Viaggio al centro della Terra

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.

I recently saw this again in the following circumstances:

1. I saw it on the Big Screen at Loew's in Jersey City

2. Arlene Dahl was at the pre-movie reception and later participated in a Q&A session with one of the hosts. If she isn't one of the most charming and gracious Hollywood types I've ever met then she's an even better actress than she's ever been given credit for.

This IS a Big Screen Movie, it must be seen on the Big Screen to be fully appreciated and enjoyed. Despite the fact that it has what I would call a small set quality-once they begin the descent there are only 5 actors with regular lines and they are usually in close proximity to one another, this is an Epic and deserves Epic viewing. Yes it has its share of Movie Mistakes-I noted that all the male actors remain clean shaven throughout and receive regular haircuts. In the scene where Pat Boone discovers the forest of mushrooms and they go hog-wild eating them, Arlene Dahl reminds them that they will soon find the taste of salt beef appealing, it occurred to me than an individual could carry rations for at most 1 week, and here it is the 256th day of the Expedition.

The writers took liberties with Verne's story. In a program note handed out at the theater it was pointed the heroes were changed from Germans to Scots, a Swede and an Icelander because 14 years after the end of WWII English speaking audiences would not accept German heroes. Arlene Dahl's character is a new addition, what Verne stories I've read have almost no female characters. But in addition to eye appeal she also is the translator for Big Hans. Having first seen this movie as a 10 year old the "battle of the sexes" went completely over my head (though 10 year old boys like to look at pretty ladies too)this time around I appreciated it, especially as her character and her portrayal are of a strong willed and assertive woman-they had plenty of those in the 19th Century.

Before the screening there were some introductory remarks. The host said the story can be seen as both straight adventure in a physical sense and as a psychological adventure-penetrating deeper into the human psyche with Count Saknussem representing the Dark Side of humankind but not completely evil. He said note how Bernard Herrman's score uses lower registers as they go deeper into the Earth.

Some of Arlene Dahl's comments:

1. Gertrude the Duck had 4 stand ins, she had one.

2. She said the bats in some of the caves took a liking to Pat Boone, and he seemed to get along with them, so they called him "Bat" Boone. She said he was a much better actor than he is credited as being, said he was fairly easy to work with.

3. She said they all, and Pat Boone especially, worked on their accents. Pat Boone developed a very convincing Scottish burr. Then they got back to the US, Daryly Zabuck decided the dialog in accent s was to hard to follow, they had to re dub their dialog. Naturally the dubbers missed spots-you will hear them.

4. And when she saw it with us she hadn't seen it in 50 years.

I can attest to the feelings expressed by the last couple commentators about 1959's "Journey To The Center Of The Earth." This is a wonderful family film from the bygone Eisenhower-era of the 1950s. Even though I've been watching it on TV since I was a kid in the sixties, I'd only seen pan&scan versions, and it wasn't until I got it letterboxed on laserdisc that I finally saw what a big-screen entertainment this movie was meant to be. It has wonderful scope and a score by Bernard Herrmann that takes you right down into the bowels of the earth. Listen to it and you'll notice what I mean, as the movie progresses the music keeps going into a lower and lower register. Five organs were used, including one meant for a Cathedral. (The complete original recordings of the score are available on CD from Varese Sarabande.) This movie also has the great James Mason in it, so you know it's got to be good. Sure it's long in the telling and takes a while to get you down that extinct volcano in Iceland, but it's fun all the way with great special effects work by L.B. Abbott and matte paintings by Emil Kosa Jr. The only way to watch this movie is in wide-screen and it's long past due that 20th Century Fox puts this out on DVD in a letterboxed anamorphic transfer. Let's hope that they do it soon.

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.

