User reviews

"We are now prepared to invade this black wilderness." Well, actually they weren't, since the cable of the diving bell snaps, sending them to a tourist attraction with nice stalactites and stalagmites that I guess is supposed to resemble petrified wood or something. A very long technical explanation about the snapped cable is given later but that comes off like gibberish to me.

The only part worth watching is the genuinely exciting octopus and shark battle at the beginning, but which looks as if it was filmed in a small fish tank which had only a bit of sand poured over the bottom. You might as well turn it off after that part and have a nice nap instead.

The diving bell seems as big as a rocket-ship on the inside, but only about the size of an overinflated beach ball on the outside. This makes for some real laughs, especially when it is hanging and swaying about from the ship's crane and the actors are near it. It doesn't look like even one child could fit inside it, let alone the two men and two women, with a lot of room to spare, and the high ceiling.

Absolutely nothing happens in this movie after they get into the diving bell. They don't even show the implied trip to the volcano area with the lead characters! Instead, we get some sort of senseless and brief argument between the two women and Popeye's grandfather (or so he appears) making bizarre faces, as if he were in a "make the weirdest face and win fantastic prizes" contest. Silly beyond words and certainly belonging in a movie other than this one. At one point, his eyes are popping so far out, they look like they could just fall out of his face.

Later, "Popeye's grandfather" actually moves closer to the cave wall and slowly leans against it so that more rocks can hit him! (You can actually tell that he is trying to get under the path of the larger fake falling rocks! Hilarious!)

The ending made no sense to me, either. I may be wrong, but I got the idea that they weren't really that far under the surface at all. And where was the volcano (which sounded like the amplified recording of a rolling bowling ball and a bit from a storm) relative to the surface? Why wasn't it more of a noticed event from the ship?

The orchestral soundtrack on my DVD copy is really sour, and sounds more like two tomcats having a stand-off.

2/10. A two only because of the octopus and shark battle before the actors come in and ruin everything.

"I've made some of the greatest films ever made - and a lot of crap, too."

John Carradine, who had roles in The Ten Commandments and Stagecoach and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask among his 334 films, and won awards for The Scarecrow and House of the Long Shadows, would probably list this film as one that was crap.

He plays a scientist that sends down a diving bell with four people to 1,700 feet when they get stranded. They manage to make it into Arizona's Colossal Cave and they meet up with a hairy bugger who has been stranded there 14 years. Forget the others, this guy is focused on Phyllis Coates, who was the first Lois Lane on TV.

Yes, 14 years all alone and this old timer wants to find a way to get rid of the competition and have Lois to himself. Before he could get started, the volcano erupts and, well, just one eruption.

I just love this exchange between the two women:

Dale Marshall: You just listen to me, Miss Innocent. There's nothing friendly between two females. There never was. There never will be. Lauri Talbott: Sorry you feel that way. I was hoping we could help each other. Dale Marshall: You don't need help - neither do I. Not as long as we have two men around us.

O, the days when women thought that way.

This film had some very valuable information in it. I didn't know that people dived with a thermos of hot coffee, but it is good they do, as it is just the thing to revive someone who has run out of air.

When thinking of a catchy film title, "The Incredible Petrified World" is a strange one, as by the third word, you are starting to think of frozen stillness becoming lifeless. So, in this case, it is an apt title.

The simple problem with this film is nothing happens; and it seems forever to occur.

Our four heroes (sorry, two heroes and two women, judging by the subservient roles given to the female leads, and the bleak plot warning that if you step out of line, men will hate and leave you) go down in a dodgy diving bell, which conveniently fails at depth near an underwater cave that glows in the dark (phosphorus they explain). I could be critical of the science at this point, but this claim pales with the completely unexplained manner they can snorkel in and out of the diving bell without it being flooded.

Anyway, once they reach the Incredible Petrified World (aka small cave with glowing walls), they eventually meet a stranger who claims he got there from a shipwreck 14yrs ago. Now, it would have been good if they explained how he might have been able to swim so deep without being scuba supported, although it would have been better to explain why they chose to make him look like Chico Marx with a Santa beard, and wearing caveman clothes.

And thats the main problem; you don't mind putting up with the first three quarters being tedious if there is a payoff. Alas, in this case, the payoff is just the remaining tedious quarter.

Like The Mole People, Unknown World and The Abyss, The Incredible Petrified World (IPW) defies sci-fi conventions by taking place entirely in inner space. Also like Mole People and Unknown World, inner space seems to have been built for human habitation - not only are the cave networks the perfect size for humans to walk upright in, the absurd Cyclotram of the unknown world even has a nicely graded (though bumpy) road to travel along while drilling through solid bedrock.

