The Day the Sky Exploded (1958)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This 1958 production takes place long before the world could be saved by Bruce Willis. All nations have come together to launch a man into space using atomic rockets. An incident causes an unsuccessful mission as well as Delta asteroids to clump together and head for earth. This was an age were it was okay to get your dog drunk and all the electronic equipment made whirling whistling noise.Not as good as the later sci-fi productions.

The film's retro 1958 computer equipment is delightful. Also, there are many delightful inconsistencies in the story: as one example, despite that temperatures on Earth have dramatically increased, some of the actors continue to wear heavy clothing that they could easily have taken off. This temperature increase is one of several supposed consequences of an asteroid's near approach to Earth that are flat-out scientifically impossible. Other supposed consequences, such as animals sensing what's about to happen days in advance are equally silly. The acting is generally wooden, and the dubbing into English is occasionally obvious. Much of the special effects are stock footage; so are the movie's lengthy depictions of various kinds of communications equipment, airplane flights and rocket launches. Much of the remaining special effects are stock footage with bright blobs inserted. Again, the phenomena represented by the blobs are scientifically impossible. In general, a splendid movie for those like me who enjoy pretentious bad films.

This is significant as Italy's first science-fiction movie – two years after its first horror outing, Riccardo Freda's I VAMPIRI (1956); what connects these two films is the multi-faceted involvement behind the cameras of the late great Mario Bava. In fact, the latter was officially the film's cinematographer (curiously credited as Baja on the English titles!) but, as was his fashion, he helped out without credit in the special effects department and the direction as well – a fact also mentioned in Tim Lucas' Audio Commentary for the subsequently deleted Dark Sky DVD of Bava's KILL, BABY…KILL! (1966) and whose hearing prompted me to acquire this film sooner rather than later! Interestingly, the film's original Italian title LA MORTE VIENE DALLO SPAZIO translates to DEATH COMES FROM OUTER SPACE; this was picked up and slightly altered a few years later by another Spaghetti sci-fi entry i.e. Antonio Margheriti's LA MORTE VIENE DAL PIANETA AYTIN aka THE SNOW DEVILS (1967); besides, the film's English title was probably inspired by another contemporary sci-fi cheapie i.e. Fred F. Sears' THE NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED (1957)! The film under review emerges as a reasonably enjoyable and above-average entry but, probably stemming from a very limited budget, is bogged down by a talky script and much stock footage of rocket launchings and people rushing into underground shelters. The cast is also somewhat undernourished but does include Paul (Fritz Lang's Indian EPIC diptych [1958-59]) Hubschmid, Ivo (Bava's BLACK Sunday [1960]) Garrani and Giacomo (KILL, BABY…KILL!) Rossi Stuart essaying stock-types of lock-jawed astronaut, self-sacrificing professor and no-nonsense technician respectively. Equally predictable are the characters of the proud Russian expert, the astronaut's lonesome wife, the brainy female scientist, her lothario colleague and the crazed skeptic who reaches breaking-point as Armageddon looms. Nevertheless, despite – or, perhaps, because of – the lack of any really spectacular sequences (the rain of meteorites ostensibly about to annihilate mankind never pose that much of a threat since they are themselves destroyed just as they are entering the Earth's orbit!), one finds himself being charmed just the same by all these overly-familiar elements. Almost needless to say, hot on the heels of this movie came the Riccardo Freda/Mario Bava melange of sci-fi and monster movie – CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (1959) – which was an altogether livelier effort...

The film begins with a nuclear powered rocket flight to the moon. Something goes wrong and the pilot is able to eject. However, the self-destruct mechanism is not activated and the ship blows up in the sun. As a result, it causes so much havoc that a group of killer meteors are bumped towards Earth and the planet is doomed. While the whole idea of a nuclear explosion damaging the sun or having any effect on it is silly, the idea of rogue meteors is pretty cool--and has been the subject of several more recent films.Unfortunately, while there is something to some of the plot, this Italian film also has a lot against it. First, instead of subtitles, it was dubbed into English. Some of the voices are just terrible (such as the reporter and the whiny sounding kid) and I always prefer subtitles. Additionally, since this film is brought to us by Alpha Video, you can safely assume the print will be terrible--which it definitely is. While some of Alpha's films are great because they aren't available elsewhere, too often they are grainy and never have captions. They are strictly a grade-z producer of DVDs--and this is no exception.In addition, even if the film was subbed and a pristine copy, it would still only perhaps merit a 5. Overall, a forgettable film.