Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

Director:

Henry Levin

Writers:

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

Release Date:

29 January 1960 (West Germany)

Genre:

Adventure | Family | Romance | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

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

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 1 win

Cast

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

Also Known As:

Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth
Trip to the Center of the Earth

Runtime:

132 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Icelandic | French | Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

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

Certification:

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

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Cooga Mooga

Trivia:

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.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Early in the movie, Oliver Lindenbrook speaks of the "stars and galaxies of outer space." In the 1880s, however, our Milky Way galaxy was believed to constitute the entire universe. Knowledge that other galaxies exist beyond our own did not come about till the 1920s. Thus a man of the 1880s would not use the word "galaxy" in its plural form.

Quotes:

Carla Göteborg: Sir Oliver, you are not going to listen to a murderer?
Sir Oliver Lindenbrook: Never interrupt a murderer, madam.

Movie Connections:

Remade as Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)

Soundtrack:

My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose

Stunning from the beginning to the end

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.