Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959): Dir: Henry Levin: Cast: James Mason, Pat Boone, Arlene Dahl, Peter Ronson, Thayer David: An exciting and visually inventive adventure for families. It is a journey of incredible endurance where a professor, played by James Mason attempts a journey accompanied by a student, played by Pat Boone. They are accompanied by a recent widow, played by Arlene Dahl, and a strong non English individual, played by Peter Ronson whom saves Mason and Boone when they become trapped. Although sometimes too corny it is nonetheless adventurous with inventive art direction and giant lizards featured to heighten suspense. Directed by Henry Levin with a sense of childlike awe as these characters encounter one big obstacle after another. James Mason holds strong as the leader and explorer, while Pat Boone is effective as the student who ends up in a comical place upon the film's end. Arlene Dahl is obviously going to end up with Mason. She is a widow who conditions herself into the quest. Peter Ronson steals moments with his amusing forms of communication. Thayer David plays the villain following the group in hopes of making the big steal, but will fail miserable. The film's best element is its production, which is fine because it offers little else. The film is pointless fun and full of plot turns and delights for the eye. Score: 8 / 10

Oliver Lindenbrook (James Mason) is an Edinburgh based scientist who has recently been knighted after becoming Edinburgh's greatest scientist. One of his students Alec McKuen (Pat Boone)purchases a piece of lava for Mr Lindenbrook. Lindenbrook is intrigued by this piece of lava and accidentally discovers that the piece of lava that he's acquired may have originated from a volcano in Iceland which may be directly linked to the 'centre of the earth'. Determined to find out if this piece of lava did originate at the centre of the earth, Lindenbrook and McKuen head off to Iceland, but they encounter many problems along the way.Whilst I did enjoy this film on the whole I must admit the start of the film was a little bit cheesy, twee & sickly-sweet; the weird bit at the start where all Lindenbrook's students are singing to him, the early scene involving McKuen and Lindenbrook's daughter Jenny (Diane Baker). This scene contained some really cheesy and mushy dialogue (it actually made me cringe). Then just after that he started singing to her - ughh!!. Was all this really necessary? Thankfully, after these few cringeworthy early scenes the film does settle down and the adventure soon begins...One thing I liked about this film is that it was a lot of fun - the interaction between the characters was great, the chemistry was good between the principal cast and they all shared good camaraderie. Mason & Dahl were particularly good and you could see that there was a definite power struggle for leadership between the two of them. The film is also slightly sexist in that Lindenbrook initially won't allow Goetabaug to accompany them merely because she's a woman - I think that people need to remember that this film was made in 1959 where sexism and equal rights weren't as prevalent as they are now. I'm not condoning the sexism, but merely stating that it wasn't an uncommon thing in this era. There is a positive spin on this though because Gotabaug for the most part was portrayed as being bright and fairly resourceful rather than a clichéd bimbo or damsel in distress.The only other minor issue relates to food; about 2/3 of the way into the film it's mentioned that they've been travelling for 256 days (which is roughly 9 months), yet they only have a handful of provisions at the start of the journey which begs the question; did they really have enough supplies for 9 months? Even by rationing your intake, I think you'd need more supplies than you'd be able to carry. These issues didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the film, but I couldn't help but think about them during the running time.This is an excellent adventure film and despite the glaring lack of logic within one aspect of the narrative it was still a lot of fun and it also contained some great dialogue and a few memorable characters. It's only really spoilt slightly by its cheesy/sickly-sweet start, but if you can get past the first 15 minutes it's absolutely first-rate.

Saw this film this week following Halliwell's review and since the premise of the story seemed interesting, albeit wondering how realistic a journey to the center of the earth could be made and how they would manage to insert 2 females in the plot. I respect the late Halliwell, but there's nothing watchable in this film. His 3-star films are mostly very good but this one is a duck, excuse me, a turkey, even trying to see the film through 1959 eyes. The film takes too long to get going and then it doesn't go anywhere. The actual story underground is very disappointing. Bernard Hermann's music is understandably closer to Jason and the Argonauts than to Vertigo or Citizen Kane, and James Mason is good, and tries his best, but these didn't mean much in this dreadful film, even with Charles Bracket in the writing credits.

Professor Oliver Lindenbrook (James Mason) finds clues to suggest a famous explorer made his way to center of the Earth and decides to follow in his footsteps. Lindenbrook and one of his students (Pat Boone) mount an expedition down a volcano in Iceland. They are joined by a burly farmer named Hans, a duck named Gertrude (!), and the widow of a scientist who tried to steal Lindenbrook's discovery. Along the way they must contend with various dangers including Count Saknussemm (Thayer David), the descendant of the original explorer. Entertaining adventure story. No it's not extremely faithful to Verne but it's fun nonetheless.