Search - Unknown World on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1951 DVD Release: 11/19/2002 Format: DVD - Black and White SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 4 mins Studio: Alpha Video Total Copies: 3 Genres: Science Fiction, Sci-Fi Disaster Film

Assembled by the same production team responsible for the minor sci-fi classic Rocketship X-M, Unknown World isn't quite in the same league as its predecessor. The plot is set in motion by Dr. Jeremiah Morley (Victor Kilian), who theorizes that mankind could save itself during a nuclear attack by resettling far beneath the earth's surface. To prove his theory, Morley builds the Cyclotram, a combination drill and exploratory vehicle, with the financial assistance of playboy Wright Thompson (Bruce Kellogg), who insists upon joining the expedition to the earth's core. After several hair-raising adventures, the Cyclotram and its surviving passengers reach a cavern nearly 2000 miles beneath the surface. The cavern contains all the necessities of survival save one: the atmosphere renders anyone living within its walls sterile. Deciding that it isn't worth hiding in the center of the earth if only one generation will survive, the explorers endeavor to get back to the surface -- but who will survive this journey? The obligatory female lead in Unknown World is played by Marilyn Nash, who'd been discovered by Charlie Chaplin for the 1947 film Monsieur Verdoux. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Victor Kilian - Dr. Jeremiah Morley
Bruce Kellogg - Wright Thompson
Otto Waldis - Dr. Max A. Bauer
Jim Bannon - Andy Ostengaard
Tom Handley - Dr. James Paxton

Terrell O. Morse's Unknown World (1951) comes to DVD in a fairly clean and decently mastered source, without too many flaws, and nothing to disturb the easy watching of the science fiction drama. The faces occasionally come close to being whited out without that actually happening, and once the action moves underground that situation is no longer a problem. The last reel has a thin vertical scratch on the right-hand side of the screen, and some underwater special effects shots are hazier than they ought to be in ideal circumstances, but otherwise this presentation is about on a par with broadcasts of the movie that this reviewer recalls from the 1970's. The sound is mastered at a fairly high volume level, which does a good job of presenting the score by Ernest Gold (this was one of many low-budget movies that Gold scored in the years before Exodus made him into a major Hollywood composer). The usual six chapters, standard to Alpha Video's releases, is present, and the disc opens automatically on start-up to a simple menu. And although it claims a 64 minute running time on the box, the movie actually clocks in at eight minutes longer. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide