The Day The Earth Caught Fire (1961/Network U.K./Region Free/Zero/0/PAL DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: C+
PLEASE NOTE: This DVD set can only be
operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region
Free/Zero/0/PAL format software and can be ordered from our friends at Network
U.K. at the website address provided at the end of the review or at finer
retailers.
In one of
the more serious “hard science” science fiction entries from Britain, The Day The Earth Caught Fire (1961)
tells the story of a how a major nuclear explosion starts pushing planet earth
towards the sun. Director Val Guest had
already helmed the classic Quatermass
Xperiment (1955) and its sequel, so he had some of the best credentials to
pull this off.
Edward
Judd is the reporter who has uncovered the crisis and intends to warn the world
about it, with the help of his editor (the great Leo McKern) but in the midst
of the crisis falls in love with a beautiful woman (Janet Munro) as the
situation gets slowly uglier and uglier.
The film begins with the crisis in progress, then flashes back to how
good things and “normal” things were before then. Michael Goodliffe also stars as the nighttime
editor of the newspaper in this ambitious-but-dated effort.
Wolf
Mankowitz co-wrote the screenplay with Guest making for a good film that has
some good moments, but leans sometimes too much towards the then-dying Biblical
epics of the time instead of Science Fiction and Alfred Hitchcock would bring
the horror genre forever into the natural disaster cycle (this counts, even
with the nuclear angle) with his 1963 hit The
Birds. I like the look of the film,
the performances, seeing the media capital of the U.K., Fleet Street, in its
classic mode and Guest can direct. Sure,
the effects are not always convincing and there are a few unintentionally funny
moments, but this is still better
than most such films today, especially in the digital era since Twister. Glad to see it back on DVD.
The anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is black and white, but there is also footage tinted a
dark orange to signify heat and despite some detail issues, this looks good as
shot by Harry Waxman in Dyaliscope (a CinemaScope derivative from France) and
makes good use of the scope frame. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also pretty good for its age with limited distortion
and compression. There are no extras
despite the fact the out-of-print U.S. edition had a Guest commentary, et al. Hope we see a Blu-ray too.
As noted above, you can order this PAL DVD import
exclusively from Network U.K. at:
http://www.networkdvd.net/
or
www.networkdvd.co.uk
- Nicholas Sheffo
