If there is one moment in 1965’s Crack in the World which sums it up concisely, it is an innocuous sign reading “CENTRAL OPERATIONS” and pointing to the right. This is a few feet in front of an elevator, except it is facing the viewer and not those disembarking. Unless the sign is double-sided, that seems oddly less than helpful. More importantly, this is two miles under the ground, at a high-tech facility of an operation to bore into the center of the Earth. I like to think that, if one has reached this point, you went through numerous checkpoints, and you already know your way around the facility or probably had been appointed a guide. It also seems to me such an installation wouldn’t have a wealth of floor space, what with real estate being at quite a premium there. Was there a direction to go in besides turning to the right?
An aging Dana Andrews is head of operations at this facility, the goal of which is to provide limitless energy by harnessing the power of magma. That doesn’t seem like a brilliant idea to me (pray tell, what kind of turbine could stand up to powered by hot magma?), nor their use of a nuclear missile to penetrate a final layer of earth which had defeated every other tool they have. Andrews has that missile fire downward from the top of the shaft (looking like a conventional rocket launch, but with the projectile hilariously turned upside down) instead of just lowering down a bomb and detonating it at the lowest point. It seems to me that missile could strike any point along the way, with slim chance of hitting its target. For somebody who isn’t portrayed as a diabolical mastermind, Andrews keeps making choices that feel in line with a supervillain.
He may not be a mad scientist, but he is angry all the time. Leading up to the missile launch, he suppresses a report compiled by Keiron Moore which provides evidence Andrews’s approach could destroy the world. It is also suggested Andrews is impotent. Frustrated by his belief he is unable to satisfy his young wife (Janette Scott), he nearly forces her to find solace in Moore.
Then again, maybe he had noble intentions in mind, however misguided his efforts, as he is dying of cancer. This is a weird form of cancer. It first impacts one hand, so he takes to wearing a white glove on it, making Andrews curiously look like the world’s earliest Michael Jackson impersonator. Then it apparently affects his eyes, as we see him take to wearing dark sunglasses indoors without any reason stated. Before long, he’s wearing gloves on both hands and has one arm is in a sling. I kept waiting for him to be bandaged from head to toe, or maybe encased in a full body cast.
It is no surprise the use of a nuclear warhead to open the magma tap results in catastrophe. What does seem bizarre to me is it forms the titular fissure which is slowly growing across continents, ultimately threatening to rend the planet completely. I won’t pretend to be any kind of scientist, but my gut tells me the sphere would remain intact, even if humanity is extinguished.
I cannot imagine appreciating this picture in any way except for camp value. It is as ripe for parody as Zero Hour! was when it was skewered by Airplane! Dialog is largely shouted, even when that is unnecessary. All of the “science” here seems suspect, or maybe it was just the way is presented. One memorable moment has Andrews providing a metaphor for how two different approaches to penetrating the final layer of crust might turn out. He wheels out two windows, breaking one with a hammer and slowly pushing a hot poker through the other. I’m thinking this is likely a man with some weird fantasies. If nothing else, Crack in the World is bizarre for having possibly having the word “crack” in it more than any other film in history, including New Jack City.
If there is any aspect of the film I should have been able to appreciate, it is the special effects. Usually, I can regard effects in respect to the time in which the film was made.
But almost everything here is subpar, and would have been so even for a picture made a decade or two earlier. The only shot that impressed me was a travelling miniature that was used for a shot where the camera tilts down from the giant ceiling of that “central operations”, and I only learned how the effect was done courtesy of the commentary track on this import blu-ray. As for other miniatures, most of which will be exploded sooner or later, I have seen far more impressive on Thunderbirds, a kid’s television show from the same year this picture was made.
Dir: Andrew Marton
Starring Dana Andrews, Janette Scott, Kieron Moore
Watched on 101 Films UK blu-ray (region B)