I caught this film one afternoon back in the early 1980's and was completely blown away. To say it's ahead of its time is an understatement. It is the ultimate disaster movie but with style. Pete Stenning is the ultimate anti hero. A divorced reporter with nowhere to go who stumbles on a story of world obliteration. Edward Judd plays the role of Pete Stenning with panache. At its heart is Fleet Street where the centre of the London press was situated. Now sadly gone its a reminder of how newspaper reporting used to be that is one of simply reporting the news...no page 3 here. OK some of the production value is dated but the heart of the film is still very strong.

"The Day the Earth Caught Fire" is an intelligently made but incredibly depressing film. The Earth is screwed in this drama. It seems that the US and USSR simultaneously tested nuclear devices and there's been an unforeseen problem...the blasts have affected the Earth's axis. Only later do they realize that the Earth is also now slowly drifting towards the sun. The magnitude of this as well as the possible solution are only discussed late in the film. In between, you see the story unfolding from the viewpoint of a group of reporters. The overall effect is rather realistic as well as super-depressing. While other Earth in peril films have been made, this is earlier and more intelligently made than most. The film has a few minor problems related to special effects but considering when it was made and its budget, the film actually is remarkably good. Certainly not a feel-good movie but one that is very well presented. Some might hate the ending--I thought it quite appropriate and well done, though I did think the social chaos in the film was probably way understated if such a situation ever occurred. Not a crackpot or bug-eyed monster sort of sci-fi film, that's for sure.

Val Guest directed this apocalyptic sci-fi thriller that stars Edward Judd & Leo McKern as newspaper journalists in Britain who come to the awful conclusion that the world has been tilted on its axis, hurtling toward the sun after both American & Russian forces conduct nuclear tests that backfire badly, threatening the entire human race. Janet Munro plays Judd's contact and love interest, as things start to heat up... Talky film is well acted, with some memorable scenes, and a most striking(if understated) ending, but is marred by a slow pace and dry, arid atmosphere that makes film a hard(but still worthwhile) haul. Doesn't quite live up to that title...

The Earth's climate is heating up--and humans have to figure out how to cope with it.The movie was made in 1960, at the height of the Cold War--so in the movie, nuclear weapons, rather than greenhouse gases, are the culprit. But most of what you see transpiring could happen just as easily as the greenhouse effect increases. (Someone could really do a superb remake of this movie today, blaming CO2 instead of nukes.) In this movie, there are no jaw-dropping special effects, just ordinary folks struggling to cope with the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. As seen through the eyes of newspaper reporters, who report the facts to their readers--and try to figure out what it all means.A taut script, excellent acting, taut direction, good characterizations, and docudrama-like realism all keep the tension at a high level.