The Incredible Petrified World (1959) User Reviews

"The Ocean is a Dangerous Jungle."

[joebridge · 2/10 · 6 April 2006]

"We are now prepared to invade this black wilderness." Well, actually they weren't, since the cable of the diving bell snaps, sending them to a tourist attraction with nice stalactites and stalagmites that I guess is supposed to resemble petrified wood or something. A very long technical explanation about the snapped cable is given later but that comes off like gibberish to me.

The only part worth watching is the genuinely exciting octopus and shark battle at the beginning, but which looks as if it was filmed in a small fish tank which had only a bit of sand poured over the bottom. You might as well turn it off after that part and have a nice nap instead.

The diving bell seems as big as a rocket-ship on the inside, but only about the size of an overinflated beach ball on the outside. This makes for some real laughs, especially when it is hanging and swaying about from the ship's crane and the actors are near it. It doesn't look like even one child could fit inside it, let alone the two men and two women, with a lot of room to spare, and the high ceiling.

Absolutely nothing happens in this movie after they get into the diving bell. They don't even show the implied trip to the volcano area with the lead characters! Instead, we get some sort of senseless and brief argument between the two women and Popeye's grandfather (or so he appears) making bizarre faces, as if he were in a "make the weirdest face and win fantastic prizes" contest. Silly beyond words and certainly belonging in a movie other than this one. At one point, his eyes are popping so far out, they look like they could just fall out of his face.

Later, "Popeye's grandfather" actually moves closer to the cave wall and slowly leans against it so that more rocks can hit him! (You can actually tell that he is trying to get under the path of the larger fake falling rocks! Hilarious!)

The ending made no sense to me, either. I may be wrong, but I got the idea that they weren't really that far under the surface at all. And where was the volcano (which sounded like the amplified recording of a rolling bowling ball and a bit from a storm) relative to the surface? Why wasn't it more of a noticed event from the ship?

The orchestral soundtrack on my DVD copy is really sour, and sounds more like two tomcats having a stand-off.

2/10. A two only because of the octopus and shark battle before the actors come in and ruin everything.

It wasn't just a volcano erupting!

[lastliberal · 3/10 · 12 August 2007]

"I've made some of the greatest films ever made - and a lot of crap, too."

John Carradine, who had roles in The Ten Commandments and Stagecoach and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask among his 334 films, and won awards for The Scarecrow and House of the Long Shadows, would probably list this film as one that was crap.

He plays a scientist that sends down a diving bell with four people to 1,700 feet when they get stranded. They manage to make it into Arizona's Colossal Cave and they meet up with a hairy bugger who has been stranded there 14 years. Forget the others, this guy is focused on Phyllis Coates, who was the first Lois Lane on TV.

Yes, 14 years all alone and this old timer wants to find a way to get rid of the competition and have Lois to himself. Before he could get started, the volcano erupts and, well, just one eruption.

I just love this exchange between the two women:

Dale Marshall: You just listen to me, Miss Innocent. There's nothing friendly between two females. There never was. There never will be. Lauri Talbott: Sorry you feel that way. I was hoping we could help each other. Dale Marshall: You don't need help - neither do I. Not as long as we have two men around us.

O, the days when women thought that way.

This film had some very valuable information in it. I didn't know that people dived with a thermos of hot coffee, but it is good they do, as it is just the thing to revive someone who has run out of air.

The most exciting thing about the film is the title ...

[FranklinTV · 2/10 · 17 October 2004]

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.

Unusual, unexpected, but still not very good '50s sci-fi

[mstomaso · 4/10 · 11 March 2007]

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.

An incredible non movie.

[youroldpaljim · 1/10 · 9 February 2002]

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.

"Well what are we waiting for, let's check out of here."

[classicsoncall · 1/10 · 26 March 2006]

The summary above is an actual quote from a character in the movie, and if I had to guess, it had to do with the film, and not to any precarious situation the four underwater explorers found themselves in. The best this flick has to offer is the science lesson on deep sea life offered at the beginning, preceded briefly by an amazing life and death battle between a shark and an octopus. However that was stock footage, probably the only time in screen history where such a sequence was better than the actual movie.

