1964's "Crack in the World" was a British-US coproduction from producer Philip Yordan shot mostly in Spain just two years after his classic "The Day of the Triffids," but an upgrade from Allied Artists to Paramount. As expected, it's a large scale story on a modest budget that delivers the goods with fine special effects aided by expertly integrated stock footage of natural disasters, a science fiction epic without any need for giant monsters. Dana Andrews stars as Dr. Stephen Sorensen, head of Project Inner Space, an underground facility pinpointing the exact spot for a nuclear missile to penetrate the inner layer and reach the molten lava beneath, intending to divide the various minerals into new sources of energy. Opposing this idea is Dr. Ted Rampion (Kieron Moore), fearing that one misstep could literally force an earth shattering response the likes of which mankind has never seen. Influential world leaders such as Sir Charles Eggerston (Alexander Knox) give their approval after a consultation with Sorensen, recklessly going ahead rather than risk the collapse of the entire project, plus a fatal cancer he keeps hidden from even his lovely young wife Maggie (Janette Scott). As the lava spurts toward the sky it appears that Sorensen's theory was correct, only to learn soon enough that openings beneath the floor of the Indian Ocean begin a series of earthquakes that claim thousands of lives. Rampion had threatened to quit but now does all the legwork to see how another warhead can successfully halt the destruction. It was the largest indoor set built at Madrid's CEA Studios, at a cost of $100,000, a wise investment that added to the realism and achieved box office success. Moore and Scott were previously teamed as husband and wife in "Triffids" (in a separate section directed by Freddie Francis), while veteran Alexander Knox was typecast as authority figures, particularly in Hammer's "These Are the Damned." Hollywood import Dana Andrews, as effective as he was in 1957's "Curse of the Demon," shares some good moments with Janette Scott but this love triangle proves entirely predictable, his self sacrificing gesture a necessity for the exciting finale. Julian Halevy (a pseudonym for Julian Zimet) would score a double whammy in 1972 with coauthor Arnaud d'Usseau, "Horror Express" pairing Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as rival anthropologists battling a knowledge draining alien aboard the Trans-Siberian Express, and "Psychomania" offering one final role for George Sanders just before his tragic suicide, whose dark powers raise a motorcycle gang from the dead.
Review of Crack in the World
