MovieChat Forums > At the Earth's Core (1976) Discussion > So bad it's... bad

So bad it's... bad

posted 2 years ago by Wuchak (8077)
5 replies | jump to latest

This was an Amicus production, a company that ended their low-budget output with three films based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' books, all starring Doug McClure: "The Land that Time Forgot" (1975), this one (1976), and "The People that Time Forgot" (1977). Despite their obvious modest budgets, I like those other two adventure flicks, especially the first one, but "At the Earth's Core" is a huge let down and falls into 'What were they thinking?' bad.

Cushing's doddering campy character is the first negative sign, but when the protagonists encounter the telepathic flying reptiles it becomes godawful. I was hoping to roll with these faults and enjoy the comic book story, but it's just not compelling and is marred by its set-bound limitations (the sets are reminiscent of something out of the original Star Trek TV series). The creators simply failed to translate the story from book to cinema.

On the positive side, McClure is likable as the protagonist, so is Cy Grant, and Caroline Munro is stunning as the cavegirl, but she's strapped with an outfit that fails to effectively take advantage of her figure. Thankfully, the production team fixed this flaw with Dana Gillespie's more alluring costume in "The People that Time Forgot."

[–] ccr1633 (1411) 2 years ago

I'm with you. This film is easily the lamest of the bunch. It seemed to amplify the worst part of The People That Time Forgot (the second worst of Connor's quartet), which was the lengthy second-half sequence when our heroic explorers battled what looked liked rejects from Genghis Khan's army. But the second half of TPTTF was salvaged by the reappearance of Doug McClure's Tyler and at least had a similar appeal to the rescue mission from Beneath the Planet of the Apes. At the Earth's Core didn't even have the decency to feature creatures that resembled real dinosaurs, opting instead for stunt men in dumb looking giant parrot suits . Perhaps the only redeeming feature is that it was a trial run for McClure's irreverent American engineer character who specialized in tweaking Brits in the vastly superior Warlords of Atlantis.

Here's my ranking of the four McClure collaborations with Kevin Connor:
(1) Warlords of Atlantis
(2) The Land That Time Forgot
(3) The People That Time Forgot
(4) At the Earth's Core

[–] Wuchak (8077) 2 years ago

Yeah, the giant parrot suits didn't help.

The only one I've never seen is "Warlords." Seeing as how you put it at the top, I'll have to see if I can find it on streaming.

[–] ccr1633 (1411) 2 years ago

Warlords of Atlantis, now typically called Warlords of the Deep, is tough to find. There are DVDs for sale on Amazon, but seem to be region 2 only. I'd recommend trawling the torrent sites if you're into that sort of thing. Probably the best you'll find is an .avi rip of about 1.5gb in size.

I can give you a dozen reasons that I find Warlords the best of the bunch, but among these is the fact that you won't see any cavemen. All of these films get bogged down once our heroes stumble upon the indigenous people of wherever they've landed, but in Warlords they look a bit less ridiculous (the rulers of Atlantis) and the underlying story is a bit more interesting. The monsters are also pretty cool, especially at the beginning and end of the film. Warlords has by far the most satisfying ending and the musical score is terrific. Another highlight is the prominent role of the great Shane Rimmer, who really gives the film some needed acting chops and a character with genuine gravitas. Plus there's Cliff Clavin.

[–] Wuchak (8077) 2 years ago

Too bad it's difficult to view. I'll eventually find a way though, even if it's a VHS.

[–] whatwazdat (374) 2 years ago

Regardless, I'll pick a lazy Sunday to watch this for pure nostalgia.