Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

Regisseur:

Henry Levin

Drehbuchautoren:

Jules Verne (novel)
Walter Reisch (screenplay) ...

Premierendatum:

29. Januar 1960 (Bundesrepublik Deutschland)

Genre:

Abenteuer | Familienfilm | Romanze | Sci-Fi

Werbezeile:

A fabulous world below the world

Plot:

An Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth's center.

Plot Keywords:

Stone | Spear | Engagement | Skeleton | Language Barrier

Filmpreise:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 1 win

Nutzerkommentare:

Jules Verne's vision, wonderful if somewhat flawed.

Besetzung

Pat Boone	...	Alexander 'Alec' McKuen
James Mason	...	Sir Oliver S. Lindenbrook
Arlene Dahl	...	Carla Göteborg
Diane Baker	...	Jenny Lindenbrook
Thayer David	...	Count Saknussem
Peter Ronson	...	Hans Belker
Robert Adler	...	Groom
Alan Napier	...	Dean
Gertrude the Duck	...	Gertrude

Alternativ:

Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth
Trip to the Center of the Earth
Reise zum Mittelpunkt der Erde, Die (Österreich) (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) [de]

Länge:

132 Min

Produktionsland:

USA

Sprache:

Englisch | Isländisch | Französisch | Italienisch

Farbe:

Farbe

Seitenverhältnis:

2.35 : 1

Tonverfahren:

Dolby SR (re-issue) | 4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Altersfreigabe:

USA:Approved | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Iceland:Unrated | UK:U | USA:G (1969) | West Germany:12

Drehorte:

Carlsbad Caverns National Park - 3225 National Parks Highway, Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA

Firma:

Cooga Mooga

Dies und das:

James Mason reportedly had very little patience with the "movie star" preening of Arlene Dahl and the relationship between the two off set was very much like what you see on screen.

Pannen:

Abfolgefehler: The rope that Carla trips on while trying to escape the dinosaurs is shown to catch the tip of one of her boots, then around her ankle, then at the tip of her boot again.

Dialogzitate:

Alec McKuen: [after discovering Professor Göteborg dead in his hotel room] Why didn't they tell us at the desk?
Sir Oliver Lindenbrook: Hotels rarely advertise the fact that there are corpses lying around.

Bezüge zu anderen Titeln:

Verweis/Anspielung/Erwähnung in The Descent (2005)

Soundtrack:

The Faithful Heart

Jules Verne's vision, wonderful if somewhat flawed.

In this day and age when relations between France and America are not terribly cordial, one of the uniting factors in the past has been the popularity of author Jules Verne. If I had to guess I would say he was the most popular French author in the USA and has been that for some many decades now.

His books set firmly in the 19th century offered a wonderful vision of things to come that our own deep seated curiosity will lead us to find. Someone out there correct me if I'm wrong, but the very international Mr. Verne never had a French hero in any of us books. Science to him was not the property of one nation or man, but something that should benefit us all.

His characters for Journey to the Center of the Earth are from Scotland, Sweden, and Iceland. And the story begins in Scotland with Geology Professor James Mason getting a piece of unusual lava rock from student Pat Boone, thereby setting in motion a chain of events that will take them to Iceland and a passage deep into the earth's bowels.

James Mason heads a fine cast and does very well by the part of Professor Oliver Lindenbrook, geology professor and explorer. The film opens at the University of Edinburgh. I am told that even today Edinburgh has kept it's historic traditions and look. The film does capture it in it's opening sequences.

Arlene Dahl, Swedish, plays the widow of a Swedish professor who was a rival to James Mason and sought to beat him to the opening passage in Iceland. He's murdered and she has inherited all the equipment her husband has bought that James Mason needs and she blackmails him into taking her along. Of course that works out just fine for both of them.

Also along is geology student Pat Boone. Now maybe someone who was a Scot should have played Alec McCowen, but Boone was in his heyday as a teenage idol, a clean cut Elvis. That sure brought in the teenybopper trade. Boone is a pleasant singer and he sings a Robert Burns poem set to Jimmy Van Heusen's music.

Thayer David is the descendant of a Count Arne Saknussem who originally found the passage and David wants to keep it for himself. He's our villain and he follows our intrepid explorers into the earth.

Peter Ronson is our native Icelander and since he speaks no English, Arlene Dahl comes in handy as a translator. The most ridiculous part of the film is Ronson's insistence on bringing his pet goose along. I mean, really, what did he think would happen if they ran short of food?

Verne's vision of a hollow Earth with an inner sea is not exactly accepted today. But that doesn't stop from making this a most entertaining piece of cinema.