Review #206: 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire' (1961)

When Earth starts to experience strange changes in the weather and a rapidly increasing temperature, down-in-the-dumps Daily Express journalist Peter Stenning (Edward Judd) is given the investigation. Science correspondent Bill Maguire (Leo McKern) seems to think that simultaneous nuclear tests by the U.S. and the Soviet Union have knocked the Earth off it's axis, causing it to drift closer to the sun. Stenning is snooping around the Met Office looking for answers when he meets young telephone operator Jeannie (Janet Munro) who may have unwillingly stumbled upon the truth. Meanwhile, with the temperatures increasing at an unbearable rate, the government starts to ration supplies, including the nation's water.

I must admit that upon getting a copy of this, I was expecting a stiff-upper-lipped and cheesy British sci-fi full of dodgy effects and predictable plot devices. How wrong I was. If this film could be compared to any other, it would have to be All The President's Men (1976). It is very rare that a film manages to capture the sweat, stress and panic of the newsroom where the workers gather round for quick meetings and discussions before franticly typing up a new story and making those all-important phone calls. And the decision to tell the whole story from the viewpoint of the Daily Express workers is a refreshing and exciting one.

The hero is not a bland, square-jawed cheeseball that was common in the sci-fi films of the 50's and 60's, but a borderline alcoholic who is struggling with the separation from his wife and the fact that his boss gives him all the bottom-shelf stories. And he is played with utter conviction by Edward Judd. In fact, the acting is impressive all-round - Leo McKern is solid as the reliable workaholic who seems to be one step ahead of everybody else, and Janet Munro is sweet, interesting and sexy as the innocent girl who seems to be somehow caught up in everything. The film has a quite shocking level of flesh on display too, and if you're perverted or simply lonely enough, I'm sure you could even catch a nipple if you freeze-frame the DVD. (Not that I did it!)

As a Cold War sci-fi, the film could work as a double-bill alongside the truly perfect The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). Although it differs in tone and subject matter, it still has the underlying feeling of paranoia that plagued sci-fi films of the time, and allowed for some of the greatest films of the genre to be produced. The threat of nuclear war was lingering in everybody's mind (I assume, I know it would if I was there) and the end of the world was all too believable and possible. This is a criminally underrated film - beautifully filmed (the sun-kissed sepia opening is simply gorgeous); a script that any Oscar-winner would be proud of; and has an ending so bleak and unresolved it deserves a place amongst the very best. Simply great sci-fi film-making.


Directed by: Val Guest
Starring: Edward Judd, Leo McKern, Janet Munro
Country: UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie