowing up in the bottom of the cauldron that covered the sound-stage floors in this goo.’

‘We tried to get the beasts bigger to interact better with the actors. The beasts were designed so small stunt guys could work inside the suits in a crouched position and on all-fours.’

At the Earth’s Core is directed by Kevin Connor, runs 89 minutes, is made by Amicus Productions and American International Pictures, is released by British Lion Films (UK) and American International Pictures (US), is written by Milton Subotsky, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’s 1914 novel At the Earth’s Core, is shot in Technicolor by Alan Hume, is produced by John Dark, Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky, is scored by Mike Vickers, and is designed by Maurice Carter, with special effects by Ian Wingrove.

The movie premiered at the Odeon Marble Arch in London on 15 July 1976.

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

It did well. On a budget in the $400,000-$500,000 range, it took $3.2 million at the box office.

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

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).

At the Earth’s Core novel 

American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs’s 1914 fantasy novel At the Earth’s Core is the first in his series about the fictional Hollow Earth land of Pellucidar. It was serialised in four parts in All-Story Weekly from 4 to 25 April 1914, and later published as a book by A C McClurg in July 1922.

The cast

The cast are Doug McClure as David Innes, Peter Cushing as Dr Abner Perry, Caroline Munro as Princess Dia, Cy Grant as Ra, Godfrey James as Ghak, Sean Lynch as Hoojah, Keith Barron as Dowsett, Helen Gill as Maisie, Anthony Verner as Gadsby, Robert Gillespie as Photographer, Michael Crane as Jubal, Bobby Parr as Sagoth Chief, Andee Cromarty as Girl Slave.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6,590

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com