As for the story, it's almost not worth getting into, but just for the record, two men and two women descend into the Caribbean in an experimental diving bell developed by Professor Wyman (John Carradine). The bell snaps it's cable at seventeen hundred feet, and miraculously lands near a vast network of caverns, that even though submerged under the ocean is dry as a bone. They encounter in order, a large lizard resembling a gila monster, a human skeleton, and a caveman who's been there for fourteen years - how exactly did he manage to mark time?

If you've read this far, then believe me when I tell you that that's all you need to know about this film. Just re-read the paragraph above and you're home free, no wasted energy or time lost watching this soggy turkey. I'm almost tempted to say that the one redeeming feature of the film is the casting of Phyllis Coates, who was Lois Lane in the first season of "The Adventures of Superman". However she spends most of her time in a sour mood trading barbs with her female counterpart, Sheila Noonan. Not pretty.

To sum up, "The Incredible Petrified World"..... is not.

Carradine should have played the hermit

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 6 January 2012]

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.

This movie has limited appeal

[JackOfCups · 4/10 · 22 March 2015]

Four divers in a breakaway diving bell end up in a vast series of caverns. They explore their environment trying to find a way to the surface, but their path is blocked by an underground volcano. It is this cavern-world with its many stalactites and stalagmites that give this movie it's name.

John Carradine is the scientist who's diving bell has failed. He realizes his mistake and makes a deal with his chief rival who is using a diving bell patterned after the first: he will correct his rival's design in exchange for using the bell at the first bell's location.

This movie is weak, but not as bad as many reviewers have stated. There is little action, and the dialog is lacking. There is some suspense, however, as the four trapped people wind their way through the caverns. In addition, the caverns themselves provide a beautiful backdrop to this film.

The flaws in the movie tip the scale to the turkey side. Carradine's character explains that the water pressure at the depth where the diving bell comes to rest will crush the divers, yet they inexplicably survive. The story explaining the hermit's presence faces the same problem.

If you're a fan of John Carradine or Phyllis Coates, or if you enjoy movies set in underground caverns, you might enjoy this film. There is little appeal for anyone else.

Just a boring movie. Plain and simple.

[ChuckStraub · 3/10 · 18 October 2004]

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.

Petrify me, please!

[Travis_Moran · 1/10 · 29 July 2005]

The title of this simply begs for ridicule; especially as it has absolutely nothing to do with the film---other than the puns furnished by other reviewers.

I actually fell asleep twice during this happy horsesh*t and had to go back in case I missed something interesting---I should have stayed asleep as nothing remotely resembling the word "interesting" ever became evident. Now this isn't the worst movie I've even seen. (That honour belongs to Eegah.) But it comes amazingly close.

There were so many technical flaws in this movie, even someone like me noticed em (I try very hard not to pay attention to the technical aspects of a movie so as not to spoil my enjoyment). Maybe it's cause there was no story to occupy me that I was forced to notice other things. How many 1000s of feet were they down with no pressure problems? What kind of diving bell lets divers in and out without any water getting in? (I guess you could pump enough compressed air in to equalise the pressure---but then what would you need the bell for?) How do they pop up to the surface at the end so quickly without nitrogen poisoning (bends)? Also, what kind of volcano produces breathable oxygen? And glowing caves complete with caveman and dumb iguana? **sound of eyes rolling**.

Was there a story somewhere? If so, I've forgotten. Oh yeah. Now I remember: 4 dopes descend in bell, which breaks loose. They tour glowing caves. Caveman tries to go for girl. Volcano (or whatever lame excuse they had for a volcano) intervenes---was there more?---I'm getting sleepy just thinking about this movie.

