Customer Reviews

Unknown World [VHS]

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This 1951 offering from Lippert Pictures takes us 2500 miles underneath the surface with a group of somewhat annoying scientists. Dr. Morley (dubbed the Prophet of Doom by at least one newspaper reporter) is an obsessive opponent of all things nuclear. Fearing that atomic weapons will destroy all life on earth, he recruits a group of scientists for his Society to Save Civilization, and they make plans to find a living space deep within the earth where man can survive and rebuild from the nuclear holocaust they see just over the horizon. After the group fails to secure any funding, a rich newspaper publisher's son forks over the cash and accompanies them on their monumental journey. It's your typical group of B-movie scientists: there is Morley, who seems lost and mad at the world all the time, a couple of scientists who basically push buttons and read dials, a young and attractive feminist scientist, an explosives man, and the paperboy. Of course, the group is constantly bickering and fighting, and no one likes the paperboy at all-at first. This had to change somewhat because, as you would expect, he has to put the moves on the lady scientist and she has to pretend to resist. How do our intrepid explorers go about their task? They design a cyclotram, basically a great big ugly metal boxcar with a humongous drill for a nose, ascend to the top of an extinct volcano, go down into the crater and start drilling through rock as they make their way downward. Every so often, they stop for a minute to fight or to provide an opportunity for one of them to die. They are rather bumbling amateurs when it comes to the deep exploring gig; you would have thought one of the scientists would have remembered to pack a lot of water. They sometimes even seem surprised to discover that it's actually pretty dark miles underground.

I was led to believe the group ran into dangerous animals in the depths of the earth, but that is not true. There are similarities between Unknown World and Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth, as you would expect, but this film never develops the aura of plausibility that Verne's work had. To answer the question of how they will survive the intense heat of the earth's core, the geologist amongst them simply announces the fact that the temperature at the earth's core is actually lower than that on the surface. This movie is only about 70 minutes long, so it's short enough to not become too aggravating too quickly. Taken in the context of its time, it's really not such a bad movie. Some may also be interested to know that part of the movie was actually filmed inside New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns.

This movie used to be a perennial on local television in L.A. in the early 1950s, and has always been a particular favorite of mine, then and NOW--REGARDLESS of the fact that it may not be one of the "greats" in the world of film. In fact, as a child, I was so enamored of the film's concept (digging your way into the center of the Earth), that I used to use my family's home laundry room as the "Cyclotram's" cockpit as I imaginarily tunneled my own way into the Earth! Reviewers who smugly dismiss this film as just a piece of junk should be themselves dismissed; ALL films are not "Citizen Kane", gang! INTERESTING FOOTNOTE: Victor Kilian, who plays the more-or-less leading character in the film (Dr. Jeremiah Morley) is NOWHERE listed in the cast credits, as he had been "blacklisted" as a suspected Communist in the infamous Hollywood witch hunts just prior to the film's release. In later years, he came back for a time as a regular on the "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" satirical television series.

The world may be doomed, due to all those nasty atomic bombs. It's a good thing Dr. Morley has a plan! We'll send him and his team (in the cyclotram drilling machine) to the earth's core to find out if mankind can take refuge there after the impending nuclear holocaust. Well, the government laughs at Morley's idea and refuses to fund it. All seems lost until a young millionaire comes to the rescue. Soon, our heroic scientists and technicians are drilling through solid rock in their search for a subterranean paradise. It's a rough journey, as they encounter poison gas, cave-ins, floods, and many deaths along the way. UW isn't great, but it is good enough for any sci-fi collection. I enjoyed it, even though there were no monsters or prehistoric-type humanoids involved. There are some stretches of boredom, but at just over an hour in length, it still manages to move rather quickly. Watch it with VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, FANTASTIC VOYAGE, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, and FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS for an adventure-filled mega-marathon...

Years before James Mason and Pat Boone undertook a "Journey to the Center of the Earth," a team of resourceful explorers made the same sort of trip inside a metallic contraption rather resmbling a house-trailer equipped with a big drill on the front. Their goal is to find underground caverns large enough to shelter the human race should nuclear war render the surface of the planet uninhabitable.