The only resemblance between this film and The Abyss is the underwater setting. IPW was made with less than a fraction of The Abyss' budget and the most talented actress in the film (Coates) was not paid. The film proceeds with mostly character-actors, and little to no character development.

Four people - a professional diver, two oceanographers and the stereotype female reporter - man the first deep-sea submersible diving bell (ya, this technology was already somewhat obsolete by the 1950s and the Navy was doing far more interesting things but who cares) on its first exploratory mission. Predictably, something goes wrong. But soon enough the crew finds itself in an underwater maze of caverns complete with fish ponds, potable water, a monitor lizard and a vaguely menacing hermit with extremely bad hair.

Putting all the absurdities aside (which is asking a lot), the plot is at least different and does take a few unanticipated turns. The terrestrial portion of the plot - focusing on Carradine as the philanthropic engineer sponsoring all of this - is actually more or less believable and interesting. But any value this plot adds is easily balanced by the laughable goings-on down below - especially the unnecessary and ridiculous hermit subplot.

All in all, I think this film deserves a better rating than it has here on IMDb, but I was seriously reconsidering my rating after I read about Ms. Coates' difficulties resulting from this film.

Recommended for B-sci-fi fans. AAAC (avoid at all costs) for everybody else.

When this film was released back in 1959 to an appalled public, one newspaper reviewer described it as "an incredible petrified movie." Since then, that description has been used over and over to appropriately describe this movie. The plot is about undersea explorers testing a new type of diving bell and the discovery of a vast network of air filled under sea caverns. Inside the caverns they discover an old man who had found his was into the caverns years before. Nothing happens in this film. Its just talk (all of which is not any good) with no thrills what so ever. Nothing! The posters for this film promised undersea thrills and a giant octopus. No giant octopus! No! Not even one measly stock footage octopus to enliven this dull film. The undersea "thrills" are scant. This film was so boring I couldn't wait till it was over. This may just be the worst movie Jerry Warren ever made. As bad as Jerry Warren's other films are, at least something happens in those.

The Incredible Petrified World is a place where four undersea explorers find themselves when their diving bell cable snaps and the bell is dragged into an undersea cavern which is lit by phosphorous and the pressure is tolerable. What to do the four which consist of Robert Clarke, Phyllis Coates, Allen Windsor and Sheila Noonan, but make the best of it and look for a way out. Fresh air is coming in from somewhere.

It turns out they're not alone, there's 3/4 crazy hermit down there played by Maurice Bernard who has plans, especially for Coates. Not that he would want her for long because the former Lois Lane from Superman is acting like a real diva.

Getting first billing in this film is John Carradine and the producers and Carradine missed a bet here. Carradine who with his classical stage training enlivened many a ghastly bad horror film with that fabulous speaking voice should have played the hermit. He has a few scenes as the inventor of the diving bell in which the four were exploring in. By not doing that casting, The Incredible Petrified World was left just crashingly boring instead of being camp.

If you were looking for a one word description of the film 'The Incredible Petrified World', that word would have to be Boring. I almost wish I could use words like ridiculous or total nonsense but I can't. If that were the case, it might at least have been amusing. Maybe it would have been good for a few laughs. The main problem with this film is that it's just a boring movie. Plain and simple, there is very little excitement. There are no memorable moments, dramatic, comic or otherwise. The word petrified in the title seems to have no relation to anything in the film. My opinion is that neither does the word Incredible. It's too bad, the plot had potential but little to no effort was made to exploit this potential. Stay away from this one. It's a waste of your time.

The title of this simply begs for ridicule; especially as it has absolutely nothing to do with the film---other than the puns furnished by other reviewers.

I actually fell asleep twice during this happy horsesh*t and had to go back in case I missed something interesting---I should have stayed asleep as nothing remotely resembling the word "interesting" ever became evident. Now this isn't the worst movie I've even seen. (That honour belongs to Eegah.) But it comes amazingly close.

There were so many technical flaws in this movie, even someone like me noticed em (I try very hard not to pay attention to the technical aspects of a movie so as not to spoil my enjoyment). Maybe it's cause there was no story to occupy me that I was forced to notice other things. How many 1000s of feet were they down with no pressure problems? What kind of diving bell lets divers in and out without any water getting in? (I guess you could pump enough compressed air in to equalise the pressure---but then what would you need the bell for?) How do they pop up to the surface at the end so quickly without nitrogen poisoning (bends)? Also, what kind of volcano produces breathable oxygen? And glowing caves complete with caveman and dumb iguana? **sound of eyes rolling**.