People don't torture yourselves with this bs---zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Low-Budget, No Brain Entertainment

[Michael_Elliott · 9 October 2017]

The Incredible Petrified World (1959)

** (out of 4)

A scientist (John Carradine) creates a diving bell that will allow him to try and get a better understanding of the ocean. On its trial run he lowers it (and several people) into the ocean but it breaks free and falls to the bottom of the ocean. He fears that everyone is dead but in fact they are alive and find a cave that has a strange form of life.

If you read the reviews for this Jerry Warren film you'll see many of them calling this one of the worst movie ever made. I very much disagree with that and in fact, for a Warren film, it's actually pretty good. This here was the second film he directed after his debut MAN BEAST and in all honesty these two are the best that he ever would make. I've seen all of the films that Warren directed so perhaps that's why I feel this one here is pretty good considering where he would go from here.

Obviously he was working on a very low-budget so instead of any real monsters or special effects we're treated to various bits of stock footage. This was obvious during the opening where the narrator is babbling on about stuff that has nothing to do with what we're seeing! From here the film continues to show its low-budget as we're told about the various dangers facing the people but we never actually see it. Instead we basically watch the actors sit around and talk about various bad things that could happen.

Again, there's nothing remotely special about this film but at the same time there's no question that the movie is mildly entertaining if you've just got 66-minutes to kill and want to watch something mindless and rather pointless. For the most part Carradine and Clarke are both fun to watch and the rest of the supporting players at least hit their marks (there's a compliment).

THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD features nothing scary or even good for that matter. It's a low-budget movie that probably played third or fourth at local drive-ins so go in with that in mind and you might have some mild entertainment.

Sea Battles and Metaphors

[brucerussellmyers · 9/10 · 31 May 2010]

Octopus vs. Shark: Review of the Incredible Petrified World

The central question in this 1950's nautical circus is whether the human storyline is a metaphor for the creature storyline, or whether the creatures represent the humans in the story. An additional quandary is why the basic plot line of this film was not made into a sit-com for the ages. Whether these questions are answerable will be apparent by the end of this review dear reader, or perhaps nothing is ever apparent when dealing with the mysteries of the deep sea and/or human relationships.

There are four primary characters, a secondary character, and several tertiary characters. For the sake of brevity, the tertiary characters will be given little analysis, but might be seen as roaming electrons searching for an ion of meaning to the forsaken diving bell which represents the nucleus of the story. In fact, this movie might make for an excellent 8th grade science lesson, and I encourage all middle school teachers to show it!

The film opens with an epic battle (are there any other type of battles?) between an octopus and a shark. Normally, I would handicap the shark, if I were the type to handicap such competitions, but the octopus surprisingly holds its own. Teeth and tentacles aplenty to set the scene for our four adventurous divers who want to reach a depth never reached before by humans.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the bottom of the sea. The cable broke. This plunges the diving bell to a depth unthinkable and ruins communication with the surface tertiary characters. So we find Paul and Craig (who seem to be experienced oceanographers) with two females, Dale and Lauri (who have little scientific knowledge but are reporters there embedded if you will). The relationships seem to work like this: Paul and Craig are good friends, who even have a manly attraction to each other. Paul and Lauri have a heterosexual attraction to each other. Craig and Dale have little to no relationship, although if they must spend the rest of their days together, we can only assume there will be cuddling.

And now for the Octopus and the Shark. Dale and Lauri have a competitive female relationship which culminates in the following dialogue:

Dale: (to Lauri) You just listen to me, Miss Innocent. There's nothing friendly between two females. There never was. There never will be. Lauri: Sorry you feel that way. I was hoping we could help each other. Dale: You don't need help - neither do I. Not as long as we have two men around us.

What we find here is an allusion back to the opening of the movie when we watch the octopus battle surprisingly well. Lauri is the octopus – she seeks to nurture with her tentacles of kindness and teamwork. Dale, however, sees the world as a shark eat shark world and cannot envision a noncompetitive situation with another female. Even worse, she feels that men are her salvation! Clearly, she will not be ready for the feminism about to change the world. Her weakness of only moving forwards (as sharks will die if they don't move forward), will eventually cost her the war against her "eight legged" female rival.

