Dull outing about a group of scientists and a financier embarking on a journey to find a refuge to escape what they have determined to be near certain nuclear holocaust by drilling into the earth. Reminiscent of "At The Earth's Core", this has none of the charm of that movie. Instead it focuses on a lot of pseudo scientific mumbo jumbo. The group goes down in a special vehicle called a Cyclotram but it doesn't do much. Much of the movie appears to be shot in a cave. There is the requisite conflict between the financier and one of the scientist. Nothing happens in this. Bad waste of time.

A group of scientists who seemingly can't stand each other take a trip into the core of our world, determined to find safe shelter in the event of a nuclear disaster. Fighting amongst themselves for much of the journey, they come together in joy with the discovery of drinkable water in the earth's crust and in tragedy when disaster occurs. This isn't really a typical science fiction film, often staid yet occasionally filled with some vital points. The discovery of a possible utopia brings on more joy, some amazing (fictional) scientific finds, bringing more questions than answers. Told through the perspective of the one female scientist, it ends up being a statement against the advancement of nuclear power, insisting that humanity couldn't survive a really strong blast. Low budget yet sometimes imaginative, it still never fully comes to life.

There are various versions of this sci-fi wannabe floating around, stating it runs anywhere from 64 to 73 minutes--whatever the showing time, it's far too long, for most of the running time you gasp for air! There are essentially two sets--the Carlsbad Caverns (or as a stand-in, some caverns near Griffith Park in Los Angeles) and the interior of some contraption called the Cyclotram, sort of a large dumpster with controls and four leatherette office chairs with straps. Plot: Scientists have decided to burrow to the center of the Earth to avoid the predicted oncoming Atomic Holocaust.The titles on the print from one purveyor are jumpy and miss listing the only female in the cast--and one who has an interesting back-story: Marilyn Nash was supposedly discovered by Charlie Chaplin while playing tennis in Hollywood, and he signed her to a contract to play "The Girl" in Monsieur Verdoux; her contract was for five years, in which time Chaplin made no further films in the U.S. Miss Nash's Tinseltown buzz faded quickly and years later she tried to make a "comeback" with this Lippert Films release. Too late. It's pretty dull stuff, if not excruciating, and not even mild camp, unless you are starved for an underground adventure with few thrills, deadly dialogue, and forgotten actors.

UNKNOWN WORLD isn't so much a badly made film as it is a very boring one.The story is essentially a riff on Jules Verne's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH with a 1951 spin: a group of scientists become convinced that nuclear holocaust is inevitable and seek to locate a safe haven for mankind inside the earth itself. They develop a machine they call a "cyclotram," which might be described as a strangely art deco-styled drill bit with seating for six, descend into an extinct volcano, and work hard to put you to sleep within the first twenty minutes of the film.Considering that you still have fifty-four minutes to go, it might be just as well if you did doze off at that point, for the film doesn't get any better. If you stay awake for the rest of it, you will find that they don't do much actual drilling; apparently the interior of the earth is riddled with dandy tubes ideal for cyclotram travel. Now and then they pause to argue needlessly, kill off a character or two, argue needlessly, look for water, and then argue needlessly some more. Eventually they do reach a space that might be used as a sanctuary from nuclear war; when they do, they all argue needlessly some more.The cast is not actually bad enough to make fun of but neither are they actually adequate, so there's no joy to be had in either direction; the visual effects are much the same. The Millard Kaufman script is a clunker if ever there was one, but director Terry Morse--a Hollywood workhorse if ever there was one--manages to give the thing enough cohesion to keep it going, so once again it's not quite bad enough to laugh at nor is it entertaining on its own merits.The absolute best that can be said for UNKNOWN WORLD is that it is tiresome, and indeed I had to play this DVD no less than four times before I could get through it without falling asleep. If that sounds like a joke, I assure you that it is not. The movie is so dull that you will feel you are settling to the bottom of a subterranean sea. Bon Voyage.GFT, Amazon Reviewer