Let's be realistic.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The acting in this movie is really good.

A group of geonauts consisting of seven fuddy-duddy scientists including one sexy chick take a trip down into the earth's inner core so they can find a 'haven' from the threat of the atomic bomb.Dark and ultimately boring, this little thing is at least a bit different. Victor Killian is the leader, but he looks as though he'd rather be at a Brooklyn Dodgers game. Marilyn Nash is the female on board the drilling car -- too bad we don't get to see her topless... that would have helped the movie immensely. Bruce Kellogg plays the shallow millionaire financing the expedition. About as exciting as it sounds.Directed by Terry Morse. Cave scenes filmed in Arizona.

*Spoiler/plot- Unknown World, 1951. Some scientists develop a ground borrowing machine that can take people into the Earth's crust for discovery.*Special Stars- Bruce Kellog, Otto Waldis, Jim Bannon, Tom Handley, Dick Cogan, Marilyn Nash.*Theme- Science will do anything for knowledge.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. Goofs: Look for the 50's office chairs fitted with seat belts for a laugh. Locations: Bronson Caves in Gower Park Hollywood CA. Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Although Victor Kilian, as Dr. Morley, is clearly the star of the film, he received no screen credit because he was blacklisted shortly after completing the movie. He might have been a victim of the "Red Scare" hysteria sweeping the country at the time, stoked by conservative Sen. Joseph McCarthy. This was perhaps the only instance in Hollywood history where the leading actor in a film was deliberately not listed in its cast while everyone else was. This film has the incorrect theory of going deeper in the Earth crust. This film has them getting colder instead of the correct physics of getting HOTTER.*Emotion- A better than average B-Movie of exploring the Earth's underground especially with the Cyclotram. This plot has been take modern with hi tech films like The Corn and others recently.Cheapjack Lippert Pictures had an unexpected success with Rocketship XM (1950). This picture strikes me as a sort of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1959) meets "The Core" (2003), with perhaps a little more emphasis on the latter. Caverns housing humanity after the Bomb, yes.*Based on- Film taken from Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth". And on modern "Hollow Earth" theories.

I think prints of this film must have been cheap to purchase for local TV stations. When I was growing up in the fifties, I must have seen this movie--or portions of it--at least once a month. It might have been more engaging when I was seven years old, but there is still something about it that makes it different than other fifties sci-fi. Perhaps it's the pacifist sentiments of the script, when, at the time, most popular entertainment was hyping the bright promise of our atomic future. Then again, it might be Marilyn Nash, who was quite beautiful, and in a modern way, rather than in that fifties bombshell way. Amazing that she went from being discovered by Charlie Chaplin to appearing in this low budget film in the course of a couple years. As to Victor Killian not be credited, his bio indicates he was black listed during the McCarthy years for his leftist political leanings. Perhaps those leftist views are why he does seem to bring a lot sincerity to his character's opposition to the direction of modern society depicted in the film's prologue.

What should have been an interesting trip ends up as a rather dreary and none too exciting (despite filming in New Mexico's famed Carlsbad Caverns) slice of modest sci-fi. The main problem is not the cheap special effects (some are actually not too bad at all), but the characters. Without exception, they are a most unengaging lot. The heroine and Mr Kellogg are the only players that connect at all, though Miss Nash is often unflatteringly photographed and Mr Kellogg tends to out-stay his welcome. Otto Waldis, as usual, tries to hog the camera, managing to deduct at least two points from the film's appeal in the process. The other players just don't register at all. Blame Millard Kaufman's lackluster screenplay. This is certainly no Raintree County, let alone Bad Day at Black Rock.Despite his second-string cast, Terry Morse's direction manages two or three moments of real effectiveness, but in a 74-minute movie, that's far from an acceptable figure.