Not surprisingly, the low-budget special effects are amusing rather than impressive, and the no-name cast can't enliven the uninspired lines they'd asked to deliver.

Despite these expected failings, "Unknown World" earns a recommendation as one of the early 1950's least-known and most-underrated sci-fi efforts. It has an imaginative plot which, after awhile, almost seems plausible, and it avoids the B-movie cliches you might expect in this sort of thing. (No subterranean dinosaurs, no tribe of lost cavewomen, no signs of Atlantis.) It also has the sense to stick to business and not detour into romantic subplots or "comic relief" episodes.

If you can see beyond its dated, low-budget look, you'll find this "World" one that's worth exploring.

I always enjoyed watching this film during the early 1950's.
I had an old ingolsorand power drill that looked like the cyclotram. Why is the quality so bad. I have a vrc copy that in much better? They must have made the DVD from the worst copy they could find.
During the 1960's and 1970's my brother and I were convinced that hollywood must have burned the original of this film, so I was delighted that a copy showed up. It is a great concept and kind of spooky and depressing, after all, it is dark under the earth, and should not be as cozy as a back lit cave as shown in the 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth, which is another favority of mine anyway.
I only hope that in the future they will remake this with a better original print!!!!! Maybe they did burn the original print!!!

This movie is boring--so boring that I kept checking the box to see how long it was--too long. The acting is amateurish, the script probably writeen in a few hours, and the special effects (what there is of them) really lame. Why the production company wasted filming this BOMB in Carlsbad Caverns is beyond comprehension. Some movies are so bad that they are camp and fun to watch--not this turkey. NOTHING really happens. The characters talk a lot ("do we go on or go back?")and they shift their position on this topic often--so I wonder if the actor's scripts got mixed up. Fortunately (a matter of opinion), this Alpha DVD is made from a watchable print, so it is not as grainy or as scratchy as others in their catalog. I watched this DVD once and gave it away to my daughter in college. Now I feel guilty because life is too short to watch stuff such as this. If you are very short of money and need a DVD to give someone as a cheap gift, pass by this DOG and select Alpha's B-Western DVD "The Whispering Skull" with Tex Ritter or one of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes efforts.

This movie is similar to the classic "Journey to the Center of the Earth" filmed in 1959, eight years after this film. However, while that movie is enjoyable because it combines the acceptable naivety of Jules Verne's era with straightforward story-telling, this movie ignores everything known in the 1950s about the interior of our planet. Furthermore, this movie completely ignores any serious preparation for exploring the depths. You can throw on top of this the absurdity of a machine with a drill diameter significantly less than the diameter of the vehicle that follows it.

Dr. Jeremiah Morley (Victor Kilian, a veteran of more than 100 movie and television appearances, including shows such as "All in the Family" and "The Brady Bunch)) has decided that nuclear war will eventually doom mankind. His solution is to find man a home inside the planet, safe from nuclear war. Dr. Morley begins his project hopefully, but eventually all support is pulled. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), the millionaire son of a newspaperman decides to fund his expedition, with the only proviso that he be permitted to go along.

Dr. Morley builds his vehicle, looking much like a spaceship with tail fins (seriously, the vehicle had fins, much like some cars of the 1950s). The sad thing is that the vehicle's drill was only about half the diameter of the vehicle itself. Also, the vehicle had a window in front with no shielding. On the plus side, the vehicle did have a self-contained air supply, water and concentrated food. On the negative side, the vehicle appeared to have no accommodation for sleeping. Also, the vehicle seemed to run on an internal combustion engine and though the explorers seemed to have anticipated toxic gases, they failed to anticipate a lack of oxygen or an explosive atmosphere.

The vehicle travels into the earth, which looks much like the side of a miniature hill much of the time, and a lot like Carlsbad Caverns the rest of the time. There may have been some studio work thrown in as well. There are locations in Carlsbad Caverns that are used more than once, which I always find annoying in a movie.

Some of our explorers die as they encounter toxic gases and cut clotheslines (well, one of the climbing ropes looked a lot like clothesline to me). However, we kind of expect that sort of thing in an exciting adventure into the unknown. But, using these deaths as inspiration, our explorers eventually find their way into a place where mankind can live.

