The Day the Earth Caught Fire

Amazon.com essential video

Despite its melodramatic title, which carried on a '50s doomsday naming convention, this taut 1961 English science fiction thriller offers an object lesson in the power of story over special effects. When both the Soviets and the West detonate nuclear tests simultaneously, the seismic double whammy jolts the earth off its axis and onto a new orbit sending it fatally closer to the sun--a fate that writer-director-producer Val Guest views from the street-level perspective of its principal characters, rather than an off-world vantage point. The street in question, however, is London's Fleet Street, the venerable hub of its newspaper and tabloid publishers, and the hard-nosed reporters growing realization that their number is up carries its own stark punch. Edward Judd is Peter Stenning, a rugged, appropriately grim reporter, Leo McKern is tough but compassionate editor Bill Maguire, and Janet Munro is Stenning's love interest, in an elfin, sexy turn that's a striking contrast to her best-known turn in Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People. With an effects arsenal that consists largely of a spray bottle to apply beads of "sweat," Guest and his small but crack cast are surprisingly effective, and the cold war plot hook still works, thanks to its uncomfortable proximity to more contemporary environmental terrors. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews:

The Day the Earth Caught Fire.......2007-06-28

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.

How would you use what time is left.......2007-02-21

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

Amazingly Good Nuclear Eco Disaster Movie.......2006-12-24

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.

Very good for the time it was made and the low budget.......2006-08-18

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.

A Prophetic Movie? .......2006-07-29

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!

Average customer rating:

Apocalypse Not Now, But We're Pretty Sure It's Coming...
The Day the Earth Caught Fire: Grim Yet Hopeful
serious and worthwhile
"' Day the Earth Caught Fire'"
A very good sci-fi movie from the British!

The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Starring: Janet Munro , Leo McKern , Edward Judd , Michael Goodliffe , and Bernard Braden
Director: Val Guest
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Kronos

ASIN: B00005NMVV

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

Apocalypse Not Now, But We're Pretty Sure It's Coming..........2002-06-20

This is one of my favorite "hey what's this" finds from the video store ever. The acting is wonderful for the time and category, and the story moves at a sensible pace and builds a ton of tension, from the giddiness of 90 degree summers at Brighton Beach to the terror of water riots as the "Day" draws near. Kudos to director Guest for the sensation of oppressive heat he captured-- I actually began to feel uncomfortably warm as the film moved along. Bernard Goldberg would be proud of the journalists portrayed here, as we see plenty of off-the-record fear, worry and supposition but it's always put away when it's time to print the news, and isn't reflected in what they report. Always the consummate professionals, they print the facts and only the facts to the bitter end...or is it? The ending respects the convention that a story can be allowed to leave the reader, or in this case the viewer, to make up his own mind. Really more of a political potboiler than science fiction, it's more Testament than The Day After and I highly recommend it.

The Day the Earth Caught Fire: Grim Yet Hopeful.......2002-06-19

TDTECF is one of a handful of science-fiction movies from the twin decades of the 1950s and 1960s that reek with a powerful message that though humanity has its numerous flaws, some of which are potentially and collectively self-destructive, human beings yet retain the choice between a wise avoidance of mass suicide and a foolish falling into that suicide. Both critics and viewers have hailed it as a stern warning against the dangers of unrestricted nuclear testing.
The hero is a British journalist played by Edward Judd, who discovers quite by chance a reason for the strange weather that has been plaguing England for weeks. He meets a lovely female civil servant played sexily by Janet Munro, whom viewers may recall as the virginal heroine from DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE. She tells him that a pair of nuclear explosions, one by the United States and the other by Russia, have changed the orbit of the earth, careening it toward the sun. He brings it to the attention of his feisty editor, played by Leo McKern, who comes across as a surly yet wise Lou Grant. McKern's newspaper carries the headlines: Earth Rushing to Sun!, with predictable results. At first, the dramatic focus is on how the population carries on amidst the crisis. Typically, the British, at first, display a stiff upper lip. Soon enough, the strands of society break down with some remarkable special effects of a fog-shrouded London in the background. Judd and Munro fall believably in love, a love which is tested by the emergence of chaos in the form of gangs, taking advantage of the civil breakdown to engage in some serious wilding. Hope for man's survival emerges as both the United States and Russia plan to explode yet two more bombs to set the earth back on orbit. The finale of the movie is both understated and deliberately unresolved. As the countdown toward this latter set of bombs climbs down to zero, the countdown is given in various languages, underscoring the co-operation between the nuclear giants. As the countdown hits zero, the bombs go off, but the only visible effect on the screen is a slight sprinkling of dust. The movie ends with McKern printing alternate sets of headlines--one proclaiming EARTH SAVED; the other EARTH DOOMED.
TDTECF is a terrific film of understatement that combines sharp action, believable special effects, and solid scripting, all of which point out that this earth is the only planet we have, and if humanity does not take better care of it, then one of McKern's closing headlines just might be seen as the closing coda for a species that refused to heed warnings from movies like this.

serious and worthwhile.......2002-02-06

Unlike some of the 50s and early 60s scifi, don't expect this to be entertaining for youngsters. Janet Munro is enchanting again, but her role is quite a contrast to her Darby O'Gill and
Swiss Family Robinson roles. There are adult situations, but the "nudity" that might have been racey back then is pretty tame even by today's daytime soap opera standards. Some of the societal breakdown scenes are suggestive, but are also tame by today's standards. The violence is tame and not nightmare imagery.

This is serious adult drama, although plot would have to be different today to be credible. With today's internet communication and numerous amateur astronomers and climatologists, the "news" would have been figured out in days, not weeks, so, to some extent,this can be viewed as a period piece, an example of what press and government behavior was expected to be at that time.

Adults and even serious young teen scifi fans should have this in their collection, but for lighter fun the whole family can enjoy, check out World Without End.

"' Day the Earth Caught Fire'".......2002-02-05

USA Today reviewed this (last year), and gave it an "excellent - or 'very good'" rating - well-deserved, and worth seeing many times.

A very good sci-fi movie from the British!.......2001-06-17

This movie is great. It is good in full screen, but when you see it in Widescreen, it is out of this world. I have seen two versions of this movie (both I have.) One is in full screen and not avaiable to own any more (that I know of.) Then there is the Widescreen version which is now out with a stunning tinted sequences, which makes it better. The only problem with it is, sometimes it is hard to hear what they are saying, and that is only a couple of times. The special effects, the direction by the director, will everything is just out of this world. I like this movie. You should see it. You will probably like it. Buy it today.

DVD:

DVD

DVD