The other interesting twist in the movie is the presence of a neo-Neanderthal and a volcano in the incredible petrified world. The screenwriter has clearly planted these second rate plot devices in the movie as metaphors. To the casual observer, the caveman is anachronistic source of danger and safety to our four adventurers while the volcano is definitely a source of frustration and danger.

A careful viewing reveals that the volcano represents God and the caveman is Jesus. "Really?" you gape. It's true! The travelers think that this cavern will eventually lead to the surface, until the caveman points out that the volcano will block their path. What he really is saying is that until you give your life to your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (i.e. Him), you will never be saved. When the caveman spies upon the women, he is not merely being a voyeur, but he is judging and deciding if these females are worthy of his Kingdom.

When the volcano erupts, the caveman behaves curiously. He seems to allow the giant, realistic looking boulders to land on him. Again, one is tempted to scoff at the silliness of the plot and action sequence, until one realizes that this caveman is sacrificing himself for the four divers. He has become a martyr and the viewer can't help but feel that a new age is dawning.

This feeling is buttressed by the fact that the tertiary characters are diving and reaching the vessel which was lost in the beginning of the movie. I'm not saying how, the movie ends, but let's just say, we all have seen how Christianity has turned out. And we all know what happens when a shark battles an octopus.

Danger and surprise on the sea bed

[chris_gaskin123 · 7/10 · 25 October 2005]

I've just seen The Incredible Petrified World for the first time and rather enjoyed it, despite the low budget.

Four people, two men and two women head down to the bottom of the Oceon in a diving bell but this snaps and breaks loose, the people on the ship above including the bell's inventor eventually give up hope of finding them alive. The explorers are OK and start to explore and come across a network of caverns, which surprises them. When in these, they come across a giant lizard, a skeleton and, best of all, an old hermit who has been here for 14 years. He looks a true dropout with very long beard and hear. He tells the explorers how he got here and that there is no way out. A volcanic eruption then takes place and the explorers manage to escape back to the ship but the old hermit is killed.

The cast includes horror veteran John Carradine (Bluebeard, House of Dracula, House of the Long Shadows), Robert Clarke (The Man From Planet X, The Hideus Sun Demon) and Phyllis Coates (Adventures of Superman).

This movie is worth checking out if you get the chance.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

Unda da Sea!

[Coventry · 2/10 · 21 August 2006]

Wow, what an incredibly BORING movie!! I kept on singing the cheerful songs of "The Little Mermaid" and "Finding Nemo" in order to stay awake, but it was just hopeless! And yet it all started out so promising, with a typical 1950's Sci-Fi voice-over that informs us that the sea is a largely undiscovered jungle that will always hide mysterious secrets for us, idiotic humans. While this guy is talking, there's this ultra-, super-, mega-cool battle going on between a shark and an octopus! That stuff was fascinating!! And then, sadly, the actual movie begins… Veteran actor John Carradine stars as the leader of a sea-expedition (I'm not even sure of that) that sends a diving bell containing four people to the bottom of the ocean. Something goes terribly wrong and the crew is considered lost. They're not dead, unfortunately, but end up in an undersea network of caves where it's possible to breath normally. There's no encounter with Ursula the Wicked Sea Witch, but they do hook up with an old bearded guy who claims to live there since 14 years already. From then on, there's absolutely NOTHING going on apart from tedious speeches and lousy acting. This movie is not even worth mocking! All the cast members seem to believe they're involved in some kind of masterpiece of Science Fiction, which makes it all the more sad. Even though it only runs 64 minutes, I strongly recommend not wasting your precious time on this thing.

I thought I missed something - like the 'point' to this movie

[hung_fao_tweeze · 31 December 2004]

The best sequence is the shot of the raging sea storm and the huge waves that lead us into this movie. But they have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie...which is incredibly calm and quite dull.

