At the Earth’s Core

• Directed by Kevin Connor
• July 15, 1976
• Based on the 1914 fantasy novel At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs

A scientist and his assistant, when using their drilling machine, end up in a strange underground world ruled by a race of giant telepathic birds. Stop laughing!

This might not be a huge shock to any regular readers but At the Earth’s Core is one of many movies that I watched in the afternoon after church when I was young. Back when I was a child it was certainly pleasurable viewing but given when it would come on I rarely ever saw the whole thing. It started while I was at church so I only caught whatever elements I stumbled upon after coming home.

A few minutes into this viewing and I quickly realized this was certainly aimed more at kids than adults. Admittedly in modern times Burroughs is not hard-core science fiction but more fun fantasy adventure. I quickly realized its stature in my mind is because I was in the right age group for it to resonate and not that it was better done than it should have been like other Burroughs adaptations of the time.

And part of my fondness certainly goes to the presence of the very talented Peter Cushing who could make some of the worst material into solid gold. Check out Biggles: Adventures in Time if you can find it for proof. Here Cushing is the borderline aloof Dr. Abner Perry who designed a boring machine to dig into the Earth where he and his assistant (I originally thought financier maybe) David Innes (Doug McClure) stumble upon a hidden world. Isn’t that always the way?

After stumbling into this new realm they run afoul of the local authorities who are a bird like kinda reptile thing with a Kermit the Frog style collar known as the Mahar who control the ape-like Sagoths. And Innes meets the local hot princess named Dia (Carolyn Munro) and there is an attraction most likely because Innes uses soap. In very short order Innes and Perry manage to unite multiple tribes that have never liked each other and raise an army to go against the evil creature thing overlords. How did they do this? Because they’re Doug McClure and Grand Moff Tarkin.

As a narrative this is a toboggan with a rocket attached flying headlong down the hill to the shrubbery encompassing the backyard. Not in a disastrous way, but in a way that lacks anything deeper beyond the superficial elements gleaned from the surface and even that is a bit thin. Cushing is British and smart. McClure is American and braggadocious. And Dia is mostly single and 70s hot. Beyond that we get nothing of the characters. And they really don’t change much from introduction to credits.

As I said At the Earth’s Core is much more aimed at the children of the era than it is at teenagers or even adults. It’s simple junk food. There are new deep themes or complexities in the battle of good between evil. It’s mindless fun that feels a bit like a Sid & Marty Krofft production. There are certain shades of Land of the Lost here. If there is an audience that might connect with it today it might be those that enjoy any number of incarnations of Power Rangers. Beyond that it might be a tough sell.

This is largely a set production. That heavy use of sets allows for a certain level of freedom in the special effects. The techniques used blend much better than otherwise might occur. There’s a mixture of green screen and impose shots. Along with camera tricks available to the photographers of the day. And for the most part it works just enough.

The make-up of the subhuman Sagoths is rather generic. It appears that the same molded top was put on each performer rather than prosthetics being applied to each actor. The costuming is vague primitive caveman look that you can buy at any costume shop during the Halloween season.

At the Earth’s Core is an okay film that stuck in my head because of the age I was at when I first encountered it. There’s still something to be enjoyed here, but you’ll probably enjoy it more with very young children than by yourself.