Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Neil Welch Dr Sorenson has the brilliant idea of sending a rocket propelled bomb into the earth's crust to release free geothermal energy, but things go horribly wrong.Director Andrew Marton (of whom it has been said "Who?") pretends to be Irwin Allen in a colourful widescreen action adventure disaster movie.I'll cut this film a break over the dumb science, on the grounds that maybe they didn't know that much about plate tectonics in the 60s. Maybe they didn't know that loosening a chunk of the planet wouldn't result in it zooming off into space and forming a new moon. But the model work, while typical of the era, looks very unconvincing these days. And leading man Keiron Moore is very handsome but acts extremely badly. Seriously badly.But there is also some good stuff here. Location photography is attractive, Janette Scott is always appealing, there is some production value on show, the action climax isn't bad, and Dana Andrews shows Keiron Moore how to act.On the whole, though, this is as dumb as a box of frogs.

Jay Raskin There were plenty of alien disaster movies in cinema before this - "War of the Worlds," "Invaders from Mars" and "Day of the Triffids," and there were plenty of monster disaster movies, such "Gozilla" and "the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms," but hardly ever any disaster movies without aliens and monsters. The only ones that I can think of are "Things to Come," "Time Machine" and "On the Beach," and "Journey to the Center of the Earth"The movie does add a nice love triangle subplot to the world disaster major plot with top scientists Dana Andrews and Kieron Moore both being in love with Janette Scott.A lot of the special effects are just old documentary footage of lava flowing and atomic bombs, but after a while you become absorbed in the situation and the badly mismatched reaction shots just relieve some tension and make the movie more fun. Scott and Kieron also played in "Day of the Triffids" (1959) together.The message of the movie is that when scientists warn of disaster, we should pay attention. It is still a good message. Although I'm sure that the artificial intelligence machines that will be reading this in 2037, after the human race has been wiped out, will get a big laugh from it.

mark.waltz Dana Andrews plays an ailing scientist trying to find a way to use magma from the center of the earth to create a new natural energy. Kieron Moore is his assistant, a scientist out to prove that what Andrews is doing could unleash a disaster if the earth's crust begins to crack. Of course, there is the obligatory romantic subplot, and it involves Moore and Andrews' much younger wife, Janette Scott. Things don't really begin to gel until the end, but in the meantime, there is the scene of the bomb descending into the earth to break through the crust to get to the magma, a series of conversations about sudden earthquakes that break out, and finally, a visit into an actual volcano to counteract the force of the magma by scientifically blowing it out like a candle. (Didn't I see this plot on "Gilligan's Island"?) But in disaster movies where scientists are trying to play God, things always go wrong, and a crack begins to develop in the ocean's floor that begins to head totally around the world. The film is actually pretty good, and the exposition scenes are not really boring. But it doesn't really become "hot" until the last 20 minutes, which makes the overall impact of the film less than it could have been. Still, it is a lot better than two other films that actually involved volcanoes-"Krakatowa, East of Java" (filmed obviously in a mirror-Krakatowa is WEST of Java!), and the disaster master Irwin Allen's hideous "When Time Ran Out". We would have to wait until years later for "Volcano" and "Dante's Peak" to entertain us more than those disasters did.It should be noted that Andrews looks incredibly handsome here, distinguished and gray, yet not lacking the appeal he had 20 years ago in "Laura". Alexander Knox has a bit part as an English Lord whose financing oversees the whole project.

thinker1691 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 ****