There is little if any action in this film. Diving bell goes down down down. There's trouble. Crew screams that something is buckling. On the ship above John Carradine, who looks like they got him out of bed for this movie, shouts, "What's buckling?" I don't know about you but if you hear someone screaming that something is buckling in a diving bell I would instantly reverse their submersion. This doesn't happen so they go down another quick 1000 feet and vanish - at least to the ship's crew.

Meanwhile the crew of the diving bell manage to find a series of underwater caves to escape to. They walk, they eat, they walk some more, they run into a monitor lizard, they drink water, they find a man with a very bad beard living in these caves. He tells them there is no way out. They settle in for the long haul. The man with the bad beard becomes menacing. Then a volcano blows up just in the nick of time.

Whew! I don't mind watching a bad film if it has purpose. This one denies me.

Non-existent plot

[adrian_Vg · 2/10 · 5 March 2005]

Must've blinked somewhere in the film, as I seem to have missed the plot entirely... Also some viewers mention a gila monster or some such fighting; I didn't see that either. Maybe I have the directors cut. I bought this film in a box called "50 SciFi DVD Classics", and I'm pretty sure the intention of this box was really to include some really hilarious turkey shots. This film however, was entirely pointless. For example, what's with the man they find in the caves?? Who is he? Why's he there? And another thing, the film title is misleading! No petrified things, only a underwater cave. Seriously, I've seen a lot of bad films in my day, but this one just doesn't cut it. Not even with turkey standards. It's not even bad enough to be laughed at!

Incredibly Dull World

[moycon · 3/10 · 4 May 2004]

Don't get me wrong, I love bad flicks, But only if they are entertaining. This is a bad movie for sure, but makes the mistake of not only being bad, but also dull,dull,dull. The movie starts off with like 5 minutes of ocean documentary footage. This isn't stock footage pretending to be something in the flick...no sirree, they just happen to be watching a documentary is all and you get to watch too!!! Incredible you might say? Listen up, there's more! You will be amazed as the crew of a permanently submerged diving bell (rope broke) takes what seems like a quarter of the movie to reach a series of air filled caverns. Now this in itself wouldn't be so bad if something happened to them on this little trip... nothing does, they just swim....and swim.....and swim..... and then *gasp* they swim back to get their stuff.

John Carradine as usual is a peach, but he's really not in the movie too much. (Lucky him) Still, this might be worth a watch if you're a fan.

I will admit I laughed out loud when the crew encountered a "giant" lizard. There was this burst of dramatic music, the ladies *gasp* and then we see it!!! The GIANT lizard!! AAAAAAA!! I couldn't tell for sure but it might have been a stuffed lizard, it sure didn't move much. That was about it. Oh yeah they meet up with some kill-crazy dude with a fake beard down in those caverns, WOOHOO!!! The best thing in this movie was probably when they walked past a rock, nothing really happened, it was just a nice looking rock. Actually I take that back, the best thing about this movie was the running time. It's mercifully short. I'd imagine it would be a good flick to put on if you were having trouble sleeping though. You'll be out 10 minutes into this yawner.

Down where it belongs

[Chase_Witherspoon · 2/10 · 28 July 2012]

Renowned designer John Carradine's deep sea diving expedition goes awry when the bell containing four intrepid adventurers (Clarke, Coates, Noonan and Windsor) capsizes into a prehistoric labyrinth of caverns deeper than anything in living memory. The four weary travellers discover an elderly man (Bernard with a ridiculous stick-on beard), allegedly a shipwrecked sailor whose leering gaze at the first women he's seen in fourteen years gets a little too creepy for comfort. They set about finding a way out, but discover an inland volcano is blocking their path to freedom.

Some classic corny dialogue includes my personal favourite between Coates and Noonan which goes something like "I was hoping we could help each other out" to which Coates replies sarcastically "you don't need any help and neither do I, especially while there are two men about". What is it they're talking about exactly? There's also the penultimate moment where one of the divers runs out of air "how long's he been without air?" "Only a few minutes" "I've got some coffee" "There, he's coming around now". Tremendous stuff.

