Unknown World

This is not as bad a picture as some of the other reviews suggest.

I'm not saying it's a great movie, but it IS surprisingly well done for being made with no money.

It's an odd movie in that it's not really the kind of sci fi you'd expect. There are no monsters or other creatures.

It a straightforward story about finding a alternative place to live in case of nuclear war.

It does drag a bit, but it's worth a watch.

The plot.

Dr. Jerimiah Morley becomes convinced that the world is headed to an inevitable worldwide nuclear war.

He organizes an expedition made up of a team of expert scientists and an atomic-powered rock-boring vehicle called a "cyclotram" to find a subterranean environment where holocaust survivors could live indefinitely.

When funding falls through, independently rich adventurer Wright Thompson underwrites the project under the condition that he be allowed to go.

As the group goes deeper beneath the Earth's crust, personalities clash, tempers flare, and the dangerous journey claims the lives of several expedition members.

When they come upon an enormous underground expanse with its own ocean and phosphorescent light, it appears that their goal has been achieved.

Cheapjack Lippert Pictures had an unexpected success with Rocketship XM (1950). I expect this little slice of sci-fi was intended as a follow-up (check out the similar opening scenes). However, instead of burrowing into outer space in a rocketship, these adventurers burrow into inner earth in what looks like a fat submarine with a drill for a nose.

They're playing mole because staying on top like everyone else looks like sure death thanks to nuclear weapons. So six hardy Adams and one Eve set out in their big drill to found a new world and refuge for humanity. Naturally, things don't go entirely as expected, otherwise there'd be no movie. And, of course, not all seven survive.

Actually, the special effects aren't bad considering the challenges of a fantastic inner earth. Then too, I'm surprised Lippert popped for location shooting all the way to New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns. However, it's also a no-name cast that unfortunately performs like one, except for Killian and Nash who manage a few sparks of life. All in all, it's an interestingly offbeat slice of 50's sci-fi despite the big cheese factor.

(In passing—thanks IMDb for the info on Killian's billing or I should say lack of billing. Killian was one of those distinctive supporting players who could make any movie better.)

In the fifties, when we saw these things we believed them. We believed the effects, or rather allowed he inadequacies in the effects to pass. And we believed the science too, more or less on the same terms.

Now of course matters have changed. So far as effects, we expect more. They are still pretty junky, you know and it may be a whole generation before effects are actually indiscernible from photographed "reality." So when you watch one of these old things, there is a built in amusement value, a sort of juvenile amusement park pretense.

And on the science side too. Despite massive cold war investments in science education, just massive, the general knowledge of science in the viewing public has actually decreased since the period of this movie. Its an odd, odd coincidence that the quaint scientific artificialities here which should be seen in the same light as everything else here won't be by most.

(A recent poll shows only 40% of Americans "believe" in evolution, arguably the one theory with the most evidence accessible to a novice. Politicians who used to bolster science now actively erode it — in support of special interests, I assume.)

So.

Having said all that, this is one of the very best of scifi movies from this era. It has laughable effects, and the joke amplified knowing they weren't so laughable at one time.

It has a profound nihilistic cold war influence. The world is doomed, absolutely, because of man's blind stupidity on both sides and only scientists — of which there are dangerously few — can see the depressing truth. There are lots of great speeches here about that impending doom and a finale where the possibility of life overcoming its negative future just out of exuberant hope. Its like walking through a museum.

The story is one of those typical things, people from diverse backgrounds thrown together under stress. Death, romance, conflict, resolution.

And then there's the science. You have to know, of course that the science is utterly bogus in every respect. If you accept this, then the whole thing merges into a sort of Lynchian surrealism, a trip quite literally to another world. That's why I love this stuff. It really is a voyage to a mindset, a coherent world where everything is different expect for trivialities. Telephones still work the same way roughly. The clothes are familiar. People have the same shape. Much of the language is the same we use today. But all the stuff that matters, its part of an unknown world.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

As with ROCKETSHIP XM, Irving Block, Jack Rabin and the Lippert Company were trying to make a serious science fiction film with something to say. To the films credit, UNKNOWN WORLD is not exploitive or stupid as Rabins and Blocks next film ,CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON was. Years before I first saw this film, I owned a still of the drilling machine that takes the cast to center of the Earth and found it rather interesting looking. Its not bad looking in the film, and the scenes of it drilling into the Earth are of some visual interest. However, the film is just to lethargic and indifferently acted too be of interest to anyone other 1950's science fiction buffs. The trip to the center of the Earth is just to slow going.

Let's face it, if you're bothering to read reviews of this film, you are probably going to see it out of a sense of obligation if nothing else. So, it really doesn't matter what I say, now does it?

This is a fairly typical early 1950s not-very-scientific attempt to use the genre as a means for moralizing. The morality of this film is certainly worth listening to for its anti-war, anti-pollution, etc, messages, but the film lacks depth, science of any kind, and, basically, a compelling plot.

Being a fan of 50s sci if, I thought this film started off pretty well. Although there is no obvious crisis looming on the horizon, a scientist and a group of anti-nuke colleagues obtain grant money to explore deep within the earth for the possibility of habitable subterranean environments. Since the film was made in 1950-51, the level of concern regarding nuclear warheads is certainly understandable (too bad some have forgotten about this, eh?).

Much is made about the vehicle which they will use for this journey. The vehicle looks like a suped-up bullet nose Studebaker with a large drill bit attached to it. This vehicle is apparently capable of drilling through several hundred miles of solid rock, without any visible cooling system. As the scientists explore deeper and deeper into the earth, they are not surprised (though I was) to find that most of the crust and upper mantle (my terms, not theirs) are in fact hollow, and have not only gorgeous stalagmites and stalactites, but flat floors graded properly for people to take walks on. Harassed by noxious gasses, magma and pretty poor acting, the cast dwindles as the story devolves into a simple adventure tale.

The acting is generally uneven, and is hampered by the occasionally absurd script. I really don't want to single anybody out, but Marilyn Nash and Bruce Kellogg are particularly off-pace in this one.

The director, Terry Morse, went on to make a few good films (such as the List of Adrian Messenger), and also a lot of other films (the American version of Godzilla, and the timeless classic - not - Love Slaves of the Amazon). And this is sort of below-standard fare in the context of his filmography.

Well, OK then, go see it... You know you want to, and I am not going to stop you... But don't say you didn't have fair warning.