Journey to the Center of the Earth
An accidental discovery tempts Professor Oliver Lindenbrook (James Mason) and his grad student assistant Alec McEwen (Pat Boone) to follow Arne Saknussem’s ill fated trip to the center of the earth. A big budget adventure story with some pretty okay special effects (for the time). Pat Boone gets top billing!?! I know he was a big teen heartthrob of the time, but billed over James Mason?!?
Overall quite good and reasonably faithful to the book. It’s got the obligatory uppity woman (Arlene Dahl as Carla Götaborg) that all adventure movies of this era seem to have. Oh, and the duck. Count Saknussem (Thayer David), Arne Saknussem’s grandson, provides the equally obligatory archenemy.
Speaking of top billing for Pat Boone… Since he was a teen idol of the period, I suppose it was inevitable he’d have to sing something. It’s Robert Burns poem “Love is like a red red rose” set to music. You might want to skip the first 10 minutes of the film to get past that. Oh, and by that time, Boone has dropped the excrementitious Scottish brogue. It’s nearly as bad as Dick van Dyke’s cockney.
Good movie for a rainy afternoon.