Carradine is professional and Clarke stoic to the last, while former "Lois Lane" Coates perfects the woman scorned. George Skaff is a recognisable face (mainly from the 70's) and then you can't easily dismiss Maurice Bernard making faces as the old man from the cave. Throw in a half-dozen miniatures, an octopus versus shark contest, a great montage scene and a Nescafe moment and you've got a certified, 63 minute turkey.

The Incredible Petrified Movie

[wes-connors · 1/10 · 7 February 2010]

"When a diving bell goes missing along with its crew of four, their expedition gives up hope of finding them alive. However, the missing vehicle has become trapped in a labyrinth of underwater caverns. After exiting their craft, the foursome encounters a survivor from a shipwreck who informs them that there is no escape from their underwater tomb. Our intrepid explorers, however, trace the flow of oxygen to a volcanic vent and a possible escape route," according to the DVD sleeve description.

Possibly, producer/director Jerry Warren was trying to fool audiences into thinking something might happen if he had professor John Carradine (as Millard Wyman) submerge two shapely 1950s women - lady reporter Phyllis Coates (as Dale Marshall) and Sheila Noonan (as Lauri Talbott) - with two heterosexual men. Wrong. Ms. Coates is trying to get over "Tom" (tossing his hopefully cheap ring into a pool) and Ms. Noonan fails to hook up with Robert Clarke (as Craig Randall). Nothing excites.

* The Incredible Petrified World (1959) Jerry Warren ~ Robert Clarke, Phyllis Coates, John Carradine, Sheila Noonan

1,700 Feet Below a 2 Inch Steak

[davidcarniglia · 2/10 · 16 September 2018]

I was waiting for this thing to end from the moment it started. The reviewer who noticed that the documentary-style beginning scene was the best part is absolutely correct. The premise actually isn't bad, and the caverns seem a decently weird setting for a sci-fi movie.

When your cunningly-crafted diving bell looks like an oversized porta-potty, it's not a good sign. There's meaningless tension between the two women, but no animosity between the rival diving bell designers. Most of the movie consists of the four aquanauts trudging through the underground cavern. They're about as concerned for their future as though they were just on a boring camping trip.

After meeting the caveman, they realize that they're doomed; but at least there's some cool sea shells. The logic gaps are cavernous: as others have pointed out, they shouldn't have survived to make it to the cave anyway. Meanwhile, the second diving bell is honed with all the craftsmanship and metallurgical skill of a guy repairing a lawn mower.

The ending itself wasn't terrible. Pretty good landslides. But what about the volcano? Wouldn't the eruption be a big deal on the surface too? I felt cheated when the guys went to check it out earlier, but we were left behind to watch the girls argue.

If a character mentions something significant, especially something like the volcano that's key to the plot, we need to experience it. The same with the cool lizard--yes, it's there, but why not magnify it so it appears to be a menacing dinosaur? As it is, they just walk around it; another wasted opportunity. And the caveman; why can't there be a bunch of them, or make them mutants? Or something that's more interesting than just one old coot?

There's just nothing that grabs you, nothing to remember in this movie. Ok, the Cadillac convertible looks imposing. Even badly-made sci-fi movies can have a cool scene or good sequence, but here there's virtually no action, tension, drama, monster, alien, special-effects, plausibility, or theme.

Will put old folks to sleep, and completely bore kids. 2/10.

unusual movie, a little slow and dialogue could be better

[gluonpaul · 4/10 · 26 November 2018]

The movie has a nice setup with a somewhat interesting premise. Its not really an action movie although the description of the movie might give you that impression. This is more a character driven piece. Its done on a budget but some great movies are and in a kind of sci-fiesque way.

