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The Day the Earth Caught Fire
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Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
Find all by Starz / Anchor Bay
Directed By: Val Guest
Audience Rating: Unrated
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Theatrical Release: December 31, 1969
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
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Retail Price: $9.98
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Starring: Edward Judd, Janet Munro, Leo McKern, Michael Goodliffe, Bernard Braden
After the US and Soviets explode nuclear devices simultaneously, the Earth gets knocked off its axis.
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: UN
Release Date: 8-JUN-2004
Media Type: DVD
User Submitted The Day the Earth Caught Fire Reviews
September 15, 2008
underrated excellent sci-fi
Excellent movie about an end of the world scenario. Multiple nuclear tests make the earth change its orbit and it is inevitably heading towards the sun. The movie concerns people's reaction to the situation. It's a tense, gripping movie that also features a very sexual performance by Janet Munro. Seeing her at her most beautiful and giving such a strong performance makes one sad that she died so young and led such a tragic life.
August 24, 2008
very good sci-fi flic
this is true sf. a "what if" followed by the consequences interspersed with people problems. everything in this pic is well done. this is NOT a pic with special effects. it is one with good acting, sets, story, direction. suspend your disbelief and enjoy. i did.
June 27, 2008
An intelligent drama about the newspaper business.
In brief, atomic bomb testing causes the earth to shift orbit, resulting in a new course that directs it towards the sun. Towards the end of the film, the U.S. government devises and implements a plan to bring the earth back to its rightful orbit. An interesting twist, appearing at the very end of the movie, is that we are shown two version of a newspaper headline, one heralds the earth's doom, and the other announces the earth's return to a safe orbit.
The film begins with scenes of the dried up Thames River and deserted streets in London. Spooky music takes the form of a whirring sound with drums playing a slow, 2-tone melody.
A man (Peter) drives a car through the deserted streets and stops at a newspaper office. He goes in, and tries to insert a paper in his typewriter, but the platen (rubber cylinder) has melted. The man gets on the phone, and talks to the operator, "Jenny, see if you can find someone to take a story for me. My typewriter has seized up." We see Jenny (Janet Munro) at her telephone switchboard, and then we see another newspaper man, the one taking the story. Pete dictates a short monologue: "It is exactly 30 minutes since the corrective bombs were detonated. Within the next few hours, the world will know if this is the end or a new beginning--the rebirth of man or his final obituary . . ." The film is tinted sienna color for this flash-forward sequence and the tinted film then segues into conventional black and white, where we see the beginning of the drama.
GOOD THINGS. The cinematography is first rate. Plenty of interesting images are shown inside the newspaper office, filmed at creative angles, many of them filmed with the camera at waist level. Every scene appears to have been carefully planned by a seasoned photographer. Typewriters abound. Men walk to and fro in the background. Big clocks cling to the walls. Newspaper machines whir and hum.
An amusing moment occurs when Pete finds that his watch is broken. While walking through an office, he pauses to lift up an office-worker's arm to view the man's watch, and then he sets the man's arm back on the desk, and marches off.
Intrigue occurs in the plot, in that a newsman acquires confidential information from the telephone operator (Janet Munro), who overhears conversations during the course of her job. The confidential information is from government scientists monitoring the earth's possible demise. Another good thing are the pleasant scenes of the newsman with his son, taking place in an amusement park. The fast-moving dialogue is enhanced with clever nuances, double entendres, and other forms of wordplay. The script features an adult-level dialogue (there are no bad words at all), and kids under 16 won't likely be interested in this movie.
Still another good thing, at least for gentleman viewers, is an extended cheesecake scene of Janet Munro. Baby boomers will remember Janet Munro as Sean Connery's sweetheart in DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE, a Disney movie.
BAD THINGS. The dialogue is sometimes impossible to understand. This can be remedied by watching the movie three times. The talking is either too muddled or too fast or both. Even with a third watching, I was not able to understand these parts, during the first 30 minutes:
(1) "?????? navigation trouble."
(2) "? ? ? ? must have been a hell of a big bang."
(3) "?? ?? ?? Mr. Holroy's on the same floor."
(4) "? ?? ?? ?? California's eight hours behind us."
(5) "?? ??? ? ? no matter how much you love her."
(6) Also, the waitress in the pub is totally incomprehensible.
Another criticism, is that the movie just does not feel like a science fiction movie. At any given moment, the plot is likely to concern the newsmen conducting their day to day business, that is, in conferences of two men at once, or conferences of three or four men at once, with plenty of walking from office to office in the newpaper building. Through the newsmen, we learn of unusual weather conditions (storms, sunspots, eclipse), that two bombs had been set off at the same time (U.S. and Russia). The newsmen decide to look at historical records to see if the strange weather patterns had ever occurred. But all this could be any detective story. Something is missing. What is it? No sense of alarm, doom, or panic. If this had been an American movie, an element of religious fanaticism would have been introduced, as in the Jody Foster sci-fi film, CONTACT.
