When the film begins, Steve and Harley (Jackie Cooper and Cleavon Little) are up in an airplane photographing in rural California. They have some weird and totally untested theories about earthquake prediction...but more about that later. Soon after they land, Steve is arrested in a crappy, tiny speed trap town and jailed for a few days. But a kid feels sorry for him and helps him escape. Later, when Steve looks through his photos he is confident (HOW?!?!) that an earthquake is about to strike that same town! Wow....what a coincidence.The plot just meandered too much and the film never kept my interest. In many ways, it was disappointing and slow. I would say more but the film just never held my interest and there wasn't much to say about this installment of "The ABC Movie of the Week".

If IMDb existed when I was eight years old and the first time I watched this made for TV movie of the week, I would have rated it a 9 or a 10.This story HAD such a profound affect on me, I remembered it and for the past few years, I searched for it on VHS, Usenet, Bittorrents, etc... without success. A week ago I brought this story up in a conversation and it dawned on me to see if Youtube had a trailer or clip available. What did I find? The *entire* movie! I was thrilled! So, thirty years later, I finally watch it again on Youtube. Unfortunately, it failed to captivate me in the same way as it did when I was eight years old. I found the dialog was simplistic and the acting was rather wooden. I was disappointed to find a little bit of racism (intentional or not?) in the script. On a positive note, as a sci-fi'ish disaster story, The Day the Earth Moved, is actually much better than many of the more modern disaster flicks. At least, this story doesn't insult one's intelligence.

Even though this could be seen as a typical movie of the week. It was a pretty interesting one, especially for a combination disaster/science fiction pic. I especially loved the humor that Cleavon Little inserted in what could have been just another disaster pic. This definitely is a decent if not good movie of the week.

Doubtless the producers of this unenthralling twaddle believed they were on to a good thing with ANY flick with a name starting "THE DAY THE EARTH........?" (whatever!) trading off the slipstream of the other two classics THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILLSo with Jackie Cooper (TV flavor of the month during the 70's) and his wife Kate (Stella Stevens) and some amateur seismologists in tow, taking some aerial pics in the desert, they deduce the Big "E" is due. Just like DANTES PEAK, no-one of course wants to listen to their warnings.When the quake comes, make sure you're out having a tea-break!