Was there a story somewhere? If so, I've forgotten. Oh yeah. Now I remember: 4 dopes descend in bell, which breaks loose. They tour glowing caves. Caveman tries to go for girl. Volcano (or whatever lame excuse they had for a volcano) intervenes---was there more?---I'm getting sleepy just thinking about this movie.

People don't torture yourselves with this bs---zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The Incredible Petrified World (1959)

** (out of 4)

A scientist (John Carradine) creates a diving bell that will allow him to try and get a better understanding of the ocean. On its trial run he lowers it (and several people) into the ocean but it breaks free and falls to the bottom of the ocean. He fears that everyone is dead but in fact they are alive and find a cave that has a strange form of life.

If you read the reviews for this Jerry Warren film you'll see many of them calling this one of the worst movie ever made. I very much disagree with that and in fact, for a Warren film, it's actually pretty good. This here was the second film he directed after his debut MAN BEAST and in all honesty these two are the best that he ever would make. I've seen all of the films that Warren directed so perhaps that's why I feel this one here is pretty good considering where he would go from here.

Obviously he was working on a very low-budget so instead of any real monsters or special effects we're treated to various bits of stock footage. This was obvious during the opening where the narrator is babbling on about stuff that has nothing to do with what we're seeing! From here the film continues to show its low-budget as we're told about the various dangers facing the people but we never actually see it. Instead we basically watch the actors sit around and talk about various bad things that could happen.

Again, there's nothing remotely special about this film but at the same time there's no question that the movie is mildly entertaining if you've just got 66-minutes to kill and want to watch something mindless and rather pointless. For the most part Carradine and Clarke are both fun to watch and the rest of the supporting players at least hit their marks (there's a compliment).

THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD features nothing scary or even good for that matter. It's a low-budget movie that probably played third or fourth at local drive-ins so go in with that in mind and you might have some mild entertainment.

I've just seen The Incredible Petrified World for the first time and rather enjoyed it, despite the low budget.

Four people, two men and two women head down to the bottom of the Oceon in a diving bell but this snaps and breaks loose, the people on the ship above including the bell's inventor eventually give up hope of finding them alive. The explorers are OK and start to explore and come across a network of caverns, which surprises them. When in these, they come across a giant lizard, a skeleton and, best of all, an old hermit who has been here for 14 years. He looks a true dropout with very long beard and hear. He tells the explorers how he got here and that there is no way out. A volcanic eruption then takes place and the explorers manage to escape back to the ship but the old hermit is killed.

The cast includes horror veteran John Carradine (Bluebeard, House of Dracula, House of the Long Shadows), Robert Clarke (The Man From Planet X, The Hideus Sun Demon) and Phyllis Coates (Adventures of Superman).

This movie is worth checking out if you get the chance.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

Wow, what an incredibly BORING movie!! I kept on singing the cheerful songs of "The Little Mermaid" and "Finding Nemo" in order to stay awake, but it was just hopeless! And yet it all started out so promising, with a typical 1950's Sci-Fi voice-over that informs us that the sea is a largely undiscovered jungle that will always hide mysterious secrets for us, idiotic humans. While this guy is talking, there's this ultra-, super-, mega-cool battle going on between a shark and an octopus! That stuff was fascinating!! And then, sadly, the actual movie begins… Veteran actor John Carradine stars as the leader of a sea-expedition (I'm not even sure of that) that sends a diving bell containing four people to the bottom of the ocean. Something goes terribly wrong and the crew is considered lost. They're not dead, unfortunately, but end up in an undersea network of caves where it's possible to breath normally. There's no encounter with Ursula the Wicked Sea Witch, but they do hook up with an old bearded guy who claims to live there since 14 years already. From then on, there's absolutely NOTHING going on apart from tedious speeches and lousy acting. This movie is not even worth mocking! All the cast members seem to believe they're involved in some kind of masterpiece of Science Fiction, which makes it all the more sad. Even though it only runs 64 minutes, I strongly recommend not wasting your precious time on this thing.

The best sequence is the shot of the raging sea storm and the huge waves that lead us into this movie. But they have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie...which is incredibly calm and quite dull.

There is little if any action in this film. Diving bell goes down down down. There's trouble. Crew screams that something is buckling. On the ship above John Carradine, who looks like they got him out of bed for this movie, shouts, "What's buckling?" I don't know about you but if you hear someone screaming that something is buckling in a diving bell I would instantly reverse their submersion. This doesn't happen so they go down another quick 1000 feet and vanish - at least to the ship's crew.

