The Day The Earth Caught Fire - The Memorable TV DVD Review

Distributor: Universal Home Entertainment
Certificate: PG | 95 minutes | black and white
Director: Val Guest
Available to Buy
Extras: No

ANYONE IN IT WE KNOW?

Edward Judd, Janet Munro, Leo McKern, Arthur Christianson, Michael Goodliffe, Bernard Braden, Reginald Beckwith, Edward Underdown

WHAT’S IT ABOUT THEN?

When the US and Russia simultaneously test nuclear weapons at the North and South poles it causes the Earth’s axis to be knocked out of alignment making for catastrophic changes in the Earth’s weather patterns and leaving the Earth moving ever closer to The Sun and destruction. A group of Fleet Street reporters do their best to stay up to date with events.

SO IS IT ANY GOOD?

One of the best sci-fi movies of the sixties The Day The Earth Caught Fire is a fantastic movie, taking on a major theme but in typically British fashion narrowing the focus onto fleet street reporter Peter Stenning (Edward Judd) and his burgeoning relationship with Janet Munro’s sexy telephone reporter Jeannie Craig, director Val Guest (usually associated with comedies) here pulls off some great work of a London going slowly mad in the heat, from the dried up Thames river to the beatniks going on a crazed water wasting spree, he also cleverly makes use of the offices of The Daily Express (and it’s editor Arthur Christianson who appears in the movie as himself) allowing a realism rare in the movies of the day.

What elevates the movie to classic status is the way it doesn’t try and find a solution as an American movie would. The governments of the day have put plans in operation to try and reverse the effects of the explosions but in a superbly downbeat ending we don’t get to see the outcome.

Do yourself a favour and watch The Day The Earth Caught Fire at the first opportunity.

ANY SPECIAL FEATURES?

No extras