Crack in the World (1965)

I love this movie so much

An unexpected masterpiece

Absolutely brilliant

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Dana Andrews plays Dr. Stephen Sorenson, a terminally ill scientist who decides to follow through on his dream project: using a missile to break through to the planet Earths' magma layer. His associate, Dr. Ted Rampion (Kieron Moore), has been preaching that this will be dangerous, and Ted is naturally proved to be correct. However, he has no time to say "I told you so", because he, Stephen, and others must race to save the world from the resulting title disaster.Copious stock footage mixes with pretty impressive special effects, designed by Eugene Lourie, himself the director of the classic dinosaur flick "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". Some viewers may be able to poke a lot of holes in the "science fact" aspect to the screenplay, but this shouldn't get in the way of enjoying what is a reasonably entertaining forerunner to the "disaster film cycle" of the 1970s. It's rather slow to get started, and does devote a fair amount of the running time to the love triangle. Ultimately, it delivers the goods if you stick with it. One thing about it that people should appreciate is the fact that it doesn't necessarily guarantee the viewer a happy ending. It keeps you hanging until its final frame. Among its other assets are the art direction (by Lourie), cinematography (by Manuel Berenguer), and music (by Johnny Douglas).Andrews gives a typically solid performance in the lead, but most everybody here is fine. That includes the gorgeous Janette Scott as the female scientist caught between Ted and Stephen. Alexander Knox rounds out the quartet of top billed performers in the role of the pragmatic Sir Charles Eggerston.This does offer a fair amount of fun if you're looking to discover sci-fi and disaster pictures from decades past.Seven out of 10.

Very early disaster movie about a crack in the earth.What needs to remembered here is that this came BEFORE the disaster movies of the 1970s (Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, The Swarm, etc) and you have to wonder just how much of this film was copied by Irwin Allen and others. The music of the film has what now seems like rather routine "disaster music", but back then, the opening score would have been like nothing nobody had heard before. Think about it.Crack In The World is a wonderfully scripted, acted, filmed, scored, epic that deserves more attention than it gets. Maybe the average science in the plot is the reason it does not get talked about a lot these days?

Pre-plate tectonics farrago containing every piece of lava stock footage on earth, a neat little helicopter and store-loads of pastel sweaters that would make Perry Como drool. The set of the main lab looked somewhat familiar… I kept expecting Dr. No to waltz through. A cornucopia of screwy dialog including the gem: "They've got to be stopped… they're heading into The Crack!" The conclusion is thoroughly uproarious. I rate the film 2 Crochet Hooks Up since watching it takes so little effort you can get a lot of knitting done. Would make a great double bill with "Day of the Triffids" of the same vintage since the films share some cast members.

Many things in the world of science fiction, come from the reality of science itself. Man has always thought, if there was some way to harness the hot volcanic magma in the center of the earth, it could supply the energy needs of the entire world. In this film, a top Geo-scientist, Dr. Stephen Sorenson (Dana Andrews) plans to use a nuclear tipped missile to punch a hole into the crust of Earth's mantle and release all the energy stored therein. His colleague, a former student of his and rival for the affections of the heroine, Maggie Sorenson, (Janette Scott), is Dr. Ted Rampion (Kieron Moore) who warns emphatically that such an explosion could cause a gigantic, world-wide catastrophic 'crack' in the earth's surface which could destroy it. Alexander Knox plays Sir Charles Eggerston one of many members of the Earth's council, whom Sorenson eventually convinces of the safe feasibility of the project. The film is highlighted by magnificent explosions and dramatic action scenes which prove, this movie should have garnered more attention when it dominated the marquees of the day. All in all a great cult film for all ****