Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

soulexpress No, this is not about a planet whose entire population is scared. In fact, the title has nothing to do with the movie itself.Two men and two women descend into the sea in a diving bell designed by one Professor Wyman (John Carradine). Its support cable snaps, causing the bell to sink thousands of feet to the bottom (with no pressure problems). The explorers find an underwater world complete with breathable air and caves that glow in the dark (phosphorous, don' cha know). They meet a bug-eyed stranger with a Santa Claus beard, who claims to have been in the caves for 14 years following a shipwreck. The stranger takes a shine to one of the women and decides to kill the others so he can have her to himself. But before he can, the volcano above them erupts, killing the stranger in an avalanche of rock. Luckily, a second diving bell has been dispatched, whisking away the explorers to safety.My plot summary makes THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD sound far more interesting than it is. In fact, the movie is 64 minutes of relentless tedium. In between the occasional plot point, we're deluged with meaningless dialogue, a lot of which reflects the sexism and misogyny rampant in 1950s America. For example, when one of the women suggests they could help each other, the other woman says, "We don't need anyone's help—not with two men down here with us." We also get ponderous scenes of walking, fish-eating, water-drinking, and oh so much SCUBA diving. And there's no reason for the stranger to be here at all. His appearance is extraneous at best.Now, on to the technical flaws. What kind of a diving bell takes in no water when you open its hatch under the surface? Why is the bell's ceiling higher than Madison Square Garden's? What type of volcano produces breathable air? How did the stranger get to the underwater caves without diving gear? How did he mark time accurately enough to know he's been there for 14 years? How did the women swim to the second diving bell this far underwater with only street clothes on? And how did they manage to stay dry in the process?Along with Carradine, the other name actor here is Phyllis Coates, the first Lois Lane on the "Superman" TV show. Her character is bitter and angry and spends most of her time trading insults with the other woman. Just what we needed: something to make this an even less pleasant viewing experience.

unbrokenmetal One problem of this movie is that it has a great introduction. We see underwater creatures, are told how miraculous the world down there is - but afterwards, we see a couple of guys sitting in a cave most of the running time. They are explorers who got caught there, fortunately with plenty of air, after the cable of their diving bell broke. They can't do much but wait, meet another survivor who tells them there is no way out - not really encouraging - and wait for the scientist Wyman (John Carradine) who sent them on this dangerous expedition to start a rescue team. "The Incredible Petrified World" simply is a little adventure flick that isn't silly enough to be funny, but certainly didn't have the budget to achieve anything serious, either.

brucerussellmyers Octopus vs. Shark: Review of the Incredible Petrified WorldThe central question in this 1950's nautical circus is whether the human storyline is a metaphor for the creature storyline, or whether the creatures represent the humans in the story. An additional quandary is why the basic plot line of this film was not made into a sit-com for the ages. Whether these questions are answerable will be apparent by the end of this review dear reader, or perhaps nothing is ever apparent when dealing with the mysteries of the deep sea and/or human relationships.There are four primary characters, a secondary character, and several tertiary characters. For the sake of brevity, the tertiary characters will be given little analysis, but might be seen as roaming electrons searching for an ion of meaning to the forsaken diving bell which represents the nucleus of the story. In fact, this movie might make for an excellent 8th grade science lesson, and I encourage all middle school teachers to show it!The film opens with an epic battle (are there any other type of battles?) between an octopus and a shark. Normally, I would handicap the shark, if I were the type to handicap such competitions, but the octopus surprisingly holds its own. Teeth and tentacles aplenty to set the scene for our four adventurous divers who want to reach a depth never reached before by humans.But a funny thing happened on the way to the bottom of the sea. The cable broke. This plunges the diving bell to a depth unthinkable and ruins communication with the surface tertiary characters. So we find Paul and Craig (who seem to be experienced oceanographers) with two females, Dale and Lauri (who have little scientific knowledge but are reporters there embedded if you will). The relationships seem to work like this: Paul and Craig are good friends, who even have a manly attraction to each other. Paul and Lauri have a heterosexual attraction to each other. Craig and Dale have little to no relationship, although if they must spend the rest of their days together, we can only assume there will be cuddling. And now for the Octopus and the Shark. Dale and Lauri have a competitive female relationship which culminates in the following dialogue:Dale: (to Lauri) You just listen to me, Miss Innocent. There's nothing friendly between two females. There never was. There never will be. Lauri: Sorry you feel that way. I was hoping we could help each other. Dale: You don't need help - neither do I. Not as long as we have two men around us.What we find here is an allusion back to the opening of the movie when we watch the octopus battle surprisingly well. Lauri is the octopus – she seeks to nurture with her tentacles of kindness and teamwork. Dale, however, sees the world as a shark eat shark world and cannot envision a noncompetitive situation with another female. Even worse, she feels that men are her salvation! Clearly, she will not be ready for the feminism about to change the world. Her weakness of only moving forwards (as sharks will die if they don't move forward), will eventually cost her the war against her "eight legged" female rival.The other interesting twist in the movie is the presence of a neo-Neanderthal and a volcano in the incredible petrified world. The screenwriter has clearly planted these second rate plot devices in the movie as metaphors. To the casual observer, the caveman is anachronistic source of danger and safety to our four adventurers while the volcano is definitely a source of frustration and danger.A careful viewing reveals that the volcano represents God and the caveman is Jesus. "Really?" you gape. It's true! The travelers think that this cavern will eventually lead to the surface, until the caveman points out that the volcano will block their path. What he really is saying is that until you give your life to your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (i.e. Him), you will never be saved. When the caveman spies upon the women, he is not merely being a voyeur, but he is judging and deciding if these females are worthy of his Kingdom.When the volcano erupts, the caveman behaves curiously. He seems to allow the giant, realistic looking boulders to land on him. Again, one is tempted to scoff at the silliness of the plot and action sequence, until one realizes that this caveman is sacrificing himself for the four divers. He has become a martyr and the viewer can't help but feel that a new age is dawning.This feeling is buttressed by the fact that the tertiary characters are diving and reaching the vessel which was lost in the beginning of the movie. I'm not saying how, the movie ends, but let's just say, we all have seen how Christianity has turned out. And we all know what happens when a shark battles an octopus.

wdbasinger One of my favorite sub-genres in the field of science fiction involves geological or subterranean motifs (I worked in the geological field for 11 years and loved every moment of it). Examples of these could be found in the works of Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Stanton Coblentz as well as other authors. Among SF films, examples of this are "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "The Monolith Monsters", "Unknown World", "The Land Unknown", "The Lost Continent", and others. This film by Jerry Warren is an example of this type of theme. Although the production values are based on a smaller budget than some other films, this is a very entertaining and stimulating film about explorers undertaking and expedition into the ocean depths. Due to circumstances, they end up within a network of subterranean caves with an air pocket. Eventually the party of explorers is rescued.The film has a lot to offer in terms of speculative fiction about the ocean depths, geology, and subterranean caves. Definitely a must-see.Dan Basinger 8/10