Many years ago, films like this were released during school summer holidays, a number of them starring Doug McClure. Here he plays, not unusually, a wise-cracking, cigar chomping devil-may-care physical leading man (trip financier David Innes) to Peter Cushing's bumbling Doctor Abner Perry, or 'Doc.' Perry could be a close relative of Cushing's Doctor Who, a part he played about ten years earlier in two Dalek-bothered films. It isn't my favourite Cushing formula - he is such a talented, sensitive performer, but this smacks of 'putting on a show for the kids'. Very enthusiastic, but perhaps could be dialled down a tad. Sweaty, sultry Dia is played by the incomparable Caroline Munro, a character who gives Innes a reason to come over all unnecessary.The film is colourful and psychedelic and boasts a great showcase for 'back projection' to provide its special effects: actors in restrictive monster costumes lumber about in garish studio-bound foliage, and this image, enlarged, is played in the background of the leading actors reacting. This isn't just reserved for the monsters - the spectacle of The Iron Mole, which transports our two heroes beneath the crust of the planet is achieved in a similar way.The monsters themselves are a good example of their kind: you don't know whether you want to run away from them or give them a hug. They rarely convince, but once you are used to the style of their depiction, they appear to get more impressive. An interesting line in telepathic communication helps bring many of them to life. Director Kevin Connor's camera looms in on their open eyes to indicate mind control, snapping shut to suddenly curtail it. The monsters all have a uniform look about them, with extra detail signifying different species and rank - the ones who seem to be in control of everything certainly look the most impressive, swathed in dry ice and gurgling inhuman, guttural sounds.Difficult not to enjoy, this was produced by Amicus (their final production) and based on the story by Edgar Rice Burroughs, it boasts an impressive, trippy soundtrack by Mike Vickers. The film performed well at the box office, proving an understandable fondness for this kind of monster adventure.

Refreshing to see Peter Cushing in something outside of the standard horror or mystery genre. He is absolutely charming as Dr. Abner Perry.Dr. Perry and his assistant, David Innes, has just finished building their huge Iron Mole drilling machine. Their adventure begins promptly as they quickly burrow down into the Earth's Core. They step out of the machine and find themselves in a beautiful fantasy jungle - but watch out for that giant dinosaur bird guys! They find themselves captured and enslaved with other humans (cavemen) by strange dominating creatures/monsters. Humorously, these humans or cavemen speak English! How great for our two travelers - now they have help to figure out what's going one and might help them to find a way out of there!This one is just simply fun - no other way to word it. It's a terrible movie but has a certain silly charm to it that is appealing.6.5/10

Peter Cushing stars as Dr. Abner Perry, a Victorian era scientist who has invented a giant mole-drilling machine, which he plans to use in exploring the core of the Earth. With him is his assistant David(played by Doug McClure), and with much public fanfare, they do indeed reach the core, only to find it a prehistoric world ruled over by giant telepathic birds(!) who have enslaved the local population of primitive humans. They befriend a beautiful woman named Dia(played by Caroline Munro) and vow to free her people from this tyranny, since they also have other monsters to contend with...Based on the Edgar Rice Burrough's story, film is pretty clichéd and far-fetched stuff, though has a good cast who give it their all. Still, this is mostly for kids, though has a strange aura of melancholy about it.

The film begins with a goofy scientist (Peter Cushing) and his assistant (Doug McClure) embarking in their new giant drilling machine. It is far better than they'd anticipated and soon they've tunneled near the Earth's core. There they find exactly what you'd expect--giant rubber-suited dinosaurs, nasty dwarfs wearing really stupid 1/2 masks and a hot lady (Caroline Munro) who you figure will most likely eventually fall in love with McClure. It's all very brightly colored and very silly and looks quite a bit like the crappy old TV shows "Lost in Space" and "Land of the Lost" rolled into one! Acting-wise, I'd say it's no better than either show--even if it did star Peter Cushing.So is the film worth seeing? Well, yes AND no. No if you happen to want to watch a good film! But yes if you could use a good laugh and can turn off your brain and enjoy all the silliness--and there is plenty to go round in this one! By the way, this is the last film of Amicus Productions--and considering the quality of "At the Earth's Core", I can see why.