Unfortunately while the start was a quite interesting the poor dialogue just makes the movie drag after a while. This isnt helped by the fact that while they are supposedly trapped in an underground/water world you cant see much of it as they clearly didnt have the budget to do anything interesting with the concept. It all leads to a quick tailing off of the good graces it earnt at the start to become a below average movie. Not terrible but definitely below average.

VERY Jerry Warren-esque = Exceedingly Boring, Low-Budget Garbage.

[Idiot-Deluxe · 1/10 · 17 September 2016]

Fellow film-buff's, let me provide you with a sampling of some of the dialog you can expect to hear, just to give you an idea of what your delving into. "How long's he been out of oxygen? - Only a few minutes. - I'll get him some coffee."

Veteran hack film-maker Jerry Warren brings us.......The Incredible Petrified World.......though don't be fooled by the title, because there's absolutely NOTHING "incredible" about it, not even close. Never does it build up (let alone sustain) any real action, suspense, excitement or even a modicum of interest - just pure boredom all the way through. The trials and tribulations one would expect to experience when trapped inside a cavernous underwater cave, lifelessly limps to the big screen! With all the excitement of (insert your phrase here).

Jerry-boy must have cranked this one out in a week or less, because it looks and sounds painfully cheap and it's so antiquated it creaks, but above all else, is it's over-powering boredom, like few other movies can do. Which is entirely consistent with the two other "Jerry Flicks" I've seen over the years (The Wild, Wild World of Bat-Woman and Frankenstein Island). And with "The Incredible Petrified World" once again I find myself watching (for the LAST time) yet another pale and lifeless Jerry Warren.......action movie - fasten your seat-belt's everyone, the excitement will be historically epic.

Here's the general set of events: We start with an angry sea for the opening titles, followed by 4 minutes of underwater photography - fish and octopus's' mostly, which turns out to be part of a lecture on marine biology and diving bells, wasting no time were then off to a ship that has a diving bell and down they ( 2 guys 2 gals) go, the cable breaks, their sh** out of luck, or so they think, dawning SCUBA-gear they escape the bell and swim into a cave that somehow is filled with air instead of water, it's here where the movie is at its most boring and pointless, just 4 people farting around in a cave for the last 35 to 40 minutes of the movie. Expect to suffer through several long and dull scenes of people constantly talking about the lamest things, these horrendously tedious scenes equal up to absolutely nothing, however, they just might lull you to sleep - pity their audience. At the half-way point, this movie features one of the lamest cave-dwelling villains you'll ever see, complete with a flagrantly fake-looking beard, his very existence there is completely ludicrous. Who claim's he got there "the same way you did" - not likely, for such a misplaced simpleton. After a cave-in or two all 4 luckily escape the cave and scuba to another diving bell (John Caradine and his top-side team were looking for them) and live happily ever after.

Pure dreck - at least this movie is fairly short, barely an hour. One gets the notion that they needed: 1 - a better director, 2 - a completely different cast, 3 - at least twice the budget, THEN this limp, so-called adventure film might have been something worth watching. My DVD copy of The Incredible Petrified World is part of a cheap collection called "The Best of the Worst". What does that tell you. The sound is bassy and muffled and the picture was equally hideous, with an overall very poorly preserved gray-scale and there's lots of scratches and speckling, plus the picture and sound "jumps" at least twice a minute. This cheap Jerry-Flick is simply a thing of pure wretchedness.

Ultimately just a dismal, dismal, dismal excuse of an adventure film, by one of cinema's all-time least talented directors, Jerry Warren. *People stay away from this man's movies* Re-organizing your sock draw will provide you with more entertainment. If you're ever unfortunate enough to encounter this movie, alcohol would certainly improve the situation or at least help you get through it. I bet watching a static-filled, 12th generation VHS copy, dubbed in Portuguese, episode of My Little Pony would probably be less painful and less boring. Not that I've ever watched such a thing. No Bronie's here, thank you very much.