I suppose the best way to appreciate a widescreen Cinemascope film is to have seen it on a large movie theater screen in the first place. I remember that day well, back in Brewster, NY, late 1959. My best friend David Vail and I were 7 years old apiece and thrilled at the prospect of being allowed to see the movie un-supervised (a very rare privilege) and the cavernous, dark movie theatre only heightened the sense of mysterium tremens. We felt as if we were fellow travellers, accompanying the Lindenbrook expedition on its mission to the center of the earth. Dimly aware that the film had scary elements, we vowed not to eat any of our limited budget sweets until a truly "scary" moment appeared. It took a while but it came. Many years later Spielberg and Lucas would pay homage to that moment in their throwback serial film "Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark" but in the intervening years I have had recurring dreams about being chased by a boulder down a narrow passageway.

"A Journey to the Center of the Earth" is a movie I see over and over again. Chiefly because the story is compelling and true to the quasi whimsical and scientifically speculative writings of Jules Verne. What I find appealing about Verne is that he is free from the cynical and existential bindings that have fettered other illustrious but more contemporary science fiction writers. Verne goes about his business unshackled by theorems, proofs and devastating world wars. The industrial revolution is barely a generation old and science is making great leaps. Anything is possible; a trip to the moon, a long voyage undersea, a journey to the innermost recesses of our planet. While you watch the film it is easy to suspend your belief because you are forced to place yourself in the context of the Great Explorations. The story simply draws you in for the same reason the tale of Sir Ernest Shackleton draws you in or the accounts of the last days of Pompei; or, a superb story like Edgar Allen Poe's "The Gold Bug" draws you in.

Levin's treatment of the tale is excellent. This is one of those rare examples where the film is better than the book. The dour trio of three male expedition members in the book is replaced by a balanced quartet, adding a greater range of human interaction, a little sexual tension (without it condescending or demeaning ot the female character) and a side plot (the nefarious and righteous Count Saknussem). The preamble is longer and the conceit of using a plumb line as the key element (McGuffin if) you will) is a stroke of narrative genius. The movie loses no momentum by investing time in character development and the the reasons for setting up the expedition. James Mason is perfect as the obsessed scientist. Pat Boone does a fairly good job as the "leading man" and male ingenue. Arlene Dahl is sophisticated and her Scandinavian background gives her role credibility. Hans in probably the only movie role he ever played is more than adequate as the practical, strong man. then there's Gertrude, played well by... a duck.

The story is well paced, nuanced and served well by a stunning score by one of the true masters of mood: Bernard Herrmann. At times airy and light the music also comments brilliantly on the action via horn arrangements and sultry, chilling cellos that give a a deep sense of foreboding.

On a deeply personal level I have in a strange way often compared this movie to the restlessness of the human spirit. Not merely the desire to physically travel, explore and report back from unknown regions but in the spiritual sense: to unravel the mystery of the self. As a 7 year old I would ponder the great inponderables, life, death, God, the meaning of existence and somehow this movie, cheesy special effects and all, has given me haunting sign posts that the only true travel is the voyage within. So, in a symbolic way, A Journey to the Center of the Earth is the moviegoer's experience of the vast uncharted regions of our deeper self. I know most readers will dismiss these "adumbrations" of the personal "cave" within but I leave you with a few lines from a song that was popular in 1959...

I know, beyond a doubt my heart will lead me there, soon we'll meet, I know we'll meet beyond the shore we'll kiss just like before and happy we'll be beyond the sea and never again, will I go sailing no more sailing.

A Journey to the Center of the Earth has adventure, whimsy and moments of awe with unexpected twists. The characters are at the mercy of the caprices of the nether regions. At times you feel as if the characters are journeying through unpopulated Dantesque landscapes, other times through the richness of primordial and unspoiled prehistoric settings. The voyagers start off darkly in the early teluric going and then by degrees the subterranean world glistens in a unexpected reversal of all that we are led to believe exists below our feet. The variety of visual delights is breathtaking.

This is my favourite film of all time. I have seen it 40-50 times and always find a detail or two at each screening that is imaginative and inspiring. See it if you can in wide screen. You will appreciate it more.