Jules Verne
I'm not sure I'm remembering correctly, but does this movie take alot of ideas from Journey to the Center of the Earth? Not just the whole going to the center of the world thing, but specific scenes.
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I think the biggest similarity is the whole underground ocean thing. Another similar part is the fact that the trip back to the surface happend an just a minute or two.
The big difference is the idea that the explorers ride a drilling machine that boars through rock like a mole. I would say more than half of the movie takes place inside the vehicle. I actually liked this movie. I know it was not exactly a critical success. I think the overall mood is what carried it for me. It's definatly not an action movie. (Well, except maybe the last few minutes.)
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I didn't think it was a bad movie. I did like the overall mood. It kinda heightened the sense of their separation and subsequent loneliness.
Note: the Alpha video version on DVD has many bad jumps where a second or two is missing (From a damaged film).This is most notable during the Newsreel sequence. Also it is zoomed in far enough so that you can't read some of the names in the credits (Including Marilyn Nash). I have a VHS from "Englewood Entertainment" and those problems aren't on it at all.
Another note: Victor Killian (who plays Professor Morley) didn't get screen credit even though he was the main star. This was because he was "Blacklisted" when the imbecile moron Sen. Joseph McCarthy was on his power-hungry driven demented witch hunt looking for scapegoats to falsly accuse of having ties to Communism.
I guess Mr. Killian felt lucky to get a part at all.
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That's very likely true!
Another instance of blacklisting involes a TV show called The Goldbergs.
Actor Phillip Leob (who played Jake) was "blacklisted". Gertrude Berg (Who played Molly) Had much to do with producing etc.. She was pressured fo fire Phillip, Even though he was a great draw. No sponser would back him even though their sales might increase dramaticly when advertising on the show. Phillip was not able to find acting work anywhere, and finally comitted suicide. There are many sad stories involving blacklisting.
Anyway, I didn't mean to stray off the topic of this movie. Appearently Victor Killian was luckey enough to get past all this and was on TV in his later years. I think his last show was either Fernwood Tonight or Mary Hatman, Mary Hartman.
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I think Verne had Monsters in his story.. And his was more entertaining... This had all the earmarks of Verne, but made on a shoestring budget. The lead idiot reminded me of Ozzie Nelson.
Being a lover of bad "B" films... I've seen worse...
Trust me,
Swan
I don't have a problem with this movie at all. It IS totally implausible but then, so are many sci-fi movies. Some of the implausible ones are great. I think the overall claustrophobic mood of this picture is its high point and makes it quite watchable.
Another note: Victor Killian (who plays Professor Morley) didn't get screen credit even though he was the main star. This was because he was "Blacklisted" when the imbecile moron Sen. Joseph McCarthy was on his power-hungry driven demented witch hunt looking for scapegoats to falsly accuse of having ties to Communism.
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Wow, that is interesting. Hard to believe that kind of thing used to really happen. I guess in 40 years people will look back in disbelief at some of the things that are happening now.
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Yeah, that idiot McCarthy was an alcoholic as well. However, his accusations were not always false, many of the accused in fact were members of the Communist party, which did not have the same terrible connotations in teh 30s and 40s, as it did in the 50s.
And let's remember that one of McCarthy's right-hand men was Robert F Kennedy, who never really apologized for his involvement in the witch-hunt. But most feel that he was most likely following the guidance of his reactionary father, a known Nazi sympathizer.
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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)
I've also heard that Richard Nixon was very much a part of it. Particularly "Red Channels" A list of those "Accused". Those whose names turned up in in red Channels (usually without any supporting evidence whatsoever) found it next to impossible to get any employment in the entertainment industry, to make things worse, they were never even told why they were consistently turned down. Eventually, many would figure out they were blacklisted.
The paranoia of this period must've truly been unmatched at any time since the days when women had to fear being burned as witches.
Here's how you can understand the paranoia:
The US had just gotten through the biggest war in history battling a megalomaniac who wanted to rule the world. It wasn't the kind of war you see inmovies, except for maybe Saving Private Ryan. It was really bad and a lot of people lost their sons and brothers. You have to imagine a maniac wants to destroy your lifestyle and rule you nation as he did in Europe.
The public was just learning thee truth about how bad it was and also just learning that Hitler nearly had the A-bomb and he had the rockets capapble of delivery it right to the US. Nobody doubted he would use it.
Then you have to think of Stalin, who was in reality nearly as bad as Hitler, and the Soviets had the bomb by this time as well and plently of missiles. It wasn't a matter of = Oh, it's just a little guy rambling on, like the case with Iran right now, but a powerful nation run by a dictator who had killed millions just as Hitler had. When you realiz this, the paranoia was a normal event.
Same as the paranoia following the 9-11 attacks that wrecked our confidence in flying and caused the Gov't to repeal civil rights with that stupid Freedom Act, while most citizens thought it was okay.
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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)
Venona project. Read and your opinion may change. They weren't as paranoid as you might have thought.
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Yeah, like the current unspoken method of blacklisting in Hollywood of those who are not liberal enough. There's enough ranting and raving imbeciles to go around on all sides, not only McCarthy.