Meanwhile the crew of the diving bell manage to find a series of underwater caves to escape to. They walk, they eat, they walk some more, they run into a monitor lizard, they drink water, they find a man with a very bad beard living in these caves. He tells them there is no way out. They settle in for the long haul. The man with the bad beard becomes menacing. Then a volcano blows up just in the nick of time.

Whew! I don't mind watching a bad film if it has purpose. This one denies me.

Renowned designer John Carradine's deep sea diving expedition goes awry when the bell containing four intrepid adventurers (Clarke, Coates, Noonan and Windsor) capsizes into a prehistoric labyrinth of caverns deeper than anything in living memory. The four weary travellers discover an elderly man (Bernard with a ridiculous stick-on beard), allegedly a shipwrecked sailor whose leering gaze at the first women he's seen in fourteen years gets a little too creepy for comfort. They set about finding a way out, but discover an inland volcano is blocking their path to freedom.

Some classic corny dialogue includes my personal favourite between Coates and Noonan which goes something like "I was hoping we could help each other out" to which Coates replies sarcastically "you don't need any help and neither do I, especially while there are two men about". What is it they're talking about exactly? There's also the penultimate moment where one of the divers runs out of air "how long's he been without air?" "Only a few minutes" "I've got some coffee" "There, he's coming around now". Tremendous stuff.

Carradine is professional and Clarke stoic to the last, while former "Lois Lane" Coates perfects the woman scorned. George Skaff is a recognisable face (mainly from the 70's) and then you can't easily dismiss Maurice Bernard making faces as the old man from the cave. Throw in a half-dozen miniatures, an octopus versus shark contest, a great montage scene and a Nescafe moment and you've got a certified, 63 minute turkey.

The movie has a nice setup with a somewhat interesting premise. Its not really an action movie although the description of the movie might give you that impression. This is more a character driven piece. Its done on a budget but some great movies are and in a kind of sci-fiesque way.

Unfortunately while the start was a quite interesting the poor dialogue just makes the movie drag after a while. This isnt helped by the fact that while they are supposedly trapped in an underground/water world you cant see much of it as they clearly didnt have the budget to do anything interesting with the concept. It all leads to a quick tailing off of the good graces it earnt at the start to become a below average movie. Not terrible but definitely below average.

"When a diving bell goes missing along with its crew of four, their expedition gives up hope of finding them alive. However, the missing vehicle has become trapped in a labyrinth of underwater caverns. After exiting their craft, the foursome encounters a survivor from a shipwreck who informs them that there is no escape from their underwater tomb. Our intrepid explorers, however, trace the flow of oxygen to a volcanic vent and a possible escape route," according to the DVD sleeve description.

Possibly, producer/director Jerry Warren was trying to fool audiences into thinking something might happen if he had professor John Carradine (as Millard Wyman) submerge two shapely 1950s women - lady reporter Phyllis Coates (as Dale Marshall) and Sheila Noonan (as Lauri Talbott) - with two heterosexual men. Wrong. Ms. Coates is trying to get over "Tom" (tossing his hopefully cheap ring into a pool) and Ms. Noonan fails to hook up with Robert Clarke (as Craig Randall). Nothing excites.

* The Incredible Petrified World (1959) Jerry Warren ~ Robert Clarke, Phyllis Coates, John Carradine, Sheila Noonan

One of my favorite sub-genres in the field of science fiction involves geological or subterranean motifs (I worked in the geological field for 11 years and loved every moment of it). Examples of these could be found in the works of Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Stanton Coblentz as well as other authors. Among SF films, examples of this are "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "The Monolith Monsters", "Unknown World", "The Land Unknown", "The Lost Continent", and others. This film by Jerry Warren is an example of this type of theme. Although the production values are based on a smaller budget than some other films, this is a very entertaining and stimulating film about explorers undertaking and expedition into the ocean depths. Due to circumstances, they end up within a network of subterranean caves with an air pocket. Eventually the party of explorers is rescued.

The film has a lot to offer in terms of speculative fiction about the ocean depths, geology, and subterranean caves. Definitely a must-see.

Dan Basinger 8/10

Four adventurers descend to the depths of the ocean when the cable on their underwater diving bell snaps. The rest of their expedition, believing them to be lost, abandons hope of finding them. Exiting the diving bell, the party finds themselves in a network of underwater caverns. They encounter a shipwreck survivor. He tells them he has been there for 14 years and that there is no way out. The two men in the exploring party believe him only after a hike to a volcanic vent that supplies the caverns with oxygen. On the surface, Prof. Millard Wyman, the elder scientist who designed the original diving bell, decides to try again to explore the depths of the ocean. He finds out that there is another diving bell in existence that is identical to the one that was lost...