The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I first saw this movie when I was a child. I loved it then and now I have it on DVD I watch it when I want a good story rather than wall to wall cgi. It is one of the best for its time. It is well thought out, well written, well acted and well directed. Even the Express editor was good as he isn't an actor at all. He added authentication to the story. There is not to much in the way of personal love story and what there is does not interfere with the main story to much. No sad "I love you" lines. No hysterical kids or women. It is a wonderful look at the sudden and total collapse of society and how people deal with the high possibility of the end of the world. The end of movie was made with two endings of the possible outcome of the solution to the problem. only one was used. I leave to those wanting to see to find out which end it is.

"The Day the Earth Caught Fire" is a very fine British entry into that genre that came to be known as the disaster film. It's done in a very matter of fact, realistic way. In fact, what it really does is it stresses the human element. It might not be satisfactory to people who prefer less talk and more action, but it gives us a bunch of engaging characters whom we can actually care about. The script (by producer / director Val Guest & Wolf Mankowitz) is often very witty and funny. Scenes of destruction are ultimately kept to a minimum.Edward Judd stars as reporter Peter Stenning, who's first to break a critical story. Earth has been knocked off its axis by the Americans and Russians, who performed atom bomb tests at roughly the same time. This causes much upheaval in the weather. Water evaporates and a strange mist covers Britain. However, the characters won't be aware of just how bad the news is for a while, and simply go about their daily business. Peter, a divorced father of one, begins romancing Jeannie Craig (Janet Munro), who becomes his contact.It's worth noting that this ends in a rather brave way, forcing the audience to interpret things. It simply fades to black. (The words "The End" don't even appear.) The low key quality of the narrative works quite well, and the actors are all just wonderful. Judd is a personable hero and the sadly short lived, very lovely Munro is an endearing leading lady. Leo McKern delivers a delightful supporting performance as Peters' co-worker Bill Maguire. Real life newspaperman Arthur Christiansen plays the role of editor Jeff Jefferson, and that's a young Michael Caine as a cop directing traffic late in the film. The action is extremely well shot in Dyaliscope by Harry Waxman, and viewers are advised to check out the full 99 minute version with very striking tinted opening and closing sequences.Very good of its type.Eight out of 10.

Val Guest directed this apocalyptic sci-fi thriller that stars Edward Judd & Leo McKern as newspaper journalists in Britain who come to the awful conclusion that the world has been tilted on its axis, hurtling toward the sun after both American & Russian forces conduct nuclear tests that backfire badly, threatening the entire human race. Janet Munro plays Judd's contact and love interest, as things start to heat up... Talky film is well acted, with some memorable scenes, and a most striking(if understated) ending, but is marred by a slow pace and dry, arid atmosphere that makes film a hard(but still worthwhile) haul. Doesn't quite live up to that title...

I had to watch this one a couple of times to get my feelings straight on it. It's ostensibly a sci-fi thriller about the Earth being in peril from extreme weather conditions, and a reporter's attempts to find out what's going on behind the official government line. It works well as sci-fi, with good model work and excellent matte paintings depicting London undergoing extreme weather conditions. It's also nice to see a sci-fi film that isn't afraid of being clever, where words like nutation aren't banned.But really I see it as the story of a man who has started to take two steps back for every one step forwards in life. He's distracted by his problems and so coasting at work, putting his job in peril, and he's lost his wife and child to a wealthy man. The peril of the Earth moves in tandem with the peril of his existence, as an external manifestation of his stricken soul. The film is really about saving Peter Stenning. It's a lot easier to look at it this way when distanced in time from Christmas Island and the Tsar Bomba test.What's great about this movie is that it shows the value of friendship. Stenning's given life support by an older hack in the press-room, Bill Maguire, in return for nothing. In these days of self-interest when Kant is a mere ghost on a palimpsest, it does me good to see an example of altruism. Moreso because I've had a similar situation at work, where I was in a sort of existential agony, and one of the older guys who has his own scars helped to put me back on the straight and narrow. He poured a lot of effort into this, and only out of kindness.Hooray for The Day The Earth Caught Fire.