Review of The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) by Mark N — 23 Apr 2012

Produced, co-written and directed by Val Guest (The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), The Abominable Snowman (1957) and erm... Casino Royale (1966)), this is a science fiction disaster movie that feels very real with it's settings and concept, it still feels relevant even today, even now, it's onto something.

Peter Stenning (Edward Judd) is an aspiring reporter at the Daily Express, but his editor Jeff Jefferson (Arthur Christiansen) only gives him menial stories, but Peter has encouragement and support from veteran reporter Bill Maguire (Leo McKern), who gives Peter some assignments to do.

One such story Peter comes across is during a visit to the British Met Office, where the Earth's temperatures and weather patterns have been going haywire, and Peter learns that the Soviet Union set off a bomb at the North Pole, and the American's set one off at the South Pole at the same time, and it's knocked the Earth out of orbit and it's now closer to the Sun, and water has started to evaporate and with nasty storms and mists causing destruction, and the government rations water, which causes riots and more chaos.

It's like the 2012 (2009) of it's day, only more believable and straight faced, but it's actually quite scare and it was a social comment on the effects of nuclear testing. But, it still stands up over 50 years on, and it's cast are believable and compelling, as is Guest's direction.