Tonight's Movie: Crack in the World (1965) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

The engaging science fiction film CRACK IN THE WORLD (1965) has just been released by Kino Lorber Studio Classics as a Special Edition Blu-ray.

This spring was the film's 60th anniversary. I hadn't seen the movie since 2010, and especially after the last few years, the story of scientists selfishly doing a bad thing -- hoping that it will work out for good, despite warnings to the contrary -- resonated for me more than ever.

Dana Andrews plays Dr. Stephen Sorenson, who plans to harness energy from the earth's core for the benefit of the world. Unfortunately, when he sets off a nuclear explosion to crack through the earth's mantle and access magma, many thousands of people promptly die in earthquakes. If only he'd listened to Dr. Ted Rampion (Kieron Moore), who warned him of this folly...

But wait, there's more! Dr. Sorenson also has a deadly illness, which he hides from his much younger wife Maggie (Janette Scott). Maggie loves her husband, but Dr. Sorenson has lingering jealousy that she was once an item with the younger, handsome Dr. Rampion.

So just as Dr. Sorenson is effectively killing the world, he's also killing his marriage by pushing his wife away due to his terminal illness.

Can handsome young Dr. Rampion save the world from Dr. Sorenson's mess while also winning back Maggie? Stay tuned...

The plot is absurd for many reasons -- as I wrote in 2010, my daughter who studied geohazards was overcome with gales of laughter at various points -- yet for all of the silliness, it's somehow also a very good movie!

The overall story is quite unique, and viewers can always count on Andrews to give a part his all. The plot may be wild at times, including Sorenson's sudden need for dark glasses (?) and gloves, but Andrews plays it absolutely sincerely. Everything in Sorenson's world is dying, and Andrews is quite interesting in the role.

Scott is sweet as the young bride who genuinely loves her husband and can't understand why he's refusing to contemplate having a baby. She's genuinely hurt when he begins shutting her out, and it's understandable when she begins to turn back to her earlier love, Dr. Rampion. Maggie and Rampion are sympathetic characters, as evidenced by their reactions when they learn the truth about her husband's condition.  

The special effects are quite good, and the movie as a whole is visually engaging. I quoted RHSmith from the now-defunct TCM Movie Morlocks site in my review over 14 years ago, and what he said about the film is so charming I want to repeat it here, although there's no longer a link for it: "This is just a neat movie...It has Walkie Talkies and binoculars and Jeeps and helicopters and trains and laboratories full of gauges and dials and beakers full of colorful liquids, it has warheads and flame retardant suits and explosions and lava and just everything." And it's all great fun to look at!

This is quite an entertaining 96 minutes, directed by Andrew Marton and filmed by Manuel Berenguer. It was written by John Manchip White and Julian Zimet from White's story.

The very nice-looking Blu-ray print is from a new HD master from a 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative.

Kino Lorber's Special Edition release of this film includes a cardboard slipcase and reversible cover art; a commentary track by Gary Gerani; on-camera discussions with Tim Lucas and Stephen R. Bissette which run 70 minutes in total; and two trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber.

Sci-fi fans in particular will want to check this one out. It's great fun, and I recommend it.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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