News: AT THE EARTH'S CORE (1976) Hitting Blu-ray in January

Good news for fans of the John Dark/Kevin Connor lost world epics of the Seventies: Kino Video and Scorpion Releasing have announced that they will be bringing to Blu-ray the Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation At the Earth's Core (1976), starring stalwart Doug McClure, Star Wars' Peter Cushing, and the stunning Caroline Munro. The disc is scheduled to be released on January 13, 2015.

Here's what Kino has to say about their upcoming release:

There's more than lava at the Earth's core. There's also Pellucidar: an underground empire where gargantuan pterodactyls torture and enslave all humanoids - including the lovely Dia (Munro). But all that could change when a surface-dwelling scientist (Cushing) and an American businessman (McClure) drive their powerful "Iron Mole" straight into Pellucidar...stirring up a great deal more than dirt, rocks and lava!

Special Features:

    Reversible cover art work
    Brand New on camera interview with star Caroline Munro
    Brand New on camera with Director Kevin Connor
    Audio commentary with Kevin Connor
    Original Trailer

Sounds like an essential purchase! Here's hoping that this does well, so that Kino might also score the rights to Warlords Of Atlantis (which still doesn't have an authorized U.S. release) and the Time Forgot flicks.

AT THE EARTH'S CORE (1976) Lobby Cards

Of all the John Dark/Kevin Connor/Doug McLure adventure fantasies of the Seventies, I think At The Earth's Core is my favorite. Mostly because of the presence of Caroline Munro, I admit, although I'm also grateful for Peter Cushing's inclusion in the cast.

I also enjoy the bizarro man-in-suit creatures created by the filmmakers to stand-in for the prehistoric beasties of Edgar Rice Burroughs' original novel. Their fanciful designs frankly delight me. I can only assume that the producer/director team of Dark and Connor chose not to use dinosaurs in Core order to differentiate this flick from their Time Forgot films.

An Out Of This World Triple Feature!

This is a drive-in trip I'd have loved to take in '78! A triple bill re-release of John Dark/Kevin Connor science fiction adventures from American-International Pictures: The Land That Time Forgot (1975), The People That Time Forgot (1977) and At The Earth's Core (1976) - all starring the indomitable Doug McClure!

Sorry posting has been so light the last few days, but I've been fighting the flu, and the battle's been wiping me out. I think I've got the bug on the ropes now, so, with a little luck, I'll be back up to form - and posting regularly - again soon. Stay tuned, Star Kids!

Happy Birthday, Stella Star!

This Star Kid wants to wish the lovely Caroline Munro - Stella Star herself - a very joyous and happy birthday today. The interstellar siren of Luigi Cozzi's pulp romp Starcrash (who also portrayed the savage Dia the Beautiful in Kevin Connor's At The Earth's Core, among many other memorable genre roles) turns a youthful 64 today.

Caroline is a personal favorite of mine, and although I've never had the good fortune to meet her, she remains something of a muse to me in my writing. Many of my heroines resemble Ms. Munro, and that's not a coincidence. It's also notable, I think that Caroline was the very first "Space Babe" on this site!

AT THE EARTH'S CORE (1976) Theatrical Posters

Today we have a few of the International theatrical posters for the 1976 John Dark production of At The Earth's Core. Based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs and directed by Kevin Connor, Core starred the ubiquitous Doug McClure (The Land That Time Forgot, Warlords Of Atlantis) and co-starred the great Peter Cushing (Star Wars) and the stunning Caroline Munro (Starcrash), in a tale of cliffhanging adventures in the savage inner world of Pellucidar.

Despite of - or perhaps because of - its primitive special effects and man-in-suit monstrosities, I have a great affection for this movie, and have ever since catching it on network television back around 1977. It's actually fairly faithful to the Burroughs novel (abridged, of course), even if it presents truly fanciful monsters rather than the paleontologically accurate prehistoric beasties of the book. Cushing is a joy as Prof. Abner Perry, the brilliant but absent-minded inventor of the "Iron Mole," and Caroline is a perfect primeval princess. McClure is decent, too.

Sure, I wish it had a bigger budget and Ray Harryhausen-animated creatures, but it's a fun - and favorite - 70s Lost World flick.

Coming Attractions: AT THE EARTH'S CORE (1976) Theatrical Trailer

At The Earth's Core was another of the John Dark/Kevin Connor 70s adventure films based on and/or inspired by the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs. As with the others - The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot - the film starred stalwart Doug McClure. In this case, though, he was joined by the stunning Caroline Munro (Starcrash's Stella Star, herself) and the always awesome Peter Cushing (Star Wars' Garnd Moff Tarkin) in a loose adaptation of the Burroughs classic, which I watched again last night on DVD.

Set in a savage, Stone Age jungle within the hollow Earth, the film version of At The Earth's Core eschewed the dinosaurs and primitive mammals of the novel in favor of utterly fantastic monsters portrayed by men in rubber suits and animatronic 'bots. Truth be told, I actually dig these goofy monsters, and am kinda glad the filmmakers went that way with the beasties. The two best things about the movie, though, are Caroline Munro as Dia the Beautiful ("Dian" in the book) - and the realization of the heroes' subterranean "Iron Mole" vehicle, which has a gorgeous, Victorian aesthetic to its design and features. The third best aspect of the film is Cushing's delightfully scatterbrained portrayal of Professor Abner Perry. 

I'll write more about this film one of these days, because corny as the Dark/Connor films were, they were among the more high-profile genre movies of the era. I remember really wanting to see them whenever they played at local theaters and drive-ins, and am still annoyed that I never got to see Warlords of Atlantis... and still haven't.