The tunneling machine featured in Unknown World must have
been the basis for a similar vehicle called the Mighty Mole that
appeared in the first Cave Carson comic in
1960:
<http://atomic-surgery.blogspot.com/2009/02/cave-carson-advnetures-inside-earth.html>.
You can download images of the entire comic at that site. The Mole
burned through rock rather than drilling and it could fly, but
otherwise they seem pretty similar. A more modern variation on this
theme is the movie The Core <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Core>,
in which another machine melts its way down to the core of the earth
using lasers powered by the wonderful substance unobtanium. Ain't
science wonderful?
Mark Minton
This is cave related because it mentions Carlsbad Caverns.
____________________________________________________
I found this old DVD at Half-Price Books:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5134XWV2Y1L._SS500_.jpg
I had been wanting to watch it for many years, but never got around to it.
The cinematography and the acting and the script were terrible.
The DVD has no features other than the original movie, so it is worth
less that $ 1.
Below are some comments related to the movie:
The cave scenes showing large formations were filmed in Carlsbad
Caverns without the
actors present. The cave scenes with the actors or stunt actors
were apparently done at the location
below:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/16/BronsonCave_eastportal.jpg
And there was quite a bit of cave science mentioned in the story line.
I presume that for the average person viewing this in 1951, that many
of the concepts described in the
script were not familiar to them. Some of the movie seemed like a
documentary.
Apparently, cavers in 1951 had really good underground walkie-talkies.
I wonder if they used real cavers in the real caving scenes, or if
they just used stunt actors ?
From a caver's point of view, I think the vertical rope fatality and
the aftermath are worthy of
discussion. "He hated my guts, yet he died saving my life."
I hope the film-makers didn't damage the cave during the filming,
especially since this film seems
to have little value.
This movie could be re-made to fix all of the flaws, if they were to
avoid it looking like
the "Journey to the Center of the Earth" movie and the re-makes of
that. They should
at least redo the Cyclotram vehicle shots.
I am pretty certain that a novice group of cavers, could with $ 20,000
budget make
a better version of this movie, and apparently there are several
cavers qualified to do it.
Several of the actors smoked a pipe during the descent into the earth,
and I think they
did in the cave to. I wonder if that seemed as odd then, as it does now ?
Ref:
http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com/UnknownWorld.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronson_Caves
David Locklear
You may reply to mmin...@caver.net
Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org