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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)
Victor Killian (who plays Professor Morley) didn't get screen credit even though he was the main star. This was because he was "Blacklisted" when the imbecile moron Sen. Joseph McCarthy was on his power-hungry driven demented witch hunt looking for scapegoats to falsly accuse of having ties to Communism.
It's a popular misconception that Senator McCarthy was responsible for the Hollywood blacklist. The investigations by the House Un-American Activities committee (HUAC) into supposed Communist influence in the arts and entertainment media began in 1947 and ended in the mid-1950s. McCarthy was a Senator -- a member of the OTHER house of Congress -- who alleged that the Army and the State Department were riddled with Commies and Commie sympathizers. A series of accusations and counter-accusations between McCarthy and the Pentagon culminated in the Army-McCarthy hearings in the summer of 1954. Those hearings had NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the movie industry. Many of the writers, actors and directors who found themselves persona non grata during the blacklist era were listed in Red Channels, but that pamphlet wasn't an official government publication; it was published by a private firm that was started by a group of former FBI agents. And McCarthy had nothing directly to do with Red Channels either.
At most, one could conclude that McCarthy's notoriety, the HUAC investigations, and the Hollywood blacklist were all products of the same Zeitgeist. But even that isn't entirely correct, as the House Committee on Un-American Activities was actually created in the late 1930s, with the original purpose of monitoring groups like the Ku Klux Klan and pro-Nazi organizations.
All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?
Another note: Victor Killian (who plays Professor Morley) didn't get screen credit even though he was the main star. This was because he was "Blacklisted" when the imbecile moron Sen. Joseph McCarthy was on his power-hungry driven demented witch hunt looking for scapegoats to falsly accuse of having ties to Communism.
I guess Mr. Killian felt lucky to get a part at all.
I wonder why the wrong hasn't been righted, then, in all the time since? Couldn't someone distributing this film have inserted even an intertitle acknowledging Victor Killian? Even here on IMDb, he's still not listed in the cast - don't you think he should be by now?
You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.
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You have a good suggestion there. I think putting a short "prelude" explanation and dedication before the film's opening credits would be a fitting and proper way to acknowledge his role while leaving the film in it's complete and original state. Not only would this keep the film unaltered, but would also still show the disservice that was originally done to the film's main star.
Also, if doing a remaster (which I would snap up quickly), an ending statement like,
"This remasterd version of "Unknown World" is dedicated to Victor Arthur Kilian (1891-1979)"
would be great.
Another note: Victor Killian (who plays Professor Morley) didn't get screen credit even though he was the main star. This was because he was "Blacklisted" when the imbecile moron Sen. Joseph McCarthy was on his power-hungry driven demented witch hunt looking for scapegoats to falsly accuse of having ties to Communism. - thegalaxybeing
Not to be a stickler, but while Senator Joseph McCarthy did go after suspected communists in the government (the State and Defense Departments), and his ruthless anticommunist zeal did lead to the coining of the term "McCarthyism" to describe the behavior, it was actually the the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that investigated the entertainment industry--and in fact had a much wider-ranging and more damaging effect.
McCarthy's reign of terror was relatively brief and relatively harmless compared to HUAC's, which began operations after World War Two and continued through the late 1960s, although the height of its power was in the 1950s. HUAC investigated private persons from all walks of life, but those most visible were in the entertainment industry, which instituted a de facto "blacklist" of Hollywood workers, both cast and crew, even suspected of having communist connections or even sympathies (known as "fellow travelers"); this is embodied in the deathless question "are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?," which often had the follow-up of demanding to know of the respondent whether he or she knew of others who may be communists or fellow travelers.
This was actually more damaging because if respondents refused to cooperate, they could be cited for contempt (they were under oath) and imprisoned (look up "the Hollywood Ten," for instance), or they could "name names," and in either case they stood a fair chance to be blacklisted simply for being called before HUAC. And "naming names" had its other hazards as well--it would brand you as a "stoolie" in league with the persecutors. In 1999, acclaimed director Elia Kazan, who did name names before the Committee, was awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar, and there were many in the audience, including actors Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Ian McKellen, and Nick Nolte, who refused to applaud, some pointedly sitting on their hands. Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese presented the award, and both looked clearly apprehensive and uncomfortable--and can you imagine tough guy De Niro looking apprehensive about anything? The point is that even that 40-plus years after the blacklist, the memory still lingered and stung.
This is not to dismiss McCarthy, and I understand that "McCarthyism" has become the shorthand to describe both rabid anticommunism and the dogged persecution it entails, and the name "J. Parnell Thomas," HUAC's chairman, is known primarily to students of the era's history. But for all the scare McCarthy engendered, he never provided substantive evidence for his increasingly outlandish claims; and when he turned on the Pentagon, the government closed ranks and rebuked him; McCarthy soon left the Senate, and he died shortly after that.
But HUAC was more far-ranging, it was more damaging, and it turned its wrath on private citizens, which made it far more dangerous. Unfortunately, HUAC is also not as well-known as McCarthy, although it should be.
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If I were a comedian, I'd incorporate myself so I could become a laughingstock. share