This movie really takes me back as I remember seeing it as a not-so-wee lad of roughly ten or eleven or twelve(with age my memory has become increasingly hazy). It must have made a rather strong imprint on me as I remembered its title, Kenneth More, and the beginning and closing scenes involved with a man selling books. I knew I liked the film a lot and so sought it out and viewed it again - thirty years or so later. Well, the film was much better for an adolescent me than a more cynical, less-fun me. Though to be fair, I did enjoy watching this again and many scenes came to me as I watched. I had totally forgotten that it was a Spanish production and assumed it was English because of More. No way Jose. This is all Spanish EXCEPT for More. The sets, the acting, the costumes, and even many of the special effects are much better than you might think; however. Kenneth More really helps lend this film credibility as he was a very good actor with an ease about him. He seems very comfortable in the role of Professor Lindenbrock. I don't know any of the other thespians, but none of the actors is less than average for this kind of film. The movie is based on Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth and does meander quite a bit away from the source material. We get some strange creatures, a sophomoric love between Lindenbrock's niece and her Prussian lover, and we get Olsen. Olsen is an inexplicable character and makes the plot of this film really stretch. Unfortunately for me, it stretched too far and snapped! What is with the box? How about that scene in the land of the fake King Kong "monster" that had us looking at some little alien-like village with cloned versions of Olsen? We never hear anything about it again. What was the director trying to achieve here? More importantly the screenwriter? Putting these unanswerable queries aside, I still will have a soft spot in my heart and memory for this film. It did awaken an interest in Verne for me. Where Time Began(the title by which I always knew it) is a fun, very flawed film with adventure and little else.
Review of Where Time Began