At other moments, the movie takes the form of a romance, where the newsman is busy progressing with Janet Munro.
If you want a classic science fiction movie that actually seems like a genuine science fiction movie, I recommend THE BLOB with Steve McQueen, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA with an octapus provided by Ray Harryhausen, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL ("Klaatu barada nikto"), Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen, or WAR OF THE WORLDS with Tom Cruise. Even GALAXY QUEST makes for much more convincing science fiction than DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE.
February 26, 2008
Fast-Paced British Sci-Fi
This well-written 1962 British sci-fi comes to us courtesy of Val Guest, who wrote as well as directed.
"The Day the Earth Caught Fire" follows journalist Pete Stenning (the very handsome and appealing Edward Judd, who, disappointingly, didn't move on to a major career after this film) through a worldwide upheaval caused by two nearly simultaneous atomic bomb test explosions, one set off by America and the other by Soviet Russia. The combined power of the tests not only shifts the tilt of the earth's axis, but changes its orbit around the sun. The result is vastly changed climate zones and a planet orbiting too close to the sun - within four months, if no solution is found, earth will come so near the sun on its new orbit that all life on the planet will be incinerated.
Stenning, a writer for the Daily Express, is recently divorced and drowning his sorrows in drink, with seriously negative consequences for his work. He is frequently out drinking when he should be writing, and the fast but empty repartee with which he deflects all criticism and warnings is beginning to wear down the patience of his colleagues and editors. Only the support of his friend, science editor Bill McGuire (the always wonderful Leo McKern), has kept Stenning from being booted off the Express's staff.
However, as the effects of the nuclear tests become clear, (despite the predictable attempts at denial by political leaders), Pete gets re-engaged in his work as he covers them: heat waves, water shortages, floods, earthquakes, cyclones. As he tries to penetrate the wall of denial put up by official channels, Pete meets Jeannie Craig (Janet Munro, Britain's answer to Leslie Caron, without the pointe shoes), an attractive typist from the secretarial pool of the "Met Office", who sometimes helps out on the switchboard. Immediately attracted to her, Pete nevertheless alienates her with his short fuse - their relationship gets off to an adversarial start. But, caught up in the increasing maelstrom of world events, they soon become lovers. Despite the film's 1962 vintage, the scenes in which Pete and Jeannie cautiously navigate sexual territory and begin their affair have a refreshingly modern, unapologetically adult feel.
Shortly after their affair starts, Jeannie, while on the switchboard, overhears crucial information about the cataclysmic events that are taking place. She tells Pete what she has heard, and he immediately breaks his initial promise not to use the information - the Express prints the story, and the leak is traced to Jeannie, who is arrested and held for questioning. By this time, temperatures in formerly moderate climate zones are well into the hundreds of degrees fahrenheit, the polar ice caps are melting, and international scientists are working frantically to find a method of staving off the fast-approaching End of the World.
The super cast (that includes everyone, not just the two leads) handles the fast-paced script with aplomb, and the documentary-style footage of natural disasters enhances the atmosphere of chaos and desperation that Guest achieves. This film cannot compete with the high-budget special effects that we are used to in today's science fiction films. But because of its intelligent script and well-drawn characters, this sci-fi is more satisfying than most special-effect extravaganzas. Despite the fact that the cast inhabits recognizable narrative slots - the Handsome Hero, the Pretty Romantic Interest, the Crusty Editor, the Sympathetic Friend - the actors deliver a group of realistically drawn characters, right down to the barmaid of the local press pub, that make the film enormously engaging as well as riveting to watch, and accounts for its status as a cult film.
"The Day the Earth Caught Fire" is a crackerjack sci-fi - highly enjoyable and very much worth repeat viewings.
October 17, 2007
THIS IS A FILM TO SEE WHEN ITS TOO HOT TO GO OUTSIDE BUT YOU HAVE AN A/C BLOWING RIGHT IN YOUR FACE
IN A NUTSHELL: A WELL-TOLD STORY WITH AN AGE-OLD THEME
Despite the sensational title, "The Day The Earth Caught Fire" is a very plausible, taut and well told story about what could happen when humans play with fire 1 time too many!
The dialogue and acting in this film are both mesmerizing and chilling in equal measure and to excellent effect. However, the Special Effects are limited to a 3 story high heat mist, and some thrown about miniatures as a result of a sudden tornado in London of all places. Not really well done as far as the effects go, but the idea of the environment getting hotter throughout the film was played faultlessly by the cast. This is a film to watch when it is too hot to go outdoors, but you have an air-conditioner blowing in your face.
