B&W/Tinted, 1961, 99 mins. Directed by Val Guest
Starring Edward Judd, Janet Munro, Leo McKern
Format: DVD - Anchor Bay (MSRP $29.98)
Letterboxed (2.35:1) (16x9 enhanced) / Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
One of the best films Hammer Studios never made, The Day the Earth Caught Fire is an imaginative, resourceful science fiction yarn about what might happen if the Earth wound up spinning of its orbit towards the sun. Eschewing the ludicrous soap opera situations and bombastic effects which crippled efforts like Meteor and When Time Ran Out, this depiction of doomsday pulls no punches and offers no easy answers, instead leaving the viewer with an uneasy but not hopeless feeling about what might happen with each coming sunrise.
In the orange-tinted opening sequence, reporter Peter Stenning (Edward Judd) sits at a desolate counter, recording for dubious posterity the story of how the world became a heat-lashed wasteland. It all began when his day to day job at the newspaper office was disturbed by the realization that something might be tying together an increasing number of "small" worldwide catastrophes. With the aid of a coworker (Leo McKern) and a government worker, Jeannie (the shapely Janet Munro), who possesses some valuable information, Peter sets out to expose the truth to a humanity unaware of its numbered days. Apparently the simultaneous detonation of nuclear bombs by the U.S. and the Soviet Union at opposing poles on the planet has disrupted the Earth's orbital pattern, leading it on a fiery path directly to the sun. As mankind gradually descends into barbarism and panic, only one possible solution emerges...
The clever juxtaposition of black and white scope photography, restrained color tinting, stock footage, and resourceful special effects ably supports a surprisingly powerful storyline. The characters are all literate, interesting people, spouting out dialogue that would make Howard Hawks proud while rendering credibility to the disturbing premise (which was condensed to an equally nightmarish degree in a Twilight Zone episode, "The Midnight Sun"). Munro lingers longest in the memory thanks to one particularly sweaty scene, but everyone pulls off their parts with nary a false note. British science fiction has often been discredited by the general public in the wake of the (too)
Long a victim of butchered pan and scan broadcasts, The Day the Earth Caught Fire has regained all of its much needed visual sweep with this beautiful anamorphic transfer from the vaults of Canal Plus. The dialogue isn't remotely as sharp and often descends into purely muffled earstrain, so be prepared to switch on those very welcome closed captions if necessary. Though it wouldn't seem a likely candidate for a full blown special edition, Anchor Bay has packed the disc with enough extra goodies to make it a welcome purchase beyond the obvious pleasures of the film itself. Director Val Guest (The Abominable Snowman) appears for another commentary track, hosted by Ted Newsom, in which he points out many of the locales and actors used to bring verisimilitude to a story which must have seemed unbelievable at the time. The menu screen also leads to a varied gallery of still and promotional images, as well as a theatrical trailer and ragged TV spots, while the liner notes by Mark Wickum offer a nice sketch elaborating on Guest's place in the British sci-fi pantheon. Read them before sampling the commentary for a good introduction to one of the most fruitful periods of English language cinema, long before the vapid, thunderous days of big budget science fiction blockbusters.
many Dr. Who cash-ins and copies; this film, along with its spiritual companion pieces like the Quatermass films and Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, proves that thought provoking sci-fi doesn't have to mean boring. Finally, the last shot is, in its own lingering, unresolved way, quite perfect.
