Welshrogue

The potential end of the world from the view point of a newspaper reporter. The two world superpowers (US and USSR) detonate the biggest nuclear tests ever, unknowingly at the same time, with the effect being that the earths rotation changes.

As Sci Fi movies go, TDTECF is a strange one. It doesn’t have flying saucers or aliens or even killer robots, three of the staples of the wave of Sci Fi movies in the late 50s and early 60s. The main character, Pete Stenning, is played by Edward Judd in his first film role. Pete Stenning is a burnt out (no pun intended) newspaper reporter who is barely hanging onto his job. His best friend and college, Bill Mcguire (played brilliantly by Leo McKern) writes both his own and Pete’s articles as he tries to get through the the disillusioned reporter. The female lead, a temp switchboard operator at the ministry who helps Stenning discover what has happened is played by Janet Munro who unfortunately passed away in her late 30′s. The strangest casting though was for the role of editor of the Express newspaper, who was played by Arthur Christiansen, the actual editor of the Express at the time. If you keep a close watch, you will see Michael Caine in one of his first speaking roles in the movies.

TDTECF was directed by Val Guest who unfortunately recently passed away. He came to the project with good intelligent science fiction experience having written and directed both The Quatermass Experiment and Quatermass 2. After TDTECF Guest went on to direct such varied projects as the Space 1999 tv show and Casino Royale, the first movie based on a James Bond novel.

TDTECF was filmed in black and white and due to its low budget, is suplimented by stock footage of weather from around the world. Some of the scenes show the low budget but it isn’t distracting in the slightest. With no spectacular sets, the viewer gets caught up with the characters. There is stock footage of an anti nuclear demonstration in London that is used in one scene. Even though the cause of the worlds trouble is two nuclear explosions, you do not see a single mushroom cloud expect on the front page of the newspaper.

For all its short-comings, lack of money, small unknown cast, The Day The Earth Caught Fire works and works very well. The whole disaster angle is well played, and unlike the typical hollywood movie, doesn’t have spectacular explosions or dramatic life or death situations. This is a movie that is as much mental as it is visual. As the movie progresses and the government start to enforce more and more restrictions, you understand what might happen.

If you enjoy Science Fiction and black and white doesn’t put you off watching a movie, then give The Day The Earth Caught Fire a go.