WANT TO HEAR A LITTLE MORE -- KEEP READING -- SOME PLOT SPOILERS BELOW
Janet Munro as Whistle-Blower Jeannie, Leo McKern as Science Editor Bill Maguire, and Edward Judd as anti-hero super-reporter has been, Peter Stenning lead a very professional British cast through this dialogue intense, story driven piece of cold-war speculative fiction, Directed and Co-Written by Val Guest. This film even managed to win a British Academy Award for 'Best Screenplay' for Val Guest and Wolf Mankowaitz in 1961.
The story is a simple one. It all centers around the effects of two huge H-Bombs test detonated by the Americans and the Russians. From the get-go there are protests both for and against the tests in London, much like "7 Days in May' however this film quickly reveals that something has gone terribly wrong with this latest series of nuclear tests. So wrong, in fact, that the Earth has shifted on its axis and is moving toward the sun. The film is about how the story breaks and how the Earth changes over a period of about three months, told in flash-back form by the reporter who broke the story. How we are going to come out of this mess is something you'll find out when you see the film, which is most certainly worth seeing.
ABOUT THE VIDEO: REMASTERED WIDESCREEN EDITION WITH SEPIA OPENING SEQUENCES
This particular edition is 'Widescreen' [2.35 to 1], and includes the opening sequence in a unique sepia tinting not seen since the film's original release. The film is remastered for sound and picture and does look and sound better than earlier editions of this title which I have had in the past. 99 minutes, B/W + Sepia Opening Scene. No special features.
June 28, 2007
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Literate British sci-fi tale is disturbing in its prescience: just substitute the reality of global warming for the premise of a nuclear mishap and behold a spookily familiar result: extreme weather patterns- hurricanes, floods and droughts- transforming our natural world, and compromising our survival. Judd is fine in his film debut (slightly reminiscent of Sean Connery), but it's Leo McKern as loyal newspaper colleague Bill Maguire who wins top acting laurels. An unsung champ from our English cousins.
February 21, 2007
How would you use what time is left
People are misled and only find out when death seems certain , They try to make sense of it all and end up just banging their heads against the wall ,Leo Mckern's performance is a standout ,the newspaper reporter who's seen it all and wonders how he missed this one, the inter reaction between the reporters is good ,and sometimes spoton for what people do when faced with a hopeless situation ,they laugh ,highly recomended and a bargain to
December 23, 2006
Amazingly Good Nuclear Eco Disaster Movie
Pros:
1) Good storyline - due to irresponsible nuclear testing the earth axis tilts and the earth starts moving closer to the sun with the all the expected ramifications
2) Good use of stock footage - cheap and inventive way to provide visual story feeds (drought, fire, etc.)
Cons:
1) Some weak special effects (but hey, this was the early 1960's)
2) Stereotype male/female roles (I tarzan you Jane)
3) EVERYONE is smoking all the time (no wonder so many people have cancer)
4) No resolution to story
The Pros far outweigh the Cons and for a Sci-Fi movie from this time period, both visionary and cautionary as well as believable.
August 18, 2006
Very good for the time it was made and the low budget
I thought this was well put together. Good plot and great dialog. The way people handled the situation seemed believable.
You have to suspend reality while watching because it's bad science. I couldn't help but think of the silliness of World Jump Day (Google that for a laugh). I wonder if the person who thought of that watched this movie.
Still, this is one of the better cold war paranoia movies from that era.
July 29, 2006
A Prophetic Movie?
This low budget work of fiction from 1961 produced during the cold war era and blaming a shift in the earth's axis on simultaneous Atomic testing by Russia and America leads to increasing enviornmental disasters of changes in weather patterns, increasingly violent storms of high wind damage, tornadoes, thick fog banks and stifling heat that keeps increasing to well over 100 degrees! Is this beginning to sound familiar? This movie may be unintentionally the most prophetic movie ever made. Disregard the sub plot of Edward Judd having marriage problems and you have a well written documentation of today's weather changes with the unified suspicion that we are a doomed race. Ours has not been by Atomic fault, but may be due to increasing sun activity or perhaps, as this movie suggests, we are a little closer now. This science fiction scenario happens in about a month, for us it has taken years. Yet, the power of the press, with real reporters unlike the news bunnies and manni-kens that report our news today dig to get the real facts from a government hiding the truth. Why can't we get them also? All inconvenient truths aside, will someone please stop this industrial baloney and tell the truth?! Like the reporters in this picture, I really would like to know how much time is left before we burn up. Get extra copies of this film to give to your friends. Perhaps some smart fellow in Hollywood will look into it and consider producing a more modern movie with the added elements of today's conditions. All "rocks from space" movies aside, this probability has a greater implication for the future of the human race. A film of value, although today's audience will be impatient by the slow pace and low volume conversations. Despite this, it is still a film that can fill you with questions!
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