“You do not know the Mahars. You have not really seen their power.”
Victorian Scientist Dr. Abner Perry (Peter Cushing) and his backer American David Innes (Doug McClure) are testing their new earth boring machine. They plan on boring through a Welch Mountain. The machine proves to be more powerful then they expect. They end up boring a tunnel through the Earth and end up in a subterranean cavern in the center of the Earth.
They are captured by an underground race of rubber bird faced reptile-like creatures called the Mahars (I think they’re suppose to be pterodactyls) and enslaved along side prehistoric humans. The Mahars use both monkey-faced creatures called Sagoths and mind control to keep everyone in line. There they meet Dia (Caroline Munro) who is also a slave. One of the other slaves is Hoojah (Sean Lynch) the sly one. He of course picks a fight with David and David kicks Hoojah’s butt. Next David tries to rile up his fellow prisoners to rebel against the nasty Mahars.
After David whops Hoojah’s butt he gets the cold shoulder from the other cave men. It appears that David made a boo boo. In the Pellucidarian custom a man who wins a fight over a woman has a claim on her as a mate. He can release her from his claim if he wishes. Then she can take another mate if she chooses. But if he does nothing it displays contempt for the woman. Add to that the fact that Dia is a princess David’s blunder is doubled. So what does David do? Of course nothing. Now David needs a whole bunch-a brownie points.
What does the center of the Earth look like? Apparently it’s full of strange looking candy colored plants. And it’s always daytime. Best of all the rubber monsters. We have flying reptile-bird like monsters, warthog like monsters, fire breathing frog monsters, and nasty man-eating plants. Cool.
There’s been a lot of comparison between “At the Earth’s Core” and “The Land that Time Forgot” and “The People that Time Forgot”. The only things they really have in common are Edgar Rice Burroughs, Doug McClure and perhaps cleavage. “At the Earth’s Core” takes place at a different time and place. The story is part of the Pellucidar series. These are stories that Burroughs wrote about a fictional land in the center of the Earth called Pellucidar. There are seven books in the series, (one of which brings Tarzan to Pellucidar) “At the Earth’s Core” being the first.
“At the Earth’s Core” was released in 1976. It’s a combination fantasy/science fiction movie. It was directed by Kevin Connor and of course it was based on the story by Edgar Rice Burroughs of the same name. It was produced by Amicus Productions. There’s a lot of action and dopy monsters. With Peter Cushing’s absent minded professor act and Doug McClure’s fighting everything that moves it’s a fun movie for the family. Just don’t expect much from the monsters.