Somewhere in Britain, the early 20th century: Professor Perry (Peter
Cushing) has just developed a giant drilling machine to proceed to the
center of the earth and takes it on a testdrive together with his student
David (Doug McClure) ... but the testdrive takes them to an underground
(as in sub-lava) continent populated by dinosaurs, sub-humans and
human-like creatures, creatures that seem to live on a caveman-level but
conveniently speak perfect English. Soon the professor and David are
caught by some subhumans together with Dia (Caroline Munro), a Princess on
the run, treacherous Hoojah (Sean Lynch) and a few other cavemen. The
subhumans bring them to their masters, man-sized flying dinosaurs with
hypnotic powers, and all the humans are to serve as slaves. David however
manages to escape, once outside make the acquaintance with Ra (Cy Grant),
and together they return to the caves the others are held at, and they
manage to free them after a bit of dinosaur-wrestling. Then though,
David has to fight Jubal the Ugly One (Michael Crane), who claims Dia as
his bride, and of course, David defeats him. As a thank you, Dia wants to
marry him, but David tells her and her tribe there will be no marriage
until their oppressors (the hypnotic flying dinosaurs and their subhuman
servants) are defeated ... so everybody arms himself and goes against
them, and not even the treachery of Hoojah can stop our heroes from
defeating their enemies for good and making all their caves collapse. Having
succeeded in bringing peace to the region, David marries Dia and wants to
take her to the upper world, but she refuses him, since this is her home.
In tears the lovers part ...
Low budget retro-science fiction
film that seems to be out of date even for the time it was made and is
more reminiscent of serials from the 1930's more than anything else. Also,
the rather unconvincing sets and less than perfect dinosaurs (mostly men
in monstersuits) don't really spell technology at the height of its time.
Add to that a merely functional directorial effort by Kevin Connor, and
you've got ... actually, you've got a rather entertaining movie, even if
entertaining in a campy and sometimes even so-bad-it's-good way. And while
Doug McClure - at that time definitely past his prime - is a less than
memorable leading man and the usually dependable Peter Cushing merely
plays a parody of an eccentric professor, Caroline Munro in rather skimpy
outfits is a sight for sore eyes at least.
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