The Day the Earth Caught Fire
| The Day the Earth Caught Fire | |
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 film poster |
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| Directed by | Val Guest |
| Produced by | Val Guest Frank Sherwin Green |
| Written by | Wolf Mankowitz Val Guest |
| Starring | Janet Munro Leo McKern Edward Judd |
| Music by | Stanley Black |
| Cinematography | Harry Waxman |
| Distributed by | British Lion Films (UK) Universal International Pictures (US) |
| Release date(s) | 1961 |
| Running time | 98 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
The Day the Earth Caught Fire is a British science fiction disaster film starring Edward Judd, Leo McKern and Janet Munro.[1] It was directed by Val Guest and released in 1961.[2][3]
The film, which was made on location in London and Brighton, used matte painting to create images of abandoned cities and desolate landscapes. The production also featured the real Daily Express even using the paper's own headquarters, the Daily Express Building, in Fleet Street, London.
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[edit] Plot
A lone man walks through the sweltering streets of a deserted London. The film then goes back several months. Peter Stenning (Judd) was an up-and-coming journalist with the Daily Express but a messy divorce has thrown his life into disarray. His Editor (Christiansen) has begun giving him lousy assignments. Stenning's only friend, Bill Maguire (McKern), is a veteran Fleet Street reporter, who offers him encouragement and occasionally covers for him by writing his copy.
Meanwhile, after the Soviet Union and US detonate simultaneous nuclear bomb tests, strange meteorological events begin to affect the globe. Stenning is sent to the British Met Office to get data mean temperatures. While there he meets Jeanie (Munro), a young telephonist.
Stenning then discovers that the weapons tests had a massive effect on the Earth. He asks Jeannie to help him get any relevant information. It becomes clear that the Earth has been knocked out of orbit and is moving closer to the sun. The increasing heat has caused water to evaporate and mists to cover Britain.
The government imposes martial law, evacuates the cities and starts rationing supplies. Scientists conclude that the only way to bring the Earth back into a safer orbit is to detonate a series of nuclear bombs in western Siberia. Stenning, Maguire and Jeanie gather at a bar to await the outcome. As the countdown reaches zero, the bombs are detonated; 30 seconds later the shock wave travels round the world, causing dust to fall from the bar's ceiling. Two versions of the newspaper's front page have been prepared: one reads "World Saved", the other, "World Doomed". Stenning, because he broke the story, dictates the day’s editorial, still without any indication of whether the nuclear blasts have been successful or not. In the meantime, the staff manning the printers of the paper anxiously wait to see which headline will be proved correct.
The film ends with the sound of church bells ringing, with the viewer left unaware whether this heralds a new beginning or mankind’s doom.
[edit] Cast
- Janet Munro as Jeannie Craig
- Leo McKern as Bill Maguire
- Edward Judd as Peter Stenning
- Michael Goodliffe as 'Jacko', Night editor
- Bernard Braden as News editor
- Reginald Beckwith as Harry
- Gene Anderson as May
- Renée Asherson as Angela
- Arthur Christiansen as Jeff Jefferson the Editor
- Austin Trevor as Sir John Kelly
- Edward Underdown as Sanderson
- Ian Ellis as Michael Stenning
- John Barron as 1st Sub-Editor (uncredited)
- Timothy Bateson as printer (uncredited)
- Peter Blythe as Copy Desk (uncredited)
- Peter Butterworth as 2nd Sub-Editor (uncredited)
- Norman Chappell as hotel receptionist (uncredited)
- Geoffrey Chater as Pat Holroyd (uncredited)
- Pamela Green as nurse (uncredited)
- Carmel McSharry as woman lost in the fog (uncredited)
- George Merritt as Smudge (uncredited)
- Charles Morgan as Foreign Editor (uncredited)
- Marianne Stone as Miss Evans, Jeff's Secretary (uncredited)
Arthur Christiansen, a former editor of the Daily Express, played himself as the editor of the newspaper. Three years before Zulu, a then-unknown Michael Caine played an uncredited police officer diverting traffic.
[edit] Production
The film was made in Black and White but in some original prints, the opening and closing sequences are tinted orange-yellow to suggest the heat of the sun. It was shot with 35 mm anamorphic lenses using the French Dyaliscope process.
In his commentary track for the 2001 Anchor Bay DVD release, director Val Guest stated that the sound of church bells heard at the very end of the American version had been added by distributor Universal, in order to suggest that the emergency detonation had succeeded and that the Earth had been saved. Guest speculated that the bells motif had been inspired by the 1953 film The War of the Worlds, which ends with the joyous ringing of church bells after the emergency (and a nuclear explosion). But Guest maintained that his intention was to always have an ambiguous ending.
Monte Norman, who was credited with writing "Beatnik Music" in a couple of scenes, would become well known one year later when his "James Bond theme" was used in the title sequence of Dr. No.
In an episode of Hey, Arnold!, where the city is stricken with a heat wave, Arnold attempts to go inside the air-conditioned movie theater, only to unfortionately discover that the movie playing is The Day the Sun Exploded, an obvious homage to The Day the Earth Caught Fire.
[edit] Locations
The film was shot in London and South East England. Principal photography included Fleet Street, Battersea Park, the HM Treasury Building in Westminster and on Palace Pier, Brighton.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Dubeck, Leroy W.; Moshier, Suzanne E.; Boss, Judith E. (2004). Fantastic voyages: learning science through science fiction films (2nd ed.). Springer. p. 254. ISBN 0387004408.
- ^ Variety film review; 22 November 1961
- ^ Harrison's Reports review; 13 January 1962, page 2.
[edit] External links
- The Day the Earth Caught Fire at the Internet Movie Database
- The Day the Earth Caught Fire at AllRovi
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