The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Val Guest

Writers:

Wolf Mankowitz (written for the screen by) &
Val Guest (written for the screen by)

Release Date:

May 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi | Romance

Tagline:

THE PICTURE THAT GIVES YOU A FRONT SEAT TO THE MOST JOLTING EVENTS OF TOMORROW...TODAY! (original U.S. print ad - all caps)

Plot:

British reporters suspect an international cover-up of a global disaster in progress... and they're right.

Plot Keywords:

Reporter | Alcoholic | Disaster | Newsroom | Newspaper Editor

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Janet Munro	...	Jeannie Craig
Leo McKern	...	Bill Maguire
Edward Judd	...	Peter Stenning
Michael Goodliffe	...	'Jacko', Night editor
Bernard Braden	...	News editor
Reginald Beckwith	...	Harry
Gene Anderson	...	May
Renée Asherson	...	Angela
Arthur Christiansen	...	Editor
Austin Trevor	...	Sir John Kelly
Edward Underdown	...	Sanderson
Ian Ellis	...	Michael Stenning

Also Known As:

The Day the Sky Caught Fire

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White (with tinted sequences)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Battersea Fun Fair, Battersea Park, Battersea, London, England, UK

Company:

Pax Films

Trivia:

As the earth heats up Bill McGuire asks for information on the melting point of "everything from steel to my glass eye". Leo McKern did in fact have a glass eye.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the movie, several people in North London contract "typhus" from contaminated water. Evidently the script confused "typhus" and "typhoid fever." Typhus is spread by parasites, such as fleas or mites; not contaminated water. Typhoid fever can be spread by contaminated food or water.

Quotes:

Night Editor: ...it caused a twelve degree shift in the earth's orbit... and we're moving toward the sun.

Movie Connections:

References Annie Get Your Gun (1950)

Soundtrack:

Light Cavalry Overture

An all-time classic

This has got to be one of the best sci-fi films ever made. Great plot, snappy and witty script, characters with real depth and histories, and a (debatably) great ending. What more could you ask for?

Although the plot is quite similar to that of 'When Worlds Collide', the realism of the characters and setting really lift the whole film far above its contemporaries. Its use of journalists to tell the story is similar to that of many of the classic works of literary science fiction (HG Wells' War Of The Worlds or John Wyndham's Kraken Wakes for example) and it follows a similar apocalyptic template as well.

The theme of mankind's actions causing havoc for the globe, which was originally a criticism of the cold war, is still very relevant today for quite different reasons. The parallel with global warming is obvious, and the graphic depiction of the effects of this are all the more disturbing because we see similar effects, on a smaller scale, around the world on a day to day basis. The film is shocking in its bleak vision of the havoc that mankind has brought upon himself.

Basically, this is the benchmark for all serious science-fiction, and makes a perfect partner for the other great of the cold war era, "The Day the Earth Stood Still".