Lower Decks

Watching this movie was a bizarre experience. Released in 1976, it was based on a story by Edgar Rice Burroughs that I have not read, part of his lesser known (in comparison to Tarzan) Pellucidar series. Peter “Grand Moff Tarkin” Cushing and Doug McClure star as a scientist and his partner who decide to test the scientist’s new drilling device and wind up in a dangerous world beneath the Earth. There are dinosaurs and giant plants and several races of intelligent creatures. The two are captured, alongside a group of cave people, by a band of brutish, grunting soldiers. McClure’s character soon decides to overthrow the shackles of the land’s ruling faction: telepathic bird things.

McClure’s commitment to his role of David Innes and Cushing’s oblivious Dr. Abner Perry helped At the Earth’s Core more or less hold my attention. But it was the beautiful Caroline Munro as Princess Dia that kept the movie from being a total waste of time. The dinosaurs were awful, though, just awful. The scene in which two dinosaurs fight to the death by ramming one another with their horns was painful to watch. And not because I felt for the dinosaurs (they actually looked more like pigs than dinosaurs).

The movie was probably twenty minutes too long with several unnecessary scenes of climbing and walking through caves. There was also a minor plot involving a jealous caveman who wants Princess Dia for himself that didn’t add much to the movie. The villainous bird things that rule the land with their telepathic fists weren’t terrifying in the least. Their dive bombing attacks on sacrificial cave people were funny, though.

The friendship between David and a brave caveman named Ra (played by Cy Grant) made for some nice scenes. The final confrontation between David, Ra, other cave people and the bird things was disappointing. Ra was the big hero but he died in the process of saving everyone else. Why didn’t the bird things just fly away when they were attacked? At least Cushing got off a great line: “You cannot hypnotize me! I’m British!”

David and Perry ultimately return to the surface world but Princess Dia stays behind, much to David’s regret. In her final scene she’s wearing a terrifically revealing white outfit that seems to defy gravity by sticking to her curves. Double edged tape, perhaps? Munro didn’t have a particularly large role in the movie but it was a memorable one. I can’t strongly recommend watching this movie, because it isn’t really all that good, but McClure and Cushing do their best and Munro looks ravishing. So it isn’t all bad.