The Incredible Petrified World

When thinking of a catchy film title, "The Incredible Petrified World" is a strange one, as by the third word, you are starting to think of frozen stillness becoming lifeless. So, in this case, it is an apt title.

The simple problem with this film is nothing happens; and it seems forever to occur.

Our four heroes (sorry, two heroes and two women, judging by the subservient roles given to the female leads, and the bleak plot warning that if you step out of line, men will hate and leave you) go down in a dodgy diving bell, which conveniently fails at depth near an underwater cave that glows in the dark (phosphorus they explain). I could be critical of the science at this point, but this claim pales with the completely unexplained manner they can snorkel in and out of the diving bell without it being flooded.

Anyway, once they reach the Incredible Petrified World (aka small cave with glowing walls), they eventually meet a stranger who claims he got there from a shipwreck 14yrs ago. Now, it would have been good if they explained how he might have been able to swim so deep without being scuba supported, although it would have been better to explain why they chose to make him look like Chico Marx with a Santa beard, and wearing caveman clothes.

And thats the main problem; you don't mind putting up with the first three quarters being tedious if there is a payoff. Alas, in this case, the payoff is just the remaining tedious quarter.

If you were looking for a one word description of the film 'The Incredible Petrified World', that word would have to be Boring. I almost wish I could use words like ridiculous or total nonsense but I can't. If that were the case, it might at least have been amusing. Maybe it would have been good for a few laughs. The main problem with this film is that it's just a boring movie. Plain and simple, there is very little excitement. There are no memorable moments, dramatic, comic or otherwise. The word petrified in the title seems to have no relation to anything in the film. My opinion is that neither does the word Incredible. It's too bad, the plot had potential but little to no effort was made to exploit this potential. Stay away from this one. It's a waste of your time.

The Incredible Petrified World is a place where four undersea explorers find themselves when their diving bell cable snaps and the bell is dragged into an undersea cavern which is lit by phosphorous and the pressure is tolerable. What to do the four which consist of Robert Clarke, Phyllis Coates, Allen Windsor and Sheila Noonan, but make the best of it and look for a way out. Fresh air is coming in from somewhere.

It turns out they're not alone, there's 3/4 crazy hermit down there played by Maurice Bernard who has plans, especially for Coates. Not that he would want her for long because the former Lois Lane from Superman is acting like a real diva.

Getting first billing in this film is John Carradine and the producers and Carradine missed a bet here. Carradine who with his classical stage training enlivened many a ghastly bad horror film with that fabulous speaking voice should have played the hermit. He has a few scenes as the inventor of the diving bell in which the four were exploring in. By not doing that casting, The Incredible Petrified World was left just crashingly boring instead of being camp.

Like The Mole People, Unknown World and The Abyss, The Incredible Petrified World (IPW) defies sci-fi conventions by taking place entirely in inner space. Also like Mole People and Unknown World, inner space seems to have been built for human habitation - not only are the cave networks the perfect size for humans to walk upright in, the absurd Cyclotram of the unknown world even has a nicely graded (though bumpy) road to travel along while drilling through solid bedrock.

The only resemblance between this film and The Abyss is the underwater setting. IPW was made with less than a fraction of The Abyss' budget and the most talented actress in the film (Coates) was not paid. The film proceeds with mostly character-actors, and little to no character development.

Four people - a professional diver, two oceanographers and the stereotype female reporter - man the first deep-sea submersible diving bell (ya, this technology was already somewhat obsolete by the 1950s and the Navy was doing far more interesting things but who cares) on its first exploratory mission. Predictably, something goes wrong. But soon enough the crew finds itself in an underwater maze of caverns complete with fish ponds, potable water, a monitor lizard and a vaguely menacing hermit with extremely bad hair.

Putting all the absurdities aside (which is asking a lot), the plot is at least different and does take a few unanticipated turns. The terrestrial portion of the plot - focusing on Carradine as the philanthropic engineer sponsoring all of this - is actually more or less believable and interesting. But any value this plot adds is easily balanced by the laughable goings-on down below - especially the unnecessary and ridiculous hermit subplot.

All in all, I think this film deserves a better rating than it has here on IMDb, but I was seriously reconsidering my rating after I read about Ms. Coates' difficulties resulting from this film.

Recommended for B-sci-fi fans. AAAC (avoid at all costs) for everybody else.

When this film was released back in 1959 to an appalled public, one newspaper reviewer described it as "an incredible petrified movie." Since then, that description has been used over and over to appropriately describe this movie. The plot is about undersea explorers testing a new type of diving bell and the discovery of a vast network of air filled under sea caverns. Inside the caverns they discover an old man who had found his was into the caverns years before. Nothing happens in this film. Its just talk (all of which is not any good) with no thrills what so ever. Nothing! The posters for this film promised undersea thrills and a giant octopus. No giant octopus! No! Not even one measly stock footage octopus to enliven this dull film. The undersea "thrills" are scant. This film was so boring I couldn't wait till it was over. This may just be the worst movie Jerry Warren ever made. As bad as Jerry Warren's other films are, at least something happens in those.