Once in the underground utopia, our explorers anticipate the birth of baby bunnies because that will tell our explorers how suitable man would find this environment. Unfortunately, the baby bunnies are born dead because, here is a GREAT scientific conclusion, mammals are sterile under ground! Huh? I had to wonder what genius came up with sterility as being a cause of death.

Our explorers realize that living underground is just not going to work for mankind, so they decide it is time to leave. Coincidentally, intense volcanic activity begins the moment they decide to leave. I have noticed that coincidences seem to be common in movies of this type. The survivors of the expedition make their way back to the surface in what is likely to be just as thrilling a trip as their descent was.

The principal problem with this movie is that it is just too superficial. Given the amount of thought that Dr. Morley has put into his underground exploration, I would have thought that the expedition would have been much better prepared. Compare the preparation of this expedition with the preparation of the expedition in the 1959 movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

The creatures in that latter movie were fantastic and would have been unbelievable in a supposedly science-based movie; they added a lot of interest and entertainment to that movie. I enjoyed the creatures since they were in the spirit of the Victorian era. Perhaps this movie should have had some creatures thrown in for interest, but that probably would have blown their budget.

This movie was okay for a one-time watch. I doubt I will spend the time to watch it again because I struggled to maintain my interest. There was some attempt to take a scientific approach, but ignoring what was known about the interior of the earth in the 1950s and blatant stupidities (the baby bunnies were born dead because creatures underground are sterile) detracted from any enjoyment. If you have to watch every movie made about journeys deep into the earth, you have to get this one. If you want to get a movie that you have plenty of opportunity to pan, this one is good for that. If you are looking for a good fantasy about exploring the center of the earth (assuming no molten core), then get 1959's "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

This is an early Sci Fi film from 1951 and in that context deserves to be appreciated!

Years ago I saw this film on TV and I never forgot it ... there was a kind of lonely mystique about it.

It has a very strong anti-nuclear orientation... The thesis of the film is a group of scientists fearful of nuclear war decide to explore vast caverns under the earth's surface as a refuge. There are no phoney looking monsters running around... Some of the scenes were taken from actual caverns such as Carlbad Caverns, New Mexico.

The vehicle used for this exploration called a "Cyclotram" reminded me a little of a 1950 Lincoln...

An interesting movie that reflects the time it was made in the 1950s when the world was concerned about nuclear war. If you like old sci fi movies you will enjoy this.A group of scientists travel to the centre of the world in a device called the cyclatron looking for a perfect alternate world. Of course what they find isn't the ideal alternative to the world above.If you dont like old sci fi movies then this will not change your mind.

It is 1951 both of the great world wars are over however he knows it is just a short matter of time before someone will start another. Now with the proliferation of the "H" bomb which is a thousand times bigger than the "A" bomb, all of civilization and future civilizations will be destroyed.

However Dr. Jeremiah Morley (Victor Kilian) of the "Society to Save Civilization" has the answer. It is to burro down into the underground caverns of the world and live there. Wait, but who is going to pay for this? Yep along with the standard sci-fi set of doctors, scientists and demolitionists, it is the playboy (Bruce Kellogg) son of a newspaper owner. Of course one of the scientists has to be female (Marilyn Nash.)

Everything is going swimmingly well until two of the crew is gassed and the water supply is contaminated. What will they do now?

This film, original Screenplay by Millard Kaufman, has all the look and feel of the big bug sci-fi movies made in the fifties. There is the obligatory beginning geo-political speech with a definition of an "H" bomb. The device for digging is called the Cylotram; it looks like one of those buster Crab Martian vehicles and acts similar to the Atragon in the Japanese movie "Kaitei gunkan" If it had monsters and ducks it would be the precursor to James Mason in the movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Surprisingly many of the filming locations In "Unknown World" and Journey to the Center of the Earth" are both in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Some scenes were on Pismo Beach the home of the famous Pismo Clam.

On key feature of the movie that one many joke about are all the platitudes and clichés.
"I was afraid to die."
"And I was afraid to live."