Reasonably Good "B" Science Fiction

[wdbasinger · 8/10 · 4 October 2007]

One of my favorite sub-genres in the field of science fiction involves geological or subterranean motifs (I worked in the geological field for 11 years and loved every moment of it). Examples of these could be found in the works of Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Stanton Coblentz as well as other authors. Among SF films, examples of this are "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "The Monolith Monsters", "Unknown World", "The Land Unknown", "The Lost Continent", and others. This film by Jerry Warren is an example of this type of theme. Although the production values are based on a smaller budget than some other films, this is a very entertaining and stimulating film about explorers undertaking and expedition into the ocean depths. Due to circumstances, they end up within a network of subterranean caves with an air pocket. Eventually the party of explorers is rescued.

The film has a lot to offer in terms of speculative fiction about the ocean depths, geology, and subterranean caves. Definitely a must-see.

Dan Basinger 8/10

Not that bad

[lanechaffin-964-63190 · 6/10 · 15 October 2022]

After reading some reviews we decided to watch anyway. Expecting to be bored silly and put to sleep, I was surprised the movie actually was pretty good. It's not overlong. The opening documentary type intro went on a little too long and didn't add much to the movie. Rather than showing an octopus and shark fighting that time would have been better spent on a geology lesson.

We watched this movie with interest the whole way through. The idea is fairly intriguing, it's just not that well crafted and the budget was obviously thin. If they had spent a little more time and money and come up with a neat cave entrance and how it actually was possible, and added some more interesting things inside the caves it would have helped things along. I'm no fan of special effects, but you basically have to use your imagination here. This movie was made in 1959, but it seems more like 1949.

Still, John Carradine is always entertaining just watching him deliver his lines. The casting wasn't the greatest, the four that go down in the craft are a somewhat dubious foursome. I would have liked to see Carradine do more, it seems that's often the case with him- his parts are too limited and don't showcase his unique talent. Let him do his thing. No one is interested in seeing that one guy putting his shirt on and stuffing his shirt tails in his pants. And why is he doing that in two consecutive scenes anyway? The Incredible Petrified World is an enjoyable watch, intriguing and even kind of scary.

64 minutes of relentless tedium

[soulexpress · 1/10 · 23 August 2017]

No, this is not about a planet whose entire population is scared. In fact, the title has nothing to do with the movie itself.

Two men and two women descend into the sea in a diving bell designed by one Professor Wyman (John Carradine). Its support cable snaps, causing the bell to sink thousands of feet to the bottom (with no pressure problems). The explorers find an underwater world complete with breathable air and caves that glow in the dark (phosphorous, don' cha know). They meet a bug-eyed stranger with a Santa Claus beard, who claims to have been in the caves for 14 years following a shipwreck. The stranger takes a shine to one of the women and decides to kill the others so he can have her to himself. But before he can, the volcano above them erupts, killing the stranger in an avalanche of rock. Luckily, a second diving bell has been dispatched, whisking away the explorers to safety.

My plot summary makes THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD sound far more interesting than it is. In fact, the movie is 64 minutes of relentless tedium. In between the occasional plot point, we're deluged with meaningless dialogue, a lot of which reflects the sexism and misogyny rampant in 1950s America. For example, when one of the women suggests they could help each other, the other woman says, "We don't need anyone's help—not with two men down here with us." We also get ponderous scenes of walking, fish-eating, water-drinking, and oh so much SCUBA diving. And there's no reason for the stranger to be here at all. His appearance is extraneous at best.

Now, on to the technical flaws. What kind of a diving bell takes in no water when you open its hatch under the surface? Why is the bell's ceiling higher than Madison Square Garden's? What type of volcano produces breathable air? How did the stranger get to the underwater caves without diving gear? How did he mark time accurately enough to know he's been there for 14 years? How did the women swim to the second diving bell this far underwater with only street clothes on? And how did they manage to stay dry in the process?

Along with Carradine, the other name actor here is Phyllis Coates, the first Lois Lane on the "Superman" TV show. Her character is bitter and angry and spends most of her time trading insults with the other woman. Just what we needed: something to make this an even less pleasant viewing experience.