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.

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.

I suppose that if you're going to make a movie about a group of religious scientists who use giant power drill to find a refuge from nuclear war deep inside the earth, this is how you should do it. Victor Kilian (who looked old even in 1951) leads a group of pioneers on an expedition to see how deeply their "cyclotram" (big drill) can take them.When you think about it, how can you make a tedious trip to the center of the earth interesting? Well...there's a slight issue with some poison gas, one of the crew wanders off to do some unauthorized rock-climbing, a few mechanical malfunctions thrown in here and there, and lots and lots of banal dialogue. Finally--whew!--the cyclotram emerges in a giant cavern that resembles a surface shoreline. After some animal experiments go awry--all the little critters end up dead--and some unexpected crew casualties, the remaining folks head home. There's a panic scene, of course, before the big cyclotram bobs to the surface of the ocean.This film's pretty typical of early 50s science fiction, with lots of morality thrown in. The special effects are shaky, but how exactly can you make a model drill convincing in this context? Not too bad, but nothing special.

What should have been an interesting trip ends up as a rather dreary and none too exciting (despite filming in New Mexico's famed Carlsbad Caverns) slice of modest sci-fi. The main problem is not the cheap special effects (some are actually not too bad at all), but the characters. Without exception, they are a most unengaging lot. The heroine and Mr Kellogg are the only players that connect at all, though Miss Nash is often unflatteringly photographed and Mr Kellogg tends to out-stay his welcome. Otto Waldis, as usual, tries to hog the camera, managing to deduct at least two points from the film's appeal in the process. The other players just don't register at all. Blame Millard Kaufman's lackluster screenplay. This is certainly no Raintree County, let alone Bad Day at Black Rock.Despite his second-string cast, Terry Morse's direction manages two or three moments of real effectiveness, but in a 74-minute movie, that's far from an acceptable figure.