Adventures In the Center of the Earth is the translation for this film, which follows a crew of explorers as they try to find the reason why a young man was killed and his girlfriend driven mad.

Director Alfredo B. Crevenna had a few Santo movies to his credit, but that did not prepare me for this sojourn, as that injured girl joins the brave band who head deep, deep into the Earth, so far down that they meet a cyclops, a spider and a giant bat that falls in love with the aforementioned Hilda Ramirez (Kitty de Hoyos, who was the villainess in the astounding La Loba).

There’s also footage that feels like it didn’t come from this movie at all — one assumes it’s from 1940’s One Million B.C. —  and all of the monsters look like they’re in a totally different room and have much better masks when they get their closeups, which only adds to the charm of this movie.

I’ve seen so many movies that go to the center of our world and they are all boring. This one is anything but, so if anyone ever says, “What’s the best center of the Earth movie?” you can confidently answer with this one.

You can watch this on YouTube to see if I’m right.