Voyage au centre de la Terre

I have always loved this movie. I have it on tape and have almost worn it out. Time to look for a DVD. THe performances are top notch. Even though Pat Boone falls in and out of his accent he does a creditable job as a Scot. Looks very dashing in the Glendarroch tartan! Jenny sounds like she's from America. They needed a scene where someone explains that Jenny is Uncle Oliver's niece from Kansas.

Arlene Dahl was always a favorite in the 50s and 60s as a strong woman. James Mason is excellent as always. Loved the duck, Gertrude! When I saw this movie as a child, I wanted a duck for a pet. My mother was smart enough to refuse.

I first saw this on TV as a kid in the early 60's and it became a TV staple being shown on network prime time before it went to the Saturday afternoon or late night route. Even as a kid I found this highly implausible and accepted it as escapist fantasy. It's a fun movie and is truly a classic. Director Henry Levin's most ambitious assignment as a director to go up against popular Disney fantasy films of the time, capture the imagination of Jules Verne and make it palatable enough for an adult audience. The unlikely cast of dramatic veteran James Mason, singer Pat Boone, beautiful Diane Baker, sexy Arlene Dahl and Iceland born jock Peter Ronson come together surprisingly well. Veteran screenwriter Charles Brackett who wrote for the screen such classics as Sunset Boulevard, Ninotchka, The Lost Weekend, Niagra and The Bishops Wife adapts the Jules Verne novel. Nominated for three Academy Awards for Art Direction, Special Effects and Sound. This movie is probably more fun to people like me who grew up with it from the time when it was made but it's still a good movie and I've seen it many times as an adult. It would be nice to see in it's Technicolor big screen splendor. I would give it an 8.0 out of 10.

After reading some of the comments on this film I feel I have to spring to it´s defense. You see I am born and bred in Iceland and as I write this I am in front of my computer in Iceland, so you can believe me when I tell you that ALL THE ICELANDIC IN THIS FILM IS REAL. I understood almost everything that the Icelandic character in the film said and I can assure you that it was particularly articulate and well pronounced. Why someone said that it was fake, I don´t know. I am guessing that he did not hear it well because the sound can be pretty bad in these golden oldies. While we are on the subject let me also add that some of the facts concerning Iceland were wrong. The horse carriage used to transport the group to the volcano is out of place. The interior design of the hotel and the maitre d´hotel´s costume was a bit off. But it´s described like that in Verne´s novel as well so it´s no big deal. And besides every ethnic group is portrayed in a very stereotypical manner; Scots, Italians, everybody. Such nitpicking is therefore dull and unnecessary and people should just enjoy the film for it´s imagination.

While this film suffers from some annoying "cuteness" and has lizards parading as dinosaurs, it is nonetheless the best film version of the novel because Verne's themes of exploration and discovery remain. Bernard Herrmann's score is indeed fantastic and this film has a wonderful pace. The cast here is also very talented and the film is so well made one can forgive it its minor flaws.

This movie is one of the best examples I can think of for how one can stun the audience just by making the right use of the essence of cinema: pictures. They vary between being threatening, funny, amazing, beautiful and bizarre but all are highly imaginative. In fact, this movie is one of the most imaginative ever made, imagination being a quality that has disappeared almost completely from Hollywood over the last 40 years. It drags you into the world of its superb settings just the way for example "King Kong" did in 1933. This is just the kind of movie cinema was meant for, up from the days of its beginning (see for example "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" by Georges Méliès, 1902). "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" is pure cinema at its best.