Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

If it wasn't for the title or the movie trailer I would of turned off the movie at the start. Very Slow moving beginning sequence with ample chatter and a kilt clad Pat Boone. Eventually our group of explorers make their way to Iceland and descend on wondrous features of our world within. James Mason as Sir Oliver Lindenbrook is the leader of this far fetched expedition. Actor, the lovely red-head Arlene Dahl plays the perfect self assured female lead and interpreter for her hand named Hans. In this film Dahl and Mason have a special chemistry as she complains and wants to leave the expedition in a heated argument, having Sir Lindenbrook call her a carriage as they both realize the humor and impossibility due to their circumstances. The heavy in this film is the Count Saknussemm played by the husky Thayer David who wants to derail the group's plans for discovering the Center of the Earth and the lost City of Atlantis. Saknussemm and his aid capture a stray Alec who was presumed lost from his party due to a sink hole but is reunited with his party. Noticible is the gradual loss of clothing on actor Pat Boone as toward film's end he's down to wearing tattered shorts which he looses in a tree on Italian Convent grounds. Somehow this movie holds your interest and you wonder if Pat can save his clothes.

Although it's totally out of Jules Verne, it couldn't be more faithful to him, which perhaps is the most fascinating trait of this film. The only person who is true to the novel is Hans the Icelander, who even speaks delightful Icelandic together with the widow of professor Göteborg of Stockholm (Goetabaug). Otto and his nephew Axel are replaced by some Scotsmen, one of them being Pat Boone with even a lass of his for whom he sings delightfully with a warmer voice than ever Jules Verne could imagine, while there even is a consummate villain to the bargain, a descendant of the great scientist Arne Saknussem himself, claiming his rights to the whole underworld of wonders including Atlantis and not only flocks of cannibal dinosaurs and other monsters, but the question is if not the duck Gertrude takes the prize, showing the way when all humans fail. It's James Mason's second Jules Verne film, in the first he was Captain Nemo, but it's obvious that he enjoyed this even more. At 50 he is still youngish and has his whole intensity of virtuosity left and misses no opportunity to insult whatever woman is available. Even the dialogue is fluently sustained and enjoyable all the way with plenty of humorous turns, and Bernard Herrmann's music, sometimes threatening, sometimes sublime, adds to the wonderful coloration. It's an inspired film on one of JUles Verne's best novels, actually his second, and although wildly deviant from Jules Verne in every possible way, Jules Verne couldn't possibly have been screened better.

Based on the classic novel by Jules Verne, this adaptation stars James Mason as a Scottish professor who organizes an expedition into Iceland in order to locate the entrance to the center of the Earth, where a volcanic piece of rock he came into possession of originated from. Along with him are the widow of a colleague(played by Arlene Dahl) and a student(played by Pat Boone) They further enlist the services of local guide Hans, who brings along his duck Gertrude. They encounter an amazing array of things in the vast caverns including dinosaurs, and end up lost, though they meet up with the treacherous leader of a rival expedition(played by Thayer David). Can this group survive their attempts to return to the surface? Entertaining film is overlong and dated to an extent, but is still elaborate and imaginative, with a good ending(though poor Gertrude is another matter...)

In 1880, in Edinburgh, Professor Oliver S. Lindenbrook (James Mason) of the local university has been awarded with the title of "Sir" and his students have chipped in for a gift including a lava stone. Prof. Lindenbrook researches the lava and finds evidences that the scientist Saknussem sent it from the center of the Earth one hundred years ago. He sends his findings to his colleague Prof. Peter Göteborg of Stockholm to endorse his research. But soon he finds that Prof. Göteborg has betrayed him and traveled to Iceland to organize an expedition to the center of the Earth. Prof. Lindenbrook travels with his protégée Alexander "Alec" McKuen (Pat Boone) to Iceland to organize his own expedition, and he discovers that Prof. Göteborg was murdered by Count Saknussem (Thayer David) that wants to protect the discovery of his ancestor. Prof. Lindenbrook and Alec are forced to team-up with the widow Carla Göteborg (Arlene Dahl) and the strong local Hans Belker (Peter Ronson) that brings his duck Gertrude with him. The group goes to a volcano that is the entrance to the center of the Earth in the beginning of their amazing and dangerous journey."Journey to the Center of the Earth" is an enjoyable family entertainment based on the novel by Jules Verne. The effects and scenarios are impressive for a 1959 movie and it is funny to see the behavior of the women in that time, screaming and totally vulnerable. The duck Gertrude is responsible for most of the funniest parts of this movie and her tragic fate was absolutely unnecessary. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Viagem ao Centro da Terra" ("Journey to the Center of the Earth")