A scientist receives a volcanic rock as a present from a student and opens it because it is too heavy. He finds evidence there that a previous scientist made an expedition underground and left directions on the artifact enclosed. He follows the directions to the entrance, but another scientist and the descendant of the original explorer are also there to claim the find. The other scientist is killed by the descendant and the 2 groups enter the underground passageway.
Not bad, but predictable. The 2 hour duration had a 45 minute chunk taken out of it's adventure potential while everyone was on the surface in Iceland. After that, the pacing picked up and there turned out to be plenty of adventure left. The simplistic premise lead to all of the stereotypical things that a late '50s film would include: food and light shortages, cheesy monsters, great discoveries, etc. The characters were slightly more varied than I had expected. They weren't written extremely well and the dialogue seems a little stale watching it now. Back in '59 it would have been fresher. The acting was done well at least. The actors all played to their roles just fine. Sets were where this really stood out. The jewel cave, mushroom cave, underground ocean and ruins of Atlantis were all expertly crafted. The camera-work and editing were very straight forward and '50s style. No creative angles, no amazing follow shots, no layering or dissolves and no match cuts. Special effects were so hokey as to be comical. I liked the iguana dimetrodons quite a bit and there was lots of compositing involved. The whole style fit the genre and time perfectly. Unfortunately, the version that I got had a glitch around the hour 45 mark when important stuff is happening. This has 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.1/10 on IMDB and other critics gave it mixed reviews. Basically a C+ grade, but I would argue more for a B because of entertainment value and sets. I